Yes, We Do That

Last week was maybe not a major, but still impressive career milestone for me.  I celebrated my 32nd year at The Allied Group. In an era where the average millennial will have 11 jobs in their career, working for a number of different companies, I seem to be a bit of an outlier having worked for the same company with only 4 unique jobs over th...

(One day late, my apologies, but, a message I like to send every year.) "Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you." - Robert Fulgrum With Father's Day rapidly approaching my thoughts have naturally gravitated to my father. My dad passed away a few years ago but he left a lasting impression on me, my chi...

"Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it.  It is what the customer gets out of it."                                         &...

"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." ~ Sam Walton Funny. I thought that at least if the customer wasn't always right, then at least they would not be an annoyance to the customer service person taking their money! I walked into a "con...

"Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other" ~ Walter Elliot An Ironman Triathlon is widely recognized as one of the most demanding one-day sporting events in the world. It consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. Just to finish the race takes tremendous planning, training, stamina and co...

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" Albert Einstein Who am I to argue with Einstein? I reread my last 3 year's posts regarding my thoughts about the New Year and my resolutions for each one. Still all good advice about goal setting, how to use time better and focusing on priorities. Here's the rub though. While I c...

"This is the ultimate in feel-good projects. To make money and make people happy, it's a Santa Claus project" ~ Craig Belser Santa Claus may just preside over the most successful customer service organization in the world. This is amazing, given the fact that he has many logistical and operational disadvantages. The ordering system is antiquated. I...

"Try not. Do or do not. There is no try."  - Yoda With all due respect to one of my favorite characters in one of my favorite movie series, Yoda got it wrong. Mind you, I used to be with him. Much of my life I had a very "do or die" mentality. I often found my emotions whipped back and forth, elated with my victories and despondent with my def...

"Your life, no matter how bad you think it is, is someone else's fairy tale" ~ Wale Ayeni Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It does not have the pressure and expectations of gift-giving like Christmas does. It usually does not have the excesses of New Year's Eve. And it doesn't come with the over-stimulation of parades and fireworks...

"Excellence is achieved by the mastery of the fundamentals."  Vince Lombardi A funny thing happened a little while ago during a very exciting family Friday night attic cleanout at home. My two young teenage boys traveled at near warp speed down the stairs bewildered and astonished with an unknown object. It caused the entire project to come to...