Learning After Doing

The Whole Truth

When I wa in high school, the nicest lawyer took a ton of time out of his busy work and family schedule to mentor me. We talked about all types of things, especially relating the Christian life to school and friends. Over that year, he built in me a foundation that still resounds in my daily life. I think I'll always remember how he taught me that as a Christian we shouldn't just tell the truth, but that we should tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That principle transcends life and especially permeates into business. For some reason, we find it pretty easy to tell the truth, but it is so difficult to tell the whole truth. Little details that have the possibility of causing pain or making us look silly or incompetent are easily overrlooked when discussing a deal or confirming a rush order when we are dealing with a customer. But, every time I look back and know that life would have been so much better and in the end easier if I had just laid bare all the details. Explaining risks is very nerve racking, for we want to be a savior or this hit who has it all together. The only problem is that if we don't cover all the bases up front, then if (or should I say when) our plan falls through or a piece errs the customer (or friend or spouse) we not only look dumb, but arouse emotion and anger in the customer. The worst thing happens and a scar is left on their mind for years-not only am I seen as incompetent but also shady or misleading. Be up front and tell the whole truth. The pain is so much less on the front side as compared to having to tell the whole truth after the fact.

Bad Days: I'll Call You Back

These have been two very difficult days. I gave away $148k on a deal that finished today and it was very difficult swallowing my pride and looking in the face of everyone and apologizing for such a poor job done. Negotiating? I felt like I walked away bashed and bruised and beat up-I feel now like I did all of the giving. Hoping and expecting to cash in on some favors I gave last year (business favors only) and to strengthen our relationship in good faith, I feel like I was pillaged. It is so hard because I really want to be the one leading the charge, setting the example for everyone else in putting together fair, tidy, clean and profitable deals for the company.

LAD. It's okay to say, "I'll call you back." As one guy put it today, just because the curtain is opened, in our business you don't have to perform on stage. I should have walked away, thought through my position, discussed and won support from my team and gone back and fought the good fight. I think the outcome would have been the same. But, I wouldn't have given it away alone. We would have given it away. Or, we could have held firm and maybe had the customer walk.

In the end, I also learned a lot about the other side. I had respect and wanted to give trust and thought to some degree that we were trying to make sure both of us won. Now, I firmly believe that they are out for only one person, and that person is not me. I better learn because if I give it away again, I might as well go into operations.

Relationships: Don't Be a Whore

Friday night was a treat; 50 years the company has been in the partnership of 2 families. Chet Austin, one of the two original partners who bought the business in 1954/55 told his story taking the business from essentially nothing to all we are today. When Chet got involved, he had saved $4000 from his wife's salary; both worked at Lockheed and they lived on his salary alone. That seemingly small sum was all that they had but they invested it because Chet believed in A.L. "Al" Burruss, my wife's grandfather. Chet apparently didn't know the chicken business, didn't know our company very well, but knew a man that he loved and trusted. Trust seems so foreign these days in business; yet we trust (do we?) in financial filings and boards we don't even know. I guess friendship is the thing that is foreign. Everyone is really out for them self. Everything is about me. How can we possibly trust someone else when their motives are self-serving?

I have been challenged to really judge the motives behind my wranglings and actions. Am I acting for me? Am I putting my success as first priority? Either way, such action, motive or wrangling is really no win-win. It is win for me gives no concern for the other party.

Screw it, go into relationships for relationships. There should be no scorecard, no measure of win-win. Relationships are the one thing that should always and only be a losing proposition for me. I should always give more than I receive. Anything less is terrible; if I am in any relationship to get instead of give then call me a whore. My goal: never be a whore.