Tag: Steve Mores

The Mason Jar of Life

Written by Steve Mores

There are two sons of an alcoholic father. One struggles through life as a drunk. The other becomes a successful, ambitious businessman. When asked, “Why are you the way you are?” Both responded, “My father was an alcoholic.” It’s all about the decisions we make! How we deal with our past can either create constant depression or create wisdom through learning from it. It’s a choice!

In the animated movie The Lion King, although he may be completely crazy, Rafiki, the wise baboon, has many life lessons to teach Simba. In one scene where Rafiki is mentoring the adult Simba about how to deal with his past, Rafiki smacks Simba over the head with his cane. Simba reacts with “Ow! geez, what was that for?” and Rafiki replies, “It doesn’t matter, it’s in the past!” Comical, yes, and words to live by, absolutely! Rafiki continues: “The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.”

Lion King: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF39O_OQm6M

How we deal with the past in the present will profoundly affect how we run our businesses and the culture we create at work and home. It’s a choice!

We can get very distracted these days with social media, politics, the pandemic, gossip, and just all the minutiae around us. This may cause our priorities to get skewed.  

In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, the lead character Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks) said, “My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”… If life is a box of chocolates, would it always be sweet? The past will prove differently, and maybe it’s not what we take out of the box rather what we put into our life’s jar.  

 

To that point, here is what I believe is the perfect analogy:  

This is a very important life lesson that a philosophy teacher taught his students. He entered the class, cleared off his desk, and placed an empty mason jar on top of the desk. He proceeded to fill up the jar with golf balls until he could fit no more. He looked at the classroom and asked his students if they agreed that the jar was full. Every student agreed that the jar was full.

The teacher then picked up a box of small pebbles and poured them into the jar with the golf balls. The pebbles filled the space between the golf balls. He asked a second time if the jar was full. Once again, they agreed that it was full.

Now the teacher picked up a bag of sand and poured it into the mason jar. The sand filled all the empty space between the golf balls and pebbles. He asked a third time if the jar was full. The students agreed it was technically full.

Finally, the teacher pulled out two beer bottles from under his desk and poured one into the jar filling the space between the sand. Now the students began to laugh, wondering how far this was going.

The teacher waited until the laughter stopped. “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life,” he started. “The golf balls represent the important things. Your family, children, health, friends, and passions. If everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles represent the other things in life that matter, such as your job, house, and car. The sand is everything else—the small stuff. If you put the sand in first, there is no room for pebbles or golf balls.

The same goes for life. If you spend all of your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the most important things. Pay attention to the important things in your life. Enjoy time with family. Go to dinner with your spouse. Play games with your kids. There will ALWAYS be time to clean the house or take yourself shopping.

Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. The rest is just sand. You are dismissed.”

Before the students left, one shouted out. “You never mentioned what the beer represents!”

The professor smiled and said, “Well, I’m glad you asked. The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room to have a couple of beers with a friend.”

Teacher’s analogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqGRnlXplx0

To expand upon this analogy, the golf balls represent the things that should be a top priority in life: Faith, Family, Friends, Health, and Freedom. The pebbles represent important things, like our business, careers, and possessions, which all support the top priorities in one way or another. And the sand represents all the other small stuff that occupies our time: social media, politics, gossip, divisiveness, and the like. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be informed or have an opinion, as long as we respect others. Filling our jar with sand first will not leave any room for the most important things in life.  

Dwelling on the mistakes of the past can lead to depression. Learning lessons from the past creates wisdom. How we deal with the past and prioritize our present will either create anxiety or hope for the future. It’s a choice!

 

Steve Mores is the Divisional President at Dynamic Air Quality Solutions.

Service Roundtable is dedicated to growing your bottom line and helping your business maximize its full potential. These groups of contractors work together to assist you with marketing, sales, business, and so much more. Twice a month, seminars around the United States and Canada are held to network and further assist your business. Visit Service Roundtable.com to see if there are Success Days in your area.

Rock & Roll Analogies

Written by Steve Mores

OK, let’s have some fun! After each song title, say the words “in my business,” and we can analogize from there. Sing along if you like!

Come Together (Beatles) in my business: Having a total team effort with everyone on the same page, working for the same cause, towards SMART goals that have been communicated and are understood by all.

Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd) in my business: Albeit spinning the meaning, build your business brick by brick with a solid foundation to build upon. Each step of the way follows a plan with clearly stated processes and procedures that can be followed and duplicated.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones) in my business: Things will not always go your way or as expected. Stuff happens, obstacles get in the way, but we must adjust, adapt, and keep moving forward.

Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen) in my business: Standing still or just keeping pace with the competition is not a recipe for success. Being strategic, innovative, and creative with your products and services will pay dividends in the race for new business.

Take it Easy (Eagles) in my business: Although keeping a fast pace is good for business, you also need to take time for yourself and your family. That is our top priority and the main reason we are building our businesses in the first place. Take time away from business to relax and enjoy some family time and time for yourself.

Imagine (John Lennon) in my business: Dream big and imagine the amazing possibilities that a well-run business has to offer. Don’t let the naysayers get in your way. If you think you can, you can. Dream big.

Living in the Past (Jethro Tull) in my business: Humbly remembering your past successes is a good thing that will keep you motivated. Yet dwelling on the past mistakes without learning from them can be depressing. Celebrate your successes and become wise from your mistakes.

I Can See for Miles (The Who) in my business: Having an annual plan with goals, along with a 5, 10, 15, and 20-year plans, will give you a road map to success. Seek mentors, learn from other successes and failures, read business-related books, and apply the knowledge. Implement and execute daily with your focus on the future.

Turn it on Again (Genesis) in my business: As the saying goes, “If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Failure should never overtake you when your determination to succeed is stronger. Keep it turned on!

Don’t Bring me Down (ELO) in my business: Don’t let others bring you down by telling you it can’t be done or that the risk is too high. Calculated risks are good for business and are needed to grow. “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.”  – John F. Kennedy 

Dirty Deeds (AC/DC) in my business: There is no room in any business for unethical or shady behavior. There is plenty of room to always keep the best interest of our clients in mind while offering valid solutions to discovered challenges.  

I Want You to Want Me (Cheap Trick) in my business: This is what I like to call the “I gotta guy” syndrome. 

Your service should be so extraordinary that your clients want to refer you to family and friends without being prompted or compensated. “You need someone in the trades? Well, I gotta guy!”  

Thank You (Led Zeppelin) in my business: There is always time to be grateful for what our businesses have afforded us, our families, and our team members. Sincerely show gratitude and thanks to your clients for trusting you to service them and to your team members when they go above and beyond expectations. 

Into the Great Wide Open (Tom Petty) in my business: There are many opportunities out there, and you must seize the moments. Make it happen and have fun in the process. 

Taking Care of Business (BTO) in my business: I had to throw this one in here since it is so obvious. It addresses all the above!

Don’t Stop Believing (Journey) and Dream On (Aerosmith) in my business: No analogy needed. ROCK ON! 

 

Steve Mores is the Divisional President at Dynamic Air Quality Solutions.

Service Roundtable is dedicated to growing your bottom line and helping your business maximize its full potential. These groups of contractors work together to assist you with marketing, sales, business, and so much more. Twice a month, seminars around the United States and Canada are held to network and further assist your business. Visit Service Roundtable.com to see if there are Success Days in your area.

When is it Enough?

Written by Steve Mores

How much is enough? Depending on what the “enough” refers to will give us the direction to answer the question based on our opinion. For purposes of this article, let’s discuss financial success and the growth of a contracting business. How much is enough revenue, locations, acquisitions, buildings, techs, salespeople, etc.? This is not a rhetorical question, and there is a wide range of answers depending on your goals and plans. How much is enough depends on how one defines the meaning of enough for themselves.  

 

For some, it may be the pursuit of more money, power, respect, and status. For others, it’s knowledge, giving to charity, doing good, and creating opportunities for other people. If your sole purpose is to get more stuff at all costs, then you will never have enough. Ironically though, you can’t be as charitable and create opportunities for others without the financial wherewithal to do so.

 

As far as financial wealth, most of us can’t even comprehend being a billionaire. Many people think of billionaires, and high-end millionaires for that matter, as greedy people and hedge-fund type folks where it’s all about the pursuit for more money. Yet, most “rich people” got there through years of hard work and starting from a very humble beginning. That’s how I identify with the “rich people” in our service industries. 

 

In a recent article that I was reading, it stated that the minimum someone needs to be relatively happy is $50,000 per year, and the maximum where money won’t make you any happier is $90,000 per year. While that may be true for some, there is nothing wrong with that thought as long as it covers essential needs such as rent, food, and support for family’s needs. Yet, many people have income way beyond this. Their happiness is driven by the opportunities their business creates for others and not the financial status it brings to them. 

 

For me, although I enjoy the income this industry has allowed me to have, money has not been my primary motive. Financial security and safety are important, yet I derive my happiness in business by helping contractors excel in IAQ sales. This, in turn, supports their cause of building a business for themselves, which supports great career opportunities for others.    

 

So, back to dollars and cents. Would you say that a net worth of $80 million is enough? That is considered a pittance to hedge-fund moguls and large mutual fund money managers. Compare that with Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of private equity firm Blackstone Group, who has a net worth of $12.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Or Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity Investments, has a net worth of $12.2 billion. Or John Bogle, Founder and CEO of Vanguard Group Investors, which is twice the size of Fidelity, who has a net worth of $80 million. Wait! What? Twice the size of Fidelity and John Bogle is only worth $80 million? Is he not a billionaire? Why not? 

 

John Bogle believed that making money in the market should not only be for those with a surplus of money to invest and the funds managers, but for anyone who wants a secure place to create a retirement fund. He founded Vanguard Group in 1976 and is credited with creating the first index fund to allow all people, no matter what income level, to invest in the market. His concept was investment over-speculation, long-term patience over short-term action, and reducing fees as much as possible. The ideal investment vehicle Bogle created as a low-cost index fund held over a period with the dividends reinvested and purchased with dollar-cost averaging. He substantially lowered costs and the exorbitant fees that funds managers were charging. These investments also did not require commissions to brokerage firms and fees to financial advisors; investment banking and legal fees for any mergers and IPOs; and the enormous marketing and advertising expenses entailed in distributing financial products.  

 

This created a new investment vehicle that revolutionized the investment industry to many funds managers chagrin. Vanguard is famous for its no loads, low expenses, and low to non-existent fees and commissions. In January 2020, Vanguard announced that it was dropping commissions on all stocks and options. This lowers the risk and increases the odds in favor of success for the average Joe to accumulate savings for retirement at the expense of massive profits to Vanguard and income to Bogle.  

 

Although Bogle was considered very rich by most standards, it wasn’t all about the money. He could have earned billions more. Bogle’s ground-breaking investment philosophy is about helping investors with low-cost index funds without all of the traditional fees that have lined the pockets of fund managers for years. He said enough, and he wants to ensure that the average citizen can retire with enough.

 

At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, author Kurt Vonnegut tells his buddy and fellow author, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have — enough.”

 

John Bogle’s book Enough was based on this quote. And the most remarkable thing about Bogle is that he created trillions of dollars in value for others and kept relatively little of it for himself. He also was known to give half of his income to charity. He had enough!

 

If Bogle were the traditional fund manager, he’d be a billionaire. His investing brand seems obvious now, but it was unorthodox at the time. When Bogle launched the first index fund available to individual investors in 1976, the industry ridiculed it, calling it “Bogle’s folly.” Bogle was still determined to make it a sustainable reality. Today, Vanguard is among the largest money managers in the world, with $5 trillion in assets, roughly two-thirds of which are invested in index funds today.

 

I like to think that we have the same attitude about enough in our service industries as John Bogle did. Albeit at different levels, but enough just the same. The small contractor that runs a profitable company that provides for his family and staff while accumulating funds for retirement and an exit strategy can be very happy and satisfied with enough. On the other end of the spectrum, we have contractors that grow exponentially every year, begin to acquire companies, and expand their reach into other markets and states. Yes, they are obviously accumulating more wealth, yet I find that their main motivation is not money. The money will come, but in conversations with them, I find that it is more about helping other contractors get to a growth position they could not get to on their own and creating good jobs and career paths for others. These empire-builders are also very charitable with their money and share their knowledge and expertise with others. That’s what makes them happy, and it’s enough for them.  

 

A billionaire has the means to obtain everything he or she could ever want in this world, and millions of people may envy their position. But that’s not the point at all. Life is not about the quest for more stuff. It’s about being happy and having enough. You see, the true measure of business, wealth, and life is not how much stuff we can buy and accumulate, rather what we do with the stuff we have during the time we have to use it. In a speech, Denzel Washington discussed wealth and having enough, and he said, “Use it wisely because you will never see a U-Haul being pulled behind a hearse.”

 

Enough IS Enough! 

 

Steve Mores is the Vice President of Training and Sales at Dynamic Air Quality Solutions.

Service Roundtable is dedicated to growing your bottom line and helping your business maximize its full potential. These groups of contractors work together to assist you with marketing, sales, business, and so much more. Twice a month, seminars around the United States and Canada are held to network and further assist your business. Visit Service Roundtable.com to see if there are Success Days in your area.

Cause and Effect – Finding the Root of Your Business Problems

Recently one of my Regional IAQ Training Reps mentioned that during a manager’s meeting with one of his dealers, they pinpointed some problems in the business that were causing a significant decrease in IAQ sales. It is customary for my training team to meet with our dealers’ management team after our onsite sessions to review and analyze the status of their IAQ sales and their effect on top-line revenue and bottom-line profit. This meeting was especially interesting because this dealer’s IAQ sales were down 17% over last year in a booming market. Consumer awareness about IAQ products is at an all-time high, and our dealers’ sales have increased substantially in the past two years. So why the decrease in IAQ sales for this specific dealer? Some of the reasons were obvious, and others were uncovered during this meeting. An action plan was put in place to affect a positive outcome on future sales.

Whether it’s challenges with sales, marketing, financial, manpower, or whatever, problems have always been part of businesses and will continue to be. So as business owners, we need to continually analyze our business, identify the problems, and understand the underlying causes and the effects that follow when they persist. Once establishing the cause of a problem and its effects, you can then tackle the problem better by proposing viable solutions. To this end, the need to undertake cause and effect analysis is vital for business success. It is necessary to understand the root cause of a problem. Whether it is analyzing why equipment or accessory sales are down or any other business challenges, determining the best methods to solve the problem may include implementing new management policies, changing a process, or even repositioning your team members to effectively achieve desired business outcomes by identifying and addressing the root cause of the business problem faced.

Analyzing these problems involves looking backward to what caused the problem, then looking forward with a plan.

Only about two-thirds of startups survive past their second year in business, and many companies that make it past their second year in business continue to struggle to be profitable. There are underlying reasons why this continues to happen, so it is crucial for your business to survive profitably to discover and understand these reasons. Looking backward into your business to find the root causes of your challenges calls for an analysis of past mistakes and problems. You must identify where these past issues have come from and put a plan together for avoiding them in the future.

Once this cause-and-effect analysis has taken place, it can be used for future planning. Looking forward into your business, this analysis is your basic planning tool to create a better future business outcome than you have experienced in the past.

This becomes a five-step process.

1. Identify and describe the problem. Describe the nature of the problem and how it is affecting your business.

2. Brainstorm with your management team the root cause of the problem. Break it down to the people involved, current processes and procedures, the material used, working conditions, etc.

3. Identify all internal and external causes.
a. You have control over your internal causes since they are mostly operational and employee relationship issues.
b. External problems such as supply chain issues, changing laws, weather conditions, the economy are out of your control but still need to be considered so you can adjust your business practices to account for some of these issues and have as much influence as you can on others.

4. Analyze your discoveries in steps one through three and prioritize what you can control and act on. Decide what action can be taken immediately, list what you have control over, identify where you can implement change, and influence what you can with issues out of your control.

5. From here, you can develop your plan of action. This plan should reflect proposed solutions to the problem and identify specifically who is responsible for the appropriate action. A point person should be assigned that holds others accountable to stay on task with target dates set to accomplish all implementation.

Although this process may sound time-consuming and laborious, depending on the issue at hand, it can also be fun. Over 30 years ago in my previous career, I worked for a janitorial and maintenance supply company owned by Howard Teidt. Howard used to have occasional problem-solving meetings that he called “Green-light / Red-light” sessions. We were a small company, and he would invite everyone into the conference room for a meeting. In the first part of the meeting, he called the “Green-light” segment. Howard would present a company problem then tell everyone to turn their green light on. This meant that anything goes. We would throw out solutions no matter how serious or ridiculous they were, and he would write them on a whiteboard. Not only did this foster creative thinking, but it was usually fun and hilarious. Once we exhausted the solutions, Howard would yell “Red-light,” then we would all stop and examine the ideas. The funny nonsense ideas were crossed out, and we were left with some great ideas.

As an example, in one session, the company problem at hand was our increased fuel and delivery cost. We had a company policy that if you placed an order by 2:00 pm, we would deliver your product the next day for free. Howard proposed the question: “How can we cut delivery expenses by $3,000 per month?”  “Green-light!” – on the funny side:

  • Fire John, our driver (he was in the meeting…)
  • Sell the delivery truck and save on insurance.
  • Stop delivering and have our accounts pick up their orders.
  • Quit selling so much.
  • And so on…

“Red-light!”

During the red-light segment of the meeting, after we stopped razzing each other, one of John’s ideas (our truck driver) stood out. He said because of our next-day delivery policy to all our accounts that he was driving all over a four-county area every day fighting traffic and racking up miles trying to get to everyone. John said, “Why don’t we map out our deliveries into smaller territories and offer deliveries only on certain days of the week to each territory?” The sales team was the first to object because “that’s a great selling benefit and we can’t change it now. Our customers will object!”

So, we surveyed our top accounts and discovered that no one really cared if they received their shipment the next day or not and set delivery days would be just fine. We implemented John’s plan, and it saved us thousands of dollars on fuel since he wasn’t driving all over our coverage area every day. This even gave John more time to organize our warehouse, solving another problem!

Green-light / Red-light problem-solving sessions can be fun, and they work!

Taken at face value, this is just another problem-solving tool. Still, any problem-solving process takes commitment to conduct the initial exercise, follow through with the implementation of the set plan, and holding people accountable for making it happen. The causes and effects of business problems won’t just go away. Any analysis and planning process is only as effective as the folks involved want it to be and how capable they are of taking the appropriate action to carry it through to its fruition.

 

Steve Mores is the Vice President of Training and Sales at Dynamic Air Quality Solutions.

Service Roundtable is dedicated to growing your bottom line and helping your business maximize its full potential. These groups of contractors work together to assist you with marketing, sales, business, and so much more. Twice a month, seminars around the United States and Canada are held to network and further assist your business. Visit Service Roundtable.com to see if there are Success Days in your area.

10 Life Lessons from Admiral William H. McRaven

Listen Here!

In his 2014 commencement speech, former Navy SEAL Admiral William H. McRaven offered 10 life lessons to the University of Texas at Austin’s graduating class. Through his experience in the military and basic Navy Seal training, he developed 10 salient elements to help the graduating students understand how they can help change the world as their journey begins beyond college life.

I would encourage you all to watch his full speech. It will be 19 minutes and 26 seconds well spent!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaQZFhrW0fU

This speech is not only profound and entertaining from a man that has accomplished much in his life, but it is also simplistic in nature. He talks about how the little things, when done well, can and will lead to changes in your life, drive your destiny, and in turn, will be a step forward in changing the world. These lessons are very humbling yet develop great character. Whether you apply these to your business, home life, or your life in general, they can have a profound effect on changing your life and the world around you.

After his introduction, he starts with the University of Texas’ motto, “What starts here changes the world.” Then he goes on to put this motto into context for his speech:

“It matters not whether you ever serve a day in uniform. It matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your sexual orientation, or your social status. Our struggles in this world are similar. And the lessons to overcome those struggles, and to move forward, changing ourselves and changing the world around us, will apply equally to all.”

Then Admiral McRaven takes a deep dive into 10 drills and exercises from basic Navy Seal training, that although they may seem mundane, and at times brutal or abusive, he took a lesson out of each one and applied it to his journey through his career and life.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

Every morning, the drill instructor would come into the barracks for bed inspection. Every bed had to be tucked perfectly and folded a certain way. Although this seemed trivial and a mundane task, it developed a sense of accomplishment to start your day; something you can take pride in a job well done. This task is about holding yourself accountable to start your day on a positive note with a task completed perfectly. The little things do matter, so start your day with something simple with a task completed.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

Divided into groups of six, students had to paddle a rubber boat through rough seas to a specific destination. Each paddler had to be synchronized with the others and work as a team with equal effort from each person in the boat. Going out of sync would cause the boat to go off course. This exercise is about having confidence in others and the importance of a team effort. You can’t do it alone. Seeking help from others, whether it’s friends, business associates, vendors, coworkers, or credible strangers, all can help guide your boat in the right direction through life.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not by the size of their flippers.

Admiral McRaven recalls one boat crew made up of all little guys, 5’ 5” and smaller, and they called them The Munchkin Crew. The taller guys would always make fun of their little flippers. This incentivized the Munchkin Crew to work harder as a team, with a lot of heartfelt energy, and they would routinely outpace and outperform the taller guys. The lesson learned here is that physical stature, or any physical characteristic for that matter, does not determine one’s success. We should respect everyone’s talents no matter their size, ethnicity, race, or social standing and how they can have a positive impact.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.

Throughout each week during training, the drill instructor would conduct a uniform inspection. No matter how perfect the uniform was, the instructor would always find something wrong with someone’s uniform. Whoever failed the uniform inspection for any reason would have to run fully uniformed to the surf on the beach, dive in to get wet, and then roll in the sand on the beach until they were covered in sand. They called this the “Sugar Cookie” drill. Some of the students would get frustrated knowing that no matter how perfect their uniform was, the instructor would always find a flaw. The ones that couldn’t accept this fact never made it through the training. The message here is that life is not always fair. Suck it up and move on.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circus.

Every day of training was filled with physical activity. Running, swimming, calisthenics, obstacle courses, and the like. There were minimum times set to complete these exercises, and if you didn’t meet these standards, your name was put on a list to get invited to “The Circus.” This was an extra two hours’ worth of exercises designed to break you down and make you want to quit. Everyone in training made the list at one time or another, yet those that made the list consistently and didn’t quit got stronger and better. This teaches us not to be afraid to fail often, learn from it, work hard, and get better.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle headfirst.

During training, all the students are required to complete a 25-step obstacle course. One section of the course involved using a rope attached to a 30-foot-tall tower and climbing down this rope for 200 feet until you reached the end. There was a very impressive, best record that hadn’t been touched for years until one of Admiral McRaven’s classmates decided to slide down the top of the rope headfirst. This was very dangerous because he had to balance himself to prevent falling to the ground while laying on top of the rope sliding downward. He took the risk anyway and beat the record by half. Go ahead and take calculated risks.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.

During a section of their training, they had to swim in the water along San Clemente Island, a breeding ground for Great White sharks. The students were made aware of the presents of sharks in these waters and the different species. Night swims were also part of this drill, making it appear even more dangerous. They were told that if they encountered a shark to “stand your ground” and do not swim away or act afraid. And if the shark did get close, to kick or punch it in the head. Easier said than done, but they did it. Admiral McRaven says that we will run into a lot of sharks and bullies in the world, but we should face them down, hold our ground, and deal with them.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, be your very best in the darkest moments.

While training for underwater attacks against enemy ships, the students had to swim two miles underwater at night to an enemy ship with nothing but a depth gauge and a compass to get them there. There was some ambient light, but once they got close to the ship, the ship blocked the little light they had. The divers are expected to swim to find the center of the ship, known as the keel. At this depth and with the ship blocking any light, the diver can become disorientated and panicked. The divers are told to stay calm and composed at this moment and to focus on the job at hand. The lesson here is to stay calm and step up when times are the toughest.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.

During the 9th week of training, “Hell Week” starts. This is where the students have six days of no sleep and continuous physical activity and mental harassment. Then to top the week off, this is followed by a day in the mudflats. The students were expected to spend 15 hours in a mud swamp in freezing cold while the instructors yelled and encouraged them to quit. They were told that they could leave if only five men would quit. As they shivered from the cold, one man began to sing, and slowly the others followed. As they sang in unison, it lifted their spirits and helped them get through the drill without quitting. Life’s lesson: Lifting the oppressed and those badly treated by authority will give them hope.

 

  1. If you want to change the world, don’t ever, ever ring the bell.

There is a brass bell hanging in the center of the training compound, and if you want to quit, all you have to do is ring the bell. No more 5:00 am wake-up calls, brutal drills, harassment, and abuse. Some quit; others stay the course so they can change the world. The point here is that no matter how tough things get in business or life, never give up.

 

Our lives are not as brutal and tough as Navy Seal training, yet simple lessons can be learned from their training tactics that can change our lives and change the world. Start each day with a simple task completed. Find others to help you through life. Show respect to everyone, especially those that we consider different than us. Remember that life is not fair and that you will fail often. Take calculated risks and step up during the tough times. Facedown the bullies, lift up the oppressed, and never give up.

If we all follow Admiral McRaven’s advice and pass it along to others, we can change our business, change our lives, and change the world!

 

Steve Mores is the Vice President of Training and Sales at Dynamic Air Quality Solutions.

Service Roundtable is dedicated to growing your bottom line and helping your business maximize its full potential. These groups of contractors work together to assist you with marketing, sales, business, and so much more. Twice a month, seminars around the United States and Canada are held to network and further assist your business. Visit Service Roundtable.com to see if there are Success Days in your area.