“Mike” is a shop owner who works in instead of on his business. His business has him in bondage to the point, that when he needs to speak with his ‘A’ tech, he doesn’t look out in the bays, he looks in the mirror! I suggested that he contact a certain “headhunter” recruitment company that sources, screens, and…
There’s a familiar story that is told of a new insurance agent named “Jack” who was struggling to make sales. He would contact ten leads and come away with ten rejections. He believed that business was slow due to the bad economy in his area and the fact that many of his customers were focused…
There’s a story of a traveler who was on a journey from one village to another. As he was walking, he noticed a monk tilling the ground. He asked the monk the following question: “I’m traveling from the village in the mountains to the village in the valley and I was wondering if you knew…
In 1995, Mike Tyson was released from prison after serving a three-year sentence. His promoter Don King was eager to help him regain his title as boxing’s Heavy Weight Champion of the World. For his first fight, King arranged for Tyson to fight an unranked, lowly regarded boxer, named Peter McNeely. It took “Iron Mike”…
So, there I was, managing a 3.5 million dollar shop in Largo, Maryland. For three months, I had a pressing need to hire another technician. While my colleagues and competitors complained about car count, I struggled to get the cars out that I had! But things were about to change because “Steve” had just accepted…
In chapter two of their book Extreme Ownership, former Navy Seals Jocko Willink and Leif Babin wrote about their experience initiating Navy Seal officer candidates. The final week of testing was referred to as “hell week.” They observed an interesting trend during one of the hell week sessions. As part of their initiation, the candidates…
The year was 2012, and I was frustrated. I was frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t move “Jack.” Jack is a shop owner who was failing to achieve his profit goals. He and I would speak every week, but the results didn’t change. We improved his pricing, but never experienced the payoff. We implemented new processes but failed to see the performance. We…
What is really stopping you? As I reflect on this question, I’m reminded of a story that was written in the book Go For No, by Richard Fenton. Fenton tells the story of a Chicago Insurance Company struggling to sell policies. The typical agent was only selling two policies per month and the executive board…
I was recently thinking about what makes a baseball player great. I remembered sportscasters talking about the difference between a player with a .250 batting average compared to one batting .300. The typical major leaguer gets 12 at-bats per week. A .250 hitter gets a hit in 3 out of the 12 plate appearances (3…
The NCAA College Basketball tournament is known as “March Madness.” In this win or go home playoff, the dream of every player is to win the national championship game. Young “ballers” grow up watching the tournament with the dream of hitting the game-winning shot that propels their team to victory. Coaches dream of being carried off the…