Table of contents
Introduction
Chapter One
Question Everything and
Find a Better Way
To Do Anything
Chapter Two
What Do You Want Most?
Chapter Three
Be Nice No Matter What
Chapter Four
It’s The Tough
Things That Teach You
Chapter Five
If You Don’t Like
What You’re Doing, So What?
Chapter Six
Seek Improvement Everywhere
and In All Things
Chapter Seven
Stand Out From The Crowd
Chapter Eight
Take People With
You On Your Journey
Chapter Nine
Work-Life Balance
Chapter Ten
If You’re Going To Do Anything,
Do It All The Way
Chapter Eleven
Give Back To Everyone You Can
Chapter Twelve
Heal Yourself With Your Mind
Conclusion
Chapter One
Question Everything and Find a Better Way To Do Anything
This is one of my favorite concepts. Questioning everything doesn’t mean disagreeing with everything. It doesn’t mean that at all. Questioning everything means just the opposite. Questioning everything doesn’t mean you’re trying to prove somebody else wrong. The context is critical when we question everything. You don’t have to question somebody who says something you want to challenge. You might question it internally. I think the best way for me to describe it is if you’re trying to prove yourself to be right, then you’re questioning things for the wrong reason. When you question, you’re not trying to prove anything. You’re trying to improve it. If you can get somewhere faster, if you can get somewhere safer, if you can accomplish something quicker, then maybe you can move on to something bigger that you might have been thinking about.
My company had finally started growing, and it was time to start hiring people. In today’s work environment, you can look for job candidates in several ways. You can go online to plat forms like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, or others. You can place an ad on LinkedIn, or you can post on social media sites. Back then, you could use a hiring service or run an ad in the local newspaper. I did what most people did—I ran an ad in the classified ads at the back of the newspaper. This is what the paper looked like—a sea of ads all basically saying the same thing.
Everyone did that back then, so I thought it must work. I set out to write an ad that said just about the same thing as every other ad: “Hiring for mail shop workers, full-time work in Grapevine, Texas, call Lead Concepts at 817-421-5803.” Now, I didn’t love that message, but that was the template. I sent the ad off to the Denton County newspaper at a cost of what I believe was about $200, and within a week, the ad was displayed in the back of the paper. For some reason, that ad did not draw any phone calls. We did not get a single job applicant from it, so I decided to leave it in the paper for another week. But the results were the same. I learned a valu able lesson, and it only cost me two weeks of running that ad —$400 in total. I decided I’d have to do the exact opposite of everyone else who had an ad running, so this time, I set out to craft an ad that would stand out, an ad that couldn’t be ignored. There was no rule that said I had to hire one full-time person. What if I hired two or three part-time people? And rather than asking for full-time workers, what if I offered flexible part time hours? And instead of hiding how much I was willing to pay for those hourly wages, what if I stated in the ad exactly how much I would pay, which no one else did?
Since we were a small company, one of the things we often did was listen to the radio while we were working. We always tuned in to a sports radio show that was very popular at the time. So I ran the ad on that station, Sports radio 1310 The Ticket, all day long while we were working. I created that ad, and I showed it to a couple of people in my office, and they said it was crazy. They told me I couldn’t post that, and I asked them why. What was the worst that could happen? If it didn’t work, well, the other ads didn’t work either. So I did it. I published that ad. “Flexible hours, $11 an hour, we listen to sports radio while we’re working.”
We got so many phone calls! So many people called, and we had so many interviews. We hired more people than we set out to hire. One thing I learned is if you find quality people, you want to bring them in. And if you have quality people who want to work, you hire them.
By doing exactly the opposite of what everybody else was doing—publishing my revamped advertisement for the same price as the old on —the results were completely different. I assumed as a young man that if everyone was doing it one way, it had to be the best way. Not true. I hope that you grow up and learn these concepts, not just from me but from other books you read, other information you gather, and by paying attention to life itself right in front of you. I hope my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will look at everything and ask themselves, “Does it make sense to do it this way?” If I didn’t skip in line, do I need to go to the back of the line? If everyone publishes an ad this way, does that make it the best way?
The point here is not to prove that everybody else is wrong but simply to improve your process. Does it make sense to do it this way? Is there a better way? We were hiring for one full time, but we could be hiring for two part-time or three. This same concept just showed up again thirty years later. As my company has started hiring virtual employees (team members who don’t work or live in our city), we’ve found it very difficult to keep these virtual team members working all day long. I looked at the situation and said to myself, Well, the system isn’t working because we’re hiring remote people, and we can’t tell if they’re working. It seemed like we were only getting about half a day’s work from them. So I asked whether we should just hire them for half a day.
Flexible hours again. The program worked exceptionally well once we moved it to a flexible-hour situation. We tend to focus on doing things a certain way because that’s what we think we’re supposed to do, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s normal. But when you get a chance to take a deep breath and say, “Wait a minute, this isn’t working, we need to ask why it’s not working. Does it make sense to do it this way? Is there a better way to do it?” It’s about asking yourself why something is done in a certain way. “Do we need a full-time person, or do we need competent help where we can find it?”
Disagreeing with your gym teacher or a doctor, though, can produce a tougher argument.
As a tennis player in college and beyond, I developed, just as my father had, a smooshed black toenail. That toenail would not grow back properly, no matter how long I waited, and at times, it would hurt. Beyond that, it wasn’t pretty to look at. My mom finally told me to make an appointment with a podiatrist (foot doctor). I agreed, called the doctor, and made an appointment. He was a nice gentleman, a businessman, an entrepreneur who happened to be a doctor with a small practice. His office was in a little shopping center with an Ace Hardware store tucked between his office and a donut shop. I remember that the doctor was friendly and knowledgeable but serious. His office was mostly empty at the time, with no assistant to answer the phones, but there was a repairman who was trying to fix his computer. He took me into a small exam room, had me sit on a table covered by a thin sheet of white paper, and asked me to remove my shoe and sock. After looking at my disfigured black toe, he stated that the nail would likely not grow back correctly and would continue to cause pain. “The proper course of action,” said the serious doctor, “is to kill the nerves around the toenail and remove that toenail forever.”
I thought it was drastic. This guy takes one look at my disgusting black toenail and wants to disfigure me forever. In my mind, he was more worried about fixing his printer and what that would cost. I knew it was just a toenail, but I disagreed with his assessment. If I didn’t do it, and it kept bothering me, I could do it later. But he was a specialist. Was I going to embarrass him by telling him I didn’t agree or just let him kill part of me? He left the exam room, and it took him a bit longer to come back in than I thought it would, but that was because the computer repairman was trying to help him fix whatever was wrong with his computer.
When he found his way back to me, he was prepared to remove my toenail and, in my mind, disfigure what, quite frankly, was already a not-very-attractive foot. I looked at him and told him I disagreed with his assessment and would rather he not remove my toenail forever. If my foot continued to hurt, I could always come back in three months, six months, or a year to have it removed. And he agreed. I paid him about $75 for an office visit, and then I was off with my disfigured toe. I relayed that story to my mother, who said, “You know, there’s a product I’ve seen at the drugstore. It’s called ‘Outgrow,’ and you can put these drops on the skin around your toenail. It’s supposed to make the skin harder and help your toenail grow out.” So I went to the store and put that on my toenail every day as the instructions indicated, and within a month or two, that toenail had grown out completely. As I write this book today, I’m fifty six years old and still have a toenail. My feet are not beautiful, neither are my toes, but they have nails. And I think my foot is just a little bit less gross because it has a nail rather than not. And I will tell you a secret—as I write this book today, my right toenail is black. My answer has been to wear socks.
There’s a winding maze of running trails behind my house, and there are bikers and runners. And the rules of the road on the trails are that everybody goes in the same direction, but the bikes move at a much faster pace than the runners or walkers. I’ve run on the trails many, many times and find it particularly dangerous if a biker comes up very quickly behind me and I can’t hear him. But the rules of the road on the trails are that everyone goes in the same direction.
I see that as putting me in danger. It’s not mortal danger, but I’d rather not get run over by a bicycle and hurt my leg or sprain a knee or tear my shoulder. At this point, I’ve had three surgeries on my right shoulder from my tennis history. So, I’ve chosen to go against the rules, but I studied it beforehand. If I’m going toward a biker, I can see and hear the biker much quicker than if I’m going with traffic. When I head against the traffic on the trails, it’s safer for me and safer for the biker. The rule doesn’t make sense to me. When you run on the road, you run toward traffic so you can step off the road if a car is coming. It’s the same concept for me on the trails, but for some reason—and there may be a reason that I just don’t know—I’m supposed to run with the traffic. Maybe if I knew why it was that way, it would help me to follow that rule. But it doesn’t make sense to do something that’s not safe. I want to run, enjoy my time on the trails, and not be worried about getting run over.
Some people disagree with me about going toward the traffic, but it’s a better way to do it. I’ve looked at it, and I’ve studied it. I’m a free thinker, and that just makes more sense. I hope you don’t see questioning everything as being negative or argumentative. Think of questioning everything simply as a way to improve yourself, your choices, your life, and the things around you. And as things show up in your life that may or may not seem to be obstacles, start by asking yourself a few questions. And yes, think about Pop because he is thinking about you right now.
Table of contents
Introduction
Chapter One
Question Everything and
Find a Better Way
To Do Anything
Chapter Two
What Do You Want Most?
Chapter Three
Be Nice No Matter What
Chapter Four
It’s The Tough
Things That Teach You
Chapter Five
If You Don’t Like
What You’re Doing, So What?
Chapter Six
Seek Improvement Everywhere
and In All Things
Chapter Seven
Stand Out From The Crowd
Chapter Eight
Take People With
You On Your Journey
Chapter Nine
Work-Life Balance
Chapter Ten
If You’re Going To Do Anything,
Do It All The Way
Chapter Eleven
Give Back To Everyone You Can
Chapter Twelve
Heal Yourself With Your Mind
Conclusion