Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life

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tomers in order to pursue new customers? When that happens, those
existing customers will go someplace else and become new cus-
tomers for a new company. How sad. Those customers belonged to a
company that blew it by either ignoring them or by treating them
poorly. So the customers went elsewhere.
That is probably how you got your new customers someone else
did not treat them right. Now it is your turn to get new customers and
all you really have to do is treat them right. You do not have to be
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Sometimes Work Is Just Plain Work 201
cheaper and sometimes you do not even have to be better than your
competition. You just have to treat people better.
Then once those customers have done business with you, they
become your existing customers and it is your chance to treat them
well so they will not go elsewhere again.
THE THIRD REASON: TO MAKE YOURSELF AND
YOUR ORGANIZATION THE KIND THAT OTHER
PEOPLE WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH
This is actually the toughest reason of all. The other reasons are pri-
marily based on your activities. This one is based on the kind of per-
son you are. And when you add together the combined personalities
and values of all who work at your business, you come up with an
organization that has a personality and a set of values. The values
and personality of any organization is only a reflection of the values
and personality of its individual employees personalities. Got it?
And it does not matter what the plaques on the walls say. I have
gone into many businesses that put big banners and plaques on the
wall proclaiming how they feel about their customers. This stuff is
proudly displayed so all customers will know exactly how the com-
pany feels about them. The problem is that they forgot to tell the
employees. Yet, customers do not do business with companies, they
do business with the employees of the company. That is where the
belief in customers must start with the people who have direct
contact with the customers.
Ever had to get your driver s license renewed? Or get a new li-
cense plate for your car? I will bet the minute you walked into the
Department of Motor Vehicles you got an overwhelming feeling
that said, This is not going to be a pleasant experience. The very
air in the room screamed that at you. All businesses scream at you.
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202 Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life
It usually is not as noticeable as it is when you enter a government-
run organization, but it exists.
So evaluate your company. What feeling do your customers get
about you and your organization when they do business with you? Do
your customers get the feeling you really care about their satisfaction?
Or do they get the feeling they are just one more bozo that has to be
put up with until it is time to go home? It really is up to you.
SOME SHORT LESSONS ABOUT WORK
When you work, work! When you play, play! Do not mix the two. It
only screws up the work and the play. This is especially true if you
work at home. Be able to walk away. I have a home office. Many peo-
ple have home offices these days. Sadly, many people are good at hav-
ing a home office. They just do not get much work done. Or even
more sadly, they do not get much living done. You must be able to
walk away from home and its duties and responsibilities to go to
work and take on those duties and responsibilities. More important,
you have to be able to walk away from the work and live your life. It is
hard for some people.
Make your work area a place where you only do work things.
Do not eat at your desk or do any personal things at your desk.
When you are not working, stay away from that area. If your work
area has a door, then close it. If it does not have a door, put one in!
Close off the area where you work from the place where you rest,
relax, and play.
Be Known for the Right Stuff. You have a reputation. You may
not have wanted a reputation and you probably did not expect to have
one, but it still exists. You may be known as the office joker, the guy
with bad breath, or the office slut and sadly, it does not matter if it is
true. It is your reputation. I suggest you try to create a reputation be-
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Sometimes Work Is Just Plain Work 203
fore one is assigned to you. And my suggestion is that you be known
as the person who gets things done.
I have a reputation for being an asshole. I can assure you it is a
well-earned reputation. I do what I can to perpetuate it. However, the
reputation of being a pain to work with did not come about because I
lie, am dishonest, do not deliver a high-quality product, show up late,
am discourteous, or am lazy. My reputation is because I do what I say
I am going to do when I said I would, and I refuse to compromise
quality or ethics for any reason. I will not be late and I will not toler-
ate anyone else being late. I will not lie and I will not tolerate being
lied to. I deliver the best possible product I can to the best of my abil-
ity every time and I expect the same from those who do business with
me. This makes me a total pain to do business with because I have a
standard by which I perform and I expect those who do business with
me to perform to the same standard. Because of this, I am known as
an asshole. Better to get this reputation for the right reasons instead of
the wrong reasons.
Get the Hard Stuff out of the Way First. It is kind of like being
a little kid and having to clean your plate. If you are smart, you learn
to eat the broccoli first and save the macaroni and cheese for later.
The same applies to work. Do the stuff that is not your favorite when [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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