I met a young lady a few years ago who had quit working for a dentist she had been trained to assist. She was making her routine income, routine life and routine challenges work just about the same as everyone else. She was married, had a couple of children and they owned a boat for recreation. She was a normal acquaintance with a normal pattern of life. We all have met people like this.
Then one day she said she was retiring from being a dental assistant. She and her husband were going to invest in a business and she was going to work it full time. He was an electrician. He was employed with an electrical firm keeping his schedule busy back then when the housing industry was running along smoothly. She seemed very excited about making the move.
I remember that conversation with her. Back then, I did not give it much thought. I did encourage her to be attentive to detail, be patient, be creative and do not worry about the big stuff. I remember she asked me a whole bunch of questions. In fact, when I left the dentist office that day I can remember thinking she sure has a lot to learn. I also remember thinking, I am sure glad her husband has a decent stream of income. I did not actually place very much confidence with her on her attempt to build her future venture. I did encourage her, however.
A couple of years later I bumped into that same lady. She was still full of energy and had a really positive bounce embedded in her personality. We talked a little bit about business. She had just opened her second shop and was just about ready to help her husband go out on his own in the electrical trade. They had just returned from Hawaii after a vacation with the family. She said they decided to go take some time off before they became too busy with all of the new changes they were just about ready to take on. She was equally excited this time as she was when I first met her a few years prior. All I could think about was how much energy she had.
She was only passing by me when we had this conversation. During that brief moment, she asked me a few more questions about her new effort to expand. In fact, she had a lot of questions for me. When I left that brief conversation I felt like she did not know anymore about running a successful business than when I first met her. I was puzzled a little bit. She seemed like her business was doing well. I was a bit surprised about her description of its success. The questions she was asking are questions that should have answers already in place with regards to her operations. It puzzled me a little bit. I also remember how intensely she listened to the answers and how the answers I gave prompted new questions from her. She was genuinely searching for some workable answers. That much of our conversation impressed me.
A few years have gone by since I have had those two brief encounters with that lady. I have forgotten about her, totally. It is funny how some encounters in life just simply skip through time and become erased from the chalkboard of our memories, until of course, we bump into a reminder. Yesterday, I bumped into one of those reminders.
I was reading a small article in a trade publication and a feature article was written about this lady and her five successful businesses. There she was. Third time is a charm. She was being interviewed about how well her business models were performing in a sour economy. The article also described how her husband had modified his electrical business into an electronics development company building small circuit boards for a fast growing local technology company which builds military unmanned flying machines. The two owners and their three children had just returned from a three week trip to South Africa.
I walked right past this lady a few years ago, giving her little chance in my mind about making it in the private business sector.
She described how her husband has always loved fishing and hunting in Alaska so they were currently spending some time travelling to Alaska where they are building a summer home to visit. I kept thinking to myself, do people actually do stuff like this?
As I continued to read the article, I noticed something very compelling. She was asking the interviewer a lot of questions in her conversation. She described how she has always been curious about how to do things better. She described to the writer of the article how she spends most of her time asking everyone questions about what they think she should do next. I tried to recall both of our previous personal encounters. I remember how each of those encounters started. She walked up to me and said hello. Then she said, "I have a question for you." Then the search was on. She began describing what she wanted to know and was disciplined enough to listen for how the answer was delivered. I remember both encounters. They were filled with her asking questions about what to do next. Her success has nothing to do with how I answered those questions. Her success comes from all of the questions she proposed to others while she worked on her business. She did not know what to do. She did not appear to me back then as someone who knew fully what she was getting into. I was convinced she did not know.
She described in the magazine article how she was working on developing a licensing program so she could produce a new method of business expansion. I do not ever remember having any such conversation with her. Obviously her business model has grown up to become a different model to manage than when she first started to fire it up. Her current questions about her business path are questions of a different nature. They are grown up questions. She actually asked some of them in the article. I began to grin.
This lady obviously has a few success components built inside of her personality. She has no apparent mismanagement of her fears that will stop her desire from moving forward. She does not rely on her own set of knowledge factors. She recognizes what her knowledge limits are and seeks to discover higher levels of good information with an ongoing basis. She also has a high level of enthusiasm. She is open to suggestions and ideas. She obviously moves on suggestions and ideas. She does not rest on her previous levels of success, she moves onward. She also described in the article how she and her husband have been able to employ over 30 people during a tough time in our economy. They feel very good about being able to help others out. She also described how big that responsibility has become. They feel committed to making things right. They are not afraid to reward themselves for a job well done. They also reward themselves, responsibly. Remember, they went to Hawaii prior to spending their time, 24/7, on building two new business expansion models. They took care of the mental preparation prior to jumping into the 24/7 vat of dedication. They are aware of the extra mile. It was a trip designed as a responsible move, not a careless move. They are not careless operators.
Out of all of this discovery, I stopped to find out what was the most compelling factor about their success. I pondered about that question for a day or two. It finally came to me. This lady was able to work on her business instead of in it. She was able to develop the proper skills to own the business instead of it owning her. She did not see herself as an employee of the business models she developed. She pictured herself as the owner. Her questions became much more clearer when I finally adopted this position of thought. I remember how puzzled I was when she asked the questions she once asked. I remember thinking to myself, she sure has a long way to go. I was trying to picture her questions in a way that placed her inside the business being an employee. That was not the core nature of her original questions. The nature of her questions were coming from a person who was clearly not planning to go to her place of business and run the registers. She had already decided to work on her businesses, instead of in them.
I believe she already had a good job. She was a dental hygienist. She did not go into business for herself to acquire another good job. She got into business for herself to develop a different lifestyle. Her plans were clear to her. That is the only person who needed to believe in them. I cannot wait to bump into her again. I certainly would like to congratulate her for treading well on her chosen path. I suspect she will have a question or two for me. I am sure she is still adding new knowledge to her growing path.
I have a question for you. Are you done learning new stuff yet? What kinds of questions are you asking? Are your questions at an end or are they just beginning? Do you find that you know it all?
Until next time...
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