When I was circling my wife trying to capture her attention so she would come my way I became very creative. I brought her flowers. One of those flowers was a four foot long stem of blooms cut from a Yucca plant growing in my yard. She stopped by my house after she got off from work one day and I made a flower arrangement for her to take home. The Yucca stem was the centerpiece of the arrangement. When she drove home in her little compact car, it was sticking out of the rider side window. She eventually married me. I looked like a creative catch!
We do these things when we want to attract attention. The business I was in at that time was trying to attract her attention. One evening we both talked on the telephone so long that we eventually began to hear the birds singing and chitter chatting. We had talked all night and into the next morning. We certainly do not have that many words to string together for each other like that anymore. We need more sleep, today. We do those kind of things when we are trying to attract attention.
I once heard a comedian tell a string of jokes about what men do to attract the attention from the lady they are circling prior to marriage and what they quit doing after they get married. One of those things was dancing. My wife and I used to go out and dance all of the time. I think some weekends we would go to two or three different clubs to dance for hours. Since we got married, I bet I have not taken her out to dance more than three times. We have been married almost thirty years! Comedians are the most funny when they are telling the truth. Comedians help us laugh at ourselves in a freindly way. We tend to do funny things when we are trying to get the attention of someone.
My wife and I work on different methods today as we spend time trying to get each others attention. We call them dates! We go get ourselves a couple of smoothies and head to an oil change lubrication facility and chat about stuff while they work on our vehicle in the lift bay. We call it a date. We never have to leave the car. It is a convenient date and the television is no where to be found. Sometimes, she says to me..."It's time for another date." That usually means one of our vehicles is due for an oil change and she needs my full attention because she has some things she wants to cover. We have learned how to reward ourselves for this process, we get a smoothie. The guys who work at the oil change shop see us coming and immediately make comments about how we are arriving for another date. We nod and confirm their observations.
We take oil changes very seriously. They have become one of our many board rooms for discussions. Sometimes I learn some really important stuff about my three daughters while my vehicle gets its new change of oil. We take this family business work more seriously. We both own business models and are usually filling our daily time chips up with business related items. There is never enough time in a day to complete the business work we want and need to do. My wife and I have become opportunists. We have learned how to squeeze in serious stuff with the routine items that must be done to maintain a smoothly operated life. Oil changes are one of those routine maintenance duties that we have converted into a date, a board meeting and a vehicle maintenance deed...all-in-one. Sometimes after the oil is changed, and we have had a good board session, we head to a shopping location and walk around checking stuff out. We look like to soft executives who just made some monster decision about which way we are turning our business matters. We walk with more confidence in the stores we find worth shopping at that time. It might be gift ideas, garden stuff for our home or some new clothing, we are never sure. We just feel better about getting some serious stuff resolved.
Take your business work more seriously.
Try not to shove some important elements of your business work into a hidden corner tricking yourself into believing it will hide there until it no longer matters. That hidden pile of dust will fester enough to eventually re-surface and prove how it really does matter. Go get your oil changed. Chat about that important stuff. Dig into it. It does matter. Set some time aside for making sure these kinds of 'brewing' things are able to find their way between your conversational efforts. If you need to 'trick' yourselves into making an oil change become a date, then by all means, get it done. Trick yourself. I am watching a neighbor couple drift apart from each other. The symptoms are becoming more and more evident with each passing month. I am also watching how their children and pets are responding to the tension that is becoming a routine part of what they are not saying. They need to go get their oil changed.
We do this kind of stuff in our lives. We drift away from the things we once thought was something we tried so hard to attract. What was once something we created attention to find, now becomes something we try to avoid. It is an awful process to be a part of and does not become one of our great desires. We would just as soon sweep all of it under the rug. Our business models have this kind of stuff happening in it today. Parts of our daily work in our business life has become less fun to do. Some parts of our business life have actually become a pain to do. Those are the things we avoid the most. I have them. You have them. They exist. We sweep these things under the rug. We make hidden dust piles out of them.
When we discover these things happening, you need a wife like I have. She refuses to sweep them under the rug. I hate that. I can sweep them away and forget about them forever. She, on the other hand, places a leaf blower on the pile of dust I have swept away and flings it all over the room for me to see. Then we go change the oil.
Once I have my smoothie, and the newspaper they give me at the oil change place, I am in the mood to listen about what my dust really looks like. So far she has not had to resort to pressing the lock door button on the key chain while she covers the dusty ground of unwanted subjects. I usually, however, hand the newspaper back to the attendant because it works like a television during the board meeting. My wife does not like me very much when I do that kind of paper work in our business meetings.
A marriage is a business model. If my neighbor does not take his marriage more seriously, his business model will fail. He needs to learn how to go change the oil. He needs to learn how to wear more dust masks. He needs to learn more about who is truly in charge. Owners believe they own their business models. The truth is, they do not own them. They are renting them. When an owner fails to pay the proper rent, the landlord shows up and decides to use the leaf blower in the hidden corners of every room until they find all of the dust they want to find. Go change the oil. Go on a date. Get the unwanted dust cleaned up and forget about why it was there in the first place. We all know we have some stuff we hate to do. Big deal. When the leaf blower comes out, get that stuff done and move on.
Take your business work more seriously.
Some stuff matters more than others. Sometimes we never know the reason why some stuff matters more than others. We just know it is true. If that important stuff is making a small dust pile in a corner you have decided to hide, pay closer attention to where your leaf blower is placed. When you see the landlord grab the leaf blower, check the mileage on your vehicle to see if it is time for an oil change. Suggest that it is your turn to buy the smoothies! In a long term relationship, this is exactly the same process you used to attract the attention of your mate. This is what you used to call, going out dancing! Oil changes have become your new dates!
Take your business work more seriously.
Treat your business models much like you would treat a great marriage. Get more serious about recognizing the dust piles you leave around. Pay attention to purchasing a very nice leaf blower. Make sure you know where the leaf blower is stored. Keep better track of when your vehicle needs an oil change. Know what kind of smoothie your landlord likes to drink. And above all, quit trying to hide what you do not like to do. Every dust pile you think you have hidden is as large as a mountain just waiting for someone to fire up the leaf blower to make your day. Go change the oil. Go out on a date. Clean up the dust piles and move on, you have a business to run.
Take your business work more seriously.
Sooner or later my neighbor will need to learn how to get along with someone. He might as well pick this one. Maybe he needs to go get his oil changed.
Until next time...
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