Get More Serious About Becoming More Serious.

The passing of time has brought with it some interesting developments in human interaction.  For example, it is no longer 'cool' to make fun of people.  That used to be a 'cool' thing to do when we were kids.  I did not say it was a right thing to do, I just reported that it was once considered a 'cool' thing to do.  Another thing that has changed significantly is that the growing concern to become politically correct in all things has been increasing its attention now by the ticking of the clock.  We are living in times that demand everything to be politically correct, in all matters, at all times.  This is a certain truth.  In fact, if you are running for a significant political office and you failed to be politically correct twenty years ago, when it was not necessarily as important to do as it is today, it defaults immediately and carries over to today!  The error you made twenty years ago, that was acceptable then, is today's 'your fault' and will taint your character right now!  This is also true.  The passing of time has brought with it some interesting developments in human interaction.

The public, the media and consumers expect a certain degree of perfection when they travel about our interconnecting worlds.  This is true.  Our actions have become more acute with the passing of time.  We are judged more seriously than ever before.  For goodness sakes, do not make the mistake of passing gas in the wrong place at the wrong moment...it might go viral and ruin your life!  Do not laugh, it has happened to many people in significant positions of life management.  This is true.  That is how serious we have become about every little detail and every little matter.  We are tyrants about people in power who express a casual or simple human mistake.  We have become so critical of each other that we run our lives circling our fears around what we say, what we may do, or how we may believe.  We must make sure that all of our actions on these subjects meet the high public standards that have become our governing rules.  We must travel our lives in a seriously careful and politically correct fashion, if we want to climb up the popularity scale.

What the heck does this have to do with business?  Everything.  It is just as important to understand this set of rules in politics as it is in business.  A business is running its way through its life trying to earn the support of its constituents...the consumers.  The game of attention and support is much the same.  A publicly insensitive business model will be as much ignored and banished as an insensitive politician would be treated that was running for the President's office.  The voter and the consumer will place their support with someone else.  Someone who is more sensitive and more caring.  Welcome to the twenty-first century.  It is not my fault that this is true.

How does a small business leader deal with this tightened rope?  How does a small business leader protect themselves from a simple public error that could easily destroy their future consumer support?  What's more, I wonder how many small business leaders truly understand how fine that simple line can become?

I watched a small limousine company recently experience a freak and tragic accident with one of their passengers who lost a life in that event.  It happened to be a small young girl who was hurt innocently.  Regarding that unfortunate event, no equipment safety violations were ignored.  However, the young girl did climb out of her passenger seat while the vehicle was running and when a corner was turned, she fell sideways and right through an unlocked window out onto the street, which took her life.

Last month, this was a business trying to do its thing like so many other business leaders try to do.  It was marketing its wares, working its maintenance, preparing its hospitality, attracting its consumer support and making sure the checkbook was ending up balanced at the end of each day.  It was doing the same stuff every other business owner works each day trying to do.  That limousine company has several fleet pieces of equipment to manage.  It has a couple of locations to serve.  It was a growing model.  The operative word...was.  Today, the popular media movement and the evening news has gone to examine the two divorces of the owner from his past, his troubles in two other business models fifteen years ago, his run-in with the law over twenty years ago about drinking and driving and his current past due payments to one of his tax collecting agencies.  He is not being currently projected as being anything less than a criminal.  His business activity has come to a screeching halt.  It is over for his model.  This one unfortunate event has suddenly happened and taken his life work, his thirty years of business efforts and tossed it into the round file for his future use.

It is a very tight rope we all walk, people.  I am not here to condone any support for illegal, inappropriate or immoral actions of a business model or the life of a business leader.  Just read many of my perspectives of support in any one of my previous posts and you will notice I believe in operating cleanly.  However, I do recognize and want to share with all of you business leaders that your actions are at great risk in this new day and age.  You are walking on a very tight rope with very little margin for error.  Do not take this warning lightly.  The world is a much more serious place to live and play today than it was thirty years ago.  Recognize this truth and make your life adjustments accordingly.  If you are working your business model in a careless fashion, stop it.  Your days are numbered.  You may walk into your office tomorrow and discover some things surface that will never be able to be overcome.

Get serious about becoming more serious.  I heard about a furniture store owner who allowed one of their customers to borrow the company delivery van to take home a purchase they made at their store.  I just heard a few thousand of you readers cringe at that statement!  Be very careful!  The rope is so much tighter than you could ever expect.  Get more serious about becoming more serious.  Protect your tomorrow.  Ask the owner of that limousine company how he feels about one of his two divorces and you might discover a very angry man.  Remember, during the investigation of that accident, that one limousine passed inspection just two days prior to that unfortunate accident.  That truth, however, no longer matters...and he knows it now.  Protect your tomorrow by doing it today.  Get more serious about becoming more serious.

Page two.

I had a little chat with one of my past co-workers.  We talked on the phone last night.  It was good to hear from him.  We had a few good laughs.  During the chat he described a troubling event that disturbed him greatly.  He was using a company ladder to do some roof repairs at work and one of his superiors arrived to check out how he was doing.  That supervisor decided to change ladders and removed the one he was using by replacing it with another one.  The supervisor told him that the new one was a more safe ladder to use on this type of work.

A little while later, that co-worker shared that the new ladder broke while he was bringing down some heavy stuff.  He said he fell off that ladder about four feet, falling on a small pile of metal on the ground.  He said he suffered a sore back, and a sore wrist.  No cuts or bruises.  He reported that incident to some other employees.  Then he returned to finish his roofing repairs, of course, with the original ladder.  Although sore, he said he survived the fall just fine.

When the supervisor came out later to check on the work, he brought up the fact that he had heard about the fall from the other employees.  The co-worker told me that he was very disappointed in the reaction statement the supervisor shared.  I asked him, "Well, what did he say?"  He replied, "He said, you broke my ladder you fool."  Need I say more?  Walking on thin ice will eventually get you all wet.  Maybe not today, but it will get you wet.  Trust me, it will.

Get more serious about becoming more serious.  The business world is growing more serious every single day.  Every single time a business leader plays with less seriousness, that business leader is only spinning the chamber of their roulette pistol wishing that that single bullet is not lodged in that chamber waiting to be fired.  The limousine company business leader found his bullet.  The supervisor will eventually discover his bullet.  The furniture business leader will find that same bullet one of these days.  If you manage a business, get more serious about becoming more serious.  It matters more today than ever before.

I cannot stress how important this message has become.  Travel your personal and business life injecting the  art of perfect care.  Get more serious about becoming more serious.  It is no longer a casual thing.

Until next time...