Stop bribing me

I was pumping gas this morning wondering why I chose this particular gas station.

Some offer points to convince their followers to buy gas there. Some offer free coffee. Some give a discount on certain days of the week. 

Gas is a commodity. There is no difference between the gas at one retailer to the gas at another. 

Why did I buy gas here this morning? This retailer reduces the price of gas if you pay cash or debit. The cost to a retailer when a customer uses a credit card represents 2-3%. So when a customer doesn't use the credit card, most retailers pocket that difference into profit. This retailer passes the savings onto the customers, everyday.

In looking across the busy intersection, another gas retailer with a points program was trying to bribe customers into their station. If I purchase a minimum of 25 litres with the retailer sponsored MasterCard, on Tuesdays from 7-9, I get an extra 2 cents off per litre.

I wonder who's the genius that comes up with these promotions. Consumers don't like conditions. And the more conditions that is placed on a purchase, the less we respond to the offer.

The worst part was the net benefit of the gas across the street was still higher than my pumped gas.

The retailer across the street didn't have any cars gassing up this morning. There were 7 cars at my chosen gas station, and more were constantly pulling in and out.

We see bribes all the time but usually in the form of discounts. Buy this before Friday and get this amount off the ticket price. What's the discount telling consumers? It tells us that the real value is the discounted price.

Discounts work. And they work well. But over time, people become aware that the product is only worth the discounted price and they stop seeing value in a discount. 

Over time discounts become less and less effective, until they almost stop working completely. 

In watching Adam Sandler's movie, "Don't Mess with the Zohan", there is a seen where one of the characters works in a discount electronics store called "Going out of Business". He tells Adam Sandler's character that business is good despite the sign. 

Bribes work, but on one condition.

Read that line again.

Bribes work on one condition. Not on multiple ones.

Discounting a product makes it a commodity. Be very careful on the type of bribes you use. Unless you live in the land of movies, it could kill your business.

Are you programmed to give the same answer

I messed up a young girl this morning at a restaurant.

Having worked in restaurants for over 8 years of my life, I am preconditioned to ask people how they are as soon as I see them. When someone comes into a restaurant, that is the greeter's job.

This morning, the young greeter came to me and I asked her how she was doing before she had a chance to say anything. She stumbled on her words. She stuttered. It took three obvious seconds before she could rethink her words.

It was three seconds of awkward silence. It felt like a minute.

I don't fault her. She's trying to do her job. She would rather be somewhere else.

This simple exchange made me think about some of the programmed answers and things I say.

How do you answer the phone?

How do you answer the door?

What about your emails? Do you always close with the same signoff?

I catch myself all the time going into the set of words that may not have any meaning with the current conversation. I've programmed my brain to say them.

I once told a stranger that I loved them. The conversation ended exactly like one I would have with my wife and the words just exploded off the tongue. Talk about awkward...

My mouth tries to work faster than my brain. It's like my mouth hasn't received the orders from the brain on what to say, so it says what it thinks it should say. Some call this not having a filter.

It's not a filter. It's more like my mouth has a mind of its own. Maybe that's where "speaking one's mind" comes from. The brain is like the leader of the nation, and the mouth is the general of the army. The general wants to secretly run the nation so he goes behind the leader's back and does what he thinks is in the best interest of himself.  It's a coup d'etat.

The mouth might just be the gateway to the ego.

I think of all the times my mouth has gotten me in trouble. If I could've just bit my tongue...

And then I think of all the times my mouth says stuff without accepting the appropriate orders from the brain. My mouth goes off, in the wilderness, rambling away, trying to find a coherent thought while the brain processes all of the information, until a message is sent through the synapses and the mouth says something of value.

Am I the only one who has this problem?

Are we good?

Perfect, excellent, awesome, amazing, exceptional...
Good, ok, fine, alright...
Terrible, bad, pathetic, horrible...

The last set of words means there is dramatic room for improvement. Finding out we're a bad father, a horrible son, or a terrible employee upsets us. No one strives for badness, so we look for ways to get better.

The second set of words has become an acceptable achievement. There is still room for lots of improvement, yet there is a sense that once we get good at something, we don't have to get better. Let's break out what good really means.

The opposite of good is not bad.
Good is the enemy of great.

Most people use unrisky words when describing a person or a service. Good is an easy answer. Good is non commital. Good is safe. Striving for good is like saying all we want is for people to say we're "Not Bad".

Good tells us nothing. Good doesn't drive results. Good doesn't create memories. Good is just ok. In a world where ok is mediocre, we're setting the bar pretty low if we're striving for ok-ness.

Do you want to be remembered for being an ok person or a great person?
Do you want to be thought of as an ok mom or a great mom?
Do you want to be an ok employee or a great employee?

OK isn't memorable. Good isn't remarkable. Fine isn't shareable.

If you want to make considerable more money, you have to give considerably more effort. You need to do much more than fine.

If you want a promotion, your work needs to be remarkable. You'll have to do the opposite of good.

If you want everyone talking about you, your business, or your life, you'll have to do the opposite of ok.

Strive for perfection, excellence, awesomeness, amazement, exceptionalism and greatness.

It's the only way you will get noticed. It's the only way, you will get what you want. It's the only way you win at your life.

What's the definition of greatness? You decide. But you owe it to yourself, your family, your community and your coworkers to aim for it.

Greatness is in all of us. We just have to tap into it. We have to stop settling for good.  Good isn't good enough. Once you've achieved goodness in any task, ask yourself what you can do to make your effort even better.

Strive for greatness. The world craves it and will reward you accordingly.

Relationships are like dishes

If I asked you to list in order the most important people in your life, who would you put first? Second? or so on?

It wouldn't be easy. You would have to choose between your spouse and your children, or your son and your daughter. How could you choose that? It wouldn't be fair.

If you were asked to categorize your list, it would be much easier.

There are three basic categories of relationships.

1. People we know but aren't part of our everyday lives.
2. People we care about who affect our daily lives.
3. People we love and would do anything to keep them happy.

The first kind might be old school friends, past co-workers or a person we met at a social gathering. These people are acquaintances. There may be a mutual past between the two of you. But there's no present. Despite Facebook, you don't really know what's going on in their lives and they don't know what's going on in yours.  These relationships are like disposable plates. The kind you like to use at the family barbecue. You want them to be clean, but you're going to throw them away when the barbecue is done and you won't think about them again until the next time you use them.

The second kind are friends, extended family and co-workers. We care about these people more than the first group. We see them more often. We feel sad when they are sad. We are happy for them when they succeed at something. We might miss these people if they were no longer in our lives. These relationships are more like the regular dishes that we use from day to day. We don't want them to break. We don't want to throw them away. We like them the way they are. But if one disappears, we get over it quickly because we have others just like it.

The third kind of relationships are the people we love: parents, children, spouse, grandchildren, grandparents, a really good friend, a sister, brother, aunt or uncle.

These people are cherished. Life wouldn't be the same without them. These people could never be replaced. These relationships are like fine china. If one breaks, it would devastate us. We treat them extra special.

In examining your own relationships, are you treating the most important people in your lives like fine china or like paper plates?

Can you help you?

How many times has a shopper gone into a clothing store to be bombarded with commission based wolves who don't know how to interact with a complete stranger?

The three greetings shoppers get slapped with are "Hi, how are you today?" and "Can I help you with anything" or "Are you looking for anything in particular?".

Even when I'm looking for something, I don't want to engage these sales people. I just want to be left alone so I say something just as stupid like "No, I'm just looking around", which really means "Leave me the fuck alone".

Today, I went into a specialty store that sells running equipment. I've never been in that store even though it's been there for 10 plus years and a number of friends have recommended it in the past. I had some time to kill between meetings and I really needed a new pair of sneakers. I'm cheap when it comes to clothes for myself but someone recently told me not to skimp on footwear.

What really stood out for me at this store was the way this single employee handled all of the walk in traffic. No one seemed to mind that she was alone. No one was in a hurry. No one left upset. Every single person who came in bought something. No "just looking around" in this store. What was different in this store compared to the others?

First, the salesperson was extremely knowledgeable. She wasn't some high school kid who would rather be texting than helping a customer.

Secondly, even though she was extremely busy, she never hurried me. Nor did she panic. At one point I told her that I didn't mind if she wanted to go help another customer. Her answer was awesome. She said, "He's gonna need me a lot longer than you do, so let's make sure you have the right sneakers before I go see him.

Thirdly, she greeted every single customer that came in with an awesome line and explained that she was by herself and would come to see them when she was finished with me. The awesome thing she said in the upfront greeting was "What brings you in to see us today?" She never once got the bullshit answers I've used a thousand times in other similar stores. She made a sale to every single person because she knew exactly what everyone was looking for.

I found my sneakers. It was the first time I bought footwear without weighing the cost of the purchase. I paid three times more than I've ever paid for a pair of shoes in my life and I love them.

Price is not as important as value. There were no discounts in this store. Why would there be? The product isn't just about the shoe. Everything this salesperson did increased the value proposition of the product. Did I mention I have two pair of sneakers that I've worn less than 4 times each because my feet couldn't get used to them? What's it worth to get a good pair of footwear? What's the value of not having sore feet after a good run?

This store knows that. Good for them.

Thank you Running Room and good job Kim. You impressed me today.

Your dream is impossible until it isn't

Man isn't supposed to fly...then the brothers with the last name Wright figured it out after countless tries.

Man can't go to the moon...until John F. Kennedy motivated a nation and a program to make advances in science so remarkable that they achieved the goal, even after their inspirational leader had died.

An African American will never be President of the United States...until Barack Obama decided to run.

Everything is impossible until it isn't.

You have a choice to make. Choose to accept what others say is impossible or fly in the face of ridicule to prove those who choose to sit on the sidelines, in their comfy chairs, wrong.

It doesn't matter that others will think you're nuts. It doesn't matter if there are days you think you're crazy. Don't give up. Your task will be impossible until it isn't.

Refrigerators, cell phones, the internet, cable TV, electric cars, satellites, and electricity are just a few examples of things that people 200 years ago would have said were impossible. Yet they exist.

If you're working on something that seems impossible, maybe you're just ahead of your time.

Let me repeat. Nothing is impossible. It may be inconceivable. It may seem unrealistic.
You want to achieve something. It doesn't matter what it is. In the words of Rob Schneider in The Waterboy, "You can do it".

You don't have to be Thomas Edison to prove that something is not impossible.

Maybe it's as simple as buying a new home or getting a job that pays twice as much as you currently make. Maybe you have an idea to buy a business.

Nothing will hold you back but you.
It doesn't matter if you're broke.
Who cares if you don't have an education?

Stop worrying about what you don't have.
Start thinking about what could be possible.
Start dreaming about what you can do today to turn the impossible into the possible.

Your dream is impossible until it isn't.

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."
   -Henry Ford

Young entrepreneur

I met a young man recently who wants to be an entrepreneur. He's only 16.

I envy him because I didn't have a clue what I wanted at that age. I wonder if his inexperience is clouding his adolescent vision. Either way, his confidence is a breath of fresh air.

Not knowing what he doesn't know, he was smart enough to ask someone who may know. That's the foundation of mentorship and this kid's got it figured out at a young age.

He's going to be successful. I can feel it. He doesn't talk like I did at that age. I might be cheering for him prematurely.

He wanted to know what courses he should take in high school to get ready for a life of entrepreneurship.

He's in grade ten.

I suggested three courses:
Creative Writing
Accounting
Typing

Creative Writing will give him a skill that he can use in all of his marketing materials. The ability to move people to open their wallets starts with a compelling message. In today's nomenclature, the keyboard is mightier than the sword.

Accounting is a no-brainer, right? I know far too many business people who depend on bookkeepers and accountants to manage their books. Accounting isn't hard. It's another language. To be able to read a financial statement, understanding the basics can go a long way in business.

Typing was the single most important class I took in high school. I took it in grade twelve because I wanted an easy class to boost my grades that didn't have homework. And it didn't hurt that there were a bunch of pretty girls taking it too. Learning how to type got me through university papers, the constant surfing on line and even right now as I formulate my thinking into this blog.

Unfortunately, his school doesn't have an entrepreneurship class. He thinks there's a entrepreneurship club. That would be another good place to start.

His dad thought it would be a good idea to test the waters of entrepreneurship before making such a huge commitment. I can't argue with the thinking. Unfortunately it's tough to test something like this out without potentially losing money.

This kid is very bright. He's gonna go places. He told me a story of how he's making a product, retailing it at his school, turning a profit of $80 a week. He's developing different flavours to keep his existing client base buying more. If that wasn't enough, he opened a wholesale channel where he still makes excellent margin.

Here are the simple business rules I shared with this young man:
1. Don't tell your friends your trade secrets.
2. Keep the wholesale channels open.
3. Find more wholesale accounts. Work less, sell more.
4. Continue to develop your retail channel in your market (school).
5. Make your wholesalers pay for your product upon delivery.
6. Confirm none of this is illegal.

I was doing nothing compared to this kid at 16. I'm impressed TA. Keep up the confidence, the thinking, the searching for answers. You'll go places. Just keep your head on straight.

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, your right.   - Henry Ford