This is Part Five, the last in a five part series, on what I learned in 25+ years in business. You can see Part One here, Part Two here, Part Three here, and Part Four here.
I will also have a separate post here at www.jvrusso.com with all 110 items.
Remember, to understand my title, Somehow I Managed, you have to have known about Michael Scott, Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Played by Steve Carell, Michael Scott was something of an unorthodox manager (to say the least). The title of his book is Somehow I Manage, although he never published it. Watch the series and you will understand more.
My book, should I ever get around to writing it, will be entitled Somehow I Managed. That extra d at the end will get me around copyright problems (I hope).
Anyway, items 1-100 appeared in the first four parts. To finish things off, here in Part Five, I offer you these last ten things I have learned.
- Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up your present. Get over it. The past cannot be re-drawn. It is gone forever. Today is a new day.
- Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?” Unless, of course, it’s another bad tattoo or eye-lid piercing (see below).
- Let go of thinking you are somehow damaged. Without question, you matter, and the world needs you just as you are. If you act from a place of damage, you will DO damage.
- Work on your business not in it. If you find yourself working IN your business, then you are too deep in the minutiae to make a difference. Work ON your business. And believe it or not, that can happen on a beach somewhere, far away from the maddening crowds. Another reason to take a vacation.
- You have enough tattoos. Seriously, you don’t need any more. Put the money in the bank or buy real estate. They are a distraction and a silly waste of money. For those that you already have, try and hide them. You do not want anything to draw someone’s eyes away from yours or from what you are trying to say to them.
- You have enough piercings. Seriously, these too are a silly waste of money. And they are a distraction. I find it hilarious that they have to be removed in order to brush one’s teeth. And then removed again when amongst polite company. If you must have them, put them where the sun don’t shine (unless you intend on going bear-midriff to your next job interview).
- Yield. Need I say more? Don’t force your way in. Yield.
- Learn to say, “thank you for your business,” rather than, “have a nice day.” Your customers deserve a great big thank you for spending their money with you. Train your employees to do the same. Saying, “Have a nice day,” to someone who has just spent their week’s pay on groceries at your store, could not be any more banal if you tried.
- Manage your time, for time is the stuff of life. All the time you will ever have has been given to you. There is no more. Do not squander it. This is NOT a practice life. It is the only life you will ever have.
- And, finally, know this: YOU.ARE.NOT.THE.CENTER.OF.THE.UNIVERSE. There has always been, and always will be, someone better looking than you, richer than you, thinner than you, harder working than you. And there has always been, and always will be, someone far less good looking that you, poorer than you, fatter than you, lazier than you. Consider yourself blessedly, blissfully, forever smack dab in the middle.
And there you go! 110 Things I Have Learned. Not always the easy way, mind you, but learnt just the same.
Many thanks for stopping by!
