I wish you could be me today
In my 18 years of working I have not had one day where I thought to myself, “Everyone should get to experience what I feel today”. I’ll have to admit that I’ve felt that way more than once in the last few days.
I started my business almost five years ago. At no time during these five years have I felt that if anyone else got to live my work life they would some how be jealous. I think it’s because everything is so up and down. My emotions don’t even rise and fall on a weekly or even daily basis. It’s more like an hourly basis.
Lately, news of any kind has been negative. I’m not talking about my business necessarily. I’m talking more about the news, as in tv and radio. It’s so easy to find yourself discouraged with all the negative talk out there. Every day, despite all the negative news about how our economy is in the crapper, I get out of bed and go to my business. I smile as I walk in the door believing that some how, some way this day will be better than it should be. Most days I’ll get a hand full of negative news and a hand full of positive news as well. Some how the negative news pulls me lower than the positive news lifts me higher. I will tell you this though, no matter how bad I feel, deep down in my spirit I know that all it takes is one phone call for my day to turn around. I go to work every day hoping and praying for that one phone call. Some days I get that one phone call and some days I don’t. It’s the hope for the phone call that keeps me going back every day.
To combat all the negative input that you can’t get completely away from I’ve turned to a myriad of self help audio pod casts. From Dave Ramsey (shocker, I know) to Zig Ziglar and Joel Osteen. They all have one major theme in common. Don’t give up! Yeah, I’m starting to think that theme is at the heart of all self help out there. I’m sure it’s pretty common to just give up. God knows I’ve wanted to several times this year. It’s that belief in the one phone call that keeps me going back. That and the hope that someone out there does actually need what I offer.
Well, let me get to the reason you need to be me today (the last few days actually). As I reported in my last post (two and a half months ago!) we were severely underbid on a large project. I really believed in my heart that this other company was going to make a mess of this project and we would get to do it anyway. This project got underway a couple of weeks ago. I checked in with the customer and they reported everything was going just fine. I assumed from that conversation that all was lost and I needed to realize that I now have a new competitor in the area. Well last Wednesday I get a call from the customer and they are in trouble. The company that underbid me had made a complete mess of things and they needed us to step in and take over the project. They needed us to get started right away and of course we have.
Why do you need to be me today? Because, I sat right in front of that customer and told them they were making a big mistake picking this company over mine. I told them this was a job for experienced professionals and they were in for a bad experience. They basically waved me off as being over dramatic and went on their own way. Well here we are several weeks later getting to be the knight in shining armor. In just two days the end customer is amazed at our skill level and is already demanding we be the company to handle her work from now on. Somehow, “I told you so” just doesn’t quite cut it, you know? I have to admit that this is a huge boost to my ego. In times as tough as this customers are harder than ever to keep or even get. To be able to stand in front of someone and really feel you are the best in the city at what you do is something that words don’t even come close to describing. We all like to feel that we are the best at what we do but I think we all also doubt ourselves from time to time. It’s nice to her someone besides your friends and spouse say it.
Having said all of this I leave you with a quote I heard on Dave’s show today. It’s so very fitting.
I Do Not Choose to Be a Common Man
It is my right to be uncommon—if I can.
I seek opportunity—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, “This I have done.”
By Dean Alfange
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*Originally published in This Week Magazine.
Later printed in The Reader’s Digest, October 1952 and January 1954.The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of 1922.