Mountains of Arizona
Sunny 81 Degrees
3:30 p.m.
So yesterday I fixed a leaking hot water heater. It was my first time 🙂
Me, the city mouse, got a little tired of talking with service providers about everything they weren’t able to do and just decided to do it myself.
1 hour later, no more leak.
I think it’s probably school that makes people think they are actually accomplishing something by being able to list all of the reasons why something won’t work or all of the reasons they couldn’t get something done.
I think this rubs me the wrong way because I think I used to be one of these people.
But now that I’ve been out on my own in this big bad world of business for a while, I know that this approach has no value.
This plumber had driven 2.5 hours to fix the leak only to find out he wasn’t “authorized” to do it (long story, not worth your time).
I asked him, “this doesn’t really mess you up right? that you drove all this way and weren’t given the green light to fix this thing?”
He said, “no, not a problem for me.”
And herein lies the issue.
In the world of the producer, nothing of value is created if all you do is talk about why things can’t, won’t, or shouldn’t work.
So obstacles aren’t a justification for stopping and going home, they are simply temporary detours on a journey that doesn’t end until the goal is accomplished.
When you’re working with clients, if you’re not focused on the actual GOAL the client wants to achieve, then you’ve got room for improvement.
When you focus on helping to facilitate the goal the client wants to achieve RATHER than only being interested in one tiny step of the process (like designing a webpage), only then will you be able to transcend the “vendor” role where you just get paid for doing things.
Get paid for helping people achieve things. It’s a totally different game.