Beware Specialists

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. H.L. Mencken

It seems I’ve spent my entire career being sold specialists. Every investor, advisor, analyst, friend and enemy has spent an inordinate amount of effort to council me on using and introducing me to some kind of specialist. Sales specialists, Marketing specialists, Fund Raising specialists, Operations specialists, Office décor specialists, and so on. Unfortunately most of them share a couple of common elements. One, they’re usually tied somehow to the person recommending them, either through blood, greed or bondage; and/or two, they’re unemployed.

Now, you have to be careful about arbitrarily blowing off the recommendation of an investor/board member/ally but at the same time you have to protect your budget and your time. My experience is these “specialists” can be very time consuming and expensive. They can disrupt the office and stall momentum. Worst of all they either perform the “pigeon ritual” or jockey for a full-time position you don’t need.

Here’s what you need to do when presented with an unrequested specialist. What “problem” is the specialists suppose to fix? Is the problem real? If it’s real is it a serious problem or a nuisance? If it’s a real problem with serious ramifications and you do not have the talent on staff to address it then it may be a good idea. It’s also a good way to “test drive” an individual who you feel might be a good fit.

But, if it’s pretty apparent that someone on the outside of the daily operation is just trying to find a payday for one of their cousins it’s time to carefully but directly deflect this distraction.

Searching for Luke Harangody

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. Thomas Edison

Tis NCAA March Madness and since my once-beloved Hoosiers will most likely be One-N-Done come the weekend I thought I’d spend time writing a semi-relevant blog rather than wasting my time on the Indiana message boards.

Luke Harangody plays basketball for Notre Dame. He’s 6’8” and weights 250 lbs. He was named the Big East Conference Player of the Year. He’s a sophomore!

Luke grew up in Indiana. His brother played football for and graduated from Indiana University. Luke was not recruited by then-IU basketball coach Mike Davis. There are lots of theories on why the young man wasn’t recruited by IU but the most substantiated reason is he didn’t necessarily show himself to be a “big time player” while in high school. He didn’t show “up side”, an overused word to describe an athlete’s potential.

Mike Brey, Notre Dame’s basketball coach, obviously did see “up side”. Not only saw it but developed it. Mike Brey was recently named the Big East Conference Coach of the Year. For the second time. In two years.

Indiana University is now searching for their 3rd coach in the past three years. Hopefully they’re looking for one with “up side”.

Every time Luke Harangody shows how much “up side” he has the Indiana faithful fill up their message boards with the same banter. “How could we not even recruit such a talent?”. I’m sure Mike Brey doesn’t read the IU message boards, but if he did he’d probably smile.

There’s a great story about when Luke arrived on the Notre Dame campus and got into some pick up games with the upperclassmen. He called his father and said, “Dad, these guys are so much better than me. I’ll never be anything more than a backup here.” He then went out and worked harder than anyone else. He then became the Big East POY, as a sophomore.

So? How often do you miss the Luke Harangody’s when recruiting people for your business? Maybe they don’t have “the resume” or “the rolodex” or “the experience”. All they have is smarts, dedication and work ethic. All they need is a chance and someone to develop them.

Just like Notre Dame can’t be good with all their players being Luke Harangody, a business can’t be good with all one type of worker. But having a few Luke’s around sure can be rewarding.

Tragic, just tragic

“Only after disaster can we be resurrected” Chuck Palahniuk

I have a friend who is a quote machine. One of my favorites is “a tragedy is horrible, but to be tragic is pitiful”.

So, this is one of those absolutely, totally out of bounds, I’ll rot in hell, and never, ever “work in dis bidness again” subjects. So, get out your long ropes and get ready to hang me high.

I’m reading my umpteenth article about how New Orleans is struggling to get people to come back and visit their city. In these articles the blame is usually passed around to the government, the media, big business and God.

Now understand, I’ve been to NOLA many, many times. It’s one of my absolute favorite places in the world. Not just the country, the world. Like most everyone else I hurt for The Big Easy after Katrina. I donated money and chipped in any way I could. But over time it started to become like a South Park episode. It went from being a tragedy to becoming tragic.

Tragedies happen around the world constantly. We’re insulated from most of them, mainly because CNN and FOX choose to enlighten us about Britney Spears instead. But the fact is disasters happen, people suffer and then the survivors dig out and start over. It’s been that way for time eternal.

However, for some reason New Orleans is different. After all the public and private time and money they’re still “a tragedy”. Sorry N.O. you’ve become tragic. You live in a hurricane zone below sea level. Deal with it or get out. Here’s an offer. Come up to Michigan and live in cold, cloudy, crappy winter while it drags on till June when the only thing you have to look forward to a pseudo- summer in the worst economy in the country. (But they’re also surrounded by 20% of the World’s fresh water, something I suspect will soon become a large global bargaining chip.)

Here, kids, is the XOD lesson: Don’t ever let a tragedy become tragic. Business tragedies like human tragedies happen all the time. They can be caused by conditions over which you have no control. When they happen, deal with the aftermath quickly and professionally. But before the tragedy happens, look around. Are you in a hurricane zone living under sea level?

Nice guys finish....

“Patience to an extreme is cowardice” George Jackson

In a conversation once upon a time with a colleague when discussing (gossiping) about another colleague and discussing the other colleague’s professional merits (shortcomings) I said, “but he’s a nice guy” and my colleague said “we’re all nice guys, it has nothing to do with it”.

Damn! Aced again!

We all want to be thought of as “nice guys”. We want people to like us and say nice things about us and invite us to functions and introduce us to their friends, and…you get the picture.

The fact is we often confuse like with respect. We think if people like us they’ll automatically respect us. And, that’s partially true. If people like you then they want to trust you and thus they tend to give you more rope than people they don’t like (or trust). A longer rope may mean that when the horse is whipped out from under you your feet may hit the ground…or not. Now, I’ve never been hanged but I would think a short rope would give you a better chance at survival whereas a long rope (if not long enough to get your feet to the ground) would create a SNAP that could take your head off.

Regardless, the trouble is, sometimes being nice comes part and parcel with being patient. And patience, as we’ve all been taught, is a virtue. Well yeah, but…..

….there are situations where you need to take hold of things and just make them happen regardless of whether you pinch a few toes and fingers along the way. Maybe it’s in everyone’s best interest for the rope to be short.

Fact is, your high-caliber colleagues, your subordinates and your bosses are rooting for you to do just that. It may involve an under-performing employee, a dishonorable vendor, a profit-eating customer, an out of control investor or a time and resource sucking prospect.

Some problems fix themselves, or so I’ve been told. Fact is, like being hanged, I’ve never actually experienced it.