Episode 6: So many helping hands
“The nine scariest words to any American citizen are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’” Ronald Reagan
Like any major endeavor taking LBV from a lukewarm, hazy muse to opening the doors for business took a large cast and had lots of moving parts. And hands, lots of hands.
It’s almost overwhelming to reflect back on how many people got touched by this little science experiment. City and State administrators and inspectors, architects, designers, contractors of every type from concrete, landscapers, brick masons, electrical, heating and cooling, painters, framers, steel workers, and then buying the equipment and the inventory. Without exaggerating we had to have monetarily touched well over 50 companies and independents.
I will confess to you that I had moments of unfettered pride watching workers perform and knowing that I was creating paychecks for people. It’s the part of capitalism I like the most and frankly the part that so many “public servants” (oxymoron) seem unable to grasp. I posted on this – Shrugged.
Then there’s the staff. It was a great deal of fun interviewing and choosing the staff members. They’re a great group and each has a great sense for the customer. I think we’ve created a really great product here and with these guys have added the service element, thus giving us the optimal situation that I laid out in this post – Service vs. Product.
Then, of course, there are the other helping hands. The “I know you didn’t ask and I have no skin in the game but let me eat up an hour of your time quizzing you on the decisions you’ve already made plus dump a bunch of unsolicited ideas on you” ones. I had one individual who was so bad I posted about him – Drive By.
I know its human nature to be inquisitive as well as to want to help by offering up ideas and opinions. And to be fair some really good things came out of some of these outsiders, so you can’t just blow everyone off. But Jeez….it’s as if some people feel you gave no thought whatsoever to things. Anytime a conversation would start off with “did you think about….” my hackles would instantly go up and I would start my “smile, nod and acknowledge” routine.
I’ve found there’s a direct correlation between the layers removed from actual involvement and the strength of the opinion. I also came to realize that the less financial capital was involved the more the answer to any question equated to “just spend more money”.
Ah well. To be fair, the vast majority of helping hands were truly and sincerely trying to be helpful.
Now, where’s that suggestion box/shredder combo?
Like any major endeavor taking LBV from a lukewarm, hazy muse to opening the doors for business took a large cast and had lots of moving parts. And hands, lots of hands.
It’s almost overwhelming to reflect back on how many people got touched by this little science experiment. City and State administrators and inspectors, architects, designers, contractors of every type from concrete, landscapers, brick masons, electrical, heating and cooling, painters, framers, steel workers, and then buying the equipment and the inventory. Without exaggerating we had to have monetarily touched well over 50 companies and independents.
I will confess to you that I had moments of unfettered pride watching workers perform and knowing that I was creating paychecks for people. It’s the part of capitalism I like the most and frankly the part that so many “public servants” (oxymoron) seem unable to grasp. I posted on this – Shrugged.
Then there’s the staff. It was a great deal of fun interviewing and choosing the staff members. They’re a great group and each has a great sense for the customer. I think we’ve created a really great product here and with these guys have added the service element, thus giving us the optimal situation that I laid out in this post – Service vs. Product.
Then, of course, there are the other helping hands. The “I know you didn’t ask and I have no skin in the game but let me eat up an hour of your time quizzing you on the decisions you’ve already made plus dump a bunch of unsolicited ideas on you” ones. I had one individual who was so bad I posted about him – Drive By.
I know its human nature to be inquisitive as well as to want to help by offering up ideas and opinions. And to be fair some really good things came out of some of these outsiders, so you can’t just blow everyone off. But Jeez….it’s as if some people feel you gave no thought whatsoever to things. Anytime a conversation would start off with “did you think about….” my hackles would instantly go up and I would start my “smile, nod and acknowledge” routine.
I’ve found there’s a direct correlation between the layers removed from actual involvement and the strength of the opinion. I also came to realize that the less financial capital was involved the more the answer to any question equated to “just spend more money”.
Ah well. To be fair, the vast majority of helping hands were truly and sincerely trying to be helpful.
Now, where’s that suggestion box/shredder combo?
Next: Episode 7; How much is too much?
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