So we are living in the middle of a pandemic; it's just mind boggling how the world has turned to shit in the past couple of months. It all seems so real, all so fast, all so close yet so damn far away.
So 2020 came around and everything was business as usual, a ton of work, a good time with the family, the kid is growing up so fast; so basically, your normal life. Then by the end of January my right hand at work decides he will be leaving our company and joining his brother in law at his shop (he actually is a supplier and competitor to us, and a all around piece of shit, but a hard working SOB, can't take that away from him).
The guy who is leaving is a really good employee, although his attitude has not been the best lately; all in all, he is great, trustworthy and at the drop of a hat you can leave work and you know all will mostly run smoothly. Upon hearing the news I know I must either hire someone or promote someone from the inside. We are small company, we are a team of 10 people but directly or indirectly a couple of dozens of families make a living through us. So it's a big deal to manage/operate the business.
I'm always a huge proponent of promoting from within for a variety of factors. People already working for you must know the business, must know customers, must know the industry, and so on and so forth; also, it gives people at lower levels something to gun for. To be totally honest I still don't consider myself a good leader, my communication & teaching skills are not always the best and also having such a reliable person working for you makes you lazy to a degree and you don't plan properly just in case something like this happens.
There is the 1st lesson. Even if you have a great leader taking care of a business unit, why not develop someone else? Hell, even if there is no space to be promoted at this time they may be able to develop new business ideas, create new streams of income and even if they decide to move on they can make a better living for themselves. Always look at things down the line when it comes to see who a new leader will be.
So the talk came the last week of January and at that moment I realized I had no one totally ready to move into his spot and freaked the fuck out. We usually take a family vacation near the end of summer and assumed the new person in charge would not be ready by that time so the wife, kid and I took a week off life and headed up the coast from San Diego to San Francisco.
Unrelated to the business end of the post; the trip from SD to SF by car was amazing. I had always wanted to take this trip up Highway 1. So we rented a car (turned out to be a 2020 BMW X1 with 26 miles on it, good drive but so damn small I would NEVER recommend it if you plan on ever driving around more than yourself and a passenger) made a couple of spots to sight see, eat and sleep and ultimately spent 3 days in the Bay Area and flew back home. The week away was such a blessing both for work reasons and for regular travel due to everything being shut down shortly after.
Back to the topic at hand. I, along with the old man, look into a few options as to who can cover this slot that opened up and decide to promote a 24 year old kid who has been with us for around 7 years. The kid is smart, maybe lacks instincts but he will learn and is HUNGRY! Skills and knowledge can be honed but the hunger and desire to succeed is key for anything. I'll take a person with little knowledge but willing to learn every day of the week, twice on sunday. Yes, you OBVIOUSLY must have some sort of instinct, some smarts and other intangibles since not everyone has what it takes to lead, that is important to state.
So the former guy in charge has his last day on 03/07 but took a secondary role from 3 weeks before when the new guy accepted the position. It has been pretty good so far and the fact that we are in the situation we are in currently (pandemic shit) has slowed down the business quite a bit and allowed us to be super detailed when it comes to learning the intricacies of the day to day. I'm sure he had no idea the amount of stuff and details you MUST be aware when running/operation a small business and was surprised to a degree; the good thing is that he is not afraid to ask, the learn, to be wrong. A big issue I have with business leaders (or people who believe they are such) is their unwillingness to be wrong, to admit it and to ask questions. If you are able to take you ego out of the picture and are willing to learn you are that much closer to suceed.
Fast forward and 2 months in to this new era and we (the team, the new leader and myself) are doing well; we are learning, we are making mistakes, we are growing and we are understanding our new roles.
This pandemic has brought huge change to our business, to everyone's business; a lot of businesses will not be able to reopen when everything returns to normal but such is life. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Being hard working, being consistent, being reliable, being creative, being prepared and smart will ALWAYS end in success, so regardless of what comes around to my our your business we must keep pushing through and will eventually reap the rewards.
Stay safe.
Mr Khakbaz
