When I was growing up, my dad was one of my biggest heroes. He worked in an architectural office. I played with the giant Xerox machines. We made copies of our hands. I drew with a multitude of different pencils with thick architectural lead. They had different rudimentary computer games (this was the 80’s) than we had at home. The office felt quiet and big when I’d go to work with him on the weekends. I’d sit on office chairs and spin around or push myself away from the desk and roll across the plastic carpet protector. I’d climb up on tall architectural desk chairs and use tracing paper to trace animals from magazines.
My dad worked hard, but always made time for me and my sister. He was really part of the first generation of men and women who spent as much time as possible in both the working and family worlds. While his talents as an architect, a financial guru, a partner to his colleagues, and as a leader would allow him to achieve the highest of highs becoming CEO of O’Donell, Wicklund, Pigozzi, and Petersen later in his career. His split focus and effort made that climb take more time than it would have had he had a singular focus.
One day, he came home stoic after being passed over for a promotion. He went into the garage and organized his nuts and bolts. Have you ever seen those bin organizers? My father was the son of a carpenter and very handy and very organized, but we had recently moved and recently expanded the garage and his decades old collection of nuts and bolts was a bit of a mess. I love this image and metaphor. A man, distraught with a circumstance that arose out of work, sifting through disparate nuts and bolts and putting them into piles and eventually into drawers. He still has those drawers in his workshop today some 30 years later.
We all have ups and downs at work. We go through periods, especially as independent contractors when circumstances are a bit out of our control, but cause us to feel defeated. In times like these, our reactions often define how well we prepare ourselves for the future more productive times from a transactional volume perspective. It’s easy to despair and bury our heads in the sand, but I would submit to you that we should take a page out of Gary Wendt’s book and organize our nuts and bolts. Short of a nuts and bolts collection, try cleaning out a desk drawer at the office, the center counsel of your car, the junk drawer in your kitchen, or more metaphysically, your contact list(s).
So much of our success comes from finding ways to be productive and keep moving forward even when the odds are stacked against you.
