Clients First: The Two Word Miracle

Get Back Up

I’ve gained and lost hundreds of pounds. I’m on a diet today. I might be overweight, but I haven’t given up and ballooned to something the size of Chicago. I’ll keep on, and someday I’ll be the right weight and stay there. Of course, I’ll never weigh what the doctor’s chart says I should, but that’s denial rather than giving up.

We’ve been broke, but we’ve never been poor. My grandparents thought of themselves as poor. They lived through the Great Depression and revered President Roosevelt. They were proud and afraid. They had been unable to pay one bill in 1944, and for the next 30 years they never applied for credit. They had hopes and dreams and, though I loved them very much, they had given up and reconciled themselves to be downtrodden. They were dear souls, but they gave up.

I think I read this on a place mat in a truck-stop diner, “It’s not how many times you get knocked down that matters, it’s how many times you get back up.”

We didn’t just decide to commit to Clients First, then tell the staff about it and ride off into the sunset holding hands. We fought for Clients First. We struggled. We never gave up.

One of the hardest things any business does is to hire and train good help. Often, the temptation when presented with a poor performer is to put up with the situation rather than go to all the trouble of finding a replacement. Here is where we have had to stand up for Clients First. We have a saying in our office that it is not the ones you let go who hurt ...