All Nighter

That’s good

Zach, Project Manager for a full-service mechanical and plumbing contractor in Wilsonville, OR, told Session 9 of Turbo Leadership Systems’ Leadership Development Lab (LDL):

“In April 2019, Jared and I had been working tirelessly at the HTM office on a bid for a project that fit our company schedule and vision perfectly. We went so far as Jared working an all nighter and I came back to work after our LDL class; essentially a 15 hour shift.

“Bid day comes and goes and we’re confident in our bid. The next day, Jared comes into my office and says, ‘Good news! We were low bidder . . . bad news, the project is over budget.’ It’s a gut-wrenching emotional roller coaster. We did our best and won, yet at the same time, the project has been put on hold. Rather than hang our heads, we grabbed some markers, a giant flip chart pad and started brainstorming. We jotted down every way we could think of to save the project money. All-in-all we came up with seven ways to cut costs that would save the project almost a half a million dollars. The owner approved the project because it met their budget constraints and the job is moving forward!

“The lesson I learned from this experience is when I am on the receiving end of a ‘good news, bad news situation,’ I need to focus on the good. And when those inevitable road blocks try to stop me, get my team together, look for another way – a better, a shorter, faster way.

“The action I call you to take is to always use the positive energy from the good news to help your team power through the bad.

“The benefit you will gain is all news will be good news.”

Many years ago I had the pleasure of hearing W. Clement Stone speak. I had read and been inspired by his book Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude. His inspiring call to action was to develop an automatic response to all of life’s many disappointing setbacks. Respond by saying a simple, “That’s good.” You might be saying how naive, how childish. How can I respond to the bad news; the, “flat tires” life hands me with “that’s good?” First of all, you didn’t have a blow out; you didn’t wreck your car. And secondly, it is flat – you can play the victim role up, give up, give in, or you can go into action, put on the spare or call for help. Great advice that can and will change your life, so start today – without delay – say, “That’s good” to all life hands you then make it so.