I am looking to make this a truly successful year for me. With so much negative news about the real estate market still pervading the media, I saw it as a challenge to buck the trend of a slower business cycle. Having been one to go over MIS reports on a weekly basis in my old job to judge my firm's performance, I have always enjoyed this type of analysis to improve performance. Yes, enjoyed is the proper word.
Now that I have been on my own for four years, I am still a big believer in producing reports for analysis. Of course today, I have to collect the data myself, as well as creating spreadsheets for this study. Yesterday I was organizing more data into new spreadsheets, just to pour over these metrics, trying to find ways to play with the numbers to invent usable facts. Late last night, I sat back in my desk chair, and my wife came to stroke my shoulder, asking how I was doing. I was about to respond with an answer that is my worst nightmare. I was about to tell her how the data was doing instead of me.
When I was working through college, I took a job as a draftsman and quality control checker at a manufacturing firm. Have you seen those bags pizza delivery guys use to keep the pizza warm? They were invented in Denmark, and I was the person who drew up the plans for the original machines used here in the US to make those bags. Then on several weekends, I would go through to make sure that the bags were being produced well. The owner of the US firm was a man named Andy. It always bugged me that when I would ask Andy how he was doing, he responded with sales figures or some other metric. I dared stop Andy one day to tell him that I did not want to know about the company, but about him. He looked me in the eye, and said it was the same thing.
I understand the determination to succeed, but at the expense of my personal life? I think that allowing this data that I am collecting could easily influence my mood. The weekend was bad for visits to my sites, but Monday was fantastic. I would not want to be in a foul mood when my family is home, and I am not working, just because of a number. I do not know if you study numbers as much as I, but I am sure that you are paying attention to your business and to sales. Andy's marriage fell apart because of his determination, and I would not want that strain on mine. Remember your loves ones today, and that your in business for them. Do not let business concerns influence personal concerns, since business issue are only temporary. So, how are you today?
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