Small Business Wisdom

A Time To Reflect

Forty years ago today, May 21st, 1968, Private First Class Thomas G. Jones landed at Tan Son Nhut airport in Bien Hoa, outside Saigon, Republic  of Vietnam

I was quickly flown to An Khe, headquarters of the First Air Cavalry Division.  Shortly thereafter, I joined Company C, 1st Battalion, 12th  Cavalry regiment, who were on a mission out in the field. Out in the field referred to dense jungle settings and Charlie Company was deep in the jungles of Quan Tri Province, the northern-most region in South Vietnam. I was 19 years old. Before arriving in Vietnam, I had completed Basic Training at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, and Advanced Infantry training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. During advanced infantry training the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated and civil riots were occurring throughout the United States, including Charleston SC, the largest city in proximity to Ft. Jackson. Late that evening we were called out of our barracks, assembled in formation, and issued a complement of M-14 Rifles, rubber bullets, and wooden batons. Then, we were informed we were being trucked in two and a half-ton troop carriers to the outskirts of Charleston , to support the National Guard and local police authorities to contain the rioting if it spread beyond the city core. Late that night the convoy rumbled along the South Carolina  roads toward an uncertain scenario for a complement of very young soldiers who had been in the army for about four months. We rode in silence and arrived at our assigned position outside the city limits as the local police and, later, the National Guard, were engaged in riot control activities. As we waited, I looked around and realized that most of the 20 soldiers in my truck were African-Americans. Suddenly, one young soldier spoke and said, “I’m not shooting my own people. They murdered Dr. King, and drafted me to go fight their war in Vietnam . I’m not going to fight my own people tonight.” With that, most of the other young men shouted agreement and we returned to waiting in silence for the order to move in or stand down. Finally, the order to stand down and return to base was given, and we drove in silent darkness back to Ft. Jackson.

I saw combat action my first week in the field. Less than a month after my arrival in country we received news of the death of Robert. F. Kennedy. The nation mourned the loss of hope as Robert joined Reverend King and his brother, John Kennedy, in the parade of idealistic young leaders taken from us through a single violent act. And the war raged on in that pivotal year that changed the world, 1968.

As the year wore on Charlie Company engaged in numerous combat actions, fire fights as we referred to them, and I progressed from gun squad ammo bearer, to assistant machine gunner, and then, to carrying and operating one of two machine guns in the platoon. By early fall I was Sergeant Jones, a tested combat veteran, not yet 20 years old. Several years after my tour of duty Quan Tri fell to the North and was leveled in the fighting. Later, the whole of Vietnam fell and the images of the hasty retreat from the American Embassy in Saigon  were forever etched in my memory. Those visions renewed my grief over the terrible toll of war for so many young soldiers who died, were wounded, or would carry the scars of war on their bodies and minds for a lifetime.

When I returned home in 1969 I used the GI bill to earn two associate’s degrees, a bachelor’s, master’s, and finally, a Doctor of Philosophy degree. I committed myself to learn, to teach, and to serve. While I wished to forget the horrors of war I wished always to remember it’s lessons: life is precious; each relationship you share with those closest to you is sacred; and that the commitment of service to others gives purpose to every action. It is those lessons that brought me to teaching and learning. It is my hope that these efforts in service to you are of value as you strive to create joy and wealth through your small business ownership.

 

Be joyous. Let now be beautiful. Blessings, Thomas.

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Getting to Slow

Last winter the flu visited our home. It spent 5 days with my son, another five with me, and for good measure, five more days with my partner. Never a welcome house guest, it turned an unwanted visit into a marathon of minor misery. I tended to my son’s illness, gave into my own, and wrestled with my partner’s continued refrains of “I don’t get sick” while she succumbed to the bug.

When our household returned to health, I returned to work and the task of addressing unanswered e-mails and voice mails. I was shocked! More than 200 e-mails and two dozen voice mails had amassed during my downtime. Shock turned to an overwhelming sense of over work then, strangely, to calm. The world hadn’t ended during my absence. Stock markets didn’t crash, homes didn’t get foreclosed on, war hadn’t waged, and the economy didn’t sink into recession during my time away from computer and cell phone. Actually, all those miseries did occur while I was occupied with my family but I do not believe my absence was the cause.

After several days of fury trying to catch up, I gave up with a laugh. No, I thought. It all goes too fast, there is too much here for comfort. So I stopped trying. I have begun turning off my cell phone during my “islands of time” in the car between client visits or teaching assignments. I have begun leaving my cell phone at home when I go out for a walk or to work in my garden. I have taken to checking my e-mails less frequently. I am consciously working at S-L-O-W-I-N-G down. The funny thing is no one, except me, seems to be noticing. The important things are still getting done. If my children are out or away my phone is still handy for immediate access, if needed. I listen, and sing along, to more music in my car. I am writing more at home, studying more for my classes, researching more for better answers to solve client challenges. All in all, getting to slow has been a deliberate, and increasingly conscious, decision to find a gentler pace to 21^st century life.

I know you are busy. But my question is, busy doing what? Responding to the immediate or reflecting on the important? Are you present to the moment and the relationships in your life, or preoccupied with the urgency of insistent, but largely inconsequential, demands? Only you can answer that. How can you know? Slow down, get quiet, be focused, be present. The answer is there. You need only take the time to listen.

 

Be joyous! Let now be beautiful. Blessings, Thomas.

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Life Is Too Short To Play Dumb Music

Blog Thomas G. Jones, Ph.D.
5-8-08

It is 4 a.m. and I am having another episode of my love/hate relationship with sleep. For the past 40 years sleep has been an unreliable companion. As usual, I am in the middle of some creative project. This time it is bringing a book to conclusion. For the past six weeks I have been one new chapter and several chapter re-writes away from the manuscript conclusion. At 3:40 a.m. an idea rushed through my sleep and into the forefront of my consciousness. Get up, make coffee, get writing was the message that replaced the empty space called sleep. Great, except no ideas decided to join me at morning coffee.

Click! On goes the TV and soon I am listening to Scott “The Piano Guy” Houston on Washington Public Television. He is a masterful pianist and an effective teacher. To a room full of students he implores, “Life is too short to play dumb music.” What a great line and simple truth.

For small business owners the corollary is, “Life is too short to do dumb business.” Think about it. One of the basic lessons in my small business management program is to describe the ideal customer and the ideal business. As I review this work with the learners a few themes are always present: fun people; interesting and challenging work; and, attractive profits. Then I ask them to name how many such clients they have that fit the profile. Usually, the response is from one to a handful with many more customers or projects described as work taken to pay the rent. We all do this. Especially early on in our business venture. In fact, every business owner that I have worked with that created admirable success went through a process of firing early in customers, usually through pricing increases.

That process created capacity to find and acquire customers and projects that yielded more fun, more challenge, and more profits.

The thoughtful business owner creates an ideal client profile and measures each account against that profile at least annually. Then, the business owner calculates the gap between the account and the ideal and strategizes the steps to close the gap. This process permits the owner to mindfully grow the business. In some cases the gap is too great to close and the owner manages the account out of the business to create time and capacity for more satisfying work.

I suggest that this process be an ongoing leadership activity for every smaller venture. If you were riding down the road in your car and the station was playing the worst 100 songs ever recorded you would turn off the music, find another station, or sing to yourself. One of the joys of small business ownership is the “I get to” feeling each morning as you consider the day ahead. As Mr. Houston counseled, life is too short to play dumb music. Too, life is too short to work on dumb business.

 

Be Joyous! Let now be beautiful. Blessings, Thomas.

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Positive Change

Blog Thomas G. Jones PhD
5-3-08

Once, there was a distinct difference between the philosophies of the Republican and Democratic parties. The republicans believed in the Jeffersonian ideal that “the government that governs least, governs best.” The greatest democratic president was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who counseled that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” That philosophy translated to the belief that society was “our brother’s keeper” and that many needs, such as care for the elderly, were best handled by centralized, big government. For the past 100 years those philosophies have battled and found traction in the alternating Republican and Democratic administrations.

Since Ronald Reagan it has looked more like Big Business-v-Big Government. In truth, I believe it has been the tax and spend democrats versus the borrow and spend republicans. Now what?

As the republicans debate among themselves and advance their candidate, they seem to seek nuanced differentiation while ignoring the war that has claimed, at least, the lives of 200,000 Iraqi citizens and more than 4,000 U.S.service men and women. Too, they are charging $3 million an hour on the national credit card.

Anyone familiar with the 1918 Paris Peace Treaty that ended WWI knows that Great Britain fought in newly created Iraq for eight years before throwing up their hands in frustration and going home. Our Iraq war was five years old in March. I wonder if we have three more years of horror ahead before we learn the lessons of history.

The democrats, meanwhile, are preaching change: change everything the Republicans have done since coming to power in 2000. While ignoring their complicity in the Iraq war debate, they finger point and promise business not as usual.

For me, I must fight the “none of the above” feeling and wonder how it all got so wrong. But if I have learned anything in my life’s journey, it is that “crisis precedes discovery” and that “the darkest hour is just before dawn.” Our system is broken, our choices too limited. The political process has become just one more media product packaged to play in short sound bites and digital quality images, just one more complex international system presented between commercial breaks. Thus, I am sure, we are in the last days of a time when capitalism has overwhelmed democracy and playing to the camera outweighs thoughtful discourse.

I will make the most informed choice possible, vote for the candidate, and urge you to do the same. If we are to believe the comment that “people get the government they deserve” then it is up to each of us to be deserving of intelligent, moral leadership. That would be a change. And that’s the change we should be seeking from our national leadership.

 
Be joyous! Let now be beautiful.

Blessings, Thomas

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