"You Completed the Task with a Broken Heart"

 I had a supervisor many years ago who was a solid guy.  Larry was a great husband and father, a competent mechanic and a lot of fun to be around.  As a supervisor, he often got caught between the upper management (not as nice as he was) and the guys in the shop.

We had a plywood sheet saw in the carpentry workshop and the carpenter was complaining that it was cutting out of square.  The managers put that high on the priority list and Larry tapped me to fix it - on a Friday afternoon.

The saw was a foreign made machine and there were no obvious adjustments anywhere - so I did what all Clifton Strength Analytical folks do and went back to Larry to see if he had a manual for the machine.  In that rare and out of character moment, Larry snapped back at me and told me to 'just go and fix the damn thing.'

I trudged back to the carpentry shop and worked on that thing late into the evening.  I disassembled part of the machine, figured out the adjustment scheme and had it cutting square by the end of the evening.

On Saturday afternoon there was a knock at my door.  Larry was standing on the doorstep with a bag of M&M's.  He stopped by to apologize for snapping at me and to thank me for fixing the machine 'with a broken heart.'

Another of my Clifton strengths is Maximizer.  I have been 'burdened' throughout my life with the underlying ethos to make others successful - often when they won't even help themselves.  That is why I asked for the book (wanted to do it correctly and not break anything).  That is why I worked past quitting time.  That is why I completed the task with the desired result.

A person of a different character (and I have seen this throughout my years) would have snapped back at Larry, told him to go F himself and walked off the job - or sabotaged the machine, or delivered a poor result, or just given up on the task.

So, for the Maximizers out there the saying 'No Good Deed Goes Unpunished' is often our cynical way of coping but the reality is that we will continue to be true to our nature and act according to who we are - even when it is not comfortable, nice or profitable.

Giants, Wizards and Dwarfs

Every bookshelf needs Robert Fulgham's book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

This is my favorite 'short' from the book:

Giants, wizards and dwarfs was the game to play.

Being left in charge of about eighty children seven to ten years old, while their parents were off doing parenty things, I mustered my troops in the church social hall and explained the game.  It’s a large-scale version of Rock, Paper, and Scissors, and involves some intellectual decision making.  But the real purpose of the game is to make a lot of noise and run around chasing people until nobody knows which side you are on or who won.

Organizing a roomful of wired-up gradeschoolers into two teams, explaining the rudiments of the game, achieving consensus on group identity–all this is no mean accomplishment, but we did it with a right good will and were ready to go.

The excitement of the chase had reached a critical mass.  I yelled out:  “You have to decide now which you are–a GIANT, a WIZARD, or a DWARF!”

While the groups huddled in frenzied, whispered consultation, a tug came at my pants leg.  A small child stands there looking up, and asks in a small, concerned voice, “Where do the Mermaids stand?”

Where do the Mermaids stand?

A long pause.  A very long pause.  “Where do the Mermaids stand?” says I.

“Yes.  You see, I am a Mermaid.”

“There are no such thing as Mermaids.”

“Oh, yes, I am one!”

She did not relate to being a Giant, a Wizard, or a Dwarf.  She knew her category.  Mermaid.  And was not about to leave the game and go over and stand against the wall where a loser would stand.  She intended to participate, wherever Mermaids fit into the scheme of things.  Without giving up dignity or identity.  She took it for granted that there was a place for Mermaids and that I would know just where.

Well, where DO the Mermaids stand?  All the “Mermaids”–all those who are different, who do not fit the norm and who do not accept the available boxes and pigeonholes?

Answer that question and you can build a school, a nation, or a world on it.

What was my answer at the moment?  Every once in a while I say the right thing.  “The Mermaid stands right here by the King of the Sea!” says I.  (Yes, right here by the King’s Fool, I thought to myself.)

So we stood there hand in hand, reviewing the troops of Wizards and Giants and Dwarfs as they roiled by in wild disarray.

It is not true, by the way, that Mermaids do not exist.  I know at least one personally.  I have held her hand.”

Helpful IRS Links

I met with an IRS liaison a couple of weeks ago and she showed me some great resources from the IRS that may help small business owners.

Check out https://www.irsvideos.gov/  This is their video web portal.  It has useful videos on small business taxes, starting a small business, avoiding the most common tax mistakes, payroll taxes and many other tax-related topics.

Check out https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/webinars-for-small-businesses  This link has IRS webinars for small business covering topics like ‘Employee or 1099 contractor?’, ‘Steps to Owning your own Business,’ Business Entity Selection and more.

This link has the tax reminder calendar on it to let you know critical dates for filing employee and payroll taxes.  You can also have it imported into your Outlook calendar or receive reminders via an RSS feed.  https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/irs-tax-calendar-for-businesses-and-self-employed

There are also a couple tools for your employees that may help them as they navigate the tax season.  The paycheck checkup tool https://www.irs.gov/paycheck-checkup helps the employee look at his/her withholding and make sure it is best for their situation.  The Interactive Tax Assistant https://www.irs.gov/help/ita has information on most questions regarding taxes including which forms one should file, who must file, income, deductions, credits and so forth.

I hope one of these links will prove to helpful to you as you plan for your 2019 filing next month.

Extreme Eating 2019

https://cspinet.org/xtreme-eating-2019

A Guide for Entrepreneurs Applying for Financing

What is a Business Debt Schedule? A Guide for Entrepreneurs Applying for Financing

https://www.lencred.com/blog/business-debt-schedule-guide/

Acknowledge, Apologize, Investigate

The Way Big Brands Combat Online Outrage

Good article - have to fight with WSJ to read the content :-(

https://www.wsj.com/articles/acknowledge-apologize-investigate-how-big-brands-combat-online-outrage-11550579223

I found some of the article here as well  

The Way Big Brands Combat Online Outrage is How People Should Do It: Acknowledge, Apologize, Investigate | BCNN1 - Black Christian News Network

A Little Biz Plan Project We Played Around With

SBDC wanted a virtual training thing during COVID.  I had tried a couple and I think they came across boring.  It is hard to connect with the audience via a computer screen and all of the distractions on both ends.

The idea was born to make some 'shorts' that could be engaging, fun and used for social media.  Further - we hoped to tie them together in a live event with some comment in between - sort of like AFV.

Struggled to get the shorts filmed, edited and in a good format.  I found some funding for the editing, but it was done on the cheap so the final product is not as good as it could have been with proper funding, editing, filming and execution.

It was still a fun project.  I left the SBDC before we could really pursue it, refine it and perfect it.

Link to Biz Plan 'Shorts'

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rs1k2y6io-lkHn4glwuKdwptHDInPprK?usp=sharing