“It seems that gratitude without practice may be a little like faith without works – it’s not alive” Brene Brown from “The Gifts of Imperfection”
I shared in a blog post almost a year ago about our very
difficult move from Georgia to Ohio and the various obstacles we
encountered. The move went for the most
part about as badly as it could have gone.
We suffered a great deal of mishaps along the way. Sadly, even once we got into our new house,
it didn’t get much better. We faced so
many delays and problems getting furniture, as everyone is dealing with these
days, and it made it impossible to make our house into a home. It took 6-9 months to finally get everything
we wanted or needed, and over the last few months, we’re finally settling in.
While I wish I could say that the business or work side of
the move went much better, sadly, it didn’t.
We had a great business plan to develop our Columbus facility, moving
into a new building, moving a production line from Georgia, winning a major
customer in the aerospace industry, gaining our AS9100 certification, growing
the business, making this facility into the hub for Aerospace business, the
Americas hub for Force measurement, we had grand plans for development and
growth.
So I set off as I often do, as Don Quixote to conquer my
windmills with my trusted partner Sancho by my side. It
didn’t take long for me to morph into Bilbo Baggins, and unfortunately it
became “An Unexpected Journey”. Yes, I
love to mix my metaphors…
We set out to find a new, bigger, better building to
rent. As many know, the real estate
industry is painful these days, and we couldn’t find adequate space to
rent. We decided we would buy a
building. We found two different
buildings to buy, and in each case, even though we were assured the owner
wanted to sell, when we made an offer, we were told, “these buildings aren’t
for sale”. Well, how about we build a
new building? As you can imagine, land
is hard to come by, building costs are astronomical, nothing seemed to be coming
together.
As we struggled through the building process, the pandemic
wasn’t very kind to us either. Business
just didn’t bounce back the way we hoped or needed it to. The large Aerospace customer delayed us yet
again, we couldn’t move the production line from Georgia because we obviously
didn’t have a building to move it to.
While I’m sure this wasn’t the truth, nothing seemed to be
going right. Each day was a new
adventure into Murphy’s Law.
But then, it all began to turn. We found some property, and even though it
was more than we needed, we bought it, we signed a contract to have a building
built, and we will have a new home, finally, midway through 2022.
We achieved AS9100 within eight months or so, which is
unheard of. We had anticipated a minimum
of 18 months, but through some very strong leadership from our team (not me),
we made it happen.
And that large Aerospace customer? They are back, and wanting to sign a contract
before the end of the year. OK, I’ll believe
that one when I see it, but I will not give up on this one, we’ve put too much
time and effort into it.
The picture above is from the Groundbreaking for the new
building. While one could look at this
as the end of a journey, in reality, it’s the beginning of a new journey. While I could now portray Laurel and me as
Sam Gamgee and Frodo, I think I’d better stop while I’m ahead, not sure she
would like being Sam, although I’m not so sure she would like being Sancho
either. But, as usual, I digress.
After a very long introduction, the point of all of this
rambling. It’s easy to lose sight of
gratitude when things aren’t going quite how we would like them. And it’s easy to bitch about your work, your
company, the people you work for. I know
I’ve done it at times in my close to 40 years of work, and I know plenty of people have
bitched about me over the years. It’s easy to do. It’s much harder to practice gratitude, and
though it’s hard, it’s so worth it. As
that day happened, November 2, when we broke ground, I thought about:
An owner who has a
vision and also cares about his people – There is no doubt Mr. Wiegand is
one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and he also seems to have a vision
for where the world is going, and where our company needs to be based on where
the world is going. But he has also done
many incredibly kind acts for his employees.
I can’t imagine ever finding this type of leadership in a publicly
traded company, and I also have to believe it’s rare in a privately held
company. He is truly unique.
Leadership that has a
vision and a plan – Between the leadership in Germany and the leadership in
Georgia, they developed a plan, a vision, and they stuck with the plan, and
expanded the plan when it was necessary.
While it didn’t always seem like the right decision based on short term
problems or issues, they stuck with it and carried it through even with all of
the adversity. They were very supportive
and I really appreciate all of the support they gave me, even when I was
questioning it myself. I’m not ashamed
to admit, when I talked to Todd Gardner before the groundbreaking, I got
teary-eyed thanking him for all the support he and the leadership team had
given us.
A great support system
– I worked with the group in Georgia for 12 years. I knew how good they were, I really believe
we have a great team there. Sure, we
have our bumps and bruises along the way, but on the whole, it’s a very good,
hard-working team. You can really find that
out when you need help. And there were
plenty of times I needed help. I like to
joke that if everyone woke up each morning and asked themselves, what can I do
to make Steve McCullough’s life better today, the world would be a much better
place. I asked a lot, I received a lot,
and in many cases, they did make my life better that day.
The people in Columbus – This group. The dream of fighting a new windmill came to me on a visit to Columbus in early 2020. I was there for a Kaizen event, and there was just something about the people there. They are such an eclectic group, such a menagerie of personalities, I just really took to them quickly. The picture below is of the team standing in front of Lake WIKA.
While the transition hasn’t been easy, nothing had seemed to
go right, my feelings for this small band of people never changed, other than my
feelings probably grew stronger. There’s
only a bit more than 30 of us, but it’s such a good group of people, a kind group, an
incredibly hard-working team. Just like
with your children, no group you ever work with is your favorite, and they are
all your favorite. For the most part,
particularly with the pandemic, many of us can work remotely at least a couple
days a week. Unless I’m going to be on
virtual meetings all day, I always go to work.
I just love to be around them, they are just so much fun, they make my
day.
A wife who will chase
windmills with me and more – As noted, Laurel is always willing to
accompany me when I am looking for the next windmill. But it’s much more than that. As noted, the search for windmills became an
Unexpected Journey, and I’ll be honest, I was losing a bit of energy at
times. During a low period (not the low period, since there were so
many), she laid into me, and gave me the ass-kicking she apparently thought I
needed, and said, “You need to fight for this!
These people deserve this. You
need to do this for them!”
Now, truth be told, I’ve never quit in my life, and I don’t imagine I ever will. The picture here is what
“Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who
have come alive.” Brene Brown
Practicing gratitude. No, it’s not easy. It’s so much easier to bitch and complain. Sometimes, it feels so good to do it too. Practicing gratitude is hard work. But when you do it, you feel so good, and so much better than when you complain. You begin to realize all that you can be grateful for, and all that has been done for you. November 2 was a great day because of the ceremony and what it meant. But it was a greater day for me because I took the time to remember all the people who made it possible and why we were doing this. Yes, it made me come alive.
