The very bedrock of civilization rests on those of us who write the paychecks. The milk of human kindness, all that we hold dear, and the thin threads that keep us in the city and out of the jungle, depend on you and I and everyone else who write paychecks and meet deadlines.
If all us people who write paychecks suddenly stopped writing them next Friday… what would happen? Apocalyptic scenes of terror and destruction would ensue. The electrical grid would fail. The water supply would shut off. The sewers would back up. Riots and bedlam would break out in the streets. The vaunted towers of Wall Street would crumble. Hospitals would become terrorist zones as epidemics of anthrax and cholera sweep the planet. All who survived would be tortured by the very memory of peace and prosperity, as they hide out in bunkers and defend their last reserves of canned goods.
Well if you’ve been in the serious game of business for any length of time, you know what it takes to execute plans and get things done. You have backup plans and even backup-backup plans. If one of your vendors doesn’t pay you, you’re the guy with the line of credit that bridges the gap. You’ve also got that 401K plan you borrow against and the travelers checks socked away in the basement. If someone doesn’t show up, you’re the one who fills in for them. You’re the one who stays up late and makes sure the project gets done after everyone else has gone home.
Aren’t you?
Me too. And frankly we’re all quite used to it now. No news there.
We’re so used to it that when others don’t perform, we’re not all that surprised. Often we just assume the rest of the world is so dysfunctional that we just expect good intentions instead of results. So not only do we go the extra mile for our customers, we go the extra mile accommodating the weaknesses of our staff. Add a bit of “control freak” psychology and “If you want something done right, do it yourself” and in a small company, El Presidente ends up doing half the work, maybe three fourths or even 90%.
Everyone else just drags along in a co-dependent haze of mediocrity.
