Are your misguided beliefs causing misguided results?

Dec. 15, 2018
Have you ever thought about the possibility that many things you do every day are because of a misguided or unexamined belief?

This month’s article was written with the help of ATI Coach and 20 Group Facilitator Rick Johnson.

Have you ever thought about the possibility that many things you do every day are because of a misguided or unexamined belief? I heard longtime ATI Coach and 20 Group Facilitator, Rick Johnson, tell a story how this can happen to the best of us. Let me repeat a story that has been told many times. Here is my favorite version:

A husband and wife were in the kitchen. The husband was reading the newspaper while his wife was preparing ham for dinner. The husband watched the wife cut off one inch from either end of the ham. He asked why she cut the end off, proclaiming, “That’s a waste of good ham!” She said, “That’s the way my mother prepared the ham.” The husband asked, “Why did your mom cut the ends off?” The wife didn’t know.

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Later, the wife called her mom to find out why she cut the ends of the ham off. Her mom said, “Because that was the way my mom prepared the ham.” The wife’s grandma had passed away several years earlier, but her grandpa was still living. She called her grandpa and asked, “Grandpa, why did Grandma cut the ends off the ham?” He thought for a while and then said so that the ham would fit in her pan!

Seems silly, doesn’t it? Just think of all the good ham cut off and wasted all those years. But does it not get you to thinking — what about me? How many things do I do every day that if examined go back to some unexamined belief or misguided belief system?

Maybe I am a rebel or just a bit of a researcher, but all my life I have asked why and questioned everything even to the point of getting into trouble. And I can’t tell you how many times when I asked, “Why do you do it that way?” I was told, “Because that’s the way we always have done it!” Let me tell you, that answer never satisfied me.

I one time came across a book titled, “If It Ain’t Broke…Break It.” It challenges everything we do in business and it was like it was written for a person like me. Now don’t get me wrong, there are very good reasons why we do a lot of things and follow procedures and I wholeheartedly agree with them (most of them LOL). So let’s examine just a few things that came to my mind and see if this challenges you to maybe “break it.” First, let’s examine the things you do every day that could just maybe be causing you to not get the results out of your business that you really want — you know, kind of “shooting yourself in the foot” type of deal.

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Knowledge is not power!

How many of you read books? Magazines like ABRN and so on to get tips and ideas on how to make your business better? Well of course all of you reading this article, right? Anyway, here is a great challenge to that habit from me. STOP READING these things! If you really want to make a difference in your business, how many more books and articles do you think you need to read? For goodness sake put the book down and start implementing the things you have already learned! There are only so many ways to do time management, only so many ways to learn how to be more productive. The old saying that knowledge is power is WRONG! Implementing the things you have learned and making change is power!

How about this one, I hear it all the time. “I can’t charge that much or set my labor rate that high” because I am in a small town. Or we are in a poor area and people around here can’t/won’t pay that much. My question to this has always been: So, when you pay your power bill in this small town, do you tell the power company, “I need the small-town price” or when you go to buy a truck or a new TV, do you tell them “I need the small-town price?” Because you know folks that drive new vehicles and have nice houses in your town and pay everyone else’s normal price. How is it that they just won’t pay your price!

It is amazing when we finally have a breakthrough on these misguided beliefs and the shop owner finally starts charging the correct prices. Prices based on his actual costs. Then the shop finds out that the customers will in fact pay the correct amount even in a small town. What a great thing that the shop owner can now afford to take a vacation. Maybe they can cash a few weeks’ worth of their own paychecks they have been writing but have in their desk drawer. And it could have been this way all along, but someone a generation or maybe two or three back got the idea that it couldn’t be done in a small town and the following generations just fell in line without ever questioning it or examining it.

Here is another one that again we hear all the time. “I just can’t pay like the dealer does and I certainly can’t provide benefits!” Holy cow! What? Why? Really? The only way dealers are paying more and offering benefits is because they have sat down and figured out what they needed to charge to be able to provide these things. I am sure they add those costs into their business plan and make it work.

So, do you think maybe you should challenge this idea that you cannot provide top pay and benefits? I would hope so. I would start doing some checking into health insurance group plans and some IRA or 401k plans and see what the true cost is. Then sit down and break it out by the hour and adjust your labor rates to reflect this and you will be amazed at how you can compete with the dealer for techs once again.

Implementation is power!

Belief systems, we all have them, we all go throughout our day guided by them and as true as that is, you must realize that so are your results in your business! Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right!” Great insight from a man with an eighth-grade education. Think about that for a minute or two. An eighth-grade education. How many times have we heard or said, “If you want to be successful in life, you must have a college education!” Pretty good thing ole Henry challenged and most importantly proved that to not always be 100 percent true! Again, I am not disrespecting education, not at all, but Mr. Ford did not let that belief prevent him from researching and inventing and changing the world.

So today, start looking around and noticing all the things going on in your business. Are you cutting the ends off a ham in any area or department? I hope not, but most importantly if you are, I hope you start making changes and start getting the results you need from all you have leaned.

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