Month: December 2022

Crippled CEO Blog #167:

Today is Christmas. It might be your last Christmas with your mom, your dad, your favorite aunt, your grandma, or your child. If they get on your nerves a bit, try to imagine that this is the last Christmas you’ll ever spend with them, and give them some grace with that in mind. Because it just might be. 

Merry Christmas, y’all. 

(Do you know who came for Christmas? Your mom. A bunch of times. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #166:

I’ve been thinking a lot about Parker, Saxon, and Boyd. 

Parker was the golden retriever that we found at the park near my house. He followed us home one day, we couldn’t locate his owners, and he stayed with us for the rest of his life. He was an amazingly intelligent and compassionate dog. As a small child with cerebral palsy, when I’d be on the floor playing with toys, he would routinely push things closer to me that were out of reach or help me to move to where I needed to go.

I didn’t realize how unique this was at the time, but he also came in and out of the house freely as he desired, and often spent his days wandering around the neighborhood. When my friends and I were out playing, he was often with us, without a leash, just following us around and hanging out — watching over us and playing along with us. It was never even a question of whether or not he would come back home. He always did. Every single night.

One big reason why it didn’t seem very weird is because the exact same thing was happening across the street. My best friend, Casey, also had a dog that came and went as he pleased, and wandered about the neighborhood with no restrictions. Saxon was a German shepherd and husky mix, and the lore was that he had a bit of wolf in him. He was a lot scarier than my golden retriever, Parker. Everyone knew that when he was circling you, you just had to sit still inside the circle until he was done.

Parker and Saxon were also best friends. They were often together as they went on adventures in our little neighborhood.

Unfortunately, Saxon had a habit of getting into people’s trash cans. Most people forgave this because the dogs were so well loved, but one neighbor, Boyd, hated Saxon. He hated that he wandered around without a leash. He hated that he got into his trash. He hated that we didn’t take his complaints seriously. 

On one particularly sunny day, we were out playing in the street, and Saxon was out among us, as he so often was, loitering on the edge of the road, smart enough to be out of the way of what little traffic came down our street. While Saxon was on the edge of the northbound lane, Boyd’s truck came driving south, in the opposite lane. We all saw him coming, stopped playing, and got out of the way. And it was at that moment that he sped up, swerved to the other side of the street, accelerated again, and deliberately smashed into Casey Buckley‘s dog. It seemed absolutely surreal as his beat up pick up truck rode over Saxon, went back into his lane, and continued down the street until he pulled into his driveway and went inside.

Saxon laid twitching and crying in the street. His white and black fur was matted with blood. Pretty soon, the commotion had everyone’s parents and other neighbors out in the street, circled around him. 

Wordlessly, my dad went back into the house for a moment, returning with his pistol in his hand. “He’s dying,” he said. We all understood. He didn’t tell us to look away, but one of the moms pleaded that we do. I didn’t. I watched my dad raise the gun up and shoot Saxon in the head. His body stopped twitching. I was 9 years old. 

I don’t know what happened to the body, but I remember Casey, only 10 years old, rinsing the blood of his dog from the street with a garden hose. 

Boyd became our enemy after that. On Halloween, we egged and toilet papered his house. One time, we painted the words “DOG KILLER“ onto a sign and put it in his front yard. My mom encouraged us and helped us secure the supplies. He eventually moved away. 

When I look back at it now, I am struck by the depth of understanding we showed at such a young age. Maybe we don’t fully appreciate what young people are capable of.

Also, today, I only feel bad for Boyd. I can’t imagine how angry and miserable his life must have been if he was capable of something like this. I really hope things turned around for him. It’s easy to villainize people who do us wrong. It’s important to remember, though, that everyone is just out for themselves, trying to survive and thrive as best as they can. I’m sure that was true of Boyd, as well.

(Do you know who was out for herself last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #165: 

Things are going to change. It’s not always going to be this way.

I know you think that you’re done becoming who you think you’re going to be at this very moment, that this version of you is the completed, fully realized you, but you also thought that 12 years ago, remember? And think about how much different you are now than you were then.

The things that are really bothering you right now aren’t going to matter in a few years. You are probably going to forget most of them even existed. In fact, in a decade, some of the hobbies that you are super into and the people you interact with every day won’t really be part of your life at all.

And by the same token, things that don’t matter to you whatsoever currently are going to be massively important to you in eight or eleven or thirteen years.

Not only are your friends, hobbies, and coworkers going to go away, and be replaced by new ones, even some of your strongly held beliefs and opinions are going to change. You’re going to think back and have a hard time understanding why you ever thought the way that you do right now.

Your routines in the morning and evening will be different. You’ll probably be in a different car. You might live far away from where you do right now, even though you currently have zero intention of moving. 

The good, the bad, the critically important, it’s all going to change. So, stop worrying about it so much. None of it is going to matter much, and some not at all. 

This, too, shall pass.

(Do you know who wasn’t worried about the future last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #164:

I recently asked my (good) friend Jennifer Gomez — y’all know Jen, the rockstar estate attorney whom you should call if you think you might die one day; I talk about her a lot here — what topic she would benefit from my writing about. 

Jen: Delegating.

Me: What part of delegating do you struggle with?

Jen: Mmm. Things that are too personal like client relations. 

Me: What do you mean by client relations?

Jen: Like sales and keeping clients happy. 

Jen is in luck, because I am a big fan of this topic.

When I asked Jen what part she struggled with, she said “client relations,” but I think what she really meant was something broader that all managers struggle with when delegating. 

“Client relations” was code for “things that I think are really important/I can’t imagine someone doing as well as I do.“

It’s hard to trust someone with something that you think is really, really important, and especially if you believe that no one is going to do it quite as excellently as you do it.

 And knowing how much Jen cares about her clients being happy, I can understand why she would be worried about trusting this to someone else. 

It’s important to, though. Anything you don’t delegate is a chain tying you to the business, and keeping you from freedom. That chain has a weighted ball attached to it, and that weight is going to keep you from growing and progressing forward. 

Delegation is the key to unlock that ball and chain, giving you more freedom and allowing you to grow. 

So, how does Jen achieve this dream?

I’m going to skip the obvious ideas and focus on a few that I think are important, but counterintuitive for most people.

The first step is to hire someone great. I like to tell people that the secret to hiring a great person is to change your goal. Your goal is not to find one perfect employee. Your goal is to fire TEN mediocre employees. If you go into this with the goal being to try out and let a bunch of people go, you’ll have an easier time getting rid of people you’re not sure about until you find THE ONE. 

Next thing: you’re going to have to be okay with whoever you hire doing the job a bit differently than you — and probably not as good as you, especially in the beginning. This is really hard to do. Sometimes, you will have an employee who gets better than you in an area where you have a weakness, and this is great. But other times, no one is going to do that thing you’re amazing at with the same panache that you’d do it with. But the reality is, if it’s… 80%?… as good as you, that 20% is probably worth the freedom and extra time you’re getting by delegating. I often sit and watch, biting my tongue, while someone handles a phone call differently, and probably not as perfectly, as I would. And unless there is a clear and important criticism, I usually don’t even say anything. This is the trade-off that you’re making, and the reality is that everything will still be OK.

Lastly, there is only one secret you can use to get an employee to care about your company as much as you do. Give her half of your business. That’s it. That is the only way. If she’s just working for you, you can never expect her to care as much as you do. And yet, for some reason, this is the number one complaint I hear from business owners, that they can’t get their employees to care like they do. Well, no kidding. That is a crazy expectation. Unless you want to give away 50% of your business, temper the amount of dedication you think your hires should have.

So, that’s it. That’s how you get your head in the right place to give someone else an important responsibility that you think only you can do. The truth is, there is no task in your business that you can’t find someone excellent to handle. You just have to be willing to let them do it. 

PS: Jennifer Gomez is the best estate attorney in North America, Europe, and Australia. if you’re intelligent, professional, and you can afford the nicer things in life, you should consider hiring her. Find her here: www.JenniferGomez.com

PPS: Do you own or manage a business? What do use struggle with that you would like to see me write about?

(Do you know who was delegating some tasks to me last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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