Chapter 12. When Your Best Just Isn’t Good Enough
by John Bechtel on November 4, 2009
in Beliefs, Business, John Bechtel, Survival, Uncategorized
What follows is a continuation of a series of articles comprising a book entitled “Passion, Power, and Panties–Confessions of a Businessman” wherein the author describes being raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, spending almost ten years at their headquarters in Brooklyn, NY and then entering the ”outside” world at the age of 27. For purposes of continuity, I encourage you to subscribe in the column to the right so as not to miss a post. It is free and without obligation
One of the hardest things to accept about business, and maybe human behavior in general, is that most behavior doesn’t seem to be rational, but whimsical, irrational, and emotionally driven. Decisions are based on emotion, and then the intellect is summoned to justify them. Business could be gained and lost for some very arbitrary reasons. My response to this was mostly terror. On any given day I knew the wrath of the gods could descend on my head for reasons far beyond my control. Since all of my contracts were on a month-to-month basis, I understood that on any given day I was only 30 days from bankruptcy court, if enough of my clients were to cancel my contracts at the same time. No business was guaranteed, even if you were doing an excellent job, and the specter of economic death hung over your head all the time. It was imperative to build relationships inside the client’s organization on at least three different levels. Whenever possible I would build a relationship with the CEO of the corporation, my manager would build a rapport with his peer in the client’s organization, and we would try to match up our cleaners with the personalities of key people on each floor. Generally speaking, it took all of us as a team to keep a tight grip on business. Everyone was important, and I always told our people to avoid stepping on hands when climbing up the ladder, because those same hands could expedite the way down (or out the door!) A disgruntled secretary in a client’s building could make our work life miserable.
