They Walked out the Door

I was working on pictures and things at the Little Brick House for the online store. Two of the items that were in my stack of stuff actually were sold today. I happened to walk upstairs and saw a lady with the little green table I had done in her hands and she was heading out the door. This happened to be someone that mom works with at the University Stake she serves in. I said something about it as she was walking out and to my surprise her sister was holding the little red stool that I had also refinished. These two pieces were actually ones that I quite liked. Both were refinish jobs or recycle whatever you want to call them. When I got them the stool was rather boring and the table was really ugly and in bad repair. I probably spend too much time trying to perfect the pieces before I bring them into the shop but I have to say both of these items were very nice. I have pictures at the office and will add them to this post later. Anyway it was neat to see them walk out the door. It meant that other people liked my stuff and that is a good thing. It doesn't matter how much I might like it or how great mom thinks it is, if it isn't selling it isn't doing us a lot of good.

When I would train my teams at One Hour, at Choice and also at Egg I always talked to them about communication. Everything we do communicates who we are. As much as many of us may not care for sales in actuality we are all sales people. We sell ourselves, our ideas, our beliefs by the things that we do and say. I talked to my installation technicians all the time about the quality of their work and how it was a work of art that they left behind. I know, it is kind of dumb but when you sell someone an air conditioner you want them to be blown away by how neat and clean the job is when it is done. You want the house to be left better then when you found it and you want the homeowner to be happy. We sign our names on that work so make it the very best that you can. That is how I feel about the furniture. I want it to be right because I sign my name to it. I want it to be perfect. It isn't but I try to make it the best I can and hope someone picks it up and loves it.

I don't know if I have blogged this little poem or not. It again is one that I tie to Grandpa Al and tonight I am not sure why. He may have said this but he also may not have. I might tie it to him because in the book The Best Loved Poems of the American People I think it is in the same general area as It Couldn't Be Done which definitely is tied to Grandpa Al. Anyway the little poem:

If a task is once begun,
Never leave it til it's done
Be the labor great or small,
Do it well or not at all.

I don't know who the author is - it may be anonymous in the book referenced but I cannot remember. It has been easily 14 years since I have looked at that book if not more. That little poem is one that I read when I was 13 or so. It was an easy one to memorize and the message has always stuck in my mind. Note that I did not memorize the punctuation so it may be really screwed up. The message however remains the same regardless of my punctuation deficiencies. I think it is a good summary of what this post is about.

I will say this final thought in closing. When I watched as these two pieces walked out the door I was able to do so with peace knowing that I had given these my very best. It didn't matter what they looked like when I got them, what mattered is what I did with them when I had them and that when my work was done I knew I had done all I could do. It was exciting to see them go and to see these ladies that bought them excited about their purchases.

I have to mention this. I just hit the spell checker and it popped up No Misspellings Found. That is a first. Can't speak to the punctuation but tonight, my spelling was perfect. And just so I can remain humble, I just spell checked again and this time I found that I misspelled misspellings. Sweet.