Inspiration from your kids

Sometimes your kids listen to you and you have the power to change the world around them. Wouldn't it be nice if the same thing could be said of every client or customer?

But like your kids, clients don't always feel like listening. But it feels great when they do.

My 7 year old son was building a Star Wars X-Wing lego kit the other day. When it came time to put the rubber bands on it to enable the x-wing to open and close, the whole thing snapped and broke up. He would have to rebuild most of it. He was crushed. He has built at least a dozen large Lego kits and numerous smaller ones as well as amusing free forms of his own design, but I never saw him to do this before.

I told him I was sorry about it and if it was a problem, he should ask for my help or my wife's at the point of failure. I reminded him about his tenacity to learn to ride a RipStik, riding on 2 wheels before his older sister did and other accomplishments.

He looked at me and said he didn't care and he wouldn't build this kit again. He put all the Lego in the box, closed it up and walked away to his room. I followed him and suggested he try again when he was in a better mood because building Lego or anything when you are mad will just lead to more frustration.

10-15 minutes later he emerged and started building it all over again. He stripped the whole thing back down to pieces and pretty much rebuilt it all by himself, no help, including the rubber bands.

Sometimes in business you feel that frustration and rather than let it kill your day, let it out and take a break. It will still be there waiting for you of course but maybe a calmer mind will prevail.

You have built it before, you have done similar things, you know the answer is out there, don't give up.