Good oil is hard to find

Leadership knows how to wring every last drop of effort out of their followers.

In this week's Parsha of Tetzaveh God asks the now desert nomadic Jewish people to do something nearly impossible from the first sentence (Exodus 27:20):

And you shall command the children of Israel, and they shall take to you pure olive oil, crushed for lighting, to kindle the lamps continually.

Really!? PURE olive oil!? They are in the desert you remember. So olives just grow wild in the desert and they could make pure oil because they had nothing else to do at the time. And it would be used for lighting right? And do you not think they knew this already and had been doing it so they had light at night?

The fact is leadership, no matter if you say it was God or Moses, asked for it and they did it. No questions asked, just did it. Speaking of Moses, he is not, repeat not found in this parsha at all by name. That is even greater leadership, people follow you without your name even being used. We should all be that gifted when we are leading our companies. Then again we are not God.

Think about this too, maybe they needed the olives as food in the desert? They already had the Manna so any other food was excess and thus available for alternative uses.

But the bottom line is these lucky olives were going to be used for the Cohen or priestly workings. The people gave them up willingly because they didn't need them to eat, although they needed them for light.. In contrast most executives rarely ask for what isn't needed and fewer get it from their employees. Instead the carrot and stick routine work for them. That attitude doesn't work today any more than it worked 1,000's of years ago.

If you know you need better sales from your team, you can wring out the olive oil the hard way or ask people to give up some time to learn something new or get some training or help others so together 1+1=3. They need the time, no question, but they really need the sales and thus more commissions and this little sacrifice, for the right leadership, is possible.

Purim is next week on Wen and Thurs, Chag Smaeach.

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Parsha Tetzaveh in the book of Shemot Exodus 27:20 - 30:10

It is said that the Torah or Bible could be interpreted in over 70 ways. More likely these days 100's of ways. In light of this idea, I am writing some posts that bring a business sense to what we can learn on a weekly basis. Enjoy, Shabbat Shalom

Humbled by an Expert

Yesterday I played hooky from work. Not the whole day, just the morning.

Why did I do it? Because I was learning. I was in need of seeking out someone who had more knowledge and experience than I to solve a problem.

The problem was important and although in the end I was on the right track, and indeed had validated the conclusion the expert came up with, I also could not solve it. As it turned out, neither could he, although we worked around it.

What I lacked in experience, I made up with in Troubleshooting ability. Yes we were surging power, yes we had tripped a fuse or 2. That was my laziness somewhat but the real problem was the loss of partial power.

Picture the light going on in your refrigerator but the motor not working to cool the food and you get my meaning.

So while we cleaned up some bits and ends in need, the problem still came back. It was only after looking at some very specific parts of other chips that we found what we were looking for. One chip had lost a leg and was causing a short. Soldering on a new one and replacing it put everything right again.

The kids should now be happy the pinball machine is fully functional again. Except for the bit which I was stuck on myself. I knew the wiring was good, the bulbs were good and power was good, but still no luck. We traced it back to the circuit board and well, for 2 lights not to work, I can live with that for now. The cost of a new board or repair can be up to $200.

But it was a great experience to learn more, see new ways to troubleshoot the machine and do stuff I would never do to a chip board. Surprised it didn't snap. But he knew what he was doing. And that is what you want from your experts. That ability to take something not seen or experienced before and work your way to the level of the issue. And then know how to work around it or fix it.

It is what I do for Lotus products and various other software programs and other technology, both new and old. It is why people pay us and come to us for help for our expertise.

While I was with him, someone else called me and needed me to come out to their house and resolve some wireless issues. The 2 of us talked about this as well and appreciated each others worlds.

When he left I said hope I don't see you again soon, although I do look forward to the next visit.

If you need Fred and are in South Florida, here is his website, http://www.homeusepinball.com and phone number (561) 683-5893. Thanks again for the lessons and my kids appreciate it even more.