The last few weeks have been chaotic here in the office, and with things in life. In addition to working hard here, Erin and I are both about to face our last finals week of our undergraduate education. All of us are getting ready for the holidays, and I will be leaving town on Friday to be with my family in Washington. On top of all of this, I just got engaged and am now in the throes of stressful wedding planning. Now, typically I deal well with a busy life, I even enjoy it. But I am also a stress case. I get sick at least every couple of months from wearing myself out with worry and concern. Last Thursday the stresses of recent weeks seemed to be evident on mine and Erin’s face. As he often does, Rich took us to the white board and decided to teach us an important concept.
He said that for everyone there is an area of concern, and an area of influence. In our area of concern are things we cannot control, like the weather, or traffic, or others’ actions. People typically spend 80% of their time in this area of concern, a place we can do nothing about. What we need to do is focus on our area of influence, and not just right in the middle of it, but right on the perimeter. As we utilize our influence in this way, it will actually grow. Rich emphasized this point more on Friday when he asked me to take on a task that is somewhat outside my comfort zone, pushing me to use my area of influence further than I normally do. He again explained to me that if I push through these sometimes awkward tasks, they’ll eventually become natural, and my area of influence has grown.
This has been extremely helpful in my life the last few days. As I studied for finals this weekend, I started to do the normal overreacting thing I do. I began to think about when my finals were scheduled, wondering if I would have time to study in between. I learned that one of my take-home finals is due sooner than I thought. And I began to stress out about whether my flight home would be delayed, and I couldn’t shake images of sleeping on the airport floor for days. But as I thought about Rich’s wonderful lesson to me, I decided to stop wasting my time in this area of concern. All my energy has been focused on doing what I can do to prepare for finals, and today on getting caught up in the office before I leave for home. By leaving behind that area concern, I have been more productive than I ever would be in my area of influence. Learning to love our limits can actually help us to expand them.

What a week! Sorry I have neglected the updates as of late- a little over a week ago I came down with a hearty cough (among other things) that disrupted the schedule for a few days. I came in to work Tuesday- and I must’ve looked a little frightening because I was sent home around lunchtime. The office didn’t want to risk any sort of wide-spread contamination. Thinking I just had some sort of run of the mill cold, I came in Thursday morning (just a part-timer for the moment, finishing school next week!) to give it another go. I wasn’t considering going home until I saw the looks in the team’s faces…and was invited to go home and rest. Rich, Ron and I decided to do our edit meeting for the day over the phone. (It’s harder for germs to get through that way…) When I answered the phone, however, I couldn’t even vocalize a proper greeting. My pitiful little plight was met with the response, “Hang up. Get better. We’ll see you next week.”

I know what you’re thinking. Crazy, huh?

This got me thinking about one of the chapters in the book, Climb High, Sleep Low. Rich tells a story about a business trip to England he took to meet with his boss and mentor, Dr. Peter Horne. When summoned across the pond Rich’s life had reach maximum capacity, too full for leisure time, and even too full for family. When he arrived in Peter’s office, Peter told Rich something that has stuck with him: “You can replace anything in life. You can replace a job, a car, money, anything, but you can’t replace your health, your trust relationships, or your family.”

By and large, this advice fueled the entrepreneurial fire in Rich. He wanted and needed to create businesses that reflected this ideal- to make room for his family, to allow himself and the people he works with to be human beings, and to invest in his future health and happiness. This phone call last week shows that he has achieved that balance. My health mattered to them, as much as it did to me, as does finishing my education. Because Rich and Ron created this company together, they get to make the rules. And it just so happens that the rules allow for a cold every once in awhile and a hectic finals week, for which I am very grateful.

The trouble with this kind of a human office, quite truthfully, is that it can be taken advantage of. However, I don’t like to see it from that point of view. I would like to think that trust and respect for life events and priorities would lead team members to fill a higher sense of duty and encourage them to work to their best ability because of their integrity. (Novel idea, huh?) We’ve all had (or maybe some of you haven’t…lucky you) the kind of job where they make you “clock out” to use the bathroom and where you are expected to get through the day as long as you can be on your feet, regardless of how you feel. Yes, that kind of policy will illicit long hours and the fulfillment of duty- but isn’t it preferable to be treated like an adult, be allowed wiggle room for life, and work up to your potential because you want to? I think so.

Last night was our Christmas party!  We went to Magleby’s as a team and spouses and guests and had a nice meal, played a white-elephant gift game (hysterical…), had a little kareoke, and enjoyed each other’s company.  Sometimes it fun to see each other in another light- just having fun, celebrating the success of the year.

Rich and Ron gave each team member an exciting Christmas present: a new IPOD Nano!   We were given a posters, as well, with a list of goals for the upcoming months using the word NANO as an anagram. Oh, and I can’t forget the other activity: Rich prepared a slew of questions about the office, the companies and their histories, and whoever got them right got “points” in the form of $1 and $10 bills.  A few of the questions were for “spouses only,” and it was fun to see that my husband John remembered a lot of what I tell him about the office!  Of course, no one can beat Rich’s wife Gaye when it comes to knowledge about the companies he creates!  Rich also thanked the significant others for their support, recognizing their part in the success of what happens in the office.

It was the perfect mix of fun and focus- gearing us all up for the new year!

When I first got to this office I took up residence at the front desk and was told to make it my own.  In my head, that meant organize it the way that I wanted and feel free to buy supplies (pen holders, calendars, etc.)  As the company (companies) grew, I was able to concentrate solely on writing and editing and a new admin- Shanna, moved into the front desk.  She was given the instruction to make it her own, as well, and to “de-sterilize” the office a bit.  Resultantly, we’ve got some classy touches here and there that make the front room look polished and professional- AND she decorates for holidays.

Rich and Ron talk about company culture quite a lot- and one thing I’ve heard them focus on is making sure that the team members are comfortable and have up-to-date equipment.  Sure, you can get the job done anywhere, with almost anything- but it can be a big motivator to provide an attractive environment and nice tools.  An even bigger motivator is to allow team members to make decisions and changes based on their preferences.  As the owner, do you really care what kind of plants or pictures hand in the entry way?  Perhaps, to a certain extent.  But consider the freedom and respect your team will feel as you let them exercise authority over their main work area.

Also: I bought a new laptop for school, and for ease of travel have been using it for work as well.  Rich had one of our engineers set up a VPN so I could access the file structure from school, home, or anywhere.  It was perfect, except I beginning to feel a bit of eyestrain trying to see everything on my small laptop.  I asked if we could hook up a bigger monitor and actually expected us to take one of the old monitors from our pile of computer parts so that I could see things more clearly.  Instead, Rich went out and bought a brand new SAMSUNG flat-screen- and when I hook my laptop up, I can drag things from screen to screen.  I might be a bit of a dork, but the ability to have two work surfaces for one computer was a little bit exhilarating for me.  It was a cool new toy, incredibly useful, and beyond my expectations.

Let me clarify: you do not need to try and “buy” your team members hard work, but it is a sign of respect and an invitation to make the task their own if you provide them with tools and freedoms necessary to do their job.

A special emphasis is given throughout the book, and here in the office, on priorities. Rich and Ron believe whole-heartedly in the idea of always keeping priorities straight throughout the entrepreneurial roller coaster. Life is not constant, and never will be. But our priorities should be. There will always be something else that we could do, another opportunity or responsibility that can come up, that can cause us to push the important people and things into the background. Often we think it is just temporary, but many times it can become a permanent negligence. Especially in the world of entrepreneurship where so many sacrifices have to be made, it is so important that there are certain things we are never willing to sacrifice. For Rich and Ron, these things include the safety and security of their families, their relationships with their spouses, and very importantly, and frequently neglected in our world today, their relationships with their children. They are both so intimately involved in their family’s lives, and no matter what happens at work, continue to keep those relationships strong.
I learned personally the importance of this concept this last week, as I lost my cousin in a tragic car accident. She was only twenty-two years old, and was returning to Utah after spending Thanksgiving with her family in Seattle. The loss of someone we love seems to always cause us to re-evaluate our lives and our priorities. Seeing a life cut short so unexpectedly has made me reflect on my life, and truly face the fact that I may have neglected relationships, goals, and many things I enjoy. And what do I sacrifice these things for? It seems always to be something that is only temporarily important, but that takes priority. Maybe I don’t see an old friend because I have to study for a test. Or I have put off spending time with my brother and sister because I feel too stressed with work. As I have reflected over the last few days, the most important thing I have realized is that it should not take a loss so great for us to see the important things more clearly. We should not regret that we did not spend more time with someone only after we have lost them.
As Rich and Ron discuss in the book, the goal of entrepreneurship should not just be making money. In life we need to have a drive for the things we do. When we have pure motives for our actions, such as desiring to be successful in order to provide security to our family, or in order to participate in humanitarian causes, our most important relationships will not be sacrificed, because they are the reason we work so hard. The death of someone so close to me will never be easy to understand, but it has helped me to think about my motives for doing the things I put my time into. I have learned how important it is that I commit to keeping my priorities, no matter what comes up. The right priorities shouldn’t just be important when we have time for them to be.