Twenty very short stories with life lessons for you.
Ain't No Pockets is for Baby Boomers (who have started to reminisce). It's also for millennials (who are surprised by how much the Boomers have learned in 20 years)… and their children too.
When the Ship Misses the Harbor, It Is Seldom the Harbor’s Fault
I was running a pretty good size sales team at the time. There were probably 250 people on quota around the world. The numbers were getting bigger. We were heading into Q4, and our revenue was back end loaded. I think we did 40% of our business in the last two months of the year.
I was on my way to a meeting with Barry to talk about the forecast. Barry and I worked at IBM and reconnected at a small software company in Seattle. I really didn’t know Barry from IBM. It’s more like I knew about Barry from IBM. He was from Chicago and made an impression on some senior executives. Barry wound up as the executive assistant to the Chairman of IBM, which is an awesome accomplishment. Barry had the polish, the execution skills, and the personality to thrive in a hypercompetitive environment. He has forgotten more about motivation than most sales managers ever knew.
So I sat down with Barry, spreadsheet in hand, ready for any question that may come my way. I was determined to make the number and make an impression on Barry that I was managing the situation. Before his first question and before I had a chance to speak, Barry said, “Bill, here’s the thing about forecasts. When the ship misses the harbor, it is seldom the harbor’s fault.”
He was saying, without any hesitation, don’t miss your forecast. It’s your commitment. If you do, it’ll be your fault, and there will be consequences. He said it in a way that wasn’t threatening. He was as clear as clear can be. I found it motivating, challenging, and exciting.
It’s important to make commitments and then to achieve them. While you’ll never make every single one, the process of thinking through what you would like to accomplish and how and when to get there is what enables you to move forward. If you are comfortable with the status quo, lay back and let it happen.
If you want to move ahead, set goals, make commitments, and do whatever it takes to achieve them.