Bull in a China Shop?

I was a general contractor for years, I owned a custom home and commercial contracting company. 

I did most of the architectural design. Approximately 6 of the homes I built per year made national magazines of which I was very proud and focused about my business. 

I was the sole owner the company with about 160 to 170 employees. We built homes, schools, banks, hotels, and other custom projects. 

I also had a log home dealership and exclusive territory with the largest log home company in the world. This was a major business of itself, generating business from magazines, trade shows, billboards and websites. 

Enjoying network marketing wasn’t just a hobby with me either. I was building teams around the world while managing several businesses. 

I had found that in those days, I may have been demanding, stern and brash at times, with everything depending on me to direct it and the buck always stopped on my shoulders regardless whatever happened. 

I drudged through several recessions over the years, however I could see the recession of 2008 coming fast and I knew it wasn’t going to be a normal recession. I decided to shut down the operation of general contracting and home construction altogether. I didn’t want to ride that one out. 

It cost me a lot to shut that all down and for at least another year I backed every project with a year warranty no matter what. It was a difficult decision but a smart one at the time. I was one of the very few general contracting companies that didn’t experience bankruptcy in the northeast Atlanta area. 

I knew I had my Networking business in Direct Sales. I had just launched Russia and was focused on Hungary and Germany. My focus was on what needed to be done. 

Construction and direct sales is an entirely different culture. Jeffrey David Evans can attest to the fact of how direct I could be and how I loved my subcontractors but they knew both my nice side and the side that meant business. 

The corporate world or the distributor field of a company is like the China in a China cabinet, and there’s no place for a bucking bull in either. Construction was a different story. 

Isn’t it amazing how we can see how direct and harsh we have had to be in some things in life, maybe not that it was needed but that it was just the culture at times? 

But do we carry that over to friendships, relationships, business environments which it just doesn’t fit exactly? Sure. But what do we do? We adjust and find that discipline to be our best every way we can. 

Sometimes even I have to remind myself that it is easier to attract bees with sugar rather than vinegar. Even when piss & vinegar may test positive in running through our veins. 

I appreciate all those in my life who have trusted me, respected me, worked and sacrificed with me all these years. More importantly I appreciate them for putting up with me. You know I had your back no matter what. 

You know who you are.