“Hello… My name is Mitch Schneider and I’m a business book junkie!”
If there was a 12-Step Program for people addicted to books on leadership, management or personal development, I sure someone I know wolud feel compelled to take me by the hand and drag me to a meeting and when it was finally my turn to stand up and introduce myself, that’s how I would begin.
I read all the time… sometimes two and three books at a time I can’t help myself. Nor, am I sure I would if I could. Some people read mysteries, some fiction, while others are stuck on historical biographies. Me, I love reading about the human element in business – the psychology of success, the behavioral component of small groups, what it takes to lead and sustain a business from its conception through its maturity, and the difference between pages filled with theory and days filled with the reality of actually having to make things happen.
I generally keep one of the books I’m reading at my desk, another at the shop and hide one in the bathroom cabinet. Yes… the bathroom cabinet! My wife is convince that if was left to design our next house, the Master Bath would at least 10’ X 12’, have really comfortable commode and a hermetically sealed ceiling to floor bookcase!
Interestingly enough, it almost seems as if the books I pull together and the order in which I choose to read them are mysteriously pre-ordained. There is generally a common thread tying them all together: an over-riding theme.
That current thread is the relationship between Beliefs, Purpose and Behavior: relationships that have triggered an epiphany of sorts recently. In fact, it’s what we just finished talking about at the lunch meeting we just concluded at the shop earlier this afternoon.
Like most epiphanies, mine was both profoundly simple and simply profound: What we Believe leads us toward our Purpose, a purpose that should ultimately drive our Behavior in the future – if those beliefs and that sense of purpose is compelling enough.
For example, if you feel this industry could be better somehow… If that’s what you really believe, you share in the responsibility to make them better. And, if that’s the case, your purpose is clear: to leave the industry – the industry we all serve – somehow better than you found it.
Looking back, that’s kind of the way the writing I’ve done over the years has developed. While focusing on what is, I’ve always tried to point out what could be: what we can or could do “better,” with an almost naïve optimism.
I had another epiphany the other day as well, and that was the importance of Relevance in this discussion of Beliefs, Purpose and Behavior. Whatever we do, whatever we believe, must be meaningful – relevant – to everyone involved. This is especially true in a world like ours: a world in which change occurs more quickly and completely every day.
My purpose – the role I’ve chosen for myself – has been to remain relevant: an integral part of your life, a critical component of your ‘support system.’ Especially, with regard to what happens when our two worlds collide.
My pledge to you as I begin this new phase of our relationship with this blog is to do whatever I can to add value to your professional life: to ensure that what I have to say is meaningful in a powerful and positive way and that it remains not only relevant – but, indispensable as well.
My pledge to you is to continue building bridges across the aftermarket: brides that will help you understand my world; bridges that may ultimately help service operators like me, understand yours.
Now, that I’ve finally moved in to the new home I’ve built here at http://mitchschneidersworld.com, I hope you will remain the critically important part of my world you have always been.
There will be lots more content and an ongoing conversation I’m sure you’ll want to remain a part of.
So, stop by. You’re always welcome and I promise to do my best to keep the conversation interesting, meaningful, relevant and maybe even a bit entertaining.
In the meantime, remember: take care, stay well, make money, have fun and don’t do business with anyone you don’t like. Even if you don’t realize it, there is probably a very good reason you don’t like them and you don’t really need to find out what that reason is!
