When the (*&%## Bubbles Up

The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 57 Degrees

Last night, around 9:45 p.m., I had the distinct pleasure of getting to take apart my kitchen sink to clear a clog in the drain. It could have waited until the morning except I had to run the dishwasher.

You do NOT want to see what happens in a family of 9 when the dishwasher (human or electric) quits working. It gets really serious, REALLY quick.

My son had taken the liberty of pouring down the garbage disposal a HUGE amount of used loose leaf tea. That is what screwed everything up.

Why any child needs to be brewing loose leaf tea that late in the evening is beyond me. But we try to be patient with our little human spirits in an effort to make them completely uncontrollable by the system. It’s working, by the way. So I’m not going to mess that up.

To be clear, it took me a while to accept that the sink had to come apart. Believe me, I tried everything else FIRST.

But the tea just kept bubbling up in the drain like it was laughing at me.

Now there’s something you should know about me. Imagine the most capable, talented, savvy handyman you possibly can. Then go to the extreme OPPOSITE end of the spectrum and that’s where you’ll find me. No tools, no supplies, no interest whatsoever.

As I think back to this little late night party I was having in the kitchen, it reminds me of the *&^% that bubbles up in our own being that can REALLY get in the way of having a great business.

It took me a while to realize you can’t really separate the success of a business from the success of the person or people in the business. In other words, all the junk you’re not willing to deal with in your own life eventually finds a way to manifest itself in some form throughout your business.

This should not be a surprise, but sometimes it feels that way.

So really, if you want the best business you can have, you have to be the best version of you that you can be.

You can choose to ignore this forever and be just fine… at least that’s how you’ll look on the outside: “fine.”

But there’s an enormous reward for wading into the muck and getting it all sorted out.

What do you get for going to all of this trouble? You only find out after it’s over.