In my early teens, I started a company called “Alpha Tech”. Really it was just my way of working on computers for friends and family. I’d write up quotes, do the work, submit invoices, and move on to the next.
I can’t remember if it was in parallel or later on, I eventually worked for my best friend’s dad at a Car lot where I’d organize cars, service them, etc…. I worked daily with the owner.
Later I started working for another man from our church who ran his own company. He traveled around the southeast installing GPS systems on Fleet Vehicles. Again, firsthand exposure to what it meant to work for an owner.
In college, I worked at a small manufacturing company, and I reported straight to the CEO as their IT & Inventory Manager.
In more recent history, for a period of ~7 years, I’d do consulting work on the side in software development & project management.
Fast forward to now and now I’ve been here at CloudFit for 5 ½ years and have worked directly for one of the co-founders that entire time.
Nutshell… a lot of exposure to various Owners.
One thing I’ve seen common across all of those is that owners tend to carry things differently. The buck stops with them, and they know it.
Have you ever thought about what it means to own something? A car… home… business…
Years ago, I was watching one of those “Hotel Rescue” shows where some entrepreneur comes in and helps them flip the trajectory of the hotel from “We’re going out of business” to a renewed and viable business (all in just 30minutes… Amazing!)
On one of the episodes, there is this specific scene where the entrepreneur pulls into the parking lot, gets out of his car, and is heading into the main entrance.
While he’s doing that he’s voicing over his observations. He pre-empts the walk with “What I look for in a hotel manager is… an ownership mindset”. He goes on to say things like… I want a manager who:
- doesn’t walk past the piece of trash in the parking lot.
- who notices the handicap sign that needs a touch-up
- sees when the welcome mat isn’t aligned right and fixes it
- sees that there are cobwebs in the corner of the entry and cleans them up
- …
He went on to say that he wants a hotel manager that takes pride in their work, their company, and sees it as their own.
For some reason that specific scene has stuck with me for years… so much so that I see it in my peers and in many people on my team.
It’s obvious once you notice it.
That person who…
- brings in the trash cans from the street and never says anything.
- helps clean-up after team events.
- jumps into an incident bridge to see if any help is needed.
- calls to check-in on you because they know you well enough to see anomalies.
- regularly is willing to help on a project or new initiative.
- …
An Ownership Mindset does not have to mean that you own a percentage of that company, that car, that house. It means you have enough pride in yourself and love for those around you to try and make things better. You both see & embrace the opportunity to improve whatever you put your hands on. Not make it perfect, just better.
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