Designing Strategies: The Blog
Business Lessons from ‘The Miracle Pie’
We have a log cabin in northwest Pennsylvania, about a three hour drive from home. It has been a work in progress for quite some time now and still not completed. But, my husband tries to get up there weekends or takes some vacation time to drive up and continue work on his project. Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, he decided to sleep off his holiday feasting and hit the road for PA early Friday morning for a few days of work on the cabin.
True to his word, our SUV, the family 4×4 ‘truck’, pulled into our driveway just before 8pm Sunday evening. I heard him down in the garage unloading his tools and ‘bag-o-dirty-laundy’ before heading upstairs. Walking into the family room, he held out a somewhat beat up paper plate covered with crinkled aluminum foil. When I asked what he had, he grinned and said: “Miracle pie.” Thinking I misunderstood, I asked him to repeat himself, and again, same answer: “Miracle pie.”
I assumed there was a ’miracle’ because pie usually doesn’t make it home to be shared with me or anyone else. My husband has never met a pie he didn’t like. “Nope,” he said, “it actually is a miracle pie because when I loaded up for the drive home, I set it on the roof of the car as I leaned in to put my travel mug in the cup holder.” Once on the road and just far enough out to not want to turn around, he realized the pie wasn’t on the seat beside him. He moaned a bit, assuming he’d left it on the counter back at the cabin.
So, continuing his trip home, driving back roads of PA and the Interstate all the way, he even stopped once for gas. You’ve probably guessed by now that the pie managed to hang on the entire way home — on the roof of the car — through hills and valleys at speeds up to ‘at least’ 65 miles per hour. It managed to get itself wedged under the side bar of the luggage rack and hung in there the entire trip home.
“Stick-to-it-iveness”, plain and simple. That brave little piece of pie could have quit at any time, felt ignored and unloved and just slid off to the side of the road to become dinner for wildlife out there in hunting country. But, no, it found a niche, wedged itself in and hung on through peaks and valleys of the road until it arrived safely at it’s destination: a clean plate at our home. Yes, I ate that piece of pie, but with a high level of respect for it and it’s determination to hang in there even when things got tough. Hope you are doing the same with your business. Select your niche, then put all your focus and efforts toward reaching your goals. Luck? Perhaps, but what business doesn’t need a bit of luck every now and then to get through tough times?
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A bit about Terri Maurer…
One of the best things to ever happen to me in my professional life was my time serving in leadership for ASID. Over the years I met designers from all over the country – the world, actually – many who became very good friends. One of those good friends is Jim Marstiller, FASID from Texas. As is the ASID routine, following a year serving as national president, a roast is held where fellow board members, friends and colleagues gather to remind you of all your shortcomings. Some are kind; others enjoy sharing experiences you tried so hard to forget.
At my roast, Jim attended and presented me with a special framed piece of custom ‘art’. It was clear to see that he spent a lot of time trying to come up with something he felt would best describe my ‘essence’. The image above was Jim’s solution. I have to admit, his vision was spot on. Jim deemed me the Queen of Whys based of my habit of continually asking questions, digging down to uncover all the necessary answers upon which to base my solutions and actions.
Hopefully, by staying on track with my questioning approach, you will find topics here to help you discover your own challenges and break down barriers that hinder your progress. Please use the RSS feed above to bring blog updates to your desktop on a regular basis. I hope you will use this site and blog as a valued resource for your business.
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