By Rick Myers, Team Horner / rmyers@teamhorner.com
Recently I had the pleasure of teaching the FPPS class for one of my customers, and they had 14 of their service techs, managers, and office staff there. The experience level in the room ranged from people just new to our industry to service techs who have been in the field for close to 20 years. However, they all had one thing in common, their desire to learn more about our industry.
Why is this so important, especially for some people who have been around so long? They either know everything, or at least they believe they know how to perform their jobs at a high degree of competence. The answer is of course that learning is a lifelong process, and the minute we believe we know everything or don’t need to learn anymore is the exact same minute we are now behind.
In today’s pool industry, technology moves so rapidly that the total extent of your learning may just be to keep up with changing technology. Products change, codes and laws change, and even the way we have become accustomed to doing business changes. If you do not keep up, you will be lost in the shuffle and be just another company, just another salesperson or just another pool technician or service company. However, the good news is that knowledge is available everywhere, in most cases it is at low cost, or no cost. In many cases if the person you are getting your knowledge from is as invested as you are in personal and company growth, they will learn as much as you do and they are the teacher! I know whenever I teach a FPPS class, I always learn about some new product or new way of working that is better than the way I thought before.
We all belong to a great organization that promotes knowledge and learning as one of its key mission statements. From the annual trade show which has three days of education, to each chapter offering meetings throughout the year that are about some type of business help or product knowledge, to our distributor members that offer counter days on a regular basis, it is almost difficult not to find some type of personal enrichment learning or class going on weekly. And to top it off, we can read and study on our own to help ourselves.
If you are truly invested in yourself, your employer, and your industry you will always have in your heart a desire and a thirst to learn more. If you have that, success is not about knowing the right people or being in the right place at the right time, but success will find you. It has been said that if you are the smartest person in your group, then you need to find a new group. I challenge each and every one of you to continue to grow, and success and self-pride will follow.
