Light bulb moments occur at the strangest times.
I talked in a previous blog about a bar owner who changed his customers’ wine buying habits for the benefit of everyone and was considered pretty shrewd. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was doing something wrong when it came to food.
The owner made a commitment to having a lunch menu when he purchased the business. It was popular and he saw a lot of his evening customers during the day. Still when asked what he disliked the most about buying the bar he said “Lunch”. After a great deal of prodding by one of his friends familiar with the business he agreed to get out a calculator and find out if it was really worth the hassles.
He discovered he netted $15 a week for Monday – Friday lunches. That is not a typo. Three dollars a day.
State law requires that food is available in a bar. But it doesn’t mean a changing daily menu, table service and all the overhead that goes with it. So he is going to order food from a supplier that can be frozen and microwaved. Lunches will be phased out slowly because he feels an obligation to his employees but Monday lunch will stop immediately.
Ever blindly gone forward because of a previous commitment? Ever kept a commitment that hurt you because it was better for the employees or you thought you might be considered a failure? Ever felt the loss when a bank or vendor or customer broke its commitment to you?
Most of us have had the virtue of commitment drilled into us since we were small. It can be tremendously hard to overcome even when it hurts us. The good news is once you decide to make the hurting stop it happens right away. The better news? You’ll recognize the problem much faster next time and may even be able to avoid it altogether.