When a service is done well and provides value in the background, it can be easy for clients to see a monthly invoice and be caught off guard. They're left to wonder why they are paying any amount of money to a company that, to them, seems to provide nominal value.
When situations like this arise it tells us, as service providers, that we are not communicating our value in the most effective way. We believe if clients were reminded what they're paying for then they would happily sign a check. You're in charge of discovering the best way to communicate your value in an effective and systematic way.
The other side of the coin is that if we forget about the value we know we can provide, just like a client may not see our value, it can feel like we're not making a difference. Discouragement is swift to show its face in those situations.
"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." -Winston Churchill
Foojee has been around for more than seven years and we're as strong as ever, but getting to where we are has not been without our share of failures along the way. We've lost clients and failed to seal big deals, but we've also been able to remain optimistic and push forward anyway.
You are your own worst critic. You have superior benchmarks in your mind for everything you do, but the disconnect for most of us is that our skill sets are almost never up to par with our own standards.
The good news? That's okay!
We're all hard on ourselves, but no one starts out being great at anything. We all start from ground zero. It's okay to accept that you're not there yet and ahve to continue developing skills in order to reach your own standards.
Have we mentioned that we often don't hire based on technical ability? Most of our hires happen because the people fit our culture and vision. Technical skills can be learned. Not everyone joins our staff as certified technicians, but that's okay because we can teach and coach those skills. Being bad at something is only temporary if we'll put in the effort and time to learn and get better.
Even once you become good at something it can take years before you're great at it. Lebron James entered the NBA in 2003 and was touted as being the next Michael Jordan. He didn't win his first NBA championship until 9 years later in 2012. Nine years of learning, growing, and pushing himself to be better before he was able to claim a championship.
It takes a lot of hard work and a much of that time can be spent feeling like nothing is working. It can feel like everything you're doing is all for nothing. But that's not the case. There is always a way to learn or grow from our experiences. In those moments when we feel hopeless, it's even more important that we show up and try again tomorrow. It is hard and even mind numbing, but we've got to continue to show up. Breakthroughs never come easy and are often closer than they appear.
At Foojee, we try to set ourselves apart by always keeping the big picture in mind. We want to thrive in the day-to-day grind without allowing it to bog us down and make us forget why we do what we do in the first place. Our big picture is focusing on serving people and helping simplify their lives. With that vision in mind, everything else becomes a little easier.