I have had the same group of employees now for five plus years.  They have grown and found the courage to make decisions on their own and provide the service and quality I expect.  They strive to make the final product something that they and I can be proud of.  They have continued to work during this pandemic with the blessing of the owners rep.  Our current work is in a large warehouse where we only see two to three additional people per shift.  With only three or four employees this is under the maximum of ten people gathering.  They continue to exceed my expectations and are pushing me to help them do more.  This is what I had envisioned when I delegated more of these responsibilities to them.  Great work Martin, Jordan, Josh, and Juan.

On another note, I want to share my experience of the earth quake that occurred on 18 March 2020.  I was sitting in the control room of the steam plant of my other job.  We had just started the day at seven with an opening prayer and one of the supervisors was going to share some thoughts from a person stranded in Germany during the pandemic.  When all of the sudden it sounded and felt like a freight train was getting closer and closer to the plant.  Our chairs started moving and bouncing and then the plant went dark.  It is an eerie feeling to be in the plant when it is all quite.  Usually the sound of the boiler feed pumps wining, the blower motors on the boilers and the steam rushing away from the plant make a noise that is the norm.  Even in the control room you can hear the sounds and while operating the plant, you use the sound to tell if anything is a miss.

When the plant went dark it took about thirty seconds for the emergency generator to power on.  My other supervisor went to the basement to reset the natural gas earth quake valve.  Once he did that we waited for a while to see if we would have another big aftershock.  We felt lots of aftershocks in the waiting time, but after about forty-five minutes we fired the plant back online.  The operator only took the system pressure up to fifty PSI so we could walk the whole system to see if there was any damage.  By eleven my watch went off telling me I had reached my ten thousand steps for the day.  After we had walked the whole system the operator continued to pressure up the system to the usual one hundred and twenty PSI.  Then, we rented vehicles from motor pool and started out to the other buildings under our stewardship to get them back up and running.

I picked up my tools from the plant and headed out to a clothing manufacturing building.  We have four boilers there, two high pressure (120 PSI) and two low pressure (10 PSI).  They were still quite warm so I tried to fire them up.  The low pressure gas valves would not reset so I realized I needed to reset the earth quake valves near the gas meter.  I took my set of Allen keys with me and found it difficult to reset the valves.  Someone had painted the valves and the uneven pressure in the line made it difficult.  I had to partially open the valves until the pressure equalized and then the valves would reset.  Once I had the gas back in the lines the low pressure valves reset and I fired the boilers back up.  I walked the system to make sure there were no issues.  As I walked I saw near a thousand ceiling tiles on the floor as the earth quake had jarred them all loose.  This was surprising to me as this building had gone through a seismic upgrade just a few years ago.  The only injury I heard about in that building was a man who stabbed himself with a needle during the quake, while repairing a knitting machine.

After I felt confident that building was good, I went to a thrift store sorting center to get that boiler running.  This was an old building of at least seventy years and had lots of single pain windows around it.   I walked in the building about fifty yards and could hear the fire panel making its annoying sound.  Then, I started feeling the ground move beneath my feet so I run as fast as a 270 pound man can, for the door.  I reached the truck that was still shaking and backed it away from the building.  While running I could hear structural steel crashing behind me.  It freaked me out.  Part of the reason I was so scared was the rumors circulating about that there would be an aftershock of 7.0 or higher that day.  Supposedly predicted by FEMA.  I have since learned that they cannot predict earthquakes or aftershocks at all.  However, in that moment I was scared.  This aftershock registered as a 4.6 where the initial earthquake had registered as a 5.7.  I called my supervisor and he told me to not worry about it but that before I left I should contact the building manager.  The building manager felt confident the building was structurally sound and needed to boiler running ASAP as the building had many broken windows.

Walking gingerly and apprehensively I made it into the boiler room and tried to open the garage door that led out to the gas meter.  The door, however, was disconnected from the motor and I had to raise it by hand.  I went to the earthquake valve and reset it, following the same procedure as the last time, letting the pressure balance before resetting fully.  This boiler too, was still hot so I fired it back up.  I waited about twenty minutes for the pressure to build in the system before I walked the building looking for damaged piping.  In my walk I saw the steel that had fallen to the floor.

This is about five feet long and three inches tall c-channel.  I never showed the picture to the building manager but it proved I wasn’t hearing things.

I finished walking this building and went back the the manufacturing building to reset the earthquake valves again as the big aftershock had tripped them off again.

I then, went to another building to get the boilers running there.  Their valve was tripped off and I reset it.  Nothing too eventful there while I got those boilers running.  Once I returned home I got a phone call that I had forgotten to do some things at the first and last buildings.  Unbeknownst to me the two buildings cafeterias had standing pilots on there cook tops.  The smell of gas was quite profound.  Luckily there was enough ventilation that the plumbers re-lit the pilots and everything was good.

When I finally made it home I had walked about sixteen thousand steps, but that was not why I was so exhausted.  From seven-o-nine when the first quake happened to five PM when I made it home my nerves were on edge.   I had eaten some cheese and grape tomatoes for lunch, but was so tired when I got home that I felt like crawling into bed a dying.  I was grateful I made it home and my whole family was there and safe.  What a day!!!

 

This week I have been working on a theater set for my daughter’s high school.  I have been donating some things, mostly time to the cause.  Having my business has given me the ability to donate.  The business has also given me contacts to help with rentals and other things we have needed to build, and hang the set.  The thing I love about helping with the set building is it gives me the opportunity to be creative.  We were installing a piece of scenery that will go up and down in the show and we needed to have the counter-weight the same as the set piece so a student could make the changes.  We needed another two hundred and twenty five pounds to equal it out.  I borrowed two, one hundred pound dumb bells but then needed to figure a way to suspend them from a cable and still be able to attach the other weights.  I had some angle iron at home and cut and welded them together in such a way that the cable attaches to a vertical angle that is centered.  I then took and made a piece resembling an “H” and closed the ends in so that the vertical was welded to the center of the “H” and the dumb bells were caught by the two end pieces.  To add the weights we already had, I wrapped a chain around the structure parallel to the long sides of the “H” and when pulled tight prevented the dumb bells from lifting off of the frame.  The chain also served the purpose of an attachment point for the other weights.  It worked seamlessly.

I am still trying to decide what to do for my $100 challenge for my business class.  I think I am going to try and market my baked beans.  If I get pre-orders I will not have to have product until I actually start selling and I will be able to have more revenue to work with and little to no overhead.  I will start with selling to people who have already sampled my beans.  This will give me a great base to start this challenge.

Lessons learned

Hundred Pound dumb bells are very heavy.

Lessons yet to learn

I don’t have to do everything.  The students that were helping were amazing.

This week I am finishing up with my entrepreneurship class.  I felt when I started that the class was beneath me, yet I also knew that in everything there is a chance to glean some knowledge.  Looking back, I have thought much about how I run my business and what I could do to improve it.  One thing that this class has taught me is the need to have a vision and to set goals according to that vision.  Each week I was challenged to come up with ideas, personal guard rails, bucket list, personal constitution, and other things that caused me to not only reflect on my business, but my life as well.  I was also asked to read three books during the course.  I really enjoyed “The Ministry of Business.”  This book helped me to fell comfortable with how I had done things.  I always wanted to be the same person every where I went.  Whether at church, working for someone else or doing my own things, I longed to be me.  I have changed me as I have grown older and gained some wisdom.  This is evident in how things don’t bother me like they used too.  I felt I always had to be right, even when I know I am it is ok to let others discover things on their own.  I am training someone to replace me at my current position with the LDS church.  I do not feel that I am completely trained myself, but I am moving to a different job.  When I was trained just a few months ago I felt hampered in my progress because those who were training me would not allow me to do anything.  Some of them would only let me watch.  Seeing how someone does a certain task is a good thing once or twice but having watched it done dozens of times made it so I felt I would never figure out how to do it myself.  Knowing this I completely let my trainee do it all.  I had to express trust in him that he would do the tasks correctly and report back if he had a problem.  He did this and exceeded my expectations.

Lesson Learned

When someone is given the opportunity to step up, they will.

Lesson yet to be Learned

How to train other trainers to trust those with whom they are training. (This bring the greatest amount of growth to the trainee.)

Other things that this class has taught me is the thought to be a finisher.  I liked the last talk we read in this lesson by President Monson.  He encouraged us to be finishers that we may win the eternal prize.  I remember as a junior in high school I had been cutting weight to wrestle in a certain division.  (My goals had not been set high enough.)  I made it to the state tournament, but I was not a finisher at that point.  I was more concerned about not cutting any more weight, so I did not do my best in the wrestling matches.   Whether the outcome would have changed or not I cannot say, but I did could have been so much more.

Anyone wanting to go into business themselves I say do it.  Make sure you have done your due diligence to be prepared and then jump in.  I am so glad I did.  I have been blessed immensely by the relationships I have made and the people, including myself, that the extra money has provided.  The icing on the cake is that the business I am in is service oriented, meaning I help people and get paid for it.

Love what you do.

Work hard.

Go for it, you can do anything with God.

This last week I went on Pioneer Trek with the youth from my stake.  You may be wondering why I would bring this up in an entrepreneurial blog.  Well, I oversaw all of the food for the trek.  We were scheduled to feed 250 people and I arranged for all the food in which we transported to a remote location on the west side of Utah lake.  My assistant for the food hurt himself so on Monday he told me he was not going to be able to go.  It was left to my wife and I to head it all up.  I am grateful that she is so patient with me.  I had not planned things out as far as I thought I had.  She went through all my menus and helped me realize we needed to add a side dish to one of the dinners.  This was Tuesday night.  So, Wednesday she woke up early and for the next six hours made Spanish rice.  We ended up not needing that much.

 

(Lesson Learned, heed the advice of those with whom you counsel with.)

 

Back to the story.  When I learned about not having enough help I started calling some of my close friends and family.  I first called my dad being in a panic.  He said he could come and help and the more I talked with him the more I realized if I needed to use people from our stake first.  I next called a great friend who had been there for me in the past when I need help processing a deer.  He, being bishop in our stake, had a guy in his ward who expressed interest in going.  But, being so close to when we were leaving he could not go.  My bishop friend said that he was not planning on coming but would love to come help me.  I was so grateful for his help.  He arranged to bring an enclosed trailer and hauled it with most of the food.  Not only that, but he kept working on whatever was needed.  We talked and worked, laughed and worked, and sat and talked when we had a second to take a break.

 

(Lesson learned, have friends you can rely on at any time.)

 

To sum up Trek, we had more food than the kids and adults could eat.  I had way more help than I could keep busy, because everyone there was so willing to do anything I asked.  In fact, I spent more time directing than doing the work.  (Entrepreneurship in action.)  I was praised for how well the food went, yet all I did was direct.

 

One other thought about the help.  The very first meal we had there required the warming of sloppy Joe meat.  We opened and warmed every package of meat.  We had tons left over.  So, when it came to the warming of Taco meat for a different meal the help wanted me to scale back.  I listened, and we scaled back and only cooked about 2/3 of the stuff I had brought.  I should have listened a little more careful and only warmed half as we threw a good portion away.  (Refer to the first lesson learned in this article.)

 

(Lesson yet to learn, do not fear the unknown.)

 

In conclusion, Trek taught me that even when it seemed like I would be doing all the cooking for 200 people with only my wife’s help, there is always help around when it is needed.  People were pushed to help and be useful.  Whether it was the Spirit that pushed them or just a sense of brotherhood, they pulled together and made eating, something those walking the Trek looked forward too.  What a great experience for everyone involved to grow.

I had some interesting thoughts this last week as I pondered some of the things presented in my class.  One thought was, “why do I have to think like everyone else?”  If I am my own person than why would I want to think and act like everyone else?  I thought that I was independent and had my own ideas.  I have been told I am so stubborn that if something was not my idea I would never go along with it.  While this may be true I find that I like being in the status quo.  Doing things because that is how everyone else is doing it.

Another thought that was brought up is why would I go into business if not just for the profit.   Initially I went into business to make money.  I received my contractor’s license to secure insurance to make sure the money I had stayed mine.  So, why do I stay in business now?  This question has two answers.  First, is I still need the money to maintain my household expenditures. Could we cut back and not need the business income?  Of course.  This is not why I stay in business though.  The biggest reason I stay in business and why I chose plumbing as a way to make money is because of the nature of the work.  When I go to someone’s house to work on something that is broken it is called, “a service call.”  This describes how I feel my business is contributing to society.  These problems are fixed through service.  I do get paid for them but the satisfaction I enjoy most of all is the smile on my customers faces when I am finished, and the problem has been fixed.  The other reason I continue to have my business is the people the business has helped.  I know I have mentioned this before.  To date, JJ Claymore Inc. has employed in one way or another ten people plus me.  This was work that they would not have had the opportunity to have had the business not been going.  One of my employees was only doing the job to save up some money to start a family and get married.  He enjoyed the work so much that he decided to become a plumber as well.

I don’t think I will ever know the complete impact the business has had on other people, but I have had many opportunities to give back.  I strive to make this part of who I am and thus it is part of the business.  I am truly grateful to have been blessed with such opportunities.

Lessons Learned

Having a business is more than about me.

Lessons yet to be learned

What greater purpose will my business be for?

I feel that my attitude towards money has definitely changed over the years.  My wife struggles with spending.  I struggle with saving.  Good thing we are married to work together on this.  Generally, my attitude is that we spend what we need too and then we will make more.  I don’t stress too much.  My wife commented the other day on how I have been able to keep my job over the years.  Her dad seemed to lose his job every couple of years, even though he was a very good accountant.  I have never lost a job but have been able to change jobs when I felt the timing to do so came about.  I also have been blessed to have created a business that makes money for my family without me having to do the day to day tasks.  This has also made my attitude towards money more positive.

Money is not the root of evil.  Though humans have a hard time doing productive things with it when then get too much of it.

One of the things I learned this week is how important the idea of “the zone” is to me.  I find that I get “in the zone” far more easily than I probably should.  I think this has to do with my days wrestling.  I learned to have tunnel vision so I could focus only on the task at hand and not get distracted by the crowd or anything else that was going on around the wrestling mat.  Now when I am working on a project I struggle to even communicate with co-workers when it is challenging and requires my full attention.

One lesson yet to learn is how to avoid “tunnel vision” in routine things that do not require my full attention.  TV is an example.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow entrepreneur.   He is in the flooring industry and has made a successful life for him and his family.  He has also expanded to the point that he needed help to reach all of the potential clients.  I learned a great deal as he spoke about how he went from graduating from college to running his own business.  The most comical thing is that the only reason he went into flooring is because he could be off work by six every night.  His struggles have come as a result of doing good in his business.  One was needing forklifts, and two was never able to not be working.  Having his business in his home to start with and cell phones, created a challenge to have down time.  I know with my business I have made myself always available to my customers to hopefully have more customers.  This has it’s problems.

Some lessons learned

The end goal is not always visible.  Keep pushing and you will reach it.  And, it is okay to have your goals change as you change.

Lessons not yet learned.

This one is a little more personal.  I had a dream where my son, who currently resides out of the country, passed away.  It was scary and traumatic as I seldom, if ever, remember my dreams.  It bothered me so greatly that I sought out some counseling from my Bishop.  He did a great job of listening and then told me his thoughts.  He reassured me my son was fine, then he helped me understand what the dream was about.  He said that it was probably my mind realizing that my son was no longer mine.  My stewardship over him was drawing to a close as he is maturing and going on with his life.  Although this was a tough pill to swallow I was grateful that he told me this.  It made perfect sense and I have felt relief ever sense.

The lesson not yet learned is to trust in the Lord.  He is in charge.

This week I read a story about a man named Rowan who had the reputation that if it had to be done he was the man to do it.  This person did not ask questions about the task he simply did it.  This reminded me of my youth when my parents would ask me to do the dishes.  I would find myself whining and complaining about the task and would expend for more energy in the “why me” than in doing the actual job.  I recall my parents asking if I could, just once, do the job the first time without complaining or finding reasons why I should not have to do it.

I really enjoyed this story and wondered if I am that guy now.  One of my employees has become that guy.  When he first hired on we were tasked with many different jobs for a manufacturing company.  The employee struggled and wondered “why him” when ever he had just finished a project and then had to tear it out and do it a different way because the company who employed us had changed their mind.  His thought process changed when he realized that when ever the company changed their mind that was more money we as a company could make.  At first having to tear out quality work he had just finished was demoralizing, now he is elated to have more work.

Lessons learned

Employees can become a person who executes without supervision

Lesson yet to learn

Becoming someone who executes in all aspects of life

This last week was quite an interesting one.  I was able to spend the week with the youngest of my four boys in a place called Dewey, Utah on the Colorado River.  This is about thirty miles up river from the town of Moab, Utah.  Getting there took some strength as I had just finished a twelve hour night shift before driving the five or so hours to get to this place.  Once there the temperature was in the high nineties and sleeping in a tent meant for a sweaty experience.  The trial did not end with the heat.  The next day in route to a fishing spot in the much cooler mountains of the Manti-La Sal range my tire pressure light came on in my truck.  The tire appeared to be fine so after a day of fishing, where my youngest caught more fish than he had ever caught in his thirteen year life put together, we made our way into Moab to get the tire fixed.  I called ahead to see if the tire shop would be able to fix the tire and to see what time they closed.  Luckily I followed the inspiration to call ahead because they were closing in only a few minutes.  The problem with the tire was a stick had gone through the side wall of the tire.  My understanding was that this usually meant a new tire.  Not only were they able to fix the tire with a side wall patch but they did not charge me any.  The person who fixed the tire also re-calibrated the tires so the correct tire would show on the console when it had a problem.  They were given a monetary tip that exceeded what wages they would have received.  Later that night I had some online work to do so I opened my computer and tried to log on to the Wifi at MacDonald’s only to find that my computer would not turn on.  I charged it and still nothing.  I had a group quiz due that night so between my two cell phones and a very patient group I was able to get everything turned in on time.  Having another group quiz on Thursday I went into town and was able to use the public library to finish all of my homework and things for that.  I finished everything with my group that night and had just bought some ice to return the thirty miles back to camp.  I went to start the truck and all I got was clicking.  A nice lady was nearby and asked if I need a jump.  I had cables in my truck but when I went to pull them out they hung up on some other things in the back and the large alligator clamp end pulled off of the wire.  I now had to fix the cable end before I could jump the truck.  Fortunately the lady was patient and allowed me to make the repair and jumped my truck.  The next morning we woke early to go fishing and needed a jump start again.  I was able to catch a few fish but my son kept pace with me which I was happy about.  After a few hours of fishing we got another jump start and went into town to get a battery.  While loading the battery and retrieving tools out of the tool box I noticed another tire had a tear in the side wall.  It must have happened the day before when I did some off-roading.  We were able to make it home with the tear.

When considering the readings and videos I studied this week about holding on it will get better, I 100% agree.  The boys at camp had a great time.  They earned their merit badges and I learned to persevere.

Lessons learned

life will always bring challenges, hold on it will always get better

Lessons not learned

completely have trust in the Lord, He is in charge

This week has been both trying and full of relief.  One of my strongest and first business mentors passed away last week.  I dabbled in the business world by doing odd jobs to gain extra money but Mike Hammond gave me the courage and the strength to do more than just make a little extra money.  He was CPA and I think most of his motivation was to help me not have to pay so much taxes on this extra income.  When I had my best year back in 2013, he could not believe the amount of revenue I had been able to generate given my humble beginnings.  I met Mike while I was courting his daughter.  I had only met him once up to this point but was ready to ask for his daughters hand in marriage.  This was when I learned how much he cared about the people in his life.  He told me “No.”  He had felt that from a business standpoint his daughter did not  have enough knowledge to pursue marriage.  He said that she need more time to get an education.  The irony in this is I believe Mike new “the formula” that I have talked about before, though he didn’t refer to it as that.  Part of being happy is to be able to provide for your families needs, including knowledge.  His daughter wanted to start a family right away after she got married so her schooling would go by the way side.  Mike wanted her to be the best she could be.  After a few more months we decided to get married.  I didn’t ask again.  He was right.  My wife did not finish school.  When we were first married I had made some poor financial decisions that led us to move in with them.  I cherished those days of learning from Mike about business and life.  He had multiple degrees from at least three universities and was always willing to share, yet was content in letting me learn some things the hard way.  I will truly miss him.  He gave me more than I could ever repay him in a hundred lifetimes.  Thank Mike.

Lessons Learned

Do all you can to be “Like Mike”  Hammond.

Lessons yet to learn

The patience of Mike.  He was amazing.