What is your measure of a successful year?

This time of year is full of articles and emails of well wishes and reflections on what was a “successful” year. Upon reflection my 2018, my role is to report all the key milestones that were achieved through the year not as a boast, or personal pat on the back, but more so that all the hundreds of people involved in achieving these milestones realise the impact they have made.

For all the people in my community, you will know that I have been very quiet on the online world this past year. I have hardly posted any articles and basically it is because this year was the year I had to turn talk into action. Before the year is out I wanted to give you all a little snapshot of the year that was.

• Founding members from all around the world sat down to discuss the concept of Resin Flooring International (RFI) and how they each could contribute toward the professionalisation of the resin flooring industry on a global scale.
• The RFI framework enabled the first Resin Flooring Qualification to be drafted and in November the Australian Federal Government endorsed the qualification.
• The Australian Resin Flooring industry now has an associate member on the Australian Flooring Industry Alliance (AFIA) alongside the various associations representing carpet, vinyl, timber and tiles.
• The introduction of a 100% solids 1K moisture cure urethane (Ezypoly) was not only a commercial success but it has changed the traditional mindsets when it comes to urethane topcoats.
• A specialist resin flooring app, FLOORTick, also had its soft launch this month. What seemed like an easy project 6 years ago, proved to us that the resin flooring sector has very unique set of characteristics. To develop an app was a painful, costly and time consuming exercise but now having an app that walks a contractor through each step of the process and captures, photos, batch codes, client signatures, uploads, etc empowers the contractor and provides genuine peace of mind.
• Finally one of my proudest moments was the official launch of Resin Flooring Club in Australia. Perhaps the best way I can explain the club is to share with you a reply I sent to one of the interested contractors.

“For nearly  20 years I have spoken to thousands of contractors nationally and internationally and this industry is isolated and even moreso being a business owner in this industry is a lonely place. Instagram is a great place to see what people want you to see. My experience has been that people only post their best and yet what we all want to learn from is the things that did not work. I hope that people embrace the opportunity to have a platform where they can leave the "ego" at the door and communicate openly and honestly for the good of all. The initiative to have a social aspect to the club came from the recent death of a mate in the US. Toddy was a selfless guy, a lot of fun to be around. Very skilled at resin floors and a worth ethic that would embarrass many seasoned applicators in our industry. Yet in his mind he lived a lonely life. We need to be able to talk to like minded guys in our industry for we are all riding the same rollercoaster of life. I hope that makes sense.

That is all a bit deep but I felt it was important to share some of the personal motivation behind the time, effort and money that has gone into this initiative that we started four and a half years ago. The Club was set up as part of our "professionalize the Resin Flooring industry" philosophy and when we started communicating this message to over 500 contractors around the country, various industry suppliers started to ask how they could get involved. Yes you will know some of them but there is discussion with plenty that you wont know including some specialist resin flooring tools from the US that simply aren't available here.

I hope you join because you can see how you can contribute in your way to improving our industry. The benefits from joining will be tangible (discounts and knowledge) but I strongly believe there will be many intangible benefits as I have already seen from the guys that have committed to the idea long before it was official. “

2018 was the year where so many things came together and it feels great to have played my part in some many key changes to our industry. Back to my original point, this is not a personal boast but more a show of appreciation of the hundreds of people that helped make these things happen.

To start with … all that we have achieved in the present day stems from the pioneers in our industry. I affectionately call them the “silverbacks”. They are the people that have been in our industry for 20, 30 or more years and had to learn everything the hard way. The silverbacks are the ones that have given far more to the industry than the compensation they have received from their work. We are indebted to the silverbacks of our industry and I hope we can find ways to keep them in our industry. We truly ride “on the shoulders of these giants”.

Then there are all the people that bought into the ambitious ideas, and in the early days they were nothing more than dreams and ideas, but with their help, guidance and commitment these ideas have become a reality. The combined efforts of all these people has already started to make permanent changes to the industry. Changes that will outlast any short term market fluctuations and trends. The impact they have made will impact generations into the future and I hope these contributors realise that in 20 years time they too will form the “shoulders of giants” that the industry evolved from.

Then there are the bedrock support people behind us all. These people don’t ask for acknowledgement and aren’t set to gain anything from the industry changes. Our family, friends and partners enables us to do what we do every day.

None of the milestones would have happened without the LinkedIn community. A worldwide network of like minded people that put up their hand when asked. Your likes show your support, your comments will provide invaluable feedback and your shares will continue to bring the right people into the community.

So before you close out 2018, spend a moment and dare to dream. Allow your ambitious dreams and ideas to take shape without restriction or fear of failure and then when 2019 kicks off…. Go for it! Turn ideas into action and I look forward to reading about your completed milestones this time next year.

As always....

Take care and keep smiling

Jack