You Can Do Anything But You Can't Do Everything

My granddad used to say "A man can do anything but a man can't do everything." This is a philosophy I strongly embrace. I love to cook, in particular I love smoking and barbecue. When I'm home, I try to to cook almost every night and enjoy finding new things to cook and quick ways to get it done. I belong to several groups of BBQ enthusiasts and it's always interesting to watch the conversations as to the one-upmanship on how "authentic" a particular method is or how one goes about cooking various things and how shortcuts take away from that.

For example, someone will ask about what rubs or sauces they should buy. Immediately, there's the litany of people that say "you should make your own sauce/rub, quit being lazy". Then you start down he rathole of how far you take that idea. Do you grind your own spices? Did you make your own ketchup? Instead of buying meat, do you hunt it? Instead of buying corn, did you grow it? Wow, you bought a smoker you didn't build it? Still waiting for the guy who mined his own ore and forged the steel before welding it together - it hasn't happened yet, but it probably will.

My inevitable response to the curmudgeons that think people like me looking for shortcuts are cheating - You can do anything, but you can't do everything. I'll trade making sure I get to sit down to a meal I cooked for my family versus grinding my own corn for "authentic" tortillas for my carnitas. I could do it, but is it the best use of my time and energy?

So I'm all in on cooking, I don't mind laundry, I'll scrub the heck out of a toilet, vacuum and mop. I'll do dishes under threat of grievous bodily harm or a withering look from my wife, but - I won't mow my own lawn. A man has to know his limits and that's mine. I grew up hustling and mowing lawns for $4-$5 in Fort Sam Houston as a kid. When we moved to New Mexico in my teens, that was still one of my many jobs. The dust, the dirt, the sneezing, edging, fixing tangled edging line, the unclogging, the maintenance, the bagging, ugh. I couldn't wait to get out of the lawn business.

Yet when I bought my first house, I got a lawn mower because that's what one does. I obviously didn't want to be hip deep in weeds but more importantly the HOA required it to be mowed to within 3 inches or I'd get fined. Very quickly, I remembered how much I despised lawn care and decided enough was enough. I needed help. I wanted this problem to go away. I wanted my weekends back. I started asking around to some folks that had great looking lawn but little time. It was then I was introduced to Juan and I was a happy man.

Juan has a very successful business doing the things that guys like me hate. What I used to dread a good part of the week and then take me all Saturday morning, Juan and his crew of three guys accomplish in 45 minutes. He's got a high end zero-turn mower, gas powered weed eaters that could cut through rock, and blowers that could put a 737 in flight. He's smart about customer service, incredibly polite and humble, flawlessly on-time, always suggesting other little things to keep the lawn looking good and keeps an eye out for trouble spots like bugs or broken sprinklers. Plus, he does it all for less than $75. It's no wonder I've done business with him for almost 20 years. He delivers beautifully on a task I abhorred, and does it cheaper as well. More importantly, I don't spend weekends doing a task that brings me no joy but have to do as a good neighbor. Instead, I get to spend that rare time at home with my wife, my kids, or trying the next great BBQ recipe. My guess is that if you don't love lawn work and do the math for what your time and energy are worth, getting your own Juan will be worth it (and yes, you condo and apartment dwellers are far ahead of the rest of us here).

There are a lot of things in business that are like mowing. What are the tasks that we don't really enjoy doing, that are always in the important and urgent bucket, yet aren't competitive differentiation? These are the things that don't move the needle but have to get done. The number one thing on that list for me is endpoint management and patching. You have to do it to reduce your threat surface, maintain compliance, keep malware at bay, etc. but does it make you stronger than your competitors? How much time, energy and money do you spend chasing it simply to check a box?

Trianz is helping clients move off of their SCCM and other patching solutions to a fully managed Endpoint Management Service built on IBM BigFix. We have the right people, the right technology and a delivery process that solves your problems around server and endpoint patching, software distribution, mobile device management, OS deployment and hardware/software asset management. We can help you build a stronger IT asset management program. We can help you deliver on the amazing ROI of a software asset management program. We turn the pain of patching into a foundational capability delivered at lower cost with better results.

If you're tired of mowing your own lawn, call Juan. If you're tired of chasing endpoints, call us. Because whether at work or at home, you can do anything but you can't do everything. #dontmowyourownlawn

Would love to hear how you have gotten back time and energy at home or work and what's made a difference.