Is Your Room Empty?

IS YOUR ROOM EMPTY?

?I recently finalized one of the most difficult deals I have ever been involved with in my 27-year business career. As I look back on the last two years, I'm filled with many emotions, both good and bad, as the 24 months were challenging due to a Global Pandemic, and from a personal and business perspective, they were even more challenging. I lost a great mentor and best friend to cancer (Dr. Morris Clark) during this time, but I also lost "little Johnny," the person I could often count on for a good time. I guess "little Johnny" was the kid in me still alive at 50 years old.???

When you go into survival mode in a small business, it becomes about the "big" picture, will our company be here for the people it employs when the dust settles. Questions like that have consequences for those on your team that you adore. You know their families and love them.?Learning what was essential during the pandemic became imperative.?Both personally and professionally, no shit, it was time to decide who was essential and who wasn't? What a question to have to ask yourself during a crisis. I realized quickly there was no time for "little Johnny" from LG. It was time for leadership. It was time to be tenacious, never giving up, picking up those who had fallen along the way every chance you could. It was time for a plan that could get you and those extended families you work with through the tunnel and safely to the other side.??

As we kept the company moving forward, we also negotiated a deal that would allow us to achieve success and turn our long-term vision and goals, 20-years in the making, into reality. The years of hard work and dedication finally paid off a few weeks ago when we successfully negotiated and finalized our Sale.?The big lesson for me was as I was running up the hill of “success” all these years to get to the top where the view was supposedly better, I realized the view sucked if the room at the top was empty.??

Fortunately for me, the room wasn't empty., Ultimately it wasn’t about the view from the top at all, because the top wasn't the top; there is a bigger hill still to climb. With this realization, I stopped looking at the view and started looking around at the people who filled my room. The people that made everything possible, my family, our EMPLOYEES, dear friends, trusted partners and colleagues, former bosses, mentors, teachers, competitors, clients, pets, the list goes on. The company’s success would not be possible with an empty room.?

I look forward to the next hill and a bigger room at the top with more people. Always remember how important the people around you are. Hug them and tell them thank you. Tell them how much they mean to you and that they made a difference in your life! Because that's what I'm doing, thanks for being in my room.?

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The Parking Guy! John D. Conway?