Doing some home repairs along with painting.

Our house is 6 years old now and many small things are starting to fail. Water Heater (3 of them actually) Door knobs, faucets, outlets and more. I made a trip tonight to a local store where they had plenty of help. The problem was they were in avoidance mode. Finally I approached an employee that was the worst at hiding. (Picked him off from the herd) and did manage to get some help.

Are you avoiding your customers? Are your employees?

This company could have had half the employees, paid them twice as much and if they were truly engaged you could have had three times better customer experience.

When not to innovate?

OK I am a big proponent of continuous innovation. However I recently was dealing with a company known for innovation. However in this particular case the company was trying to focus on the future when the present was broke. Instead of trying to cure the current issues they were looking years down the road. Lets face it. If they do not get the issues resolved there will not be years down the road.

There is a constant battle between innovation and getting your current issues right.

Getting that balance right is the key to a successful business.

Speaking of Innovation

That I spoke of earlier this month, it has been 50 years that we first launched a person into orbit. Where are we at today?

The US right now does not have a ship to take astronauts to the international space station. Nope, we have to use the Russian? It just shows how amazing things can change in 50 years. From starting a space program to beat the Russians to now teaming with to explore space.

Thing is, when I was growing up I remember the amazement of space travel and the constant benefits it brought to our home. Velcro, Microwave and so much more.

What have we innovated lately?

Busy weekend

Basketball first thing Saturday morning then a quick trip to Salina and we ate at Spangles. Some supplies picked up at Sams Club where we waited in line to renew our membership which we were supposed to get a $25 gift card that ended up to be $10. Then off to Topeka to see my parents.

Caden spent some time in the woods trying to find Bigfoot
Carsen did a little dancing.
I rebuilt my dads computer and set up his new home theater system. A Bose sound bar and Samsung Blu-ray player. Once again, Bose is very expensive however delivers on its quality of sound and ease of use. This really small speaker system filled a large room with no problem.

Today we finished the trip to KC to see Chase (My sisters new addition) get baptized. Short time with family and then a trip home.