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For a number of years now I have had the good fortune and opportunity to be contributing to UniformMarket News and I want to thank my readership for its attention. I am pleasantly surprised when I speak with someone I haven’t known and they comment favorably on the writing. Those who don’t like the articles don’t really speak with me. Writing regularly has given me the opportunity to focus my thinking on some topic about which I wanted or needed to learn more. And I am able to share with you some bit of wisdom gleaned from various sources that I expect will be of some value.

As noted last month, I have been enrolled in an educational experience offered by Landmark Education. The courses are not expensive but offer quite a remarkable experience by teaching methods of reflecting on regular activities and how they may affect emotions and future achievements. Many of the lessons I have encountered have supported my continued personal growth and provided practical methods of dealing with common challenges. What I want to become, have and do, and when I want these possibilities to occur, is mine to determine.

Last week I paid particular attention when I was informed that one of the lessons of the seminar was to learn how never to be upset again. “You’ve got to be joking,” my skeptical inner voice responded. I am in the apparel business and of Italian descent. Being upset, while not healthy or productive, has been a natural part of my being. There’s an old adage that when you point a finger at someone, you’ve got one finger pointing at the person, three pointing back at you and your thumb is up toward the heavens. The essence of this message is that none of the reasons that appear to be instinctively obvious really has anything to do with the upset. And here’s why.

Consider when you get upset that there are really ever only three things at play. First, there is a thwarted intention. You have been stopped in relation to something you are trying to do. No one likes to be stifled especially when there is a constant burden of pressure and your “to do” list is lengthy. How often do you fully accomplish what you’ve reasonably expected and have not been sidetracked by the urgencies or emergencies that shock us daily?

Second, there is an unfulfilled expectation. Someone has let you down on a promise, a delivery did occur as planned, quality is not what you expect or the restaurant service at lunch was less than favorable. And third, there is typically an undelivered communication which occurs when you have something to say but you are not saying it. There are many reasons we can give for being upset and they seem fairly valid, at least initially, to us.

Keep in mind that upsets have all three of these points but usually one of them will be prominent as most significant. I realize we are being exposed to this theory in a controlled, non-hectic atmosphere. You are just reading an article and not under normal business or personal pressures. Think about the concept that upsets are never ‘out there’ with someone else but all of my upsets are located within me. The emotional or intellectual reaction I have to an event is just that – a reaction. It is not the event itself but merely our current and very quick interpretation of what has happened. This is much like a map is only a representation of the route but not the actual road. The two may seem very close but understanding and appreciating the difference can change your life.

The first step in changing is to recognize when you are upset. You don’t have to listen automatically to your reaction. You get to think about what the reality of the situation may be and then allow yourself the golden opportunity to do a current assessment. This review should include asking yourself what is really making you upset and that only you can allow yourself to experience this response.

Think about which of the three points has occurred, and ask yourself do I have a thwarted intention, an unfulfilled expectation or an undelivered communication. Somehow this approach has worked for me. Maybe I get caught up in asking the questions and I ward off the immediate upset reaction. The mind can’t hold two competing thoughts at the same time. But I feel much calmer. And no, everything out there is still the same and the frustrations and opportunities to be upset have not abated.

I traveled this week from Philadelphia to Atlanta and back in less than twenty-four hours. Do you think there were things that probably occurred that would have upset me in the past? For sure! Have you traveled by air recently? But being upset would not have helped improve my situation or allowed me to calmly consider alternatives. So who would I really be hurting but myself?

Like any new lessons there is a period of understanding and digesting the thoughts and this will feel somewhat awkward much as new shoes to be worn in. After a while, the new process becomes familiar and utilitarian. There’s when the benefits begin and the value of the efforts made provide a real and personal return on the investment. Not being upset will give you all the positive reinforcement you need to continue.

ast weekend, I attended an educational seminar called The Landmark Forum and learned some new concepts on how I have come to view events in my past. The reaction we have to past events is to make up a personal myth or story and use this narrative to bring order and some level of understanding to the events that have occurred throughout our lives.

Communication through use of stories and story telling is the subject of one of the courses I had in graduate school, so I decided to compare what I learned then and recently. For more in depth understanding, please see the book by Dan P. McAdams entitled The Stories We Live By.

The purpose of my continuing education is to enhance my path of self-actualization. This concept from Abraham Maslow is rooted in positive psychology and provides a guideline for us humans to grow and become all that is possible. Certainly, the need to attain greater capability is attenuated by the particular challenges we face in both our personal and business lives. The more severe the crisis, the more we question and seek help, answers, and improvement. In my case, I don’t like to suffer the same results twice if I can learn from the first experience. Whether the initial problem was from a mistake I made, or something beyond my control doesn’t really matter.

Events happen often beyond our control and McAdams notes that “a life story is a personal myth that an individual begins working on in late adolescence and young adulthood in order to provide his or her life with unity or purpose and in order to articulate a meaningful niche in the psychosocial world.” We must use some method to bring understanding as life does not start out by someone handing you an instruction manual. We create our own. And our story continues to revise as we go on living.

“In order to live well we construct a heroic narrative of the self that illustrates essential truths about ourselves. The search for the mythic hero takes us eventually to the Promised Land where we can be genuinely prosperous, loving and happy.”

How does this relate to the satisfaction with our careers? The human being is the only animal who anticipates and dreads its own mortality. More heart attacks occur on Mondays than any other day. Other animals do not know what day it is. So we are living a life that we have concocted for ourselves based on what we learned from our environment or created stories to serve our own understandings. What I learned in the weekend seminar was to question those assumptions made about the events in my life and the stories I associated with those events. Since all stories are myths, the probability is great that my interpretation of the events may not match reality.

One reality is the ability to live life very naturally much as a fish lives in water. The fish does not know it’s in the water. That is just the natural environment. A tangible example is to think about our lives before we were born. It was warm, we were floating and we had continuous meal service. Then we squeezed out through a shoot too small and in the colder air were immediately slapped on our butts to being breathing. One way to get back to a more natural living state is to choose to be ‘in the game’ versus sitting in the stands. When athletes play on the field someone else is keeping the time. The athletes are focused on the task at hand. How many of us love our work and are involved so much that we don’t notice the time passing. This phenomenon happens typically during the time we spend with a hobby.

So how can we make work more fun, more productive and less stressful? Getting into the game means paying closer attention to the selected activity. Focus on the conversation you may be having in person or on the telephone or by email one at a time. My tendency had been to think about the next task to be completed, which served to distract me from current task. I wasn’t able to listen fully and contribute by giving the most valuable responses of which I was capable. I know there are lots of demands during our workday. Things pop up that we can’t control. How often have you started the day with an agenda and quickly got steered off course by unexpected emails, phone calls or requests and interruptions from co-workers?

When the Buddha was asked what he wanted to be most, he answered, ‘Awake.’ That is the same as keeping your head in the game moment by moment. Of course there should be long term planning as though we will live forever but live as if we were to die tomorrow. Follow the rules of maintaining personal well-being including proper nutrition, rest and exercise. After all, that’s what the athletes focus upon so they can perform optimally. We are the warriors and athletes in our own story. Be aware of your mental health as well. Successful performance requires that all our faculties be in good shape and that emotionally we allow loving and caring into our lives.

Upon her deathbed, Abraham Lincoln’s mother told him to “be somebody Abe.” Lincoln decided early in life to take that message to heart and work on creating a character that would bring meaningful and lasting change to the world. By being a person of integrity and tremendous perseverance through unimaginably daunting odds Lincoln was able to attain the greatness for which we remember him today. He wasn’t perfect and he was hated by many. But dedication to his ideals led him through disastrous challenges and he left our nation and the world a much better place than he entered.

Lincoln was always in the game. He had fun telling stories, jokes and entertaining people he met on both a personal and professional basis. He lived his life in spite of stories he could have readily told himself about why he should not succeed. To paraphrase the Gettysburg Address, we are now engaged in a great economic struggle known as a recession to test who will long endure. By being the person with valuable attributes and characteristics we can have whatever we want and do what we want in life. Now that would be some story to live and to tell.

Circumstances change over both the long term and short term. And you’ve got to be aware of both to stay on top or ahead of your game.

Even if you have great golf swing like Tiger Woods, analysis of the wind direction and speed just before the shot to the green is critical. No matter that you have practiced for hours or have just chosen your club. A keen sense of awareness as to changes in the environmental circumstances can affect your performance. Allow yourself to first accept changes and then have the courage and faith to change your decision or direction based on the new data.

Sports figures do this publicly all the time. In watching a recent Phillies game, the announcers pointed out the parameters of the strike zone according to the home plate umpire. He was calling strikes on the lower outside corner. Whether you agreed or not, that was the strike zone for that night. Batters who did not make the adjustment could be called out. Fortunately, the umpire called that pitch consistently for all batters on both teams.

As business people, we all can appreciate a predictable environment. At least some of the variables remain independent. Like it or not the batters had to go with the flow. The problem is that people don’t like to change as it is inconvenient, annoying and even frightening in some instances.

But not changing when appropriate can have far more devastating effects. Think back on mistakes you have made and the attendant costs. What could you have done differently that would have cost less money in the long run if you had known then what you know now?

If mistakes have cost you lost opportunities, then learn from them and make the adjustments so you don’t get trapped paying the same price twice. Factor in the adjustments that need to be made.

Have trade law changes affected your business? They have changed mine for the better in a couple significant ways. First, with the Cumulation Treaty between the Dominican Republic (DR) and Mexico, we are able to use Mexican wool or poly wool fabric, cut in the DR and ship into the USA duty free. Since there is a lack of this fabric of USA origin, we are able to compete against the Far East by taking advantage of the speed to market and shorter turn time to replenish inventories.

We have also expanded to produce in Haiti because the HOPE Treaty allows use of fabric from anywhere in the world, when sewn in Haiti and imported to the USA, you pay no duty. Again the duty savings can be upwards of 28% which is a significant amount to take a competitive advantage. Yes, you need to do some work on the logistics of the supply chain. You may need to change your travel plans or vendors but the effort is worthwhile.

In the apparel manufacturing business, there’s always been the conflict between being market and manufacturing driven. Arguments for efficient manufacturing resulting in lower costs and reliable quality fought against the sales department who preached making the products the customers demanded with the required delivery. Not long after you set your factories to respond to the current sales demand, the changes occur in fabrics, styles, technology, trade laws, and supply of available raw materials. The market will always be right because without customer demand, there is no business.

What can be done? Ask again what business you are in, or better, what business should you be in? The strategy you chose years ago may have made perfect sense then but things change. Here’s a case in point:

I started sourcing in the Caribbean Basin about twenty-three years ago. Up until the mid-1980’s our sourcing was solely done in the USA. There were abundant factories in many states and aside from some deep Southern accents, we all spoke one language. Life was good. Manufacturing had been migrating from the industrialized North to non-union shops in the South.

Then competition for our labor force emerged. There was a lack of immigrants attracted to be sewing machine operators and the home born work force was being wooed to jobs in health care, technology and fast food. Who can blame them? Sewing all day is tough work. So I took the next jumping off point from the US and started sourcing in Latin America. There was plenty of willing labor available at low wage rates. But there was a lack of cutting capability, trim supply, pattern and marker making. So I began to develop in house these competencies, which my customers used to provide. The contract factories in Latin America, by and large, were not nearly as sophisticated as the established factories in the USA, and understandably so. The experience level was a function of the demands of their local markets. So I had to become more manufacturing driven to assure quality and delivery.

Over time, the factories that remain in this hemisphere have become more sophisticated. They can be more marketing driven because experience and technology has allowed them to produce shorter runs of various styles and fabrics. And still they can be competitive if the supply chain is managed effectively. More collaboration is needed with customers to schedule orders and have the correct raw materials on hand in the proper time frame. And we still have the huge advantage of speed to market due to our physical proximity to the US market. One or two more turns in inventory per year become quite attractive even if a slightly higher price is paid in this hemisphere compared to the Far East.

In addition, since Greco Apparel is a virtual sourcing company, our product offerings have expanded beyond apparel as we produce men’s, women’s and children’s products from knit polo shirts through Class A tailored uniforms to include footwear, headwear and accessories. And we have expanded our sourcing to eight countries from the US to the Caribbean to the Far East.

If you asked me a few years ago if I could have done this I could not imagine such a thing. But demands of the market, coupled with increased vendor capabilities, have permitted access to servicing broad demands. The toughest thing to open was my mind. If Tiger can make last minute adjustments based on his environment, you and I can also.