Mitzi Perdue

Hell With The Lid Off – Workbook

Sometime in your work life you have had, are having, or will have a “You’re about to go down in flames experience.” It might be your company, your project or your job.

What can you do? I’ve watched a number of successful people, including my late father, the founder of the Sheraton Hotel Chain, and Frank Perdue, my late husband, respond to crisis situations where the odds of success looked impossibly small.

I can think of times with Frank when personally, I thought the odds of his rescuing a situation were metaphysically impossible, but even so, he’d continue and win out. Also, I remember my father telling me that the difference between him and his competition was that he wasn’t discouraged by long odds: he’d still give it his all. In other words, both men remained highly proactive in circumstances when it would have been easy to give up.

When they were facing crises, they had an appetite for action. They weren’t passive about whatever the situation was, and they certainly didn’t take a wait-and-see attitude. They fought it with every tool they had, and if what they had wasn’t enough, they learned, bought, or found new tools or methods or people to help change the situation.

Here’s what these successful people did, and if you’ve heard my talk, you know that these are steps that I took when legislation in California was on the brink of putting me out of the rice business.

These tips are not going to guarantee success. But they can decrease your odds of failure, and if things don’t work out, for the rest of your life you can take pride in the fact that you gave it your all.

1. Marshal your resources and fight!

2. Write your business case.

The purpose of this is partly to clarify your thinking and partly to influence others. Depending on your situation, it could be a page, an article, or a white paper, but whatever you write, the rewards for writing it will be more insight into: what you want; why you should have it; and how to get there. You’ll find that writing concentrates the mind.

3. Avoid negative people.

At this moment, they are your enemy. As the great French novelist, Alexander Dumas said, “A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself.”

4. Describe the problem and then describe where you’d like to be:

(Example: The company is laying off people and I’m terrified that I’m going to be one of them. I can’t sleep, I’m miserable, and it’s taking a toll on my family life. Where I’d like to be is to know that my job is secure.)

5. List the obstacles you are facing:

(Example: I don’t have a good relationship with my boss. Because of commuting and childcare problems, I’ve been late to work several times. I know that I don’t stand out as a great employee. I don’t know why, but I can’t stop being negative and hostile.)

6. For each obstacle, describe possible solutions.

It’s a good idea to have the list for the solutions for each obstacle be as long as you can make it, and then decide that you’re not done finding solutions until you’ve come up with one more solution. It’s surprising how often the ideas that you reach when you’ve had to stretch for an answer turn out to be the ones that are the most helpful.

When making the list of solutions, follow Thomas Edison’s advice: “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.”

Possible Solutions.

(Create additional lists for dealing with each problem.)

7. Choose the best solution.

It should be practical, doable, fit in with the solutions to the other problems, and the time frame has to be relevant to the problem.

If some of your solutions are hard to do, that’s OK! Throughout life, it’s the people who do the hard things who are winners. You’re here to be a winner. Doing 90 percent of what is required is one of the biggest wastes of your time because you have nothing to show for all your efforts. But doing 110 percent of what is expected is the perfect investment because you’ll stand out from the crowd.

8. Never procrastinate!

Decide that for you, right now, procrastinating is against the rules. Mark Twain recommended that if your job each day includes eating a live frog, eat it first thing in the morning, and then it won’t be hanging over you all day. He also said if your job is to eat two live frogs, eat the bigger one first.

The philosophy of doing the worst job first, which really means the one you’re most likely to procrastinate on, can translate into making a lot of progress towards getting from where you are to where you want to be. I noticed that both my father and my husband had a habit of action. When either of them had made up his mind, he acted.

And here’s a really important point: You don’t have to feel like doing it. You just have to do it.

9. Break the job into smaller parts.

You want the parts so small that they’re easy to do. The art of getting things done is to transform your complex task into small pieces and prioritize them.

10. Ask yourself what skills you need and then develop them.

Writing? Public Relations? Lobbying? Public Speaking? Ability to get along with people? Attitude? List the resource, including people you can draw on:

(Examples: books on getting along with people, podcasts, internet research, classes, advice from friends, coaches – whatever it is that applies to your problem.)

If your situation involves the public, try learning to write articles or learning to do public speaking. When I was about to be put out of business by legislation that would have banned agricultural burning, and I knew that the legislation was based on misinformation, I borrowed a book, “How to Write Magazine Articles that Sell,” followed it like paint-by-numbers, and got it published where legislators would read it.

By the way, I had no experience in writing up to this point, but my livelihood depended on it, so I made it my business to learn.

I also took public speaking classes from the Business and Professional Women’s Clubs and from Dale Carnegie and learned what I could in a hurry about lobbying and calling on elected representatives.

In the end, my “going up in flames” situation ended happily. The senator who was carrying the legislation that would have put me out of business withdrew the legislation. However, I need to use the ten steps I’ve just described.

Conclusion

If the odds for success in your case are really daunting, go ahead and try anyway. Use the example of my personal hero, General Ferdinand Foch.

In the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918, the German war machine was rapidly advancing towards Paris. People were panicking and an unbearable feeling of doom gripped France.

It was then that General Foch sent the famous message that would rally the French army, causing his soldiers to hold their ground, thereby preventing the capture of Paris and resulting in winning the land war in Western Europe.

“My center is yielding. My right is retreating. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking!”

That’s the spirit! Go for it!

If it doesn’t work out (and there are no guarantees), you’ll experience the self-respect of knowing that you gave it everything you could. From each setback comes knowledge and experience that makes future success more likely.

No matter what the outcome, in my book, you’re a winner because you gave it your all.

To see the talk this is based on, come here.