• Count Your Blessings

    Nov. 21, 2012
    This is Thanksgiving week. It’s a time to count your blessings. Write them down. Keep the list handy and pull it out when you feel down and offer a prayer of thanks, naming each one. Your spirits will be lifted, guaranteed.

    This is Thanksgiving week. It’s a time to count your blessings. Write them down. Keep the list handy and pull it out when you feel down and offer a prayer of thanks, naming each one. Your spirits will be lifted, guaranteed.

    To get you started, here are five blessings shared by every HVAC contractor. You are blessed because…

    You Live in America

    Despite its faults, despite its flaws, the United States is still the most prosperous nation on earth with the greatest opportunities available for the person who wants to seek them. Where else would you want to live? What other country has so many people waiting in line to enter legally and risking their lives to enter any way they can?

    In America, the American Dream still lives. True, it seems harder than a few years ago, but it’s still a heck of a lot easier than the vast majority of our existence. You can still become anything you want. You can go from abject poverty to wealth in less than a decade if you make the right decisions, apply yourself, and make your own luck. What other nation can say as much?

    You Control Your Destiny

    If you own your own business, you can control your destiny. It may not be easy. The markets may work against you. Capital may be tough to secure, but you can invest sweat equity. You are not dependent on someone else for a paycheck. True, you may sweat making payroll, but that’s still better than sweating over the possibility of a layoff or cutback.

    And if you do not own a business, think again. Ultimately, all of us are self-employed. We provide services that make us more valuable to our employers than the expense of our compensation. Find ways to add more value to your employer, more sales, more production. Do this and you can still control your destiny. You will never be unemployed for long. You will never be underpaid for long (if your boss won’t pay you what you’re worth, someone else will).

    You Enjoy Guaranteed Demand

    HVAC is one of the greatest industries because it guarantees demand. People need heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer, and refrigeration year round. They may delay a replacement for years, but they can only delay a repair for months. We will always have work in the HVAC industry. There is a guaranteed level of minimum demand.

    You Benefit From More Support Than Other Trades

    I work in other trades and talk with people from a variety of trades. They are all envious of the support HVAC contractors receive. Few trades have the equivalent of Comfortech. Many trades lack publications of the caliber of Contracting Business. Most lack support networks like the Service Roundtable or manufacturer dealer programs. They have less training and less business support.

    You Get Four Full Days of Football

    Okay, football is not industry related, but neither is America. For the next four days you get to relax and watch great football. There are the traditional Thanksgiving Day pro games in Dallas and Detroit, followed by College Football Rivalry Week games on Friday and Saturday, and more pro games on Sunday. This is one of the greatest football weeks of the year!

    If football’s not your thing, basketball has started. Or, much of the country is in deer, duck, and pheasant season.

    Relax and Recharge

    Count your blessings, relax, and recharge your batteries, leading into a strong winter season and stellar 2013! Thanks for reading.

    If you really want to experience a blessing, attend the Service Roundtable’s 2013 International Roundtable February 12 - 13 in Fort Worth, Texas and hear how others in the HVAC industry and outside it faced adversity, fought through it, and beat it. This is a life changing meeting keynoted by industry son, Joe Groh who had to discover a new purpose after a tragic accident left him a quadriplegic and by former fighter pilot and NFL great, Chad Hennings.