Equipment World

October 2014

Equipment World Digital Magazine

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Y ou start the day out right. 5 a.m. and you're up, putting in 40 minutes of exercise. You eat breakfast, and get to the office by a quarter to 7. You make a got-to-do list in your head, maybe even scratch it out on a sticky note, as you make your first call. You're on track to ac- complish an amazing amount of work. Conversely, your day could have begun with a call at 4:30. One of your trucks in transit between jobs and loaded with your newest excava- tor has had a fender bender on the Interstate, delaying delivery of a criti- cal machine. The next call stirs up the mess: a project superintendent has a family emergency and has to take the day off. And speaking of family, your own 8-year-old wakes up with a high fever. In my first example, it was all up to you. You got up early, you did, you determined, you set the path. You were in control, and that's how you – all of us, actually – like it. And it works up to a point, up until that 4:30 a.m. call. I often ask contractors what attract- ed them to construction. After the jok- ing comments about it being the only thing they had the ability to do, most mention the sense of accomplishment they feel after a project is completed successfully. There's evidence they've made a mark, be it a paved road, a reshaped acreage, a community that gained sewer service, or a building now filled with businesses serving the area. But these contractors – and this has always struck me – also mention how much they enjoy solving problems, because each of these visible accom- plishments has a tale of challenges. There's the one about how your team scrambled when a paver broke down, the time your foreman inspired extra work from his crew during a 2 a.m. emergency call, or the office man- ager who covered for you when you missed a deadline. Not to mention the numerous times you had to call up a client, both to deliver bad news and offer a possible solution. You know. Everyday stuff. No one relishes that early-morning phone call, including you. You'd love to have all of your mornings start out on a straight, self-determined path that results in a list of checked-off boxes at the end of the day. But there are few plain vanilla days in construction and that's one of the reasons you're in this business. EquipmentWorld.com | October 2014 7 on record | by Marcia Gruver Doyle MGruver@randallreilly.com Ready to roll… into problems

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