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WORKROOM OPERATIONS
Success
Traits
How do you know if you have what it takes to succeed?
by Kitty Stein, CWP, WCAA
What are three traits
for success (other than not making the six lethal mistakes mentioned
in last month’s article)?” This is the question that was
put to me a short time ago. My answer at the time was different
from what follows. As I considered the original question, another
one came to my mind, “Have I succeeded?”
I have had a full, enjoyable and varied career. Have I succeeded?
If so, why? The answers would depend upon whom I would ask. There
would be as many different answers to this question as persons asked.
SUCCESS VS. GOALS
I am the only human who truly knows if I have succeeded, and I might
even get it wrong. Success and how you achieve it is very personal
and is not to be measured by how others view it.
There are scores of books out there telling you how to be successful.
I have read many and I have tried many of their “tips to success.”
Some helped me, while others did not. At one time I was collecting
definitions of success and they all made sense and were good. I
had them posted all over the place. As I sit here composing my thoughts
there is only one that comes to mind: “Success is the continual
pursuit of a worthy ideal.” Earl Nightingale said that.
Notice what Earl does not say. He doesn’t mention money. He
doesn’t mention fame. He doesn’t mention a Fortune 500
company. That doesn’t mean these issues aren’t worth striving
for, but they are not the main ingredients to achieving success.
What Earl did say is “continual pursuit.” Think about
that. It means you never get to the end! You are never finished
with what you have to do while you are here on this Earth. Only
when you leave is the final door closed. Success is a minute-by-minute
pursuit of what you hope to achieve, accomplish or attain. It is
an ever-evolving process of setting goals, achieving them or not,
and setting some more.
Take “continual pursuit” a bit further and you get to
the very core of success. It means you keep on pursuing no matter
how many mistakes you might make or how many times you get knocked
down! The successful person views and treats mistakes as learning
opportunities, i.e. learn what you can from a mistake and then let
it go. Successful people may fail many times, but they never let
failure stop them from moving on to the next mountain.
Next Earl says he is striving for a “worthy ideal.” What
is your worthy ideal? Is it your goal of increasing your net profit
or closing more sales? Or is it taking care of your needs and those
of your family and perhaps those less fortunate? Isn’t success
about doing the best you can with what you have and leaving this
world better than you found it? That sounds worthy to me.
Your goals may or may not be achieved and they may change from one
day to the next, but that is OK. They are just measuring sticks.
You may succeed in accomplishing your goals, but true success is
not achieving goals. It is that you made the effort in the first
place and that you can rejoice that you have made progress. Progress
can be that you know how not to do something.
Success is doing your best and helping others to do their best and
to succeed along the way. And you do this because it’s the
right thing to do. Knowing this difference will help you shed the
mistakes, pick yourself up from a fall, and keep putting one foot
in front of the other always trying to do better.
WHO OWNS YOUR BUSINESS?
OK, so you know what success is, but how do you know you have the
determination and perseverance to keep striving to achieve goals?
How do you know if you are even going in the right direction? And
if you come to a fork in the road, how do you know which road to
take?
How often do you have a feeling about a certain situation and you
dismiss it only to regret it later? How often do you explore every
possible resolution to a problem and become even more confused?
How often are you absolutely sure about what you are doing? You
own your own business. Aren’t you supposed to be able to make
the right decisions? How often do you wish you didn’t have
to make the decisions? I’ve been guilty of thinking, “Why
can’t I just sit in the corner and sew and be left alone?”
Who made you the boss? Who saw to it that you had the ability and
pleasure in sewing? Who made sure your customers told their friends
how happy they were with your work? Who made sure that a new homeowner
found you in the yellow pages instead of your competition with the
larger ad? Who gave you the creativity to provide resolutions to
your customer’s problems and beautify their homes?
God gave you your talents and your joy in doing your work. I believe
He has given us so much and has stepped in more times than we know
to keep us on the right track. Where do you think those gut feelings
came from?
So many times, I have felt overwhelmed with decisions to be made
or more work to get done than I envisioned possible. When I remember
that it is not my business but God’s, and He knows better than
anyone what needs to be done, the fear and stress drain away.
PASSION
The longer I live, the more I understand the value of passion. My
definition of passion is an inexhaustible but joyous thirst, divinely
created, making one drink until satisfied.
Passion is what motivates us to accomplish that for which we were
created. Passion erases doubts and gives us certainty that we will
accomplish that for which we crave. Passion will ignite our creativity
as well as the power of the universe to see its completion. The
pursuit of a passion will create delicious enjoyment. Conversely,
the lack of passion where it once was indicates that thirst is now
quenched and it is time to move on.
You must have passion if you are to pursue this industry toward
personal reward and financial success. When I started in this industry
there was very little information available and not that much was
needed to become accomplished in window coverings. The irony is
that today, we have endless amounts of information available, but
at the same time, it may not be enough to successfully treat all
windows.
In my area, the typical new construction home has two-story, multiple
windows in foyers and sometimes elsewhere in the home as well. Here
are only a few of the questions that this one wall of windows gives
birth to:
• What treatment will work on such a grand scale?
• How do you measure to even quote the job and then measure
for accuracy for the workroom?
• Can you handle such large treatments in your workroom?
• What hardware will hold such heavy interlined panels?
• What fabric will remain stable and not grow from gravity
or humidity?
Such issues were not there 10 or 15 years ago. How do you find the
answers to such questions? There is not one book or set of books
or one educational program that will answer all the questions window
treatment people are faced with today or will be faced with tomorrow.
The answers are there, but you must have the tenacity to dig deeper.
Your passion will push you on, assuring you that there are answers
and that you will find them. Your passion will relish the process
of the search and bask in the beauty of what you have brought to
creation. And then it will lead you on to the next conquest.
The challenges of our industry have grown dramatically. Owning a
window coverings business is not for the skeptic. It takes all of
one’s natural and learned abilities as well as universal wisdom
and support to grow a financially solvent and thriving business.
Are you successful? Are you loving what you do? Are you digging
your heels in and saying, “I’m going to do this or else!”?
Do you have a feeling that this is what you are supposed
to be doing? I would listen to that passion speaking if I were you!
Kitty Stein, CWP, WCAA past board member, is a 29-year veteran
of the drapery workroom industry. She has owned both retail and
wholesale drapery workrooms as one person and as a company of nine,
and she is the founder and past owner of Workroom Concepts, a consulting
firm offering educational resources to the industry. Her experience
includes professional speaking and writing for two industry trade
magazines. She currently owns Kitty Stein & Co., which supplies
industry vendors with the industry-specific products she has authored
including Order in the Workroom.
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