I was watching the U.S. Open golf tournament yesterday. On the 17th hole on Sunday, Tom Lehman, who from what I see on T.V. and read in my golf magazines must be the nicest guy ever to play golf, with a chance to tie and possibly win his first U.S. Open title, hooks his ball in the pond and loses the tournament. The look on his face is not one fellow golfers will soon forget. Total agony. He wanted to break every club he ever held at that point. All I could think of was how awful he must feel.
For a moment I was very glad I wasn't Tom Lehman. Then they handed him a third place check for $172,000. His earnings since January 1 of this year are $674,000 just on tour money winnings alone. He just spent the last six days playing golf on one of the most beautiful golf courses in the United States. He didn't even have to pay a green fee. They double cut the greens and manicured the course just for him and his tour buddies. He had to get home Sunday night, because by Tuesday he had to be at another tournament playing golf for another five more days. Next month he goes to Scotland to play in a tournament. And that s pretty much his summer from what I can tell.
I came in to work Monday morning and started with a staff meeting, as we frequently do on Monday mornings to see what we need to accomplish this week. It's the same story as last week. We have ten primary projects to tackle, not all of them promised for completion this week thankfully...many of them were promised for last week... We have a staff of ten technicians and could find work for twenty tomorrow.
I had a new distributor I do business with call me this morning and treat me like I was a criminal. My bill was twelve hours past due. It came due on Sunday, but apparently this new distributor thought it could wait until Monday morning.
A customer just called. I looked their account up on the computer while on the phone. They want newer games. I see on the screen they have an Alpine Ski. It ran $90 last week. They want newer equipment. Oh well, at least I get 65% of the earnings on simulators.
Oh no. The worst has happened. It's not even lunch yet. Stan Chilton noticed on one of the print-outs I gave him that something fairly significant (I'll spare you the details) had fallen through our managerial cracks. For those of you that work closely with your father, you know that making an error, and having it pointed out by your father, is as bad as it gets.
After a wonderful lunch with my new bride of six months, I check my E-mail, as I do three or four times per day. It's Marcus from Replay wanting to know where my article for this month is at. Is this day ever going to end? I don't have a clue what to write on this month.
I have a nice break in the afternoon. My analytical distributor friend from St. Louis, Larry Potashnick, calls and we spend an hour on the phone discussing whether the industry is cyclical, or has it been in a shake out since 1982, as I suggest. If it's been shaking out since 1982, how do you explain that a minority of the companies are prospering during this time? No time to solve this riddle, I have an employee with a Daytona single sit down that just fell on of him. It fell off the truck with him as a cushion. He's fine but the Daytona isn't looking too good.
The mechanic from the Auto dealership calls. The repairs on my car will be $1,000 even to fix/replace the radiator, rotate the tires, and fix the air conditioner. I'm going to stop answering the phone the rest of the day.
I don't want you to get the impression that I don't like my job. I love it. I don't mean to give the impression that business isn't good. It's very good. We have a great group of employees that have a tremendous work ethic and they somehow get it all done. It's just been a rough day in the life of a typical Midwestern Operator. We all have them. If you don't, you will.
And Tom's biggest problem today is that yesterday he hit a ball in the pond. Tom, you come do what I do for a day, and I'll do what you do, and then we'll compare notes. I think you're one lucky guy. But on the other hand, no one ask me even once last week what I thought about Tiger Woods. (One PGA tour player was ask that once last year, and responded with, "I don't know, I've never played there").