Sacred Cow

Sacred Cow

Yoga was hot last night and my old Achilles tendon injury was flared up from over stretching, the good news is that it’s getting better each session and most days does not cause any discomfort.

Edy and I had a brief conversation right after dinner about a number of things one of which was us not being selected for a project I had bid on. She made some valid observations about the bid process and how no one can be “low balled” , IF they really want the project. I attempted to argue my points but she recognized at once that she had touched upon my “sacred cow” ……….thus the brief discussion.

I struggle with the sacred cow of EGO.

In fact it IS my Achilles heel of life. Try as I might to temper it and release myself to openness and humility, I blow it, time and time again.

This project was a perfect example. I was invited to bid, gave a price and the owners said “wow, we know you’ve done all this great stuff but can you come down a bit as we have another price from someone else who is much less”. “Sure”, I said agreeing with their compliments and called the Engineers to have them sharpen their pencils. I looked over my proposal and saw where a few things could be shaved but then saw other I had over-looked and adjusted accordingly. I then looked at it again and said OK, where can  we trim more ??....and did just that. I was excited about the project on a lot of fronts. I knew the players and frankly could use the work while we get other things to finally “launch”  I was ready to GO! And had all of my team in place ……….so I thought.  I received an email a bit later saying “Thanks but no thanks” we’re going with the other less expensive group. I was bummed.

In the word of the great American Philosopher, Dr. John - “Nothing from Nothing leaves Nothing”. My desire to work with these owners, consultants and vendors got tripped up because of the statement about “we know you’ve done all these great things” and unraveled from there. I was reminded of past projects and past fees and despite only charging 1/3^rd of “the old days rates” still came in high. I felt like I’d let everyone down from the owners to my wife.

When I 1^st started in business I used to do all kinds of things for free just to get my foot in the door. Then a consultant of mine reminded me of the phrase “people don’t value what they don’t pay for” and I stopped that practice. I had another client tell me another time that “you must have no ego at all” when his landlord hired us to duplicate a penthouse suite that was in another building for his firm. ” $2MM job, no ego required,” I replied.

I went out for a long bike ride this afternoon after spending the morning and early afternoon “knocking on doors and networking”. As I rode past the rhododendrons and roses, I was reminded of the pruning required to get them to look so beautiful and kept up my pace. When I got to my turnaround place on the route, I made a slow sweeping turn to find the wind directly in my face and pushed just a bit harder into it. My heel hurt like hell.