Everything I learned in life, I have learned from pain. I have learned nothing from (success) and pleasure.” @RickWarren Don’t waste your pain …

A painful time in my life as an #entrepreneur was having to put out fires from the hospital bed.

My office manager/production manager really showed her true colors when I was in labor with my 3rd child in 2004. She couldn’t handle the stress of an upcoming 1,000 person event we were producing and threatened to quit on the spot if I didn’t put out the fires that were happening.

I made the crazy mistake of actually taking her calls in between contractions 😳 which led to me giving bad directions, causing more problems, as I was not clear headed at all. 😦

To make things worse, she actually walked into my hospital room and dumped a pile of urgent paperwork for me to fix, giving me an ultimatum of quitting on the spot.

I was taken by total shock 😱 at how she was handling this, especially since my previous managers never acted this way when I had my first two children.

I was angry. 😡 😡 I felt completely robbed 😩 of enjoying even one day with my newborn. But, there was a lot riding on this event and no one in the wings who could replace her immediately.

So, there I was lying in my hospital bed, working to put out the fires because I wasn’t willing to risk the negative impact of potentially taking a $400,000 loss if I didn’t step in.

The key lessons I learned that day was:

➡ Never assume someone will make a good manager just because they were a good worker bee.

➡ Always have a 2nd string who is trained as a backup.

➡ Never make yourself the backup.

➡ Always get a personality assessment done prior to choosing your managers to validate you have the right people in the right seats.

➡ Always update your team’s job description with clearly written expectations. (yeah, my mistake that year … the production manager part never got updated in her written job description)

I hope you’ll apply these lessons in your business and avoid the painful consequences I had to endure.

QUESTION: WHAT WAS A DIFFICULT CHALLENGE or PAINFUL TIME IN YOUR BUSINESS THAT YOU LEARNED THE MOST FROM❓ –– please share your comments below.

Don’t waste your pain … share a key lesson you learned to help others.

#businesslessons #hiringtips #recruitingtoptalent #personalityassessments