On a movie set the great actor Sir Laurence Olivier was talking with a young actor who was extremely caught up with his importance.  He was complaining to Sir Laurence Olivier that it was unreasonable he had to wait long periods of time between scenes while they changed the cameras and the lighting.  Being the professional, consummate actor that Sir Laurence Olivier was, he explained it to the young actor this way (and I paraphrase):  “Son, we don’t get paid for acting.  Acting is our passion.  It’s what we live for.  What we get paid for, is sitting around, waiting for the technicians to change the set.”

If you think about how business really works, there is so much nonsense we put up with every single day.  Most business people will refer to it as “putting out fires”.  But isn’t that really what we get paid for?  If it was easy to provide the goods and services why would the clients need us?  They pay us for all of the employee problems, shipping problems, and a thousand other problems so they don’t have to deal with them. 

The next time you’re dealing with those nagging, annoying daily problems, be grateful. 

It’s your ability to solve problems and deliver the goods or services to the client that is one of the many reasons they do business with you.

Effectively dealing with the nonsense permits you to make a business profit.