The thrill of victory and celebrating success

The Olympics are in full swing. We get to watch and celebrate the results of the athletes. They spend years working toward this one competition, striving to win a medal and celebrate their arduous work.

A different life than the rest of us and our day-to-day lives, especially those of us in manufacturing. We make things, day in and day out. We get our raw material and components, we press, machine, MOLD or assemble parts for hours, days, weeks, months. Unlike athletes, our efforts are not focused on one outcome, training for that moment, then putting our all into achieving that one goal and seeing the result.

Also, athletes, at some point after a relatively short career, (except maybe that 40-year-old snowboarder or the curlers), pull the plug from their training/compete cycle, and move onto a new life. The rest of us just keep coming to work each day, starting, and then finishing work orders, shipping parts, and moving on to the next parts. It could go on, endlessly.

That is why it is so important to stop and celebrate occasionally. Have lunch catered in, put some treats in the freezer in the break area, bring in doughnuts and cookies, give the ladies a rose on Valentines. Something to recognize that we also work hard, we also train hard, and keeping our customers happy, especially in this time of messed up supply chains, is reason to take time occasionally to say, “nice job.”