Being Quick on Your Feet

Last month we talked about the necessity of staying ahead of the changes life continually brings, both in business and in one’s personal life. But what if no one saw these drastic changes coming, at least to the draconian extent they have been implemented? Can you say business-crushing water restrictions? C’mon, watering only one-day a week, two if you’re lucky. Really?

If you’re unable to plan ahead for these things, then you have to be “quick on your feet” in dealing with them. This means that you must be able to react and make adjustments and sometimes split-second decisions on the fly. Winners are able to do this in many aspects of life, losers not so much.

Boxers train with endless footwork exercises to dodge that career-ending left hook. Football linemen practice moving their big bodies from side-to-side on flying feet that will take them to that fumbled ball before the next guy gets it. And smart landscapers quickly take this as an opportunity to sell their clients on a California native plant re-do, water-saving drip irrigation, or a potentially award-winning Xeriscape project in the next Landscape Awards Competition.

I believe our maintenance people, and contractors who can come up with beautiful low water use re-designs of their existing properties, will be able to turn this pile of lemons into lemonade. Unfortunately, new construction looks like it will take a big hit, as well as companies locked into a certain way of doing things that doesn’t allow for instant changes.

Being quick on your feet is almost counterintuitive to what we’ve been taught by business coaches who tell us that those who fail to plan, plan to fail…that we’re to look before we leap…and that we’re to measure twice and cut once. All these sound business practices are still valid. But there’s no time to think and plan or measure when your car died on the tracks and the train is heading straight for you. That’s when being quick on your feet has to kick in and get you to safety. There is room in your business life for both approaches. You can both walk and chew gum, right?

Because Landscape Warehouse is in both the irrigation and nursery businesses, we have to be quick on our feet as well and be ready to provide our customers with everything to succeed during these water-restrictive times.

Uh-oh…is that a train whistle I hear? Better get those feet moving to one of our nearby stores and let one of our knowledgeable staff members meet your water restrictive needs.

– José Robles, owner, Landscape Warehouse