Page 34 - How to Drive the Bottom Line with People

Built to Serve

H. B. Price, was a true cowboy—a successful rancher,
a man’s man in every sense of the word. He rolled his

own cigarettes, wore a sweat-stained gray Stetson, and
spent most of his life in the saddle. My grandmother
was the consummate country cook who devoted her

life to preparing meals in the kitchen. For a young boy
raised in the city, trips to the ranch were adventurous,
educational, and fulfilling. As a rule, people working
on a ranch or farm acquire a lot of wisdom; my grand-
father was no exception.

Among his most enduring life lessons was one
regarding the manner in which we as human beings
10
= approach work. As on any working ranch, there was

always plenty of work to go around, and a “vacation”
on the ranch was code talk for work that needed to
be done. I visited the ranch one summer at a time
when the garden, which was just behind the ranch
house, required tending.

My grandfather escorted me to the garden one
afternoon and said, “You need to pick up all of these
small rocks.” It was hot and windy, and I imagined a

hundred other things I would rather be doing. Even
so, I grabbed an old tin bucket and began picking up
rocks. After what seemed like a long time, I became
uninterested, tired, and unproductive.