Two months ago, I was at IESE business school with Verne Harnish and his wife Julie. We were talking about entrepreneurial success and achievement. He shared with me a quote that comes from his father-in-law:
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
Granada, Spain credit Pim Fijneman
Verne’s father-in-law has apartments that he rents out. What criteria does he use to identify good tenants? How does he decide to whom he will rent out his apartments?
When somebody comes to view one of his properties, he takes the time to look at that person’s car. Are the tires in good condition? Is the paintwork in good shape? Is the inside of the car in good condition? Is it clean? If the person takes good care of their car, he knows they will take good care of his apartment. He rents his apartments to those who take good care of their cars.
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
Coach John Wooden, the most-winning-est coach having led the UCLA basketball team to 10 championships in 12 seasons, has 3 rules for his players:
- Show up on time
- Show up properly dressed
- Show up shaved
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
When he first started he joined a team led by a gruff senior banker. This senior banker gave my brother one simple task that he was to complete every morning before the 7:00am team meeting – he was to send out an email to the team with 6 market indicators calculated for the day. My brother delivered this email before 7:00am every day for 2 years. One day, the whole team had a late night. Everybody was out late celebrating.
The next morning, my brother’s email didn’t arrive til a few minutes after 7:00am. The gruff senior banker immediately said to him “Never let this happen again. How can I trust you with clients, with million dollar trades, if I can’t trust you with this task. Never again. Understood?”
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
“We can do no great things, only little things with great love”
Mother Teresa.