MM160 - Don't Cut Corners | MM Book Study Pt. 18

One idea that the late, great Dave Thomas left us with was this, don’t cut corners. How often do you or those around you attempt to save time or money by cutting corners? Does cutting corners make your company more attractive or less so?

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♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Hello and good morning, or good afternoon or good evening whenever it happens to be. I was listening to a podcast recently and the host said “Good Morning”, he said I say good morning because all decent human beings listen to my podcast on their way to work in the morning. So I'm going to assume that you're all listening in the morning, but you don't have to listen to this show in the morning listening.

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Listen the evening do whatever but I think it'd be a good time for you to listen at least once a day or at least a good suggestion. Alright, we're continuing on. With our book study. The book is called Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life by Paul Markel. That is me. You can get it at Amazon get it a Kindle. You can go to Morning Mindset podcast.com and you can order yourself a signed copy of the book. Alright, we are on chapter or section number 18 so far, in today's topic is called Don't Cut Corners now. Yes, I am fully aware that we are not supposed to use the negative.

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We're supposed to use the positive. We're supposed to say do not, don't, or do not. However, it doesn't really work in this current situation. Now, my bride has been involved in the restaurant, the Food Service management business her entire adult life. She was managing a restaurant when I met her as a matter of fact, that is how I met her.

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You'll forgive me while I take a quick sip of coffee, because I really need it. I thought I was going to cough there for a second. But one of the many things that she did over the years as she worked for the Wendy's Corporation or franchise of the Wendy's restaurants. You know Wendy's hamburgers, right, and when she started the company was still owned and operated by the Thomas family, Dave Thomas, and Dave Thomas was still alive. Actually at the time and all new managers got a copy of the book Dave's way. By Wendy's founder Dave Thomas and after she read it. She handed me the book and I read it too, and so every long book is matter of fact, I would highly recommend that if you are a business person, especially if you're a small business person or if you're a manager, get the copy a copy of the book Dave's way. I'm sure you can find them on eBay or Amazon or Kindle whatever get a copy of that book now in the book Dave's way.

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He tells several stories of going to visit franchises and how they set up and established the Wendy's franchise and. Dave used to show up at Wendy's stores as franchises and to spot inspections, and Wendy's hamburgers are all square and I don't know if they do it anymore. But when my wife was working for Wendy's and actually my oldest son Jarrad worked for Wendy's for a while. Wendy's hamburgers are square and Dave Thomas was very fond of when people would ask like “Well all of your competitors burgers around Dave, you know, they're all round in yours are square Burgers. Why why would you do that? Why would you make your hamburger patties square when everyone else is around?”

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He would he would get a smile on his face and he would say “Because at Wendy's, we don't cut corners” and of course, you know, the interviewers were all chuckle and everything, but Dave was actually very serious about that, and when he meant don't cut Corners, he didn't mean cutting the corners of a hamburgers. He meant we don't take cheap shortcuts. Now quite often in a business experience. You will see your you'll encounter a maybe you encountered a favorite restaurant or shop or what have you and you and became your favorite because you went there and they treated you.

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Well, the service was good, the product was good. Whatever that product was and you enjoyed it and you enjoy the experience and you kept going. But then over time after they had established themselves and become popular and and we're making enough money to keep the doors open it changed. How many of you have had a favorite restaurant?

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It used to be your favorite restaurant, used to enjoy going there all the time and then you noticed, not overnight but a slow incremental decline and after a while you just decide I'm not going to go there anymore. Because I don't like the service the food is cheap the food doesn't taste the same. What have you you know, they used to give you blankety-blank now, they don't anymore what will happen with many businesses there.

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They're very hungry and they're very eager to establish themselves, to fight against their competition to to make their way, and so they'll begin real strong out of the gate, and they establish themselves as a good business or reputable business and they start getting a solid customer base. Then they feel comfortable after a while like okay. We have a regular customer base, we're making our rent. We're paying our bills looks like we're solvent we're going to be around, and they assume that because that's a good thing or because that they're in that position that it will always be that way and now they start looking for ways to cut Corners.

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They start looking for ways to save money they switch up ingredients. Whereas they were using an ingredient that cost X they're like, well we can get a generic version. That's basically the same for less money. So what we'll do is we'll do that, you know and simple example is you go to a place and it's just a burger place a custom burger place right or high-end hamburger place and they have really good tasty hamburger buns and you enjoy them very much then you come back and you haven't you're like this doesn't seem the same and you realize oh it's because they change the bun.

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Why did change the button well, but because the bond they're using now is 10 cents a unit or five sensor unit or whatever cheaper. It's just about the same. It's pretty much the same. But but this is just cheaper restaurants will do things with employees where they were having, you know, one shift had four people on it, and they realized “You know, if we bring somebody in a little earlier and then have someone stay a little later instead of having four, we’ll have three” and what happens when you eliminate one employee? Service times go down and customer frustration goes up, but they're cutting Corners because they feel comfortable.

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How many of you have been in a position yourselves or have been in a company or with a company that starts cutting corners and getting cheap and trying to find the cheap easy way to do something rather than the good way or the best way how many of you have ever been in a company or work for a company that didn't want the best way?

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They wanted the easiest way. They didn't want the best product. They wanted the cheapest product and you can stay there and you can do that all you want but I'm telling you this if you hope to be successful someday, if you have hope to be like a person person like Dave Thomas who should be emulated by all small business owners in the United States of America, and it's sad to me.

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The Dave has been gone for so long. Now that people have forgotten and they forgotten the example that he said, but if you hope to be productive if you have to help to have a successful business a successful career. You need to be very very aware of that. Now, I'm not talking about wasting money unnecessarily, but there's a difference between being Frugal enough not to waste and deliberately being cheap or going for the easy way instead of the quality way or the best way you do that. You start cutting Corners you start cheapening the experience and eventually it will come around and it will bite you in the butt. So my advice to you as Dave said don't cut Corners if you want to be productive and have a successful business and career. Don't do things the cheap and easy way do things the correct and best way.

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Don't cut those Corners. Alright, ladies and gentlemen that is it for today. Thank you for joining me for the Morning Mindset book study. It's never too late to get a copy, you know where to go Amazon Kindle all that good stuff. I am your host Paul Markle. I'll be back to talk to you again real soon.

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*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.