Status Quo isn't Okay

Last night we went to a nearby Mexican restaurant. 
So, it's Friday night, and everybody else thought this would be a great place to eat and drink too.  There were people standing everywhere; outside around the door, inside near the door, scrunched together on the 2 little benches that they had available to sit on, every bar stool and table was full, and the hostess told us we had a 40-minute wait for a bar or outside table as she gave us our pager.
So I'm looking around at all us idiots who will wait to be seated.  We're all salivating at the trays of margaritas going by and the baskets of chips and salsa. 
And now I'm wondering: why don't they have staff out here selling us drinks while we wait?  Or how 'bout free samples of some dish they want to push tonight?  Don't they see people ready to spend money?  We're captive, we're thirsty, we're hungry.  Come on! 
I guess I'm an idiot because it's too hard to do.  I mean, you'd have to hire people.  You'd have to have trays.  You'd have to have a plan for cash orders or starting a tab.  How ridiculous.  It just wouldn't work.
Harumph!
Opportunity is staring at you and you haven't done it before or seen somebody else do it, so all that money and those happy, lubed-up customers just evaporate on you, AGAIN.

What I Own

I constantly talk about responsibility and what I can affect versus what is coincidence or what another person thinks and does.  It's so easy to blame someone else for being stupid if they don't get me or agree with me.  I just need to be certain that I am speaking and acting so a normal, rational person could get it.  And I also have to realize that absolute agreement isn't a valid goal.  What is good enough to move forward?
Scott Ginsberg has a great take, and expands, on these thoughts in his blog today.  It's worth reading and he's worth following...

Loose Calf wants to Be Part of Something

Okay, the baby calf made me worry (see post below from August 5).  But I can't believe how long it took me to get the lesson he was showing me. 
You probably already have it:

• We all want to be part of something larger than ourselves.  We want to be part of something we're really proud of, that we'll fight for, sacrifice for, trust.

That's not just me.  That's Tom Peters, and Howard Schultz (Starbuck's), and Steven Covey, and every successful business person.
Sometimes we wander off.  Sometimes the grass looks greener or whatever. 
We always want to fit in somewhere.  We always want to be noticed and acknowledged that we matter.  We want to be WE.  We don't ever really want to be all alone for very long.
The only reason anybody ever leaves an employ is because they don't matter like they want and need to.  Think about it.  It's the truth. 
And so I am convicted to make sure my employees and colleagues feel like they fit, like they matter, like they are contributing something worthwhile.  I have to.

Loose Calf

I was driving down the highway and noticed a black calf walking along the outside of the fence that he should have been in.  Awww, I thought, "he'd gotten out of the fenced pasture somewhere but couldn't figure out how to get back in to be with his herd."
I thought about him for awhile going down the road, but didn't know how I could help, and figured this sort of thing happens all the time.  I remembered sometime in the distant past watching a woman try to scare 3 sheep back out of the ditch and into a fence and thought it was funny.  I am sure she would've slapped me if she knew I was laughing at her predicament that day...alas, in and out the livestock go and someone somewhere gets them back in.
Problem solved.  Except my poor little black calf haunts my dreams.  I guess there is a lesson or analogy trying to form in my head.  I hope I get it figured out soon.  I have half-baked ideas for analogies.  But my dreams are not happy, or triumphant...and that's what I write about.  So I am discombobulated now trying to figure this all out.
Oh well.  Pleasant dreams to me.  Maybe one day soon I will have a beautifully crafted analogy for loose calves and excellence.  Stay tuned.