“Steve, you need to get over here right now.” My heart sunk to my knees while my mind started running scenarios of the conversation I was going to be having shortly.

The drive over there felt like eternity in slow motion.

In my mind’s eye what I was about to walk into looked awful.

When I arrived, it was worse.

Just fifteen minutes earlier I was getting ready to finish up a long but really good day.

Now I was standing face to face with a customer who was understandably upset and two employees who wished they were anywhere but there.

It was tense, and frankly horrifying. I might have cried, but there was no time for that.

Our business specialized in refurbishing old or damaged chimneys. 

We worked with all types of people in all kinds of homes.

This customer was wealthy, influential and had an amazing place. Immaculate, expensive furnishings, and the recently refinished wooden spiral staircase was the home’s central feature.

I always explained the risks of pouring our proprietary cement-like mix into old chimneys, especially the ones hidden inside walls or inaccessible parts of the home.

But this conversation was going to be hard and would be messing up everyone’s plans for the rest of the evening.

I took a deep breath, walked in, and felt my heart sink the rest of the way to my toes.

At the bottom of that elegant staircase a pool of that wet cement was forming on the recently refinished hardwood floor as it streamed down that gorgeous staircase.

All eyes shifted from the mess to me.

My mind was thinking, “well, I did explain that this kind of thing could happen and it’s in the contract, blah, blah, blah”.

Thankfully it didn’t make its way to my lips (Psa. 141:3)!

“We’ll clean it up.”

It never ceases to amaze me how the right attitude can go a long way in a difficult situation.

No excuses.

No blaming.

No bargaining.

It happened. I own it. I’m really sorry. I’ll take care of it. Now.

That was the moment everything in the room changed.

No more tension.

Just cooperation.

Unified mission.

Even the homeowner was positively engaged.

Those two employees and I even got invited to the thank-you party full of other contractors, influential friends and family who gathered around that fireplace telling the story that almost made me cry.

Instead, we were laughing ourselves to tears.

(Except the stair and floor guy but I couldn’t blame him)

We also got a tremendous amount of referral business from that horror story.

How does that happen? 

When we take personal responsibility for our part in “it” with the right attitude amazing things begin to happen.

Sometimes I think we make it harder than it needs to be. And that made me think of Matt. 5:25.

It doesn’t have to be so hard if we choose to be humble.

Here’s my question for you:

What’s the thing you need to take personal responsibility for with humility, so you don’t make it harder than it needs to be? I’d love to hear your response. Reply and share it. I read every email.

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