Teamwork

I received a phone call last week from a woman who had just discovered we were building a new soap room in Scottsburg.  We had a nice conversation and then she made a comment that stuck with me.  She asked me how long we had been in business and when I told her four years she said something like, “How did you manage that?  I’ve been in business for 10-15 years and haven’t had that much success.”

I’m not sure exactly how I responded, but I probably said something like, “It was God’s grace and a lot of hard work.”   While those are the basic reasons, the real answer is much more complex than that.  There are a lot of factors that have gone into our success, and I’ve been thinking about those reasons.

Last night I was reading two online articles from Success Magazine about  The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family by Patrick Lencioni.  They quote him as saying:

The first and most important thing is to have a rally cry for your family. A rally cry is your family’s primary goal or top priority for the next one to six months. (Shorter than that is a fire drill and much longer than that is difficult to focus on.)  Families function most productively when they have a common goal to achieve. Both short-term goals like taking a summer vacation or long-term goals like improving family communications help bring a family together. It gives them a rally cry to understand why “we’re all in this together,” Lencioni says.

This jumped out at me so strongly because this completely describes our family.  Our family has always functioned as a very tight unit.  We’re a team and we operate as a team.  We are all individuals and have individual interests, but we’ve always rallied around the family’s goals.
 
For many years, the family’s main goal was to pay off the mortgage.  Then the main goal was to bring Daddy home.  Then the main goal was to make a success of Goat Milk Stuff.  Don’t get me wrong, we did a lot of other things, but those goals were central and all our decisions were based on those over-arching goals. We prayed about them, we worked toward them, and we never lost sight of them.
 
And you know what?  Having a unified focus for intelligent, hard-working, and ambitious people produces amazing results.  [Click to Tweet]
 
We paid off the mortgage.  
 
We brought Daddy home.  
 
Goat Milk Stuff is a success.
 
Teamwork really is a wonderful thing.   And you don’t need as many children as we have to accomplish great things.  But you do need to function as a team.
 
What about you? Does your family have a goal or rally cry that you’re working toward?  Please leave me a comment and let me know what it is.  
 
If you don’t have a family goal, what are you waiting for?

PJ

 

 

Related posts:

Commitment
When to Discipline and When to Laugh
Setting My Children Up for Success
Training Children is Like Training Vines
The Power of Small Change
Half Way to Perfection
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7 thoughts on “Teamwork”

  1. love it PJ!!!!  yes!  yes!  To all that you’ve shared…. have had bits and pieces of the same revelation, but you put everything so eloquently to words!  Am trying currently to narrow down our lofty goals to something more manageable… the 1-6 months focus is a great tip!  Continued prayers for your success… not just worldly success, hoping to meet one day soon!

    • Thanks, Melissa!  I’d love to meet you! And thanks for the prayers.  One thing I didn’t mention was that once you figure out your goals, make sure you write them down and post it for everyone to see!!  
      PJ

    • I’d love to meet you in person!  Do you live close by?  or are you going to make a road trip?  PJ

  2. We have lots of goals.  The first is to become debt free. (Except for the mortgage.) Then we are going on a cruise to celebrate.  After that we’re saving up for little things like bedroom furniture and eventually kids! 

    Also I have to say that I love reading your posts PJ.  They are encouraging to a homeschooled newlywed like me, who wants to be a homeschooling mom.

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