McGinnis and administrative assistant, David Brown, were in the courthouse the morning of April 24. McGinnis had been there all night and Brown came that morning. “We were in constant contact with the weather service,” McGinnis recalled. “We knew the storm was going to hit us.” But what worried McGinnis, who is also the 911 Coordinator, were the words used by the weather service to describe it. “They used words we were not accustomed to hearing, like, ‘tornado emergency’ and ‘extremely dangerous.’ They used those a lot,” she said.

The tornado struck Yazoo City a few hours later, just after 12 p.m., and its 160 mph winds left a wide path of destruction.

John Deal, Atmos Energy Operations Supervisor for the area, was vacationing in Arkansas when he got a call from Atmos gas control that a tornado hit Yazoo City. “Needless to say, I left immediately,” he said. Deal arrived about four hours later and found a lot of damage, but he also found an amazing amount of cooperation. “You could already see our people taking charge and going about trying to recover and helping each other – unselfishly. The overall community involvement and support was just pretty overwhelming,” he said. “No, it was very overwhelming.”

“The first thing you deal with is the fact that it has happened,” McGinnis said. “Then you have to find a way to do all you can to help the people.” Her role in emergency response has taken her to other places in the state to help with disaster recovery, but this time it was different. “I’ll always remember my first view of Old Benton Road,” she said. “It looked like a war zone. I have friends who live on that road. Yes, this time it was different – this time it was personal.” The faces she saw were the faces of friends and those she spoke to in the grocery store every week. “They weren’t the smiling faces I remembered,” she said. “They were crying and pleading for help. It was very, very personal.”

Deal said that none of them could stop long enough to dwell on the personal issues. “We all had other responsibilities that had to take priority.” Brown was a good example. His first step was to get the emergency shelter ready even though he couldn’t reach his daughter and granddaughters by phone. It wasn’t until later that he learned they were safe. “It was the same with the police, firemen, everyone,” McGinnis said. “We were all worried about our families, but we had a job to do.”

(left to right) David Brown, Bernice McGinnis, and John Deal meet in the Yazoo County Courthouse

“Enough cannot be said about Mississippi 811 and the response, support, and attention that was given by the staff,” Deal said. “Not just in providing the means of getting locate requests out, but their visibility here. Anything they were asked to do, they did and did quickly.”

Deal knew Atmos would be overwhelmed with locate requests and “our first came in at 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning,” he said. “It was for five miles of line.” UtiliQuest provides utility line locating services for Entergy and AT&T in the area, but Atmos does its own locating in Yazoo City. After a call to Jackson for help, a solution was found and Bo Womack, Director of Gulf States for UtiliQuest, made it easy.

“Getting UtiliQuest to help us was a good match,” Deal said. “They locate for Atmos in Jackson and, without hesitation, agreed to help us in Yazoo City; for the next ten days they did all our locates. They did an outstanding job and we’ve invited Bo to speak at our next (DPCC) meeting.”

McGinnis and Deal give credit to their local Mississippi 811 DPCC as a key element in the success of the recovery. “None of us were strangers,” McGinnis said. “Most that came to the recovery briefings were members of our group. We already knew each other and getting the work completed was easier because we could just say what needed to be said and do what needed to be done.”

“Because of the cooperation and utilization of Mississippi 811, third-party damages during the recovery process have been held to a relatively small number,” Deal said. And that, he added, “was totally the result of the local DPCC.”

“I encourage all stakeholders to either start a group or support the group that is already in place,” Deal said. “The relationship building is critical, not just in disasters like this, but in ongoing, daily operations. It’s so vitally important.”

McGinnis, Deal, and Brown are very appreciative of the assistance and support given to them by the organizations and people of Mississippi and other states. “We humbly and sincerely thank them for their help.”

Although the destruction is very apparent today, the recovery process is moving forward. It will take a lot more time to complete the rebuilding, but it will take more than time for the citizens of Yazoo City to heal from the loss of those that were so precious to them.

This is the first article to address the positive leadership attributes that contribute to creating a safe work environment. As a reminder, we’ve listed the leadership model so you can again see how the components work together. Our research found that leadership creates an environment that encourages employees to work safely for the company. Interestingly, loyalty to the company, i.e., working to create a safety climate, preceded the motivation for the employee to work safely for their personal health.

We must begin by addressing two organizational realities. First is the powerful impact that leaders’ behaviors have upon an organization. Leaders need to both recognize and take advantage of this impact through the second reality that top down change produces bottom-up commitment. In reality, everyone is from Missouri, “the show me state,” and employees look to their leaders for direction. In other words, leadership sets the stage for a safe work environment.

We discussed the impact of personalities and safety in the second article of this series, but it’s my belief that you will be able to provide the positive leadership this article describes regardless of your personality. Yes, some leaders will find it easier to do than others. This may be a good time to re-read the article I asked you to copy detailing the 7-Step Personal Change Process©.

I’m asking you to be an inspirational leader by using the following leadership behaviors:

1. Talk about a mission that promotes safety. The starting point is to define a mission or purpose statement to work safely. Don’t worry about writing an academy award winning statement. The important point is to display the company’s mission to work safely. Also, define and post your safety goals along with current progress to achieve these goals.

Then, I’m asking you to talk, talk, and continue talking safety. At every organized meeting, you and/or your management team talk about your mission to work safely.

Discussion points can include:

A. Why is it important for your work site to have a mission to work safely?

B. Why is the company’s safety program important to the employee?

C. Emphasize that you want every employee to leave the job site as healthy as when they started in the morning.

D. Review and recognize progress in achieving safety goals.

2. Instill pride. You want every employee to be proud of working with a company that is conscientious about their personal safety. You may also:

A. Eagerly lead safety activities on the job site and ask other members of the management staff to do the same.

B. Support your safety personnel and their efforts in completing their job responsibilities in support of the company’s mission.

C. When walking the job site, talk to employees about working safely, recognize their safe work, and provide immediate coaching where needed to promote safety.

D. Challenge employees to find you “violating” a safety procedure and correct you on the spot.

E. Celebrate achieving safety milestones.

3. Go beyond self-interest for the safety of the team. Your challenge is to show everyone that you are willing to go the extra mile to do whatever needs to be done to ensure every employee’s personal health. You may find it awkward completing some of the behaviors listed in this article — do them anyway. Many leaders struggle with even providing positive recognition; you’ve got to be the cheerleader and lead that parade. You may need to tell other personnel not to interrupt you while completing safety procedures, e.g., the morning stretch and flex exercise. Remember, you’re showing employees your willingness to go that extra mile so they can maintain their personal health.

4. Display a sense of confidence that safety goals can be achieved. All of us would like success to be a straight-line function. But it’s not. The road to success is filled with frustrations and disappointments. Regardless of the challenges, you show a composed, positive commitment that “we can” work safely. You want members of the management staff to echo the same attitude.

Speaking of confidence, developing self-confidence is a journey called change. The more frequently you use the behaviors outlined in this article, the faster you will become comfortable at using them, and consequently the more quickly you will learn the self-confidence to create a safer work environment. Now that’s a win for everyone.

Several years ago I was traveling on company business, and after the meetings were done for the day and dinner was over, I returned to my hotel room, switched on the TV, and proceeded to settle in for the evening. It had been a long day. I was looking forward to relaxing a bit, maybe checking some scores on ESPN and turning in early, but as I flipped through the channels, a movie caught my attention. Since I love movies, and this one had several actors in it that I enjoy watching, I sat down, and within minutes, it had captured my full attention. The name of the movie was Pay It Forward and it was just starting …

Now Pay It Forward is not one of those blockbuster action/comedy, adventures where good triumphs over evil, and the hero gets the girl. Those are usually my types of movies. This movie is about a boy in middle school who receives an unusual assignment from one of his teachers. The assignment is to write a thesis on how he, a middle school student, could change the world in a practical way, put his plan into action, and document his progress. Friends, that is a tough one for us as adults, but this is a middle school kid! He is young and not fully educated yet. He has little experience, not to mention limited vision and perspective on the world around him. He is not even one of the popular or influential kids in his own class! But what this kid does in this movie is truly inspiring. He takes a negative concept that he has personally experienced and is very familiar with, that being the age old concept of “paybacks,” you know the one that says, “you wrong me, and I will pay you back double at my first opportunity” and completely redefines it. His idea is to do something good for three people, something big, with no strings attached, asking only that they pay his goodness forward to someone else, and so on. In his mind, instead of paying bad back, he is paying good forward. This concept and the boy’s actions initiate a string of events in the movie that is interesting, often amusing, and sometimes touching. I won’t ruin the rest of the movie for you, but I recommend watching it to see how the series of events plays out. Pay It Forward is insightful, entertaining, and inspiring.

So, you ask, “How does all this relate to damage prevention in Mississippi?” My answer is, “more than you might think.” For years there have been good folks in our state championing the cause of damage prevention, trying to make Mississippi a safer place to live and work. Then in 2006, along comes the PIPES Act which spells out and defines nine critical elements of effective damage prevention programs for all states. Furthermore, communications were given that if states did not comply with the nine elements in a timely manner that the federal government would effectively take over the state’s damage prevention program. Suddenly there is a very large spotlight on improving damage prevention in Mississippi and a sense of urgency that is providing momentum for this important cause.

These are truly unique times we find ourselves in today. Never in my 17 year career in the natural gas industry have I witnessed so much attention given to this subject, both statewide and nationally. Groups like Common Ground Alliance (CGA) have given us a national three digit number (811) to call before you dig, a national reporting tool (DIRT) that is confidential and helps identify industry damage trends, millions of dollars worth of national advertising exposure, and a “Best Practices” document that is so sound that some states are adopting pieces of its language into law. On the state and local level, groups like the Mississippi Damage Prevention Committee (MDPC), Mississippi 811, and the Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) Pipeline Safety Division are working together to provide all sorts of damage prevention training and educational opportunities, as well as to raise the awareness level in Mississippi. The MDPC has also been very successful in the last few years in sponsoring improvements to the damage prevention legislation of our state. All of this work and activity is being done with one goal in mind: to make Mississippi a safer place to live and work.

Friends, the time is right, and my challenge to you is to GET INVOLVED! The MDPC is looking for membership and holding regional meetings all over the state again this year. Mississippi 811 has local Damage Prevention Coordination Councils (DPCC) that need your support. Your company or community may need someone to help raise awareness. The opportunities are plentiful. And, in contrast to the boy in the movie, you are not too young or inexperienced. Your level of education is not too limited. Your span of influence is not too small in your community or business. It really doesn’t matter who you are. We all have a stake in the safety of our communities and state. We need your help, your insight, your energy, your voice, and the benefit of your background and experience. Look around you: I bet you already know someone that can help you get involved so that you too can “pay it forward” in Mississippi.

According to Mark McConnell, MDOT Assistant Chief Engineer, Operational Maintenance/Field Operations and Roadeo Coordinator, the competition is another way of advancing employees’ skills in their careers.

“There are six categories in which contestants compete for statewide titles,” McConnell said. “The categories are Lowboy Truck and Trailer, Single Axle Dump Truck with Utility Trailer, Backhoe, Tandem Axle Dump Truck, Motor Patrol, and Tractor/Bushhog.” McConnell said the district Roadeos are an exciting event for everyone, and the operators participating take the event seriously.

“Over the last couple of years, operators have shown a true interest in demonstrating their skills and practicing extreme safety measures while engaging in the competition,” Mississippi Department of Transportation Executive Director, Larry L. “Butch” Brown said. “This event is a real challenge for the operators, which requires a great deal of concentration, proficiency, and skill.”

Litigating the underground utility damage claim is not procedurally unlike other damage litigation. The lawsuit commences by the filing of a complaint in court. Rule 3 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure. The utility owner plaintiff must first decide in which county (venue) and court (jurisdiction) to file suit. In a utility damage case, venue is generally proper in the county where the damage occurred or where the defendant resides. Miss. Code Ann. § 11-11-3. Strategically, a utility owner will often opt for the county where the damage occurred so as to avoid a trial in the “back yard” of the excavator.

Along with selecting the venue, the plaintiff must also select the court for adjudication. Generally, Mississippi has three court systems per county in which to litigate the excavation damage. These court systems have concurrent jurisdiction so that each court has jurisdiction over such claims, subject to specified damage limits. Justice courts may adjudicate cases up to $3,500. Miss. Code Ann. §9-11-9. County courts may adjudicate cases up to $200,000. Miss. Code Ann. § 9-9-21. Finally, circuit courts may adjudicate cases of any level of damage. Miss. Code Ann. § 9-7-81. As a practical manner, cases move more quickly through justice and county courts than circuit courts. However, damages of any significance will exceed the jurisdictional limit of the justice court, and only 20 of Mississippi’s 82 counties have county courts. Therefore, in selecting the court of adjudication, the plaintiff must consider and balance the amount of damage, the desire to expeditiously move the case to trial, and whether the county of damage has a county court.

The utility owner plaintiff must decide which legal theories most effectively address his claims for damage. In the first installment of this series, we introduced a hypothetical case in which an excavator damaged a buried gas line with a backhoe. For purposes of this example, suppose that the (1) the excavator called for a locate of the gas line, (2) the gas line was located with paint on the ground, and (3) the utility owner’s investigation revealed that the backhoe damage occurred less than eighteen inches from the paint marks.

In this hypothetical case, the plaintiff might assert two primary legal theories in his complaint — negligence per se and negligence. Negligence per se applies where the plaintiff proves that “he is a member of the class that a statute was designed to protect and that the harm he suffered was the type of harm which the statute was intended to prevent.” Thomas v. McDonald, 667 So 2d 594 (Miss. 1995). The utility owner would argue that pursuant to statute, its facilities were buried somewhere beneath the strip of land that spans 18 inches in both directions from the painted mark on the ground. Miss. Code Ann. § 77-13-3(o). As the hypothetical damage occurred within eighteen inches of the painted mark by a backhoe, the utility owner plaintiff could argue that the excavator was negligent per se by failing, as required by statute, to “maintain a clearance between any underground utility line or underground facility and the cutting edge or point of any mechanical excavating equipment, taking into account the known limit of control of such cutting edge or point, as may be reasonably necessary to avoid damage to such facility.” Miss. Code Ann. § 77-13-5(1)(b).

The utility owner plaintiff could also assert a general negligence theory against the excavator. A negligence claim requires proof that defendant had a duty to use care, that he failed to use care, and that the plaintiff was injured as the proximate result of the failure to use care. Wilson v. Terry, 67 So. 2d 387 (Miss. 1953). Under this theory, the utility owner would argue that the use of mechanical equipment within 18 inches of the painted mark constituted a failure to use care, and thus a breach of the excavator’s duty of care.

Should the utility owner plaintiff prevail on either of these legal theories, it will be able to collect a judgment against the excavator. However, the excavator will have legal defenses and strategies that it might employ in litigation. First, the excavator will likely not concede that the damage actually occurred within 18 inches of the mark. This again emphasizes the importance of both parties performing thorough investigations of the damage site.

Next, the excavator’s investigation may lead him to believe that the locator failed to correctly mark the underground utility. The utility itself or a separate locating company may have performed the locating service. In either situation, the excavator would argue for dismissal because the damage was caused exclusively due to incorrect location. At the very least, the excavator could argue that damages should be diminished by the percentage of fault attributable to the utility owner or locating company. See Miss. Code Ann. §§ 85-5-7 and 11-7-15.

In the situation where a separate locate company allegedly mismarked the damaged gas line, the excavator must make a strategic decision. He may decide to simply attempt to establish fault by the locator in an effort to diminish damages. Or, he could file a motion to add the locate company as a party to the lawsuit. While this approach helps emphasize the excavator’s seriousness in its belief in the locator’s fault, it also adds another defendant and attorney at trial to point fingers at the excavator. Neither approach is incorrect, and both should be considered in the defense of the damaged underground utility case.

The parties in a buried utility facility lawsuit must make many strategic decisions. As we will see in subsequent installments to this series, these decisions will directly affect the ultimate outcome of the litigation.

One definition I especially like of the word myth is “an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a common ideology”. Abandoned lines means many things to many people. Regulators, accountants, lawyers, and operating personnel all have their own interpretation of what that term abandoned means. Generally speaking, utility and pipelines that have been abandoned mean the owner of the line has decided to retire a particular line from use and not remove it from the ground. There are several advantages to retiring a line, one is you no longer pay property and other taxes on the value of the line.

Secondly, since it is removed from service you no longer are expected to operate or maintain the line. Sometimes certain maintenance conditions may be imposed on a company in order to remove a line from service and abandon it in place for environmental considerations.

Thirdly, the company usually can forgo most reporting requirements when the line is removed from service. All of these reasons are valid business decisions for abandoning a line.

Generally, the intended business decision can be achieved from an accounting perspective without further complications. However, it is not clear to me that life in the operating arena of a company is made easier unless the line has physically been removed or effort is made to maintain it in the form of locating and marking. The issue underlying my concern is ownership. Yes, I know most operating folks will quote the proverbial line, “we abandoned that line, and therefore we don’t own it anymore”. There may be some corporate policy statements that in fact proceduralize that as well, but corporate policy statements are not law. Good corporate policy statements will follow all applicable laws and regulations. Ownership does not cease when you abandon a line in place. At least I have not been able to find any law or regulations that clearly states ownership ceases when a line is abandoned.

I do find the asset ceases to exist on the books when retired, but ownership and maintenance expectations are not clearly dissolved when a line is retired and in some cases environmental requirements exists because of ownership even after the retirement of the asset because it is still in the ground.

Consider these issues:

1. Usually, a utility line or pipeline is placed in some sort of right-of-way. Normally the company is given rights to use the property of someone else for the purpose of ingress, egress, operating and maintaining the line for its intended use. Most right-of-way agreements tend to have clauses that mandate the line needs to be removed and the property restored to its original condition if the line is no longer used. Usually, such right-of-way becomes null and void after the line is physically removed. If the line is not removed the grantor of the right-of-way is usually informed the line is withdrawn from service, but it may be used in the future. Clearly, preserving the right-of-way agreement and also ownership of the line. Ownership is important because state law 62-14-5 NMSA 1978 requires the owner or operator of the underground facility to locate and mark the underground facility. The excavation law makes no distinction between facilities in service or not in service, but only on who owns or operates the line.

2. Many utility companies use maps as the basis for their property tax records. These records are also used by their spotters to help them find the locations of existing underground utility lines. But their corporate policy requires the map record to be amended so that the line being abandoned is physically removed from the map record to correct the accounting record. When this occurs, information is also physically removed from the location record and the spotter’s use and he no longer knows where an abandoned line exists. If the map record is considered an integral part of your spotting function, then you may want to examine your corporate policy and see if you want to continue this practice of removing the line from the record since altering a locate record might be considered a violation of 18.60.5.17 paragraph I, NMAC, which in part states “A person shall be deemed to have willfully failed to comply with this rule or Chapter 62, Article 14 NMSA 1978 and shall be subject to the penalties in Section 62-14-8 NMSA 1978 if the person: … alters any record relating to excavation activity; or …”. There is nothing to prohibit a company from color coding or highlighting a line to be removed from the tax record and still leaving it on the map record so a spotter can utilize the information. Uniform Standard Accounting Principles do not necessarily make good operating policy.

3. Suppose you are an excavator and you called the two working days before digging, went to the site, determined all facilities were marked that you were told would be there, and you begin digging. A couple of hours into the dig you strike and rupture an abandoned line with residual hydrocarbons flowing out of it into your ditch, which is slightly above the existing water table. The line was not marked and is not near the other markings. What do you do?

First of all, the PRC’s Rules & Regulations requires you to stop digging immediately, call 911, if appropriate, secure the site, keep people a safe distance away, and notify the facility owner. You cannot go back to work until the facility owner tells you it is safe to do so. So you are essentially shut down and now you begin the arduous task of trying to figure out whose line that is that you cut. You call the pipeline company that spotted already and they say they will come and look, but it is not their line.

You call the one call center, the Pipeline Safety Bureau, and everyone is standing around trying to figure out whose line it is, when the pipeline company spotter says sheepishly, “It’s an abandoned line. We don’t own it anymore. We took it off of our records six months ago when we took the line out of service.” This abandoned line has suddenly gotten very expensive, and the excavation law is pointing to the facility owner as the one who violated the excavation law and maybe some environmental laws as well. The owner or operator of the line may be subject to multiple fines for excavation law violations, the facility owner owes you, the excavator, for all your down time and reasonable expense incurred, and the facility owner owns the liability of the cleanup costs and any fines which may be imposed by the environmental regulators. All because someone decided that they did not own the line anymore and removed it off of their books and records.

Again, standard accounting principles do not necessarily make good operating policy. If you are the facility owner, you may succeed in getting some folks to buy that line of reasoning, but a good lawyer for the excavator will clearly show how the burden under the law resides with your company, the owner of the line, and not the excavator. Environmental regulations are written around who owns the line as well, not how you account for it on the books.

I have probably touched on one or two things that many of you will say “we don’t do it that way” and have caused you to question my expertise and authority on this issue. Good. I am not a lawyer, or an accountant, but my purpose is to get you to think about these things and examine your own company practices with the experts. I think you will find the myth that an abandoned line means I don’t own it, will take on a new level of concern when you consider other laws and rules & regulations that companies must comply with which are based on ownership. Here is my list of recommendations to help you in this effort:

1. Examine your company policies and practices. Do not remove abandoned lines from the record a spotter uses to mark lines with. Color code or highlight abandonments. This insures the spotter will be able to mark a line you own.

2. Don’t call things by the accounting terms unless that is what you do in practice (i.e., a removal is done on a map card when a line is abandoned and a retirement order is written to take it off the books). The line is really still there, it is just not in service.

3. Staff should be familiar with the terms and what they mean for the different disciplines, so their use is not confusing.

4. Contact regulators and experts to get their opinions and help on the best practices to use. They are more willing to help than you may give them credit for.

5. Consider marking any line in the ground that is not physically removed. You can even mark it as abandoned if you like. But by marking the lines you absolve yourself of the liabilities of not marking a line you own.

We encourage excavators to never cut an abandoned line. We also encourage facility owners to mark abandoned lines. Yes, there is a cost to do that, but there may be a much larger cost if you don’t mark it.

When an abandoned line is discovered by an excavator, a great deal of confusion occurs trying to find out who the owner of the line is and how to contact them. Unforeseen costs are incurred and the frustration of all the parties involved escalates. It would be a lot simpler if abandoned lines as a matter of practice were tracked, located, and marked. If you are going to avoid the expense of removing a line when retiring it, then you should bear the expense of locating it when necessary.

I am reminded of my days as a police officer when I would discover contraband in a person’s vehicle. Without fail, the defendant’s response was always, “That’s not mine! I don’t know where it came from.” We as an industry can choose to claim “it’s not mine,” or we can choose to do the right thing.

These familiar words state the fundamental purposes, principles, and goals of the government established by the Constitution. Its purpose is to generally define the reasons behind the Constitution, establish what justifies a government, and explain how its citizens have come to create one.

These words, penned more than 220 years ago, still inspire those of us struggling to develop meaningful and lasting relationships today. What we should recognize is that these words do not speak just to the quality of the document, but rather to the quality of the people involved in creating the document.

Human nature, being what it is, convinces us that assembled together in that far away September of yesteryear were people from different parts of the country and with different perspectives and goals. Frustration may have brought them together, but commitment to a common goal kept them working together for the benefit of their generation and the generations to come.

So must it be for us today. Are we willing to unite behind a common goal of damage prevention, and has that common goal been defined yet? What are we willing to do to help keep our state a safer place to live and work? Is it possible to achieve such an honorable yet difficult goal? Of course the answer is, “Yes”.

It begins with trust. You can have a committee without trust, but you can’t have a meaningful relationship without trust. Think about the groups, committees, or boards to which you belong. If there is someone in that committee that you just can’t trust, the problem will very likely be you. If you aren’t willing to trust one another, any perceived success will be short-lived.

The next critical step in maintaining the relationship is good old fashion honesty and integrity. If it needs said, say it, but say it with kindness. If we can’t say it with kindness, don’t say it all. If you can’t say it so as to build the bridge, then what you are about to say is above your pay grade. Find someone who can mediate or facilitate the issue so as not to tear down what’s already established.

One of the most vital qualities for a strong and meaningful relationship, for bringing all stakeholders together, even those who may not agree with you, is the ability to listen with all your heart. This kind of relationship requires that our listening goes beyond just words. We must connect emotionally with others to accomplish what we are unable to accomplish alone. Listening intently to what the person is not saying is just as important as listening to what is being said. Rather than get frustrated at the tone of voice being used, try to understand why they struggle so to get their message across. We want people not only to hear what we say, but also to feel what we feel.

If we understand this to be true, then how much more important is it that each of us sets the example for creating the environment that allows all of our stakeholders to be winners in creating a more fair and effective damage prevention program?

“Impossible!” you say. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s possible; I only know it’s necessary.

Happy birthday, America, and I salute all those who worked through their differences to achieve the impossible.

Well, the big deal is this. Go to your local hardware store and start looking at drills. If you’re lucky enough to have a salesperson assist you, they’ll tell you about the drill – what size motor it has, how it’s insulated, if it’s rechargeable, while we’re standing there thinking to ourselves, “Will it drill a hole?” You see, we buy what a product or service does for us, not what it is.

The purpose of my example is not just to be humorous, although I hope you think it is. Let’s apply that concept to your business and see how it plays out.

The technique is to tell your prospect a benefit when you recite a fact in describing a product or service. We don’t buy what a product or business “is.” We buy what it “does for us.” I don’t want power steering on my car; I want the ease of operating it. Most people repeat what happens in the hardware store for their own business.

They tell about what it is and leave off the benefit so that the customer has to make that transition for himself. That doesn’t create ZING! Is that happening with you?

Recently, I had an air-conditioning unit go out in our commercial building. The technician told me about the size of the replacement unit, when he could put it in, and the cost (the facts). What I wanted was to have happy tenants that would renew their leases and recommend the building to friends. I also wanted to be able to focus on my business and not be distracted by problems created by the air-conditioner not working (the benefits). He never mentioned those things. So you see, I had to do the real sales job for him. The hurtful part is I didn’t get a commission after doing all the sales work.

Next I had to decide if I trusted him and his company to perform up to standard and provide a fair price. Fortunately for them, I have dealt with them for a year and know they perform as they promise and are competitive.

Credibility is critical when we’re purchasing a product or service. That’s especially true if it’s the first time we’ve dealt with a company or their representative. We’ve been told to “Let the buyer beware,” so we’re cautious. A typical sales phrase is “we have great service” or “we’re the best.” In the back of the buyer’s mind they’re thinking “Who says so besides you, Mr. /Ms. Salesperson?”

Top producers provide factual, specific information in order to create credibility. For example, to be even more effective the air-conditioning representative could have said; “Jerry, it’s a four ton unit (fact) which means even on the 100 degree plus days in Arkansas your tenants will stay cool (benefit). It comes with a service contract (fact) so you can be assured it will continue operating effectively, eliminating breakdowns and tenant complaints (benefit).”

His credibility could have been strengthened even more with an understatement. The formula for creating an understatement is to first tell what you can’t do. Then tell what you can do. He might have offered; “Jerry, we can’t guarantee you’ll never have heating and cooling problems again (what he can’t do). We can assure you we’ll respond within four hours to any breakdown insuring you keep tenants happy (what he can do).” Utilizing an occasional understatement makes us even more believable.

Consistently use facts and benefits along with an occasional understatement. That creates ZING for you and your business.

Dillard and I were going camping to the Hoodin’ Pile. Now both of my regular readers will immediately recognize the Hoodin’ Pile as being perhaps one of the best all-time swimming holes in the known world.

This particular trip was going to be extra special because we were going to spend the night on the banks of Messer Creek. Fishing all night and swimming all day, can it get any better than that? And besides all that, one of my best buddies was going to be with us.

Now Junior Stokes was two years older than me, but he wasn’t as experienced in the ways of the woods as me. He would have been way too scared to walk through the woods to Dillard’s like me. He wasn’t as good a swimmer as me, and he certainly wouldn’t have jumped off the high cliff overlooking the Hoodin’ Pile. No sir, he might have been a few years older than me, but I was definitely way more experienced.

He and I were riding double on Dillard’s plow horse. Dillard was astride his favorite leopard spotted Appaloosa. Walking obediently behind was his pack mule. This was going to be a trip to remember.

We arrived at just the right time to make camp and still be able to get in a great afternoon of swimming before we started fishing. That was good because Junior needed to learn about swimming in treacherous waters like the Hoodin’ Pile. We rushed over to the swimming hole and hollered back to Dillard, “We going to go ahead and start swimming now.” He nodded and turned back to finish his task.

There we were standing on the edge of the water looking at the jumping rock. The reason we were looking at the rock instead of standing on the rock was that there were two cottonmouths already there. This was certainly an uncompromising situation because we came there to swim.

“Get out of here,” I yelled as I picked up a rock and chucked it at them. I had heard the older boys tell me about shooing the snakes in the water and going ahead and swimming. “Snakes can’t bite underwater,” they said.

The rocks bounced too close to the cottonmouths for comfort. They dropped off the tree limb they had been laying on and went out of sight in the water. I walked to the edge of the jumping rock located in the middle of the swimming hole and peered in the water for a bit. I turned and waved Junior over to me. I looked at him and said, “It’s ok. Snakes can’t bite underwater. You can jump in if you want to.”

Junior’s eyes told on him. He thought I was crazy. He then shook his head and said, “I’m not jumping in with them snakes.” I bailed off the rock in a cannonball pose and yelled “sissy” before I went underwater.

It was a perfect cannonball and I went deep in the water. It was odd though. It felt like I had scraped my elbow on a rusty nail. I had done that one time behind Uncle Alva’s house, so I knew what it felt like. But this time, it was peculiar because I was underwater. As I started reaching the top of the water, I looked back toward my elbow intending to see what the sting was all about and saw a cottonmouth strike my elbow again.

I slapped at him and yelled as loud as I could, “Dillard, they lied! I’ve been snake bit, and I’m going to die.” I don’t know how in the world he got to me so fast. I told folks for years that Dillard snatched me out of the water and never even got wet. He would always smile and say that I met him on the bank.

“How did I get there? I don’t remember swimming to the bank,” I said. He replied, “I just assumed you walked on the water. When I got to you all that was wet was the bottom of your feet.”

What I remember most about that day was how sick I got. Dillard used his knife and cut the bite and sucked out the poison as best he could, but by the time we finally got to the doctor over two hours later my arm was big and black. I stayed in the hospital a couple of days for them to keep a watch on me.

Dillard was there the next day when Doc Jones came in and gave me another shot of something. He asked me how I got bit in the first place. I told him that lie about snakes don’t bite underwater. He said, “What do you believe now?” I looked at my still swollen arm and said, “Snakes may prefer to bite you on the ground, but they will definitely bite you underwater.” He smiled and asked, “Changed your mind, have you?”

Dillard said, “Doc, I’d listen to the boy. He is in rare company now.” Doc Jones looked at him quizzically and said, “How so?”

“Well sir, up until three days ago, only the good Lord and Peter had walked on water, and now this boy has walked farther than Peter. If he tells you that snakes will bite underwater, you can count on it,” Dillard said.

Old Doc Jones roared with laughter. I just smiled sheepishly and said, while drifting off to sleep again, “Dillard, you ain’t so funny.”

• Ready or not, it will all come to an end.
• There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
• All the things you collected whether treasures or baubles, will pass to someone else.
• Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
• Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear. So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
• The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.
• It won’t matter whether you were beautiful, or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
• So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
• What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
• What will matter is not your success, but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
• What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.
• What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
• What will matter are not how many people you knew, but how many people will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
• What will matter are not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
• Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Like you, sometimes I make inappropriate choices and allow frustrations and disappointments to interrupt the joy of living. That is usually followed by a conversation about how “stupid I was to make such a choice”.  I’m getting better at making better choices, but perfect I’m not.
Living enjoyably is a constant challenge. I now have Living a Life That Matters filed in my daily reading file. Let me encourage you to start a daily reading file. Mine contains one document outlining my vision, purpose, goals I’m working to achieve, several prayers, and a description of the day I want to live. Reading this content every morning provides a psychological boost of energy to start the day and excellent guidelines for the choices that will be made throughout the day. Then at the end of the day, you can spend a few minutes thinking about the successful choices you’ve made to Live a Life That Matters. Trust me, once you start this ritual, you’ll like it!

Larry Cole, Ph.D., founded TeamMax®, Inc. and the TeamMax® methodologies to improve employee performance to maximize financial success. He is the author of People-$mart Leaders: Maximize People, Performance & Profits.  Each year he speaks to thousands of people on personal development, change management and measuring behavioral change.  He can be reached at: larry@aligningchange.com