#207 - Are You One Of Them?

[00:00:00] Now I've actually always found something to be very true, which is most people don't get those experiences because they'd never ask. I've never found anybody that didn't want to help me if I asked them for help.

[00:00:19] If you are an irrigation professional, old or new, who designs, installs, or maintains high-end residential, commercial, or municipal properties, and you want to use technology to improve your business to get a leg up on your competition, even if you're an old school irrigator from the days of hydraulic systems, this show is for you.

[00:00:42] Hey, it's your friend Andy, The Sprinkler Nerd, and welcome back to another Sprinkler Nerd Quickie. Today, I want to ask you a simple question. Like this. Are you one of them?

[00:00:57] I could say this a few different ways. Are you one of them? Are you one of them? Are you one of them? It's funny how you can change your enunciation and almost change the meaning of a question sometimes, so that's me getting distracted. But I want to ask you, are you one of them? And I'll try to explain my thought here without being too divergent.

[00:01:26] It seems like often on the podcast here, I'm offering an opportunity to reach out. Same thing on YouTube videos. Same thing on conferences that I speak at. I usually end them, or I shouldn't say usually. Oftentimes, I end them the same way. I say, reach out anytime. I'd love to hear from you. Send me a text message. Here's my personal cell phone. It's 208-908-3229.

[00:01:56] Thousands of people have heard me say those words. At Sprinkler Supply Store, on our weekly emails, I mention that my office door, my digital office door, is always open. Customers can schedule a call with me anytime. This is going out to tens of thousands of people.

[00:02:19] And you know what I find really interesting? Only a handful actually reach out. I was actually afraid to put this in the footer of my emails to mention that people could book a call with me, because I thought, wow, if this is going out to 100,000 people, I might just be overwhelmed. And I thought, I'll take a chance and do it anyway. And you know what happened?

[00:02:42] A couple people reached out, but not thousands of people. And the concept of that stuck with me. Only a handful actually reach out. And I think that the ones who do might be different. Why were they the ones to reply to the email? Why did they introduce themselves to me? Why did they ask the question?

[00:03:12] Why did they take the chance? And I don't want to forget to say thank you for all of you who have reached out over the years. It's super meaningful, and I want to thank you for that. And you may not realize it. And you may not realize it, but you've reminded me of something I've always admired and oftentimes try to remind myself of, and that is that you took action.

[00:03:40] You acted. And the premise of this podcast came to me because I was recently re-listening to an old interview with Steve Jobs that I really, really like. And I'll try to cut that in here in just a moment. He told the story of being, I think, around 12 years old. He wanted to build a frequency counter. So he looked up Bill Hewitt's phone number in the phone book, like Hewlett Packard.

[00:04:10] He called him up at home, and he asked Bill if he had any spare parts for a frequency counter. You know what? Bill Hewlett answered the phone himself. And again, I'm going to play this for you. So I think Steve had this opportunity to speak with the founder of Hewlett Packard at 12 years old. And it's like, who does that? We need more of that in this world.

[00:04:39] It's hard to even imagine a 12-year-old today taking action to try to call up Bill Gates, let's say, for example, at home. And again, that's not really possible. And that's an extreme example. But one phone call from a curious kid opened a door that helped shape one of the greatest innovators of our time. Going back to the Steve Jobs story.

[00:05:07] Now, I've actually always found something to be very true, which is most people don't get those experiences because they'd never ask. I've never found anybody that didn't want to help me if I asked them for help. I always call them up. I called up, this will date me, but I called up Bill Hewlett when I was 12 years old. And he lived in Palo Alto. His number was still in the phone book. And he answered the phone himself. Did I? Yes. Hi, I'm Steve Jobs. I'm 12 years old.

[00:05:35] I'm a student in high school, and I want to build a frequency counter. And I was wondering if you had any spare parts I could have. And he laughed, and he gave me the spare parts to build this frequency counter. And he gave me a job that summer in Hewlett-Packard working on the assembly line putting nuts and bolts together on frequency counters. He got me a job in the place that built them. And I was in heaven. And I've never found anyone who said no or hung up the phone when I call. I just asked.

[00:06:02] And when people ask me, I try to be as responsive, you know, to pay that debt of gratitude back. Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask. And that's what separates sometimes the people that do things from the people that just dream about them. You got to act. And you've got to be willing to fail. Fail. You've got to be willing to crash and burn, you know, with people on the phone, with starting a company, whatever.

[00:06:30] If you're afraid of failing, you won't get very far. And, you know, it wasn't so much the story of Steve calling Bill Hewlett that stuck with me. It was the lesson that Steve learned. And Steve said that he'd never found many people unwilling to help when he simply asked.

[00:06:56] Then he said something that's been rolling around in my mind probably ever since I heard that quote for the first time. And that's that most people never pick up the phone. Most people never ask. That's what separates the people who do things from the people who dream about them. I think I'm going to say that again. Most people never ask.

[00:07:21] That's what separates the people who do things from the people who dream about them. So are you a doer or are you a dreamer? It may not be quite so black or white, but I think that's an easier way for me to understand, yeah, I do like to dream. But dreaming just for the sake of dreaming isn't as fulfilling as acting,

[00:07:51] making a small, taking a small action step that might get you towards that dream. And I think that when I look back at my own life, there's a couple different examples of this. And I'm not going to share all of them. But the one that, I'm not going to put these in any particular word, but the one that comes to my mind right now is that in 2010, I was watching season one of Shark Tank

[00:08:19] and was interested and thought, I wonder how I get on the show. I wonder how you get on the show. And of course, what do you do in 2010? You ask the Google machine. And I can't remember where, but I found some thread in a chat somewhere. I don't remember if it was Reddit. I think Reddit was available then. But in any case, it was some personal email.

[00:08:48] And it was something like, I'm just going to make this up because I don't remember what it is. I could probably go back in my Gmail and find it, but it was something like sharktankcasting467 at gmail.com. Something like that. I'm like, well, what harm could this do if I craft an email and I send it out? So I did. And it wasn't, but probably six, six months later.

[00:09:18] Again, I could probably look this all up in my Gmail and find out the facts, but I did not get a response right away. I actually completely forgot that I sent this email. But they did. Someone did respond. And I ended up on season two of Shark Tank with the EcoMower. And if you're listening to this podcast for the first time and you don't know who I am, that was just one adventure.

[00:09:43] One threshold I crossed in my own personal journey was being on season two of Shark Tank and not getting a deal. And quite honestly, not being represented the way that I wanted to be represented. And my pitch wasn't even my real pitch, but I'll save all that for another time. There's just an example of acting instead of dreaming. Oh, I like to be on Shark Tank. I don't know why I decided to go research an email and actually send one. But I did. And it worked out.

[00:10:11] And because I heard this interview again with Steve Jobs, it's really given me an opportunity to think about the thousands of people who have listened to this podcast, watched my YouTube channel, are subscribed to the Sprinkler Supply Store weekly email. And I've been thinking about only the handful who have actually reached out to me. Some of these people have become my friends.

[00:10:39] Like you, Miles, you were one of the first, I think, to reach out to me directly. And we've become great friends. And some of you who have reached out have become podcast guests. Some have become customers. Some just become curious with me. And sometimes having someone else to be curious with is a heck of a lot of fun. And some simply shared a story that made my day just by reaching out.

[00:11:06] But none of these conversations would have happened if any of them had just stayed silent. So for some reason, you guys took action and you reached out to me. And I think sometimes we spend way too much time trying to predict the answer before we ever even ask the question. It's like in our minds, which our mind is an amazing storytelling machine. It makes stuff up all the time. That's not true. The only way to see if it's true is to take action, right?

[00:11:35] So we imagine things like rejection. We imagine embarrassment. We imagine that we could be bothering somebody by reaching out. But meanwhile, the other person may be completely willing to help. But we've made up the story in our mind that they're going to say no, that we're going to be embarrassed, that we bothered them, that we're going to get rejected. But you know what? You never know unless you go. You'll never know unless you go. So let me ask you one more time.

[00:12:06] Are you one of them? Are you one of them? The people who make the phone call. The people who send the email. The people who introduce themselves. The people who ask. If you've reached out to me before, again, thank you. You probably don't realize it. But you're exactly the kind of person Steve Jobs was talking about. You acted.

[00:12:31] And if there's someone you've been meaning to contact, this could be somebody like a mentor. Or it could be an existing customer. Or it could be a future company or employer that you would like to work for. It could be somebody that you admire. Maybe it could be a mentor again. Or like a hero. It could be just somebody that you are really fascinated by that you want to talk to. Or I'd say, maybe today's the day.

[00:12:59] Maybe today's the day to send that email. Make that phone call. Ask that question. What's the worst thing that's going to happen? They might say no. Oh my gosh. They might say no. Because they might say no. Is that the reason not to send the email? Not to make the phone call? Not to ask the question? Perhaps. If you're too afraid.

[00:13:27] But the best thing that can happen might change the direction of your life. What if they don't say no? Saying no is just one possibility. But they might not say no. Those people who are willing to ask have a funny way of ending up in places they never expected. So are you one of them? Are you going to make the phone call today? Are you going to send the email?

[00:13:55] Are you going to ask the question and see what happens? It might help you end up in a place you never expected. So that's my quickie for the day, guys. Make the phone call. Send the email. Ask the question. Be the doer more than the dreamer. Thanks for listening, my friends. Until next time, stay curious. Enjoy your wonderful weekend. I love you guys so much.

[00:14:26] We'll see you on the next episode.