Dave was a “big idea” guy. Even back in college, Dave had BIG IDEAS about what we should begin doing to make our fortunes. We spent a lot of time thinking about our fortunes in college. Dave was convinced that buying distressed homes, fixing them and selling for a profit would be a GREAT way to make money. We were skeptical. We had no experience in the “fixing them” step.
“Dave, to learn how to “fix” these, we need a General Contractor, or we need to learn how to become General Contractors. That’ll eat into profits, or cost us a lot of time.”
“No, no, no,” said Dave. “I’ve just been to a seminar on this. Do you know what we need to do to become General Contractors?”
“Not a clue,” we admitted.
“Here’s the secret. Tomorrow morning you just wake up, take a long look at yourself in the mirror and say these words: ‘I’m a General Contractor.’ That’s it! You just have to say it.”
Dave was amazingly right.
The next day we all looked in the mirror and declared ourselves to be General Contractors. We pooled our modest savings, bought a couple of dilapidated homes, spent a lot of personal energy “fixing” them and sold them. We even made a little profit. The big accomplishment was that we survived.
Through the experience, we learned a lot, mostly from the many mistakes we made. It’s a good thing we had youth, energy and enthusiasm to overcome our fundamental lack of skill in the contracting profession. The key learning: we would have been better off if we had a real General Contractor guiding that energy and enthusiasm.
I tell this story, because nowadays I run into people who are doing this all the time, not with General Contracting, but with Project Management.
With no real skill or training, many people are apparently looking in the mirror and declaring “I am a Project Manager!” They’re then doing their best, and projects are getting done. The projects may take longer. The scope may be less than hoped. They may be over budget. But they get done, so we’re good, right?
If this sounds familiar, it’s probably more accurate to say that you’re just surviving. It’s likely you’re making a number of mistakes. Surely, you’re expending more energy than you would if you were skilled, or had someone at least guiding or mentoring you.
This is why investing in experienced project management help is a smart investment. This guidance will be a catalyst for your projects, meaning they’ll finish quicker and use less energy than if you did this on your own.
Tomorrow, you’re likely to wake up and look in the mirror. But instead of saying “I’m a Project Manager” you should say “Today, I’m going to get some Project Management help.” Then do just that.
