Inspirations for Manufactured Housing Professionals

Teamwork Proverbs and Quotation

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It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.

There is no “I” in “TEAMWORK”.

Teamwork: is less me and more we.

TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

~ ~

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” ~ Andrew Carnegie

Submitted by Soheyla Kovach

A Creed to Live By

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Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others,

It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important,

Only you know what is best for you.

Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart

Cling to that as you would your life, for without them life is meaningless.

Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or the future.

By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

Don’t give up when you still have something to give

Nothing is really over … until the moment you stop trying.

Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect,

It is the fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Don’t be afraid to encounter risks,

It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find.

The quickest way to receive love is to give love.

The fastest way to lose love is to hold on too tightly,

And the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don’t dismiss your Dreams. To be without dreams is to be without hope.

To be without hope is to be without purpose.

Don’t run through life so fast that you forget where you’ve been,

But also know where you’re going.

Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored every step of the way.

~ Author Unknown

Moving the Pile – A Manufactured Housing Success Secret

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From football, we learn the phrase, ‘moving the pile.’   In the first video, we get an example of a running back who through his extra effort, moves the pile for a few extra yards.

In the second video, see an example of how the wedge is executed on the kickoff.

Now think of the running back in the first video as a great manufactured housing professional.  His hard running effort gets extra yards.  But no score, at least, not on this play.

Then contrast that with the second video.  The wedge are your ‘industry allies,’ your manufactured housing associations and trade media platforms like this one.  The combination of hitting the opposition in an organized fashion results in the breakthrough and the score!

If you are not in an association, or are not active in one, consider the benefits of how ‘the wedge’ of other association members, working with you on industry issues, can advance you and your business for more scores. # #

Working Together – A Teamwork Puzzle

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Every industry depends on its various elements – its pieces of the puzzle – in order to prosper.  Separate one or more elements or pieces from its whole, and all will suffer.

Imagine that each of the four characters below represents those who hold a piece of our Industry’s puzzle:

Lumaxart Graphic by Scott Maxwell
Lumaxart Graphic by Scott Maxwell
  • The red person represents home retailers, manufactured housing communities and developers.
  • The gold represents financing.
  • The green represents manufacturers.
  • The blue represents suppliers of various types.
  • The circle formed by the puzzle is the Information and cohesiveness supplied by trade associations as well as engaged, pro-Industry trade media and publishers.  These trade media are magazines or ezines such as MHMSM.com.
Puzzle missing a piece
If any piece gets minimized or isolated, the rest lose balance and suffer. If the integrity of the circle – if associations or trade media – suffers, all will pay the price. Each party – each piece of the puzzle – needs the others.

While it may be human nature to think that your piece of the puzzle is ‘the most important,’ in fact all of the pieces are important.

Analogies like this can be helpful, but they also have their limits.  The puzzle itself, what should the picture that is on it be?  Let’s consider the answer to that as the public’s view of our Industry.  Do they see us as being a modern, green, clean, appealing and affordable option?  Do they see us as being able to provide everything from entry level HUD Code homes to residential style (conventional looking) homes, to sprawling modular mansions?  If not, why not?  This is the ‘missing person’ of image building and marketing.  This is why the picture is a hodge-podge of color instead of the image of an appealing, quality and affordable solution to the American Dream of home ownership.

When an industry associate of yours knows that something – some piece – is missing, point them to this puzzle and those who hold it together.  Then ask them what is missing, and ask them how they can work with others to be a part of the solution. # #

Finger Pointing 2011

Inspirations for Manufactured Housing Professionals, Uncategorized / By

There is an old canard that goes like this: 

When you point your finger at someone else, 
you have three fingers pointing back at you.

In our Industry the blame game is often lurking under the surface.  So-and-so or such-and-such has failed us.  Why hasn’t so-and-so made this or that happen?  Why doesn’t somebody do something?

“I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that.
Then I realized I was somebody.”
– Lily Tomlin

This year, let this be our challenge!  When we are tempted to point fingers, or blame or tear down someone’s efforts, stop. First, ask yourself – and that person – why are you doing or saying that?  It is common sense and civility to say you should not blame or criticize, certainly not until you are sure you understand them and their action.  Give the other person the same benefit of the doubt you want them to give you.  

“Seek first to understand, and then to be understood.”
– Stephen Covey

2011 should be a year for dialogue on ways to advance the Industry’s cause.  We don’t have to share the same politics, have the same beliefs or even be in the same segment of the Industry to work with each other.

Share your ideas and perspective.  You can do that here through:

Your being published here at MHMSM.com in one or more of the above ways gives you access to potentially tens of thousands of your industry peers.  Let YOUR ideas be heard.

Friends and colleagues can and should be able to disagree using reason and good manners.  If I am going bald (not yet anyways) or have gained weight (guilty, as charged), that is what it is.  Saying something that is true is not an offense, when done with tact and respect.

Let’s engage on issues!  Agree or disagree and say WHY.  Don’t be shy.  The ideal behind the First Amendment was for ideas to be freely discussed in the marketplace of public conversation. Let the best ideas show themselves.  Let them be tested.  Then, let us advance those ideas that make the most sense.

If after careful thought, you decry what someone else in the Industry is saying or doing to advance our businesses, then give your alternative plans!  Anyone can tear down; it takes very little skill to demolish something. By contrast, it takes wisdom and skill to build something good.

Many no longer have the luxury of merely griping or crying into their beer. The time for thoughtful action is upon us.  Let’s close by repeating this quote:

“I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that.
Then I realized I was somebody.”
– Lily Tomlin

# #

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