Dish, Dish, Dish

Do work in new ways

Ned, Operations Manager for a heavy equipment auction in Portland, OR told session three of the Leadership Development Lab...

"In August, 2016 Multnomah County (Portland, OR) presented a unique opportunity to Jake Stout the owner of our company. The county had taken possession of the site of the Veritable Quandry Restaurant, one of Portland's landmark restaurants. Plans were underway to use the lot as the building site for the future Multnomah County Courthouse. The county needed to sell the physical assets of the restaurant. They asked us to help them sell all of the kitchen equipment, art, china, you name it everything the restaurant had accumulated after 45 years of successful operation.

"We had never conducted an online-only auction, sold this kind of merchandise, or done any business with the county before this. I was excited for the chance to learn a new way to ply our auction house trade, and to forming a relationship with the county. Jake had some well-founded reservations because the inventory of items was so different, a long way from the kinds of merchandise we normally sell. We sell heavy equipment (Caterpillars, backhoes, earth movers, etc). This was restaurant booths, pots, pans, ovens, silverware, and dishes...so many dishes.

"I kept after him about it and eventually he said, 'Yes.' He allowed me to contract with the county to conduct the online sale. We picked up the items, inventoried, and advertised them. The auction started and the online bidding began. Soon it was over and everything was sold! The auction was a huge success bringing in as much or more money online as it would have brought in at a live sale.

"The result of the sale was two-fold. First, we now do business with Multnomah County selling their used fleet vehicles and heavy equipment. Second, it jump started our online auction business. We now hold one or more monthly online auctions. This month we are conducting three.

"The lesson I learned from this experience is that when opportunity knocks I should exercise the courage required to open the door and walk through. When I courageously step forward great things always happen for me.

"The action I call you to take is to keep your eyes and ears open. Opportunity can come in strange disguises and the volume of opportunity knocking can be faint, more like a whisper sometimes. Exercise the courage to say 'Yes' to the little nudges you feel to do something new.

"The benefit you will gain is people will say, 'Why do all the good things happen to them? They get all the breaks - good things always happen to them.'"

Name one thing, one opportunity you could take advantage of, you could do today. Now, go into action. You will be a winner.