I saw this the other day while skiing.  I couldn’t have said it any better. I’m going to adopt it as my saying of the year.

I can think of a number of times where I worked my ass off to kick someone else’s.

I recall one particular time I read an entire frickin’ 100 plus page master services agreement to “understand” the customer relationship better, only to find neither the customer nor the company were operating to the terms of the agreement and the animosity that was bubbling-up was unnecessary. Reading a 100 plus page Master Services legal document is fucking death, I promise you.

Our customer was threatening to go with our competitor and to stop ordering. After reading the entire agreement (which had been in place for over 4 years) I was able to bring more information and clarity to the table than existed.  I was able to get my organization to move on somethings they had dug in on. I was also able to get the client to recognize their demands were outside the agreement and although we could help them, we weren’t contractually obligated to it.

I remember the first meeting after reading the agreement.  I started the meeting with; “Has anyone read the MSA (Master Services Agreement) lately? Silence. No one had been willing to work their ass off.

Working your ass off so you can kick your competition’s ass is about as good as it gets. Who’s working their ass of to kick yours?  Don’t let it happen!

When is the last time you worked your ass off to kick someone else’s? What happened?