It was good to see so many of you at Auto Glass Week™. I just learned that Rick Maciel, who won the Pilkington Clear Advantage Auto Glass Technician Olympics in Memphis, Tenn., along with a check for $10,000, competed previously without winning. This is a great example in perseverance.

This reminded me a story that happened to me more than 20 years ago. When I was 20 and worked in Wichita, Kan., we had mobile routes that we called “long-distance” mobiles. These routes were on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and would stretch out to 75 miles one way. It was a nice way to expand our service area slowly, as we built steady work for each of these days. The route to the east of Wichita was the longest and it also had the most obstacles.

I remember leaving the house at 5:30 a.m. for a day that had been planned well. The truck was loaded the night before so I could get an early start. By 2 p.m. there was only one more job to complete. I was in Howard, Kan., about 45 miles from Latham, Kan.—if you took paved roads (what any smart person would do).

Remember, I was 20. As I looked at the map I saw that the straightest line between Howard and Latham was by way of dirt roads. I must have forgotten that there are NO dirt roads between these two cities—only flint-rock roads—on which the speed limit was 20 mph. In my youthful stupidity I made a decision to take the roads that provided the straightest line between these cities. It seemed brilliant at the time. Bad move!

The next sound I heard in the middle of no-man’s-land wasn’t good. It was the sound of a flat tire. I heard no other sounds; no other cars; and no homes for miles. No big deal. I got out the jack and got ready to put on the spare tire.

I completed the tire change, and as I lowered the van to the ground I discovered that the spare was flatter than the tire I had just removed. Not only that, I also noticed that the front tire had gone flat, too. What could be worse than three flat tires, no radio and phone? (Cell phones had not been invented yet.)

I sat for five minutes feeling sorry for myself. I’m sure the names I was calling the van violated Glass Doctor’s Code of Values. I will say, though, the horse that was standing in the field a few feet away seemed to enjoy my conversation. I even thought of riding him to the next town.

As I stood there looking into the van I kept coming back to my windshield repair kit. I unbolted the pump from the box, screwed the vacuum line to the exhaust port on the back, removed the plastic repair cup, and attached a tire chuck from my tool box. It work perfectly as an air pump! Thirty minutes later I had totally inflated the spare tire to full pressure. Wow, great!

But wait—apparently the flint rocks had poked a cut in the front tire that was so big you could poke a screwdriver in the hole. Great decision, Doug!

By now an hour had gone by. Not one car has driven down the road. The only noise was the horse that was still watching me. (Thank goodness horses can’t talk.)

Being young and industrious I rationalized that eight tubes of urethane pumped into a tire works just like the green stuff you put into your bike tire when it is flat. It’s a lot messier but it works the same.

Being very aware of my situation I stopped every mile to inflate the front tire, but slowly made progress. In the end I made it to Latham and a nice man put a huge, 4-ply tractor tire patch over the cut in the tire. (He, too, got urethane everywhere … including on himself.)

At this point I had had a very long day, but this entire story is about what I am about to share with you. My dad, who was with Safelite for 38 years, instilled in me that a job isn’t complete until everything is done. He also instilled fear in me that we MUST take care of each customer ASAP (or else!). (I knew better than to ask him what the “else” meant!)

I knew I had to install a new windshield for my last customer that day. Why would I make the customer wait another week when I was right there? I was not going to make any more money by doing it, nor would I have been being blamed for not doing it (at least I didn’t think so).

It had been a terrible afternoon, but it wasn’t the customer’s fault that I went down the flint-rock road. It wasn’t the customer’s fault that the spare was flat.

I was taught perseverance. I was taught that just because you are in a tough spot you don’t give up. My question is this: are you teaching perseverance to your techs? Are they willing to do whatever is necessary to take care of their/your customers?

Failure isn’t an option. Perseverance is the key to success in our business and in our personal lives. Rick Maciel from Taylorsville, Utah, won $10,000 in Memphis as the winner of the Auto Glass Technician Olympics. Why? Perseverance!