T. Scott Gross

I just have to be the biggest loser. When you think of all my failures and then temper that with the losers I hang out with, I think biggest loser status should be a shoe in!

My record of losing started in the 60’s when the school vice principal invited me to “find another campus to pursue your academic endeavors.”  That was my senior year in high school.

After college my string of losing endeavors continued only the losers were better educated.

My first management level job was as a franchise restaurant field service guy that brought with it a not so friendly relationship with a VP who thought he was omnipotent.  I knew that was impossible because by definition you can’t have two omnipotent beings.  So if I was one… he must have been mistaken.  (We can now rule out omniscient!)

It was the early 70’s the country was experiencing a ground beef shortage.  So my friend the VP, being the quick-thinker he was, sent out ad slicks, radio commercials, and press releases saying that “XYZ restaurants are hamming it up!”  The idea was that a hamburger would really be a ham burger.  No more greasy hamburgers just rich, healthy ham sandwiches.  Idiot.

Fast forward a few decades and I’m still not cured.  An example?  Well, we opened a restaurant in a former funeral home.  Not my best idea!  As if to certify our nutliness, after a particularly boring funeral (Not at our restaurant!), my wife said, “During the service I was looking around and… were you thinking what I was thinking?”  We simultaneously said, “Great place for a steak house!”

Looking back I am amazed to discover that my experiences as a big loser made me a better me!

They say that only perfect practice makes perfect but even time spent losing can be time well spent.  I have seen and tried so many things that flat out did not work that I have much greater clarity when it comes to targeting ideas that really will work.

I have fallen flat on my face so many times and lived to tell about it that I zero fear of new ideas.

I have developed a bias for trying things first and then adjusting rather than studying something to death and waiting until it was “perfect” before taking it out for a test drive.

When I had a real job as a corporate training chief my bosses were some of the cheapest people on the planet.  There was no budget for “research.”  There was no budget for “fancy.”  There was just barely time for what Tom Peters describes as “ready, fire, aim.”

So I learned to do a lot with little.  By the time our competitors rolled out their product I was on the second or third iteration and miles ahead even though the ride may have had a wobbly start.

My life has become one long trial run. (Except for my wife, Buns, who was perfect from the moment we met over the telephone!)

Today when I spot a new idea or even remember a childhood adventure and what do I say; “Let’s try this on a focus group?”  Good lord, no!  Instead I have a tendency to fire her up and head into traffic for a test drive.  Do I crash?  Well, occasionally.  But mostly I just wobble a bit and by the time I make it back to the idea barn I have new ideas for tweaking the old one.

Got an idea? Go ahead, try it out!  What have you got to lose?

T. Scott Gross is mayor pro tem of a small town in Texas.  A business owner who makes a payroll, he is best known as the author of Positively Outrageous Service. www.tscottgross.com

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