#you just don't see firearms often because there was little demand for them in the City compared to more versatile bows. but theyre there

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MM034 - Don't Cut Corners

Don’t Cut Corners, Dave’s Way. Why are Wendy’s hamburger patties square? Because, according to Dave Thomas the founder, “we don’t cut corners”. 

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset, and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to Morning Mindset. I am your host Paul Markel, thank you for joining me once again, and good morning, good evening, whenever it is you happen to me listening to this. That is the beauty of On Demand Audio, you can listen any time you want, in fact you can listen in the morning, then come back and continue in the afternoon. I will let you, you are allowed. *Laugh*  Alright, on the journey I call life I have had many experiences, many positive experiences, and one of the most positive experiences I had as a business owner or Budding Entrepreneur, was to be handed a copy of a book called “Dave’s Way” by Dave Thomas.

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Many of you are like “Oh Dave Thomas, the guy who founded Wendy’s”, Yes. The guy who founded Wendy’s, and unfortunately Dave passed away. He left us, left his legacy behind, and many young folks today, they don’t know who Dave Thomas was. Dave Thomas was a guy who was very influential in the restaurant business in the 60’s-90’s. Dave Thomas wrote a book called Dave’s Way, and my lovely bride, many-many moons ago she went to work for Wendy’s restaurants.

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She was a Manager, and part of her Manager Training, every Manager of a Wendy’s restaurant got a copy of the book “Dave’s Way”. It’s not a difficult read, it’s not a long read, but it’s an important read because well, you know Wendy’s restaurants, you could agree that Dave Thomas knew a little bit about being a business owner and an entrepreneur, and about being a successful business owner, how to run a successful business. When someone does it, you may want to pay attention when they tell you how they did it.

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So my beloved bride read it and she passed it on to me, she said “Paul you really should read this book” and I did, and I’m glad that I did that. Now there’s a lot of good anecdotes and useful information in the book Dave’s Way, and by the way you can find the book Dave’s Way online. On amazon, eBay, it’s ridiculously inexpensive. The information in that book is way more valuable than you’ll pay for it. You may pay $0.99, $2-3-4, whatever it costs you to find a copy of the book Dave’s Way, I suggest that you pick it up.

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Especially if you’re an entrepreneur, a business owner, or you’re thinking about becoming a business owner. Even if you’re not, even if you’re just a manager who runs a business, a restaurant, what have you. One of the things Dave Thomas liked to say to people, or one of the answers that he liked to give, people would say “Dave, why are Wendy’s hamburger patties square? Everyone else’s are round, why are yours square?” and Dave would smile at them & say “Because at Wendy’s, we Don’t Cut Corners”, everyone would get a good chuckle.

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But Dave was very, very serious about that. When you hear the term “Cutting Corners”, taking shortcuts, some people say “Shortcuts are a good thing, they help you get somewhere faster”. That’s not always a positive, often times when we discuss cutting corners or taking shortcuts, it’s not a positive it’s a negative. I’m going to give you an example. Why do Chinese products have a bad rap? Is it impossible for manufacturers in China to make quality products? Don’t they have the ability & technology in China to make good products? The answer is Yes they do.

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They do have ability, they do have the technology in China to make high quality products. Then why is it that “Made in China” have the pejorative? Because people say “Well if it’s made in China, then it’s crap”, because quite often what they will do is they will take shortcuts and they will cut corners. I have a good friend who is a business owner, or he is contracted with a factory in China. Being in the Firearms Industry like I am, many people will try to farm out manufacturing, or portions of their manufacturing, especially if it’s in textiles or molding, to China.

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They’re like “Oh man I can get this thing made in China, and it’ll cost a fraction of what it’ll cost in the U.S., and it’s just as good.” Here’s the problem, here’s what they will do. They will go to China, they will say to whoever the company owner is or what have you, they’ll produce a product and say “I need 10k of these, 20k, 30k, whatever, and I need to see the final product.” So they’ll take the specifications from the designer, and they’ll produce them and they’ll show it to the company owner. They [C.O.] will say “Yes, this is exactly what I want. Make me 10k.”

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The problem with China is if you or a representative of your company is not there at the factory or facility where they are making these, let’s say they are using X type of thread, X type of material, buttons, snaps, so on & so forth, and the original models are exactly up to your spec. What will happen is they will do the first production run, it’ll be exactly up to your spec, and you’ll go away all happy. You’ll say “That’s great, just keep doing that.” Then what do they do? They begin to take shortcuts, they begins to cut corners. Anyone who has ever bought any recreational gear that is stitched, you should know that cross-stitching & double-stitching is what you need.

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Because if your pack or your vest is not cross-stitched or double-stitched, or for instance buttons. How many of you have purchased a shirt made in China, and the buttons fall off, and you’re like “This is ridiculous, this is a brand new shirt and I’m having to re-stitch all the buttons!” Do you know why that happened? Well it’s quite simple, that happened because originally they made it to specification, then they started cutting corners, and what they ended up with was an inferior product. With buttons that fall off & stitching that comes apart, even though the original may have been good.

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So where are you in your career goals, where are you in your personal goals, where are you in your goal to become an entrepreneur or what have you. It’s easy to cut corners, but what happens when you cut corners & take shortcuts? You get the reputation of being Cheap, do you want the “Made in China” cheap crap reputation? I understand that you can make good products, you can make products to spec in China. Many of them are not, and why is that? It’s very simple, they did not take Dave Thomas’s advice, they cut corners & took shortcuts.

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Do you want a stellar reputation in the business community, or do you want the cheap crap reputation? Often the difference between something that is high-quality, and something that is perceived as cheap crap, is by whether you made the conscious decision to cut corners. So if you own a small business, if you’re going to be a manufacturer, somebody who is basing their reputation upon what they produce, don’t cut corners *laughs*, and I would definitely recommend if you haven’t done it already, go to Amazon or if you’re in a used book store and you see a copy, a paperback copy of “Dave’s Way” by Dave Thomas, grab that thing up and read it. You’ll be glad you did it. Alright, I’m Paul Markel, and I’ll talk to you again, real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.

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