K.I.S.S.
When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens would not work at zero gravity (ink will not flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
What did the Russians do to solve the same problem?
They used a pencil.
One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan ‘s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem.
Engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent an exorbitant amount tf money to do so.
But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he didn’t use X-rays and cameras, but instead bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.
When I sobered up some 20 years ago everyone, including myself at the time spent a considerable amount of time discussing and contemplating what it would take to become one of those “old timers” in AA. When I was fresh out of rehab I joined a Home Group up in Pittsburgh that had one of those “old timers” in it. His name was Sam P. and at the time, he had been sober for some 25 years. Sam was great, and everyone looked up to him and boy did he have some stories. (We all did.) We hung on his every word and constantly asked what it would take for us to become an old timer like he was.
His response was classic, and I can still hear his high pitched sarcastic voice all these years later when he would reply with:
“Don’t pick up, and don’t die!”
I guess after 20 years of not picking up, and the fact that I’m still here is proof that his very simple method works. There isn’t a day the goes by that I don’t think about being a recovering alcoholic, but I can’t remember the last time I craved a drink or a drug. It’s just not an option any longer.
Now I drink Kool-Aid, and frankly, it’s a much better alternative than the poison I use to consume. It clouded my judgment and made me paranoid. I would also obsess over the smallest of things, always focused on the problem, never the solution.
I also learned about K.I.S.S. in AA. If you don’t know, K.I.S.S. stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. Today I can spot within seconds how some can make things much harder than they need to be, and have a tendency to complicate things. I guess they need to prove either to themselves or someone else that they’re smarter than everyone else. Sometimes it can be extremely funny, but more times than not, it’s rather sad to watch, knowing there is a solution out there, and it’s much simpler than most could conceive.
I’m constantly told by others how to fix the issues with YTB. Oddly enough, most of the criticism and comments come from people who don’t have any practical experience on the MLM side of our business that can offer anything worth while. Yet their focus, attention, and problems are always on the MLM side of our business. It’s a huge distraction for most and emotions can run very high causing some really nasty conversations that honestly don’t do anything more than make one side feel better about themselves while they attempt to shame the other side into submission.
That being said, the answer for YTB lies on the non MLM side of our business, the one you actually pay for, the one that’s set up like any other host agencies out there. (Nexion comes to mind.)
The answer is simple, sell travel.
Mind you, selling travel will not put to rest and resolve anything for some. Some I’m afraid might never come to grips that YTB is a part of the travel industry and will never accept any of it’s members as peers. Honestly, I don’t know why those opinions really matter, being as miserable as they are. (Who wants to hang with attitudes like that??) But for those who can look at the facts, for those who don’t need to make excuses, or try to spin and justify things in order to simply belittle and malign, most will look at Travel Weekly, notice what Carnival is doing, and pick up how YTB lookes and acts like a bonified Host.
Keep it simple. Focus on the main goal from our Founders, and that’s to be the number one Travel Agency in the world. Oddly enough, you need to sell travel in order to do that. (Who knew??) By doing so, it will resolve the problems and issues of those who matter, and for the ones who don’t matter…well there’s really not much we can do now is there? So why worry about it?
I know of some who are still carrying around resentment and anger over what happened to them some 20 years ago when AL Williams took over the Insurance Industry. Can you imagine? Who wants to live like that? I sure don’t, and if you think you can learn something from anyone who does, you’re sadly mistaken.
Let it go already, and Keep It Simple Stupid.
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Tags: Home Based Travel Agent, Travel Agent Issues, Travel MLM
February 16th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Why is it that the TTAs are criticized for not knowing anything about the MLM business; yet it when you and the majority of the YTB management, YTB Reps and RTAs (or TSOs as they are now called) cry foul when it is pointed out that you all know nothing about the travel business. Sort of a double standard don’t you think?
An amusing point to your blog post today is how you feel that KISS is the way to go. Why not look at your compensation plan, and mine and see whose is more simple? I sell travel, write a column, or do some consulting and I get a commission, a check on a per word basis, or as negotiated in a contract. Pretty simple. I am not dependent on people that I recruit to do better and having to worry if I have a multiple of 6 beneath me to earn a certain level, and so forth. But then again, my compensation is not guaranteed like yours is and I a not protected by a Bill of Rights!
February 16th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I certainly agree with the double standard. I actually participate in the training courses offered in the travel industry, pass tests, talk and learn from vendors and suppliers when either taking a course or booking a trip with them, and I actually sell travel. Been doing it for the last 4 years, and just like the “old timers” in AA, some would consider me an old timer in the industry compared to others who’ve been booking travel and taking courses for less than a year.
You, not so much. Reading and posting on the internet, and listening to Coach’s Call so you can spend your Saturday afternoon coming up with excuses and justification for your existence can hardly compare to what I’ve done in YTB Travel Network the last 4 years.
HUGE difference there Bud.
As far as the compensation goes, you can be amused or worry about it all you want. I do wonder why you of all people, with no desire to get paid from this type of plan would need to spend so much time with YTB in the first place. Instead, I’d be grateful, just like I am. Worry to me is a waste of time and energy, and the checks come with or without the worry or complete understanding of how the comp plan works. Worry is an unnecessary emotion in YTB’s case, so I simply choose not to participate in the activity.
Amusement on the other hand, I like. However, our ideas of amusement are vastly different in both time and definition.
Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to my day without fear, without worry, and without the negativity, spin, and mud slinging.
It’s a much simpler, and far more productive than what I’ve seen you choose to do with your day.