Whenever you hear of a business that has been around a long time, a family business, you hear of a saying, or a philosophy that was passed down from one generation of leadership to the next. For years I lamented that Grandpa and Dad hadn't imparted any great wisdom on us, to prepare us to lead our business. 

We all grew up in the business working with our Dad and I think that many times, because of the closeness, we missed the sayings, the philosophy, but they were there all along. I remember working on an outside wing of a chair when I was in Jr. High. I was having trouble with it and I asked Dad to come take a look and tell me if it was "Good Enough." He said "Good Enough" isn't. I knew what it was supposed to look like. I needed to do it right.

This statement turned into the philosophy of not completing projects just to please the client but rather taking pride in doing the job right. Doing the job that was worthy of the piece of furniture that the client cared enough about to have us restore it. 

Years later, I was working on a channeled back chair that we were putting a plaid fabric on. This is a tough job because of all the curves to the frame and padding of the channels. A piece like this needs to be done to where stripes line up or it just doesn't look right. The chair was finished and delivered to the customer. I was very proud of it and the work that had gone into it. I asked the delivery guys how the client liked her chair and they told me that she thought it was a very pretty blue, a perfect color. 

A few months went by and I received a call from that particular client. She said that she was sitting across from that chair and noticed how nicely the stripes in the plaid matched up from the back to the seat, and even from the front of the chair around to the back. She was so impressed with that type of workmanship that she needed to call and let us know. I already knew.