Got A Court Date? Stay Sane

Going to court isn’t exactly at the top of most contractors’ fun-things-to-do list. Whether they’re the ones getting sued, or the ones bringing the case, the proceedings can evoke a range of emotions, from excitement to anticipation to fear or dread.

Online legal-help site Nolo.com offers several tips for staying sane in court, including:

• Don’t expect to win. Even if the judge or jury sides with you, lawyer’s fees and collection difficulties may mean you gain little or nothing.
  
• Don’t go to court out of revenge.
  
• If possible, avoid going to trial in the first place. Mediate your dispute instead.
  
• Keep a sense of humor (see Nolo.com’s collection of lawyer jokes).
  

For the rest of Nolo.com’s sanity tips, read the article in the Legal Encyclopedia.

Business owners should make sure they’re suggesting the right story angles to the right media types. For instance, human-interest stories have a nearly universal appeal, but beyond that, newspapers want educational and informative stories, tied in with current events; radio seeks controversial or weird angles; and television wants something with visual appeal.

SCORE also offers suggestions for topics to pitch to the local media; these include “rags-to-riches” stories; if your business burned down, or if you were a nobody in high school, tell the press about your new success, the article suggests. “Top 10” lists and community-service projects also make for good copy.

The article is available online.

One of the articles offered is about making ethical business decisions. The SBA suggests asking the following questions when making decisions:

• Will you be violating any criminal laws, civil laws or company policies by this decision?

• Is it fair to all parties concerned both in the short-term as well as the long-term?

• Is it right? How does this decision make you feel about yourself? Are you proud of yourself for making this decision? Would you like others to know you made the decision you did?

The article also offers examples of “gray area” decisions business owners and managers must make, and a self-test to find out how honest you are. Read the rest of the article.

Got writer’s block? Writing a business letter can be a challenge for many BSCs. One Web site, www.business-letter-writing.com, offers tips and articles for improving written business communication. One overriding theme is the “Seven Cs” — writing should be clear, concise, correct, courteous , conversational, convincing and complete.

And, as a motivational piece, it often succeeds. Many readers will find the stories de Posada shares of his personal triumphs over adverse conditions — including his escape from Communist Cuba, his success as a motivational speaker in spite of having a strong accent, his father’s death — quite inspiring. The chapters in the latter half of the book do offer more concrete how-to advice, and the advice is solid and wide-ranging, including tips on asking questions, sales negotiation and finding the right people.

While not everything in those chapters is particularly original, there are parts that shine creatively. One of the more fascinating chapters in the book, for example, is Chapter 15, “Questions To Get You Out Of Your Comfort Zone (And Test Your Limits).” In it, de Posada poses 300 questions for self-exploration. These questions can help readers figure out where they stand on a variety of issues, as well as provide a life context for their current decisions and goals. However, readers should follow his advice to ask these questions of friends only at their own risk, because some of the questions are highly personal, exploring taboo topics such as religion, prejudice and sex. Still, it’s a more creative approach to self-improvement than is often seen in business literature.

Unfortunately, the book’s strong messages of leadership, creativity and perseverance get lost in its scattershot organization and at times abrasive humor. The first portion of the book is made up of anecdotes -- some heartwarming, sure, but some quite bizarre; a few passages are downright cringe-worthy. For example, one of the anecdotes is about de Posada’s daughter’s triumph in a high-school constitutional law competition. While the message is important — heart is as important as mind — some readers may have difficulty getting beyond his characterization of his daughter’s opponents as “mostly male Orientals, and they were sharp.” Another anecdote likely isn’t from personal knowledge — it’s a hackneyed joke that plays on Jewish stereotypes. Still other stories name-drop celebrities ranging from basketball star to Shaquille O’Neal to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, to varying degrees of utility and necessity.

That’s not to say there isn’t any value in the anecdotes — some are enlightening, especially de Posada’s recounting of a presentation he made in Saudi Arabia, a place with unfamiliar business customs and protocols. In that section, he made the very important point that success often depends on one’s willingness to take chances.

Still, sensitive readers may want to start the book with Chapter Six, “Wisdom of the Motivator,” where the anecdotes give way to the more solid business advice. However, the organizational structure is weak in the latter chapters; the author seems to jump from topic to topic without direction or appropriate transitions. The reader may be able to overcome this by reading only one chapter at a time, and treating them as separate nuggets of business knowledge rather than as a cohesive book.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Joachim de Posada will be speaking at the ISSA/Interclean show in New Orleans on Nov. 17. His presentation, titled “The Power of Effective Leadership,”is part of the Facility Service Provider Track sponsored by Contracting Profits.