Comments on: Every entrepreneur should clean poo – literally – and create legend

By: CSF Collection

CSF Collection — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:16:25 +0000

It is a good story. Sahil does seem to have a poo fixation with jokes about “number twos” on his website

By: Jackson

Jackson — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:15:28 +0000

To pay my way through University I used to clean commerical buildings on weekends. One day a dog came in and left it’s business in one of the foyers of a building I had the cleaning contract for. This was mid week and I wasn’t due to clean until the weekend. The tenants were arguing over who should clean it up and so I got a call from the body corporate as none of them could agree. I got paid $90 on an ‘emergency call out’ to clean up dog shit because these tenants were ‘above that’… I wonder how many of them made $90 for half an hours work that day… Suck it up I say… lot’s of money to be made doing the dirty work of other people.

By: John Power

John Power — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:50:13 +0000

True, but often, new employees take their cue from the “old hands” in the place, so if you’ve already established some level of respect or credibilty with these people, it does trickle down to new hires I think.

By: Sahil Merchant

Sahil Merchant — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:06:51 +0000

I agree with you John. However, the problem in a retail organisation or any other company where there is staff turnover is that new people often haven’t seen the boss actually put in the sweat equity. Most of my current store employees were not around when I was cleaning the loo. That is why I think the idea of lots of small consistent acts and the notion of an organisation’s “collective memory” through stories is so important.

By: Jan Stewart

Jan Stewart — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:53:09 +0000

Being a person who has had an event in your beautiful third floor space, hearing your third floor story makes a very positive deep impression. Now every time we have an event there your 60 hours of sweat and love will add much more to what we do. Let me know if you ever need another operations manager.

By: John Power

John Power — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:49:09 +0000

As a general rule of thumb, don’t ask an employee to do anything you’re not prepared to do yourself at least once – and be prepared to prove it.

By: @OtherAndrew

@OtherAndrew — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:44:18 +0000

Great post, and one I can relate to.

Many times over the first few years we would find ourselves in seemingly ridiculous situations and we’d just say ‘this is an anecdote for later, when we’re nice and successful’… perhaps one of my favourites was when we invited the Sales & Marketing Manager of a prestigious sportscar brand to our still-being-finished-by-us new office. When he walked in the door, I was on my knees in a suit, screwing the legs onto the base of our new lounge with a cordless drill. Without missing a beat, I finished screwing the last one in, lowered the lounge, stood up and said ‘Hi Jon, welcome to our office. Would you like to take a seat on our new lounge?’

He laughed and we kicked off our meeting in good spirits. It was a moment of pure gold, and it’s story I enjoy telling time and again (as you’ve just seen).

So yes, it’s all part of the hidden glory of being a start-up guy, doing dodgy tasks that most people think they’re above. Hats off to you and keep the posts coming!

By: James Tuckerman

James Tuckerman — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:25:14 +0000

During the first year of my life after university, I was working for a big PR firm, during a big product launch. Desperate to convince that I was someone to be taken seriously (the curse of all recent grads), I refused a request to clean a toilet. (At the last minute, moments before a federal politician was due to cut a ribbon, some ungracious soul had created a mess so foul it would make Kenny blush.)

My boss gave me a glare I’ll never forget, pushed past me into the toilet and, in three-piece suit, began scrubbing. It was a lesson that I have re-told many times over.

Wise words, as always, Sahil.

By: Scott Kilmartin

Scott Kilmartin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:54:49 +0000

Sahil my friend, I”m tempted to say you are full of shit…but i know better.

It’s clear that you do give a shit and are no shit kicker.

Finally, people that leave comments on blogs like this really shit me.