Something
that’s always been difficult is finding people to replace us when we move
on. Years ago I used to tell managers to
“always be looking for your replacement.”
But that isn’t
the way they would interpret it. Their
thinking probably took several different turns along the lines of “I’m not
going to look for my replacement. “The next thing you know they’re going to
fire me. They never thought along the
lines of “we’re going to be expanding and we’ll need someone to replace us. It seemed that their thinking was more based
on fear and insecurity.”
But for us to
make a smooth transition to the next generation we need clients who understand
money and who are good at dealing with other addicts and alcoholics. They have to have several years of sobriety
behind them, they must be impeccably honest. And I would estimate that 2
out of 1000 fall into that category.
In the past 25
years we’ve been through generation after generation of managers; some stayed
with us a long time. Others couldn’d
stand the pressure and either relapsed or disappeared.
Somehow we’re
always managed to function and pay our bills.
And my belief is that we’ll be able to continue to do so for many years
to come.
