As part of a series of posts showcasing the different subjects, styles, and voices of my clients, I’d like to introduce you to Josh Patrick, ‎who helps successful businesses become sustainable. This is an excerpt from his upcoming book, a parable that speaks to the lessons owners must learn to become operationally irrelevant.

John Aardvark has lots of problems.

Aardvark Manufacturing, the company he founded and owns, is stuck and about to go into a major crisis. For the third time in less than two months, Aardvark Manufacturing has been late on a delivery to their largest client, XY Medical.

John and his wife, Anne, are having their morning coffee, talking about their upcoming vacation. The first one John has managed to schedule in over two years. Anne has been asking John to take a vacation and he has been putting her off till now. It’s never been easy for him to find the time.

Just as they finish, just as John gets up from the table to head to work, the phone rings. John always cringes when the phone rings. Too often it means that something has gone wrong. This time is no different.

John picks up. His wife watches him. “I don’t care what you have to do, just get that shipment out the door,” John finally shouts. “And it better not have any defects.”

Anne gives John a sour look. From the tone of his voice, she would know that he is talking to their son, Adam. These days, all John does is yell at Adam.

His voice all but busting a hole in the ceiling, John continues, “Adam, you’re just a total waste of time. Why is it that I’ve got to save your bacon almost every day? I’m getting really sick of this. You and I are going to have a serious talk when I get into the office.”

John slams down the receiver.

“What does this mean about our vacation?” Anne asks.

He scowls at her. “I have no idea. I’ve got to get to the plant right now. XY is about to pull their entire order from us. If I don’t fix it, and I’m the only who can right now, we’re going to lose 40% of our business. There’s one thing I know to be true. If we lose their business, I’m not sure how the company is going to stay afloat. And another thing, don’t even think about defending that no good son of yours. He’s the reason we’re in this pickle.”

Anne looses her temper. “John, why do you always blame Adam?

But John is no longer listening. He grabs his bag and heads for the door.

“And I hope you don’t think that you’re going to cancel our vacation, “ Anne yells after him. “You’ve already done this three times and I’ll be damned if it’s going to be four. What’s the point of having your own company if you can’t take time off? We haven’t had a real vacation in five years. Taking a long weekend a couple times a year does nothing for you. And it certainly doesn’t do anything for us.”

“You’re being unreasonable. We’ll take a vacation just as soon as I get the company back in control. I can’t leave now because we have a big customer that’s ready to walk and I’m the only one who can fix the problem.”

Anne snorts and stalks out of the room, but not before taking a parting shot at her husband: “If you were smart, you wouldn’t have these problems. Maybe you should take a good look in the mirror. You’re not the only one who can fix this. I’m really sick of you thinking you’re the only one who has any talent at your company.”

Once Anne slams the door behind her, John slumps down onto the sectional sofa. Anne doesn’t understand the problems and pressures I’m under, he thinks. I wish she would understand that I couldn’t just pick up and leave anytime I want.

He doesn’t have time to sulk. Even he knows this. He puts on his coat and storms out the door, slamming it behind him. Not an unusual way for him to be starting his day; hasn’t been for the past two years.

In his gut, John knows the sources of his problem even if he can’t quite put his finger on why or when they started spelling trouble for his company. One of them is Stan Socket, the sales guy, or at least he thinks he’s the problem.

Stan is has been selling for 30 years. He comes from the school where salespeople are supposed to sell, and more closes means better sales. Unfortunately, Stan has been left behind the times. What works today is not even close to what worked when Stan started selling. For the first five years, Stan was a very successful salesperson. Then his sales started to stagnate. John was having a hard time getting Stan motivated to make the calls he should.

Stan has been with Aardvark Manufacturing for 25 years. He joined the company when Aardvark’s competition was limited and mostly domestic. Back then selling was relatively simple and easy. Much has changed since then. Now Aardvark Manufacturing’s competition includes Asian, German and French companies, and the competition has the latest technology and systems in place to compete with Aardvark.

Stan’s still doing things the way they were done it in the 1980s. He has no system in place for customer management. He has no system in place for anything.

Worse yet, John, too, has no idea Stan’s methods are all wrong. He thinks Stan himself is the problem. John has never really taken responsibility for the way sales are made. And that makes for big problems at Aardvark.

The first person John sees when he walks into the plant is Stan. He pulls Stan into his office and takes to bullying him. “Stan, do you know that XY is about to cancel all of their contracts with us? How come I needed to find this out first thing in the morning from that good-for-nothing son of my mine? Aren’t you supposed to be on top of what’s going on with our clients? You know that XY is our biggest customer and if we lose them it’s going to be your fault. If they walk, I don’t even know if our company can survive.”

Stan stares at John like a deer in the headlight. John is tired of that look because all employees give it to him when he takes them to task.