Good morning. Let me begin by expressing my sincere gratitude. There are many of you who have placed your confidence in me. You have given me the opportunity to help guide DMIA in a new direction. Thank you for your confidence, and thank you for your support.
As you know, the bylaws of our association were modified a couple of years ago. Manufacturers and suppliers now have equal footing with distributors. All DMIA members are equal. This year marks the first year anyone other than a distributor has been allowed to ascend to the presidency. I am pleased to have the honor of serving you as the first manufacturer president. DMIA is growing and pushing forward. DMIA is exploring new frontiers. I promise to do my best to serve you and to help DMIA better meet your needs.
For the past year, I have been privileged to work closely with our current president, Phil Schmidt. In that time, I have become well aware of the responsibilities of the DMIA president. So, I began preparing for my presidential term back in December. I developed a theme and started outlining my thoughts. In January, I wrote my first draft of this speech. In March, I wrote my second draft. And, by the end of May, I finished my third draft. I thought I was almost done, so I shared my writing with my wife. Terri gave me the encouragement and support I needed. That's what wives do. So next, I shared my speech with a good Rotarian friend. She specializes in professional speaking. I asked for her opinion. She wasn't quite as encouraging as my wife. Her remarks weren't exactly what I was expecting. The consensus was that while the content was good, it lacked imagination. My purpose and goals for the association needed more clarity. I needed to come up with a fresh approach. It was back to the drawing board. So, here goes! Here's the fourth and final draft of my speech.
Our traditional forms industry has experienced some good times. Our industry has made us all happy. Put smiles on our faces. The last decade, however, has been rough. Technology has advanced. The traditional forms industry has declined. Many of our products have become commodities. To our customers, price has been the dictating factor. As Tim Mehl, a fellow DMIA Board Member and your next president, said to me, "The problem we have today is that the independent distributor is chasing gross margin by diversifying. These same distributors are not planning a future strategy."
Diversifying with no plan has created anxiety among many of us. This anxiety is amplified further in the way we express ourselves. Older members complain that they cannot attract the younger generation to our industry...but then who wants to become involved with people whose perception is that our industry is in decline? If we are, in fact, experiencing decline, then the bigger question is, "How will we succeed in the future?"
Much of how we look at any situation depends on our perception--how we perceive things around us. If we view competition as an obstacle, we will view competition as lost business, lost market share and the need to cut prices. However, if we are able to view competition in a different light, if we are able to view competition as an opportunity, we will see the strengths competition brings. Competition makes us refocus our thoughts. Competition makes us adopt and develop new strategies that will bring us closer to the markets we serve.
We have to change our attitude and start thinking in terms of a win/win strategy. We need to learn to be more cooperative with each other. We have to be more trusting. We need to take positive steps to develop relationships with those whose core values match our own. Trust becomes a huge issue. We must believe that everyone is getting a fair margin if we are to create a unified capability that enables us to win the business. Our lives aren't dress rehearsals. We get one chance. If we don't make the most of it, there is nothing we can do to get our time back. Every day that we sit back and wait for something to happen is just another day lost.
My theme this year is "Be the Best." If we become the best we can be for our association, for our businesses and for ourselves, we will find new solutions. Success will follow. Our objective should be to create goals for ourselves--goals that will help us move beyond the past and make a more prosperous future. Moving forward requires change. We need to be ready to embrace change and grow with it. Without goals, we lose direction. We lose purpose. It's important to create a vision, to establish a strategy and to set goals so we can identify our purpose. We are all different. None of us comes from the same background; none is given the same gifts or has the same talent. But as President Roosevelt once said, "Do what you can with what you have, where you are."
Our objective in life should be to concentrate on our goal...always looking for ways to improve ourselves. As a young adult, one of my main goals was trying to learn patience. The art of patience truly affects our lives, both personally and in our business relationships. My stepfather, and later, my business partner Frank Hamilton, were role models of patience. Both men were able to smoothly interact with anyone in almost all situations. Their patience created an aura of ease and diplomacy in their approach. I wanted to capture that style. I wanted to gain self-control over my "overreacting" to situations. There is no question that some of us are born with more patience than others. Unfortunately, I was born with serious patience limitations. I have worked hard on overcoming my volatility. Here is my secret: The combination of a ready smile and good listening skills have gone a long way in masking and hiding my inner explosive feelings.
I am sometimes astounded at the number of people who lack a strong sense of direction. It is our responsibility to focus our attention on specific goals. Goals help us understand why we are moving in a particular direction. No one accomplishes anything without a goal. Goals create positive energy. Goals are the motivators that keep us going.
Probably one of the biggest stumbling blocks to my success is the fear of making a mistake. Unfortunately, mistakes are a fact of life. My partner and I made lots of mistakes when we started our business, but we believed in ourselves. The greatest gift you will ever give yourself is to think for yourself and to believe in yourself. Success can only come from what you feel in your soul. Look for passion in your life. Once you start believing in yourself, others will start believing in you as well, and you will begin to experience success.
We need to treat our failures and mistakes like practice shots. Understand that we sometimes need to lose before we can win. "The biggest failure is to grow old and not to have tried." This is your life--right now--so, let's be the best we can be. Live with a sense of integrity. Do the right thing. Make a difference! That's what our lives are all about! We must stick to our promises and earn our customers' respect and trust. We need to work through our DMIA partners and support each other's efforts. Networking with our peers will strengthen us individually. Networking will assist in helping us do our best. Delivering what our customers want is not that difficult, but let's deliver it with some enthusiasm!
DMIA has always been the leader in bringing customers and producers together through the distributor network. We lead with our innovation. By networking we develop relationships. My goal, as your president, is to help us all learn more about each other and to help create partnerships. We all need to become more involved. We need to participate in DMIA's offerings such as the Spring Management Conference, the CEO Summit, the Small Distributor Conference and the conference we are at today. We need to encourage prospective members to join DMIA. Doing so will help develop better systems and help form better partnerships. We need to extend ourselves and encourage others to do so.
Take a moment. Look back in your life. Do you remember how it felt when you received words of encouragement? Do you remember how it felt when you knew someone believed in you? I remember when my partner and I started our business in the early '80s. We worked long hours just to get to the break-even point. We became weary, but kept at it. Our main goal was to have the opportunity to be in charge of our own destiny by running our own business. Unfortunately, we reached a low point in the first two and a half years. We were close to giving up. The hours were long. It didn't seem as if we were progressing fast enough for the effort we were putting in. Quite honestly, if it had not been for our close friends believing in us, we would have thrown in the towel. But there are people who come into our lives for specific reasons. They encourage. They help us embrace uncertainty. They help us keep going. Their hope in us is inspirational and gives us back our sense of adventure. We become revitalized to stay the course and keep moving forward. It's easy to understand why we need to set a positive example every day so we can encourage others, especially younger people who are searching for their own path for success. It makes such a positive difference in someone else's life.
When looking back in our lives, I am sure we can easily remember instances where someone made a difference to us. It might have been a teacher. I had a science teacher in eighth grade who stretched my imagination and taught me how to think "outside the box." Or a parent. My stepfather taught me patience is truly a virtue. Or an older brother or a sister, who, at some point, made a formative impression on us. Most likely, it was someone who was looking for the joy of knowing they had made another person's life better.
We learn that people give what we give them. We need to look for the good around us. It takes courage to make some of these changes, but we accomplish this by taking one step at a time. We need to start believing in the process of "what goes around, comes around." Life is not always the way we want it to be, but it's the way we deal with life that makes the difference. We, you and I, have the power to decide what will happen. It's all about what we do with life that really counts.
Let's not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes and dreams. Just remember that we create our own circumstances, and we have the power to control what we become. Everything is about what you do, not when you do it. Our age should never be a factor. Don't tell people how old you are. Instead, tell them what your goals are, and what you are doing to achieve your goals.
Look at the people who became truly successful in what you might consider their twilight years. There was Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Sam Walton of Wal-Mart, Mother Teresa and don't forget, Ronald Reagan.
The point is that it's never too late to change. There is nothing more beautiful in life than getting a second chance. At the end of our lives, we should be able to look back and ask ourselves, "Did I live a full life?" Hanging out with successful DMIA people is no assurance that we will be successful. We must dig deeper and ask ourselves--first, what value do I bring to DMIA, and does my membership in DMIA add value to the rest of us? Second, what does it take to be a leader in our industry? It's obvious that partnerships grow profitable business, so we need to pick partners who value the products we need and the services we provide.
DMIA has grown relationships built on trust. Distributors get the orders, but they can't fill them alone. So where do we turn to satisfy the customer? We turn to each other. That's how we surround ourselves with success.
I am looking forward to the coming year. I will do everything in my power to build a stronger association through increased networking opportunities. Together we can build the partnerships needed to further our future success. Let's begin by opening our minds to all of the possibilities. Let's begin by helping each other through our positive efforts. And let's begin by earning our mutual trust by keeping promises and living up to our word.
* Believe in your dreams. Build a strategy, have a purpose and define your goals.
* Believe that you can make a difference. Recognize and encourage others.
* Above all, get the most out of each day. Believe the best is yet to be.
Jeff Long
is director of manufacturer Graphic Dimensions Inc.,
Newport, Ky., and president of DMIA.
