I have a bad habit. I tweak. Constantly.

I suspect that my type-A fascination with improvement is frustrating to my family and co-workers, perhaps nauseating, curious at best. I feel it too. Sometimes I feel like I can’t escape my OCD-esque brain.

But I am intrigued by making straight lines straighter. Even a laser beam has a margin of error. Continuous improvement is the gravity that attracts me to the activities and tools that I love: business, climbing and technology.

Which is why I am always surprised when I meet someone who does not want to change, does not want to improve. Typically, I am shocked into silence.

And it’s especially confusing when that same person craves change in the outside world, but doesn’t want to commit any of their own resources to the cause.

Then again, why would they? That would be uncomfortable.

Craving change, improvement or a better life, but not being willing to get outside of your comfort zone is the equivalent of wanting to be a millionaire, but not wanting to work. Or wanting to be fit, but not wanting to exercise. Or wanting to be a Formula One racer, but being fixated on using a Model T.

It just ain’t gonna happen.

The cost of change is temporary discomfort. The cost of status quo is not being successful, not being fit, not being fast. Worse yet, when viewed relative to the modern world that moves so blissfully fast, status quo puts you in a declining state. Forever.

Isn’t a little discomfort today (maybe even every day) worth all of the rewards that improvement will bring?

Hello Everyone,

My name is Scott Semple. I’m the owner and General Manager of Ambler Mountain Works.

Back in November, we initiated a voluntary recall of two of our products, the Poseidon and the Erwin. Less than 1,000 units each were affected, but even so, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

As the CPSC press release states, Ambler is voluntarily recalling the Erwin and Poseidon beanies due to insecurely attached parts. If either the eyeballs on the Erwin or the octopus legs on the Poseidon are insecurely attached — or if you are unsure — please remove them or return the product to us.

For more information, please contact Ambler at returns@amblermw.com. Thank you for reviewing this information, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Scott Semple

I have recently returned to Ambler after a year away working in a completely unrelated field. This last year has been one of my best for many reasons; primarily because it was the year of my first child’s birth. Besides that mind-expanding and life-altering event, I have had the chance to learn some great new things about myself and about business.

The biggest lesson learned is actually something I was introduced to in 1984 at the age of 6 by a guy you probably know, Mr. Miyagi. The Karate Kid had an impact on my young life at the time and this year I was reminded of the importance of Mr. Miyagi’s cornerstone lesson; ‘wax on, wax off’.

Before Mr. Miyagi’s karate protégé, Daniel, could actually get a chance to block a kick or throw a punch he had to perform what seemed to be endless chores for Mr. Miyagi around the house. Painting the fence, sanding the deck and waxing the cars in Daniel’s mind were a waste of time and energy and were getting him nowhere closer to his goal of kicking ass.

I found myself doing the chores of daily life and grumbling about how it wasn’t leading me in the right direction and how I can’t believe that this is what I’m doing with myself. But that’s when I heard Mr. Miyagi’s voice and it made me realize that if I don’t master the actions and intentions of my daily, routine tasks then I will never kick ass at anything. Waxing on and waxing off perfectly with both hands taught Daniel the exact actions he needed to block a kick when it matters most.

Perfect execution of the not-so-important tasks is what teaches us the characteristics of perfect execution in general. So that has literally brought me back to Ambler, a place where people really enjoy doing things right. I have started sanding the deck and painting some of the fence and I know that it is leading me as an individual and Ambler as a company to becoming masters at what we do.

In a few weeks we’ll be welcoming Christian Rawles to our team. Christian will be our Sales Manager, joining Dave Bartholomew in designing and implementing our new sales strategy.

We want to have the strongest sales force and the best customer service in the business. Christian and Dave are ideally suited to make that happen.

We received over 200 applications for this position and many were very, very strong candidates, making the selection process luxuriously challenging.  We considered many and interviewed several, and we found just the right fit with Christian.

Why Christian?

Christian has worked with us before. For two years, he did an incredible job of reorganizing and running our production and logistics. Christian is incredibly reliable and a multi-talented learning machine. We’re very happy to have him back, especially in such a key position.

Christian understands Ambler, our style, our aspirations, our product, and our customers. He will expand our capabilities without changing our flavour.

So everyone please welcome Christian Rawles (back) to the team!

For the past month or so, I’ve been investigating a potential new business, one that would be entirely web-based. (Years ago two paths diverged in a wood, and I chose to live in my car and climb full-time rather than learning HTML…)

The details are irrelevant to Ambler, but what I’ve learned about the Internet in the past few weeks is hugely relevant if Ambler wants to thrive in the future: People entrenched in the web world (even those that have never met each other) can know a whole lot more about each other than the rest of us do. And one day the rest of the world is (hopefully) going to catch up. Continue reading →

For the past month, I have had the pleasure of working with Dave Bartholomew.

Our work with Dave is still in its infancy, but it is already showing positive returns. Dave has a wealth of knowledge and experience, and it’s a fabulous opportunity for us here at Ambler.

Having Dave onboard also gives me a great opportunity to be a student again. Despite what the tone of my personal blog may suggest, I have very few answers and I enjoy being a beginner whenever possible. The person with the greatest opportunity and potential for growth is the guy or gal in the class with the least knowledge and skill.

Shockingly, not everyone sees it this way. Continue reading →

What most people think of as lonely people hiding behind computer screens will soon be a new world order. And it’ll soon be a powerful business advantage in all industries, not just among web professionals. Or it will be a huge disadvantage if you’re a late-adopter.

The texting teens, tweeting twits and pimply-faced nerd stereotypes will soon be upgraded to mansion-owners and Ferrari-drivers when more of those same folks become Presidents, PhDs and CEOs. And those that still use fax machines are going to be left in the dust.

The “nerds” — a positive term, I think, for a group of which I proudly consider myself a neophyte member — are winning because of three distinct advantages: asynchronous communication; the productive, personal nature of text; and most importantly, knowing when to use what. Continue reading →

Sooner or later, something fundamental in your business world will change.

We live in an age in which the pace of technological change is pulsating ever faster, causing waves that spread outward toward all industries. This increased rate of change will have an impact on you, no matter what you do for a living. It will bring new competition from new ways of doing things, from corners that you don’t expect.

It doesn’t matter where you live. Long distances used to be a moat that both insulated and isolated people from workers on the other side of the world. But every day, technology narrows that moat inch by inch. Every person in the world is on the verge of becoming both a coworker and a competitor to every one of us, much the same as our colleagues down the hall of the same office building are. Technological change is going to reach out and sooner or later change something fundamental in your business world.

— Andrew S. Grove, former President & CEO of Intel, from his book Only the Paranoid Survive (preface) 

For the past week, I’ve been sticking to a rigid work schedule. I decided to try it out because, for the previous six months, I had been working “until I was finished”.

Of course, “finished” never came, the quality of my work decreased as the hours increased, and I was starting to get burnt out. I even started to fantasize about going to a beach.

The main problem was not the number of hours, but with so much time allocated to work, I didn’t have to be selective about which tasks I concentrated on. Without constraints, I wasn’t forced to pick and choose the most important things out from amidst the fluff. The result was that I got a lot of things done, but not the right things.

To combat the situation, I did two things: I stuck to a rigid work schedule and, even more importantly, I kept a work journal. From those two practices came three immediate benefits: increased urgency, much-improved focus and a refined selection of tasks. Continue reading →