RR 465: Tom Ham – Your Only Competitor is Yourself

Tom Ham, with the help of his wife Deb, is the creator and owner of Automotive Management Network a 12,000 plus member website dedicated to the exchange of vehicle service management information. Tom got his start in the auto service industry pumping gas in the late ’60s. Tom and his wife operate Auto Centric, an import specialty shop in Grand Rapids, MI. Tom and Deb have five children including two sons and a daughter who served in the Iraq War as U.S. Marines.  He writes extensively on industry topics.  Discover Tom’s previous episodes HERE.

Key Talking Points:

• The only competition I  have is Myself
• The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday
• Looking to be better than yesterday both individually and with  team basis
• Being better than “best practices”
• What can you do that makes your business stand apart? Implementing new technology
• Find out what your strengths are and build from there- release control and delegate to others what you do not excel at and focus on your strengths
• Don’t look for ideas, listen for them
• Everything you’ve ever done since you were born, there was a point in time you’ve never done it before – Try everything for the first time and develop it from there 
• If you compete with others you become bitter. If you compete with yourself you become better
• They wanna see you do good, but never better than them. Remember that.
• You’ve always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself. The Wizard of Oz
• If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. Quote attributed to many authors

Talk soon,

Resources:

• Thanks to Tom Ham for his contribution to the aftermarket’s premier podcast.
• Link to the ‘BOOKS‘ page highlighting all books discussed in the podcast library HERE. Leaders are readers.
• Leave me an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one of them.

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