How many times have you heard the phrase: “It is what it is”?
I don’t know about you, but I hate that when people say that.
To me, it’s a euphemism for: “I can’t do anything about my situation.”
It’s the story of a victim—it’s victimese.
I heard mega-entrepreneur, Ed Mylett speak about this phrase as well, (he hates it too, by the way). He said: “What if it isn’t what it is?”
I’ll piggyback off that and ask: “What if it’s more than what it is?”
I’m entrepreneurially predisposed, so as a Multi-Unit Manager at Subway, I’m constantly looking for ways to make the job more than what it is for my people.
Sure, I could just shrug and think the hell am I doing? It’s just Subway for Pete’s sake.
Meh. Boring. White milk.
Like anything else, making it more than what it is for my staff comes with pros and cons.
The pros are: my staff has more buy-in to what they’re doing. They see Subway, if they stick to it and work hard, as a career instead of a job. They’re calling meetings on their own to address issues in the business, freeing me up to work on the business.
The cons are: H.R., H.R., and more H.R. If you’re going to build a business, or make an impact in this life, you’re going to have to deal with people, (it is what it is) and people can be a royal pain in the ass. Drama about this, complaining about that. So and So has been a Manager before and has her own opinion on how Store 1 should be run. Other So and So at Store 2 thinks the store ought to be completely prepped when she starts the day, (negating the fact that the night crew’s job is to close the store, not prep it for the next day). Combine all of that into a never-ending Snapchat thread that serves as our group’s communication and walking in front of a bus is more than tempting.
It’s cliche, but the pros of making something more than what it is really do outweigh the cons. The latter, though never fun to deal with, grants you the opportunity to come up with ideas for better problem solving, (which is why businesses exist, by the way, to solve problems).
Maybe I’m romanticizing about this whole “making it more than what it is” spiel. But then again, maybe not. We already know what the alternative is.
“It is what it is.”