Day 290: Gary Seibert
“… if you surround yourself with people who are miserable, you’re going to be miserable. If you surround yourself with people that are happy and upbeat, you’re going to be happy and upbeat. So I choose to do that. I choose to be with the happy, upbeat people.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Gary, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Gary Seibert: My name is Gary Seibert, the VP of Operations at Ozzy’s Family Fun Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania.
Toni: Fantastic. And Gary, thanks again for being here. Gary, when you think of inspiration, who do you inspire, and how does that happen?
Gary: Wow. I guess the best way to answer that is I hope I inspire the people that I’m around. In a business like ours, we employ about 70 young men and women; these are usually high school and college kids, and a handful of adults. Every day as we work, every day as we meet the challenges, I hope that the things that I say and do, my attitude towards those challenges just allow the people around me to see that there’s a better way than just getting frustrated and quitting.
Toni: Can you give an example of the type of environment that you’re in that you get to do that and touch so many different people?
Gary: Well, we’re a family entertainment center, so we have people coming in here all the time, and not necessarily the same customer day in and day out, so you meet new people. Some people are innately happy people, and some people are not, so one of the challenges is just dealing with the general public. Somebody comes up in your face and, you know, there’s something that happened that wasn’t maybe a big deal in most people’s minds, but to this person it’s a big deal, and therefore you have to stay positive and try to defuse the anger of the situation and help regain their confidence in their attitude in our facility.
Now, that doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen, and young kids today when they see it, they’re not really sure how to deal with it, so hopefully the way I and my staff, you know, handle the situations will be an impact on them later on in life.
Toni: Absolutely; and Gary, there are people listening to this Project all over the world, and when that type of transaction happens between you and the public or you and your staff, can you give an example of how you might inspire someone to handle that situation a little bit differently?
Gary: Well … give you an example … we had a sign up on our billboard — and this is a marquee up on a main highway — and it said “All day passes” which is how the people pay to come in here — you can get an all-day attraction pass – “Special $15.00.” So this family group came in and there was mom and dad and like four or five kids and grandma and grandpa, and grandpa comes over to the counter and asks for the information and pays for everybody.
About three hours later, the mother of this group comes up, and she said “This is a rip off.” I go “Whoa! What happened?” She said “Well, it said on the sign all day for $15.00.” I said “Yes, ma’am, that’s per person.” She said “It doesn’t say per person on the sign. It says all day $15.00.”
Sometimes we make assumptions that what we say or what people read, they understand what it means. In this particular case, it didn’t. Of course, our front desk was there, and she was making a scene in front of a lot of other people, and you know, all this nasty stuff, and we just smiled and said “Ma’am, I’ll tell you what, can we just go over to the side and let’s talk this through. My job here is to make you happy, and if we’ve done something that you didn’t understand, then we want to make it right.”
So I went over to the side and we talked to her, and I asked her, I said “What would make you happy?” She said “I want all of my money back except for one person.” I said “Okay, do you understand that that’s probably not going to be realistic, but what else would make you happy?” She looked at me and she said “You make that call, and I’ll see if it makes me happy.” I said “Okay, I’ll give you half your money back.” She said “Okay.” And we did that, and they went on the rest of the day, and everything was happy.
Now, you know, it was one of those things that you have to make a call every once in a while, do you really bow down, but the kind of scene that she was making, it wasn’t worth the $30 or $40, and that’s what I was trying to get my kids to understand is that sometimes, you know, you can stick to your guns to the point … you know, you can win the battle but lose the war, and I was trying to help them understand that sometimes it’s just you can’t please everybody every time. So choose your battle, and do the best to make it as good as you can.
Toni: How do you think examples like that, Gary, especially working with young staff, will help them to explore their potential?
Gary: Well, you know, all we can do is set examples for them. Actually, when we interview our kids when they come in, we know that they’re 17, 18, 19 years old and in many cases we’re their first job. We tell them “This is going to be a learning experience for you. We’re hoping that some of the things that you learn here, the attitudes, the responsibilities, just things like if you’re sick call in and let us know that you’re not going to be here, just don’t show up, that we pay you to work not to stand around and lean.”
You know, those kinds of things at the moment they may not understand or agree with them, but I think later on, as they go to other employment, maybe get out of college and they get their first real job, they will look back. We’ve had many kids come back and say “You know what, the things that we learned when we were working there with you … man, it paid off so much once we got into our real job.”
So that’s all we can do, is that we’re planting a seed, and with some kids it works. With some, they have to go out and experience it and do it their way.
Toni: Well absolutely, and what’s happening here is not only the awareness that you’re giving your young staff — that this is the way that they’re supposed to behave — but what I’m finding really interesting is that you have the awareness that this is their first job, that this is their first leader that they’re looking at, and what impression that you’re leaving. And a lot of employers don’t do that, so that’s pretty cool.
Gary: You know, Toni, the thing that we’re really finding here is that kids today have absolutely no work ethics. They are brought up in a home where mom and dad have sheltered them. They’ve given them everything. These kids have their cell phones when they’re 12 years old, they’ve got computers in their room, they’ve got widescreen TVs, DVD players, and they turn 16 and daddy buys them a car, and they’ve grown up thinking that, you know, money grows on trees and all you’ve got to do is ask daddy and he’ll take care of it.
Well, now all of a sudden one day mom and dad say “Hey, you’ve got to go out and get a job.” And they go “Why? Why? I’m really happy with everything the way it is right now!” And so we’re trying to teach them that that experience that they had, that’s not real life. That’s fairytale land. Real life is you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to put your nose to the grindstone and you’ve got to work.
Toni: So who inspires you?
Gary: God.
Toni: Okay.
Gary: My faith, because I can tell you, there’s probably 40 or 45 years of my life that I thought that I was in control, that I was God, because I was blessed with sort of a Midas touch, I was blessed with sports and athletic abilities, I was blessed with people skills, and I didn’t know that. I didn’t know I was blessed. I just thought I was in charge of everything, and I was good, and all that kind of stuff.
It took a very big experience in my life at age probably 48-49 when my whole world came crumbling down around me that I understood that I wasn’t in control of everything. And when I relinquished that and really dove into who was in charge, my life changed. I mean, everything about my life changed. My personality, my way of doing things, my way of thinking, my way of dealing with other people … just everything. That was cool.
Toni: Thank you very much for sharing that, and I’m sure there’s a lot of people that can relate to that as well. It’s very powerful. When you think of other things that inspire you as well, what comes to mind, Gary? What do you find yourself, in addition to your faith, reaching for on a consistent basis when you are maybe needing to be inspired or looking for inspiration? What do you go for?
Gary: Well, I don’t want to sound like a crazy person, but quite honestly if I’m feeling one of those down moments, or the challenge is really bad, I honestly, one of the things I do is I read the Bible. I get a lot of inspiration from that.
I also have a network of friends that I know if I need lifting up, I can call them up and we’ll laugh and chuckle and talk about silly things, and you know, that inspires me. I think people that you surround yourself with … if you surround yourself with people who are miserable, you’re going to be miserable. If you surround yourself with people that are happy and upbeat, you’re going to be happy and upbeat. So I choose to do that. I choose to be with the happy, upbeat people.
I also, I’m inspired by reading, you know, things that other people have done, you know, the challenges that they’ve met, the new things, the visions that they’ve grown into something, because always when you see that other people can do it, you think “Well, if they can do it, I can do it.” I love stories of people that have, you know, come from the worst of the worst and all of a sudden they’re back going great again, which … there’s an old saying, I once knew a man who complained because he had no shoes, until he met the man who had no feet.
There’s always someone who’s got it worse than you, so, you know, just get out of your misery or get out of your hole you’re in and just go forth, make a change, and that’s a decision in life. It’s a decision. It’s a choice, and I think that inspiration is part of a choice that … I choose to be happy. I choose to be positive. I choose to take challenges. I mean, I’ve always been a challenge-taker, a risk-taker, so I think that’s probably a lot of it with me.
Toni: So Gary, how do you continue to explore your own potential so you can continue to stand by this choice of being happy and be happy and help others and work in the environment that you do? What do you do to continue to explore that potential within yourself?
Gary: June 2 I turned 65 and I said “Wow, I can’t believe I’m 65 because I don’t feel it, I don’t think it.” I find myself constantly looking for other things — new challenges, new opportunities. I’ve gotten involved in some other organizations where just by being on the Board of Directors and being involved that the challenges of those outside organizations that become mine.
I find myself waking up each morning, different today than maybe I did 20 years ago, knowing that there’s going to be something that will take place during the day that will be an opportunity to be positive, because we are surrounded many times by situations and people and events. I mean, just think about all the poor people down in the Gulf region right now. A year ago, they had no idea that they would be in this position, but out of this catastrophe and this disaster, there will be people who … their lives will change in a very positive way.
I try to, again, look at myself – where will I be two years, five years, ten year from now? What will I be doing? What will motivate me? Do I still want to work? Don’t I want to work? Well, I want to work, I want to be with people, I want to do things. So I’m inspired just by being alive. Really, I mean that’s part of it. I enjoy every day for what it is, and if it rains, it rains. If it’s sunshine, it’s sunshine. I can’t change it.
I think too often we think that … you know, we get down because we want things to be different than they are. It’s just the way they are.
Toni: What a great message to leave the interview on, and Gary there are certain interviews, those that are following the Get Inspired! Project, that there’s words that come out for me, one word that to me represents the interview with this person, and I wrote down the word for you, aware. It’s taking the time to be aware of the kids you’re working with, to have them learn from, you know, the good and the bad, rather than ignore, and also the awareness you went through for your own inspiration as far as your faith and God that changed your life. So that’s what I heard is to be aware and to take advantage of that awareness, is key, and we can’t thank you enough for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Gary: I can’t thank you enough for inviting me to be on here. It was a pleasure.
Toni: You’re welcome, and I will talk to you soon. Thanks, Gary.
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For more information about Gary Seibert: www.ozzysffc.com
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