Ice Cream Headaches

When I was a kid our family gatherings almost always included home made ice cream. The flavor would depend upon the season, but those frozen desserts were always delightful. Eager to get a second helping, I would often eat my first bowl too quickly and soon be suffering from an ice cream headache.

It was many years before I learned the cause of this excruciating pain, but the irony of something so tasty causing such agony was not lost on me.

Sometimes owning a paint contracting business reminds me of those experiences. Sometimes owning a business is a lot of fun, kind of like eating a bowl of home made strawberry ice cream. And sometimes it is like an ice cream headache—such a painful experience that I just want to be shot and put out of my misery (fortunately those times are pretty rare).

As I have matured I’ve learned to eat ice cream more slowly. One reason is to avoid ice cream headaches. Another reason is that if I want more ice cream, I’ll simply go get more ice cream.

Similarly with my business. I’ve learned the causes of most of my frustrations and problems, and I’ve developed systems and procedures to reduce and/ or prevent them. Just as eating ice cream more slowly staves off the feeling an ice pick is poking my brain, systems stave off the desire to stick an ice pick in my brain.

Writing about home made ice cream makes me want to make some tonight. Fortunately I have one of those small electric machines, because I really wouldn’t relish the thought of sitting my butt on one of those crank machines. Besides, I don’t think my wife would have time to do the cranking.

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