While the faint at heart complained that the performance expectations Dave identified as the business facts of life were too demanding and harsh for most workplaces, He disagreed and continue to contend that letting people live in a gray area and failing to stretch them with higher standards is what is truly harsh.

Following are 25 sample business facts of life.

1. It’s o.k. not to like a part of your job, but it’s not o.k. not to do it. In fact, I don’t expect you to like everything about your job. That’s why we pay you to do it.

Commentary: If you loved everything about your job, we’d have to turn the place into an amusement park and charge you admission for coming to work each day.

2. In matters concerning our values and standards, you have a voice but not a vote. I will listen to your input, but I will ultimately decide.

Commentary: It is the leader’s privilege and responsibility to create standards. I will not reduce my vision to accommodate your comfort zone.

3. Everyone on this team will be held to the same high standard of work ethic, customer care, and character, regardless how high their level of production.

Commentary: Being a top producer does not excuse you from continuing to work hard, caring for our customers, or living our values. 

4. You are expected to prove yourself over again every day. Tenure, credentials, and years of experience don’t substitute for results.

Commentary: Yesterday ended last night. You will not be permitted to cash royalty checks or borrow credibility from what you did once-upon-a-time.

5. I will work with you as long as you continue to make measurable progress in reasonable time. However, if you reach a point where you hover at or below average performance levels with no upward trend, your future with this organization is in jeopardy.

Commentary: Frankly, if you don’t grow, you go. 

6. I not only expect you to work hard on the job, I expect you to work hard on yourself.

Commentary: Your business will get better when you get better. Never wish it were easier, wish you were better.

7. Our compensation programs will be heavily weighted to reward above average performers and above average results. We will not weaken the strong in order to strengthen the weak.

Commentary: We run a meritocracy, not a welfare state.

8. When promotions are available, they will go to the most deserving member of the team regardless of longevity, gender or ethnic background.

Commentary: The person “next in line” will always be the most deserving person. We’re running a business, not the Royal Family.

9. I expect you to focus on what you can control and never assume a victim’s mindset to explain away your lack of success.

Commentary: Success is more about inside decisions than outside conditions. Take responsibility for your life.

10. I measure loyalty by performance, not the number of years you cash our paychecks.

Commentary: Loyalty is more about what you put into the time than the time you put in. The most disloyal thing you can do is to stop performing.

11. I will give you consistent and honest feedback on performance.

Commentary: If you’re great, I’ll tell you. If you’re failing, I’ll tell you. If you’re ever unclear where you stand, ask me.

12. I expect you to tell me what I need to hear and not what you think I’d like to hear.

Commentary: Kissing up will only succeed in keeping you down.

13. I will train you and invest in your development, but I also expect you to invest in yourself.

Commentary:  If you don’t invest in yourself, why should anyone else?

14. I expect you to lead by personal example, not personal convenience. This means you must commit yourself to a cause and not commit the cause to yourself.

Commentary: Before you stand to lead, stoop to serve.  

15. Lying, cheating, and stealing are grounds for immediate dismissal.

Commentary: If this has to be explained, you should leave now.

16. I expect you to add value to others on your team. Be a giver and not just a taker.

Commentary: If you’re in it only for yourself, you’re in a mighty small business.

17. You are expected to always do what is right, not what is easy, cheap, popular, or convenient.

Commentary: And you will do so without excuse and regardless of the cost.

18. If you have personal problems that affect your work, I will listen, advise, and try to help you. However, you are expected to work through the paradox of solving your personal problems while you continue to get results on the job.

Commentary: Personal problems cannot become a permission slip for an indefinite production holiday.

19. I expect you to become brilliant in the basics of your job.

Commentary: You don’t have to do anything extraordinary to get the next performance level. Instead, I expect you to do the ordinary things extraordinarily well.

20. I expect you to learn from mistakes and continue to take shots even when you miss.

Commentary: When you hit a wall learn to bounce, not splatter.

21. I expect you to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Commentary: Carelessness will not be permitted to become a lifestyle.

22. I expect you to become an “and then some” person.

Commentary: Do what you say, and then some. Hit your numbers, and then some. Keep your commitments, and then some. 

23. You will not whine, gossip, or complain about personal issues on company time.

Commentary: You will not be permitted to inflict distractions, momentum-breakers, or negativity on your teammates.

24. There is no tolerance for employees who make the numbers, but violate the values.  Thus, I will measure you by two metrics: performance expectations and behavioral expectations.

Commentary: Our core values are non-negotiable. They will shape your behaviors; you will not infect our culture by abusing them.

25. I will listen to explanations for job failures, but not excuses. I expect you to take responsibility.

Commentary: Excuses are the DNA of underachievers. One of the best days of your life is when you give them up. Why not start today?

Some of these business facts of life may have comforted you, while others confronted you.

Please share your comments and experiences below and be sure to give this a FB Like or Tweet!

If you were lucky to be around when STAR KEY Industries, Inc. out of Brooklyn, N.Y. was around, you would agree their key blanks and numbering system were very friendly to the locksmith profession.

STAR was considered the innovators of the true EZ coding system, which was designed to easily identify key blanks by reference only to the numbering code.





It's numbering system typically consisted of three parts.

1 - The "prefix" which designated the number of pins in the lock.
2 - A lock manufacturer identification code.
3 - A keyway "suffix" which designates the keyway.

A 5CO1 fits a 5 pin Corbin lock and a 5CO1, 6CO1 (6 Pin), and a 7CO1 (7 Pin) all fit the same keyway but each work with a different amount of pins, 5, 6 & 7 respectively. 

Back when cars used a 2 key system, one for the ignition and one for the doors or trunk, STAR used different prefixes such as "H" (hexagon shape of the key) for the ignition and "O" (oval shape of the key) for the doors or trunk. These key shapes were typically used by General Motors and sold by Briggs & Stratton at the time.

The STAR brass blanks were great for impressioning locks because they were soft enough to get great impression marks but still strong enough to withstand torque and wear. Impressioning marks are more visible on brass compared to a nickle plated key. The fact that these keys where both soft and hard at the same time, which sounds like an oxy-moron, made them the key of choice by many locksmiths. The traditional brass keys self lubricated the keyway with the brass to brass contact against the internal brass pins of the lock cylinder itself.

Certain keyways were also available as a modified form of a "universal" keyway, such as in General Motors vehicles. These universal key blanks allowed for a specially milled key to pass into a variety of keyways or sections.

Simply put, STAR was an industry STAR!

The SOPL uses this great course manual as part of the STI Training. Now the authors have made it available for only $9.99 on Amazon. You will get a fantastic primer on Safe Manipulation, Wheel Packs, Dialing, Graphs, Amplification and more. It makes safe manipulation easy to understand, less intimidating. Moving on to Group II locks afterwards is much easier after learning the basic concepts.

The SOPL hosts a comprehensive test and certificate for this e-book material. If you purchase this e-book and want to access the testing, let SOPL Admin know and we will use some of your membership VIrtual Dollars as payment. If your not a member, contact us to discuss access and cost to the test.

This e-book course material nails the topic and makes it fun to learn.

Click on the image to get yours today!

Can you say Swashbuckling? 

The Society of Professional Locksmiths has gone on a deep sea discovery adventure with Mr. Jon Carpenter of the Department of Materials Conservation, Shipwreck Galleries, Western Australia Museum .

A search for answers from the shipwreck of the HMS Pandora, which is known for its capture and imprisonment of mutineers from the HMAV Bounty, uncovers an exciting discovery of a padlock which could be the key to what went on inside Pandoras Box during the shipwreck of the HMS Pandora.

For those who want to skip the technical information, you can find the Conclusion on Page 8.

Acknowledgements, Page 10 - Tom Lynch, Society of Professional Locksmiths (interpretation of padlock mechanisms and nomenclature)

Billy Ott was born on Saturday, November 23, 1940, in New York, New York. Ott was 21 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 4, 1962, with the Chicago Cubs. When he first stepped onto Wrigley Field, I was just a kid.  Years later I found myself in front of a man with a stocky frame, and strong hands that looked as if they could squeeze the life out of you. To me he was just "Bill", a locksmith I had introduced myself to when I began my journey into the field of locksmithing.  

Bill ran a vibrant lock and hardware business with his two sons which he was very proud of and would often brag about their skills in free hand mortising and automotive prowess.  We would sit and talk for long periods of time and I would enjoy listening to the "old timer" as he would ramble off the nuances of complex locks and his days working in New York City when Segal Jimmy Proof locks and Medeco were everywhere.

Watching his expressions and listening as he would roll back in time and share his wisdom gave me a sense that my time was well spent.  Bill had also served as a police officer in New York City, something he never threw around or spoke of with embellishments.  He was the strong and silent type so when he would take a seat at his workbench in the rear of his shop and invites me to sit, I was honored.  I discovered a man rich with history, honor, love of family and country.  Known as Papi to his grandchildren, he would shine with pride over the thought that he would be taking care of them after he would close his shop for the day. 

Bill is one of several mentors in my growth as a professional locksmith.  I will never forget his advice at the time...."Save every little part, they come in handy when you need them."  With that I would salvage everything imaginable and put them into parts bins, so much so that other locksmiths would laugh and say give the junk to Tom he takes anything!  

Late one night in freezing temperatures with little light in my service van, I remember the sinking feeling I had when a small retainer spring flew from the rear of a key-in-knob cylinder and disappeared into the darkness.  After a few explicit remarks I sat down and remembered what Bill had taught me.  Luckily, I had a replacement that I had salvaged from a discarded cylinder.

It is amazing how the past is relevant, how old things have meaning and should not be forgotten and every little thing counts.  Something as small as a spring and something as big as achieving playing in the major league!  Billy Ott played for the Chicago Cubs!

Although he would diminish this fact without fan fair in his humble way, he would on the other hand, praise the talent of those he played with as a teammate.  To watch how he would squint his eyes as they would twinkle and purse his lips as he would describe the power or speed of another player was testament that this guy was the real deal.  He admired them deeply.  When I asked Bill about his salary, he would roll his eyes and laugh and say about $1500 a year! "Back then it was a privileged to walk on that field." he would say...a privilege.

The date today is February 22, 2011 and it is "my" privilege to share my experience with Mr. Billy Ott.  Although he is humble and considers his time in the majors minor, I would say that anyone who is given the opportunity to step onto Wrigley Field at a time when the entire major league had maybe 8 teams....was something to be proud of.

Your a great guy Billy, and I am grateful for having you as a mentor and my friend. Enjoy your retirement and remember the Society of Professional Locksmiths is here whenever you want to pull up a chair and talk shop.

Click this link to read more about Billy Ott.
http://link-shrink.com/8732

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

RICHARD G. CALLAHAN 
United States Attorney

February 18, 2011
For Immediate Release

OWNERS OF FLORIDA LOCKSMITH SERVICE INDICTED IN SCAM TO OVERCHARGE FOR LOCKSMITH SERVICES

St. Louis, MO: The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that the owners of a Florida based locksmith service were charged in a superseding indictment on multiple federal charges involving a scam to overcharge customers for locksmith services, as well as employing and
harboring illegal aliens.

According to the superseding indictment, Dependable Locks, Inc., headquartered in Clearwater, FL, managed a national network of locksmith technicians, operating from major population centers across the United States, including St. Louis.  It also maintained a full-time staff of telephone
operators and dispatchers, who were on duty 24 hours per day in Clearwater. The dispatchers received phone calls electronically forwarded from hundreds to thousands of telephone numbers listed nationwide for emergency locksmith services, all of which forwarded consumer calls to the
call center in Florida.  The dispatchers received the calls and the business dispatched locksmith technicians from the area of the call to respond.  Many of the locksmith technicians working for Dependable Locks were aliens who were unlawfully present in the United States and were not authorized to work as locksmith technicians.

The indictment alleges that the locksmith company engaged in deceptive marketing by purchasing directory listings and advertisements in cities across the United States that identified the business to the public as a set of local locksmith companies.  The company’s listings used multiple business
names, local phone numbers and fake local addresses that had no affiliation with the company. Phone calls to the listed phone numbers were automatically routed to the company’s call center in Clearwater, Florida.  In addition, telephone operators for Dependable Locks were instructed by
managers to mislead customers to believe that they would be charged around $54 for a car lockout, while the responding technician was instructed by managers to charge up to $179 for a lockout.
Technicians used techniques such as accusing the consumer who objected to the overcharge of "theft of services," threatening to call the police, withholding the customer's keys or driver's license to compel payment or following the customer to an ATM machine to ensure payment.

The locksmith technicians allegedly were allowed to split the profits of the fraudulently procured locksmith services with the company and were required to remit the company's share of the proceeds by regularly purchasing and shipping cash, checks and money orders to the Dependable
Locks location in Clearwater, FL.

"After more than a year of following numerous leads with ICE and the Missouri Attorney General's Office, we are pleased to see this case continue to progress," said Postal Inspector J.R. Ball of the St. Louis Field Office.  He added, "The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is vigilant in investigating 
allegations where the mail or postal products are used to conceal or further a crime."

DAVID PEER, Clearwater, FL; and ADAM OLIVKOVICH, address unknown, were indicted by a federal grand jury on one felony count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, five felony counts of mail fraud, one felony count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens for private financial gain and one felony count of engaging in a pattern of hiring unauthorized aliens. MOSHE AHARONI, Clearwater, FL, was indicted on one felony count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one felony count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens for private financial gain.

Conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a fine up to $250,000.  Mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or a fine up to $250,000.  Conspiracy to harbor unlawful aliens for private financial gain carries a maximum 
penalty of 10 years in prison and/or a fine up to $250,000.  Engaging in a pattern of hiring unauthorized aliens carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and/or a fine of $3,000 per alien.  In determining the actual sentences, a Judge is required to consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, 
which provide recommended sentencing ranges.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Assistant United States Attorneys John Sauer and John Ware are 
handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

As is always the case,  charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.