Curtis was a dishwasher before he hit the jackpot. It was 1982, and it felt like a typical night. Curtis bought a lottery ticket like he normally would. He may not have carried any expectancy that this ticket would be the one. Much to his amazement, Curtis went from living paycheck to paycheck to 5 million dollars in the bank. His life from that point forward consisted of easy living, parties, and loose spending. He lived big and became a poster boy for the lottery.
Unfortunately, winning the lottery put Curtis on a path to destruction. He left his wife for a lover and had an expensive wedding. Shortly thereafter, he also left her. He quit working and took his new friends on vacations and to the best restaurants. It wasn’t long, and Curtis began to run out of money. He eventually got a job, but didn’t adjust to the way he was living. In the end, Curtis found himself back where he started, living paycheck to paycheck.
Overnight success typically doesn’t work because our habits follow us. Whether these habits are good or bad will be the deciding factor. At CPV, we aim to build our processes on excellent daily decisions by defining our practices until they become good habits. If bad habits creep in, they can be traced back to repeated bad practices and corrected until they become good habits.
"Keeping the shop clean has become a good habit, and it has paid off for very practical reasons."
Throughout the years, we have given hundreds of tours of CPV to new employees, colleagues, and customers. A common remark we hear after people have seen the facility is, “Wow, I’ve never seen a paint shop so clean!” Keeping the shop clean has become a good habit, and it has paid off for very practical reasons.
One of our core values at CPV is excellence and keeping a clean paint shop is essential to delivering quality to each customer. A clean shop to a painter is like a clean kitchen to a chef; the first step in delivering a beautiful meal to their guest. A clean workspace in each process stage decreases the chances of parts being sent back with flaws. Don’t let the overspray on the walls or drops of paint on the floor fool you; our booths and mixing rooms are habitually cleaned to preserve their original integrity. Since most paint flaws originate from the painter’s body, we go through hundreds of paint suits every year with standard practices to protect the painter and the parts from lint and dust.
A crucial part of delivering a world-class paint job is ensuring each process step happens in its designated area. Therefore, parts are always prepped outside of the paint booth. Our prep area stays clean with state-of-the-art filtration, and our buffing department is clean and bright to ensure each part has a showroom finish.
Success certainly doesn’t happen overnight, but by putting in the daily work and creating good habits. Mark Twain said, “A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time.” There isn’t a lottery ticket for good habits, but once good habits are formed, it will feel like you won the lottery every day, a process that lasts a lifetime.
Authored By: Steve Wright
