Obama and thermal spray

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Well, it is final now that Mr. Obama will become the new President of the United States of America What an achievement that has been You might wonder what does this have to do with thermal spray coatings. Well, quite a bit, I might say. First of all, I reflected quite a bit this morning as I listened to news from various sources such as the newspaper, radio and the internet and decided to write this post to deal with what could be the reaction from the thermal spray world. Besides the usual and overly discussed issues of how much taxes will you end up paying, whether you are an entry level thermal spray operator earning a lower income level or you are the thermal spray business owner earning more than a quarter million dollars a year, there are other things that come to my mind considering the results of the new election.

First of all, I consider the enormous up hill battles that Mr. Obama had to face when campaigning for the highest political office in the country. There was the issue of racial considerations and then there was the issue of overcoming the massive competition from Mrs. Hillary Clinton and then there were the million other potholes along the way such as the Acorn issue, the immigration issue of one of his relatives and the statements about the increase in taxes for the wealthy and so on. And yet, undaunted and with a firm belief in himself, Mr. Obama not only won the nomination of the Democratic Party, but also proceeded to win the election. Now, what this teaches us is to keep focused on the goal and keep persevering constantly all of the time and everything is possible. I particularly liked the acceptance speech wherein he says that you need to believe that “You Can”. How often have you come across situations in your own thermal spray coatings world, wherein a microstructure is not up to the customer’s specifications or that the hardness is below the minimum required and such, and you simply want to shut down the thermal spray booth and go home? When such a situation arises again in the future, remember not to give up and quit but to keep trying and you could succeed quite well. Or how about the situation when your potential customer is not easily willing to award you the thermal spray contract and you wish your competitor was simply non-existent. Re-quote the job, improve the delivery lead time, guarantee the quality – do something to win the contract, but do not give up.

You know, history was made in the United States of America on the fourth of November, 2008. Mr. Obama became the first African-American to be elected President. And Jack Welch, the former chief executive officer of the General Electric Company said that Mr. Obama exhibited all the characteristics of the perfect manager. And therefore, taking from his example, everyone in the thermal spray industry, be it the thermal spray operator, salesman, business owner or simply the one in the customer service department taking phone calls from angry customers who want to know when their thermal spray coated parts will get delivered, everyone should strive to achieve the goals set forth by the organization.

And if you have not been setting goals, time to start setting them now. I used to have a T-shirt once that said “No goals no glory”. If Mr.Obama had not set his mind on the office of the Presidency, he could not have enjoyed the moment of glory at the announcement of the results!