When the Going Gets Tough — The Tough Go on Vacation?

I've been reading the autobiography of a medical doctor with a practice in Monterey, California in the early 1940s. Funny thing is, the best chapter in the book is not about this doctor at all, but about his father, Gene — and it's a standout business story.

Eugene "Gene" Eby ran General Electric's High Voltage division for decades. In the 1930s his division was handed a nearly impossible assignment: design the insulators that would be needed for the highest-voltage power lines the world had ever seen — the lines that would carry electricity from the yet-unfinished Boulder Dam hundreds of miles across the Mojave Desert to the distant, thirsty city of Los Angeles. Without the insulating bushings, no electric power would flow from the dam to the city.

For years, Gene's engineering division worked on this assignment the way Edison did — by brute force, mixing and firing one ceramic after another. Composition after composition. Thousands upon thousands. Each one failed, exploding ceramic shards in every direction. The voltage always won.

Days turned to weeks. Weeks to months. Months to years. The deadline fast approaching. Gene's stress level was nearly unbearable. The pressure came even from the U.S. president himself, who phoned Gene to check on the progress. The dam was nearly finished — the concrete was being poured for the footings and penstocks. The huge transformers would soon arrive from Pittsfield. The world's greatest dam would be useless as a power source, the president pointed out, unless Eby solved the bushing problem — right now! Gene knew the president was dead serious. The failures of Gene's team threatened to ruin the project before the eyes of a nation and embarrass the president.

Gene was at the end of himself.

And then he did something inconceivable.

He declared a month's holiday and closed his division while his tired, discouraged employees rested.

Had he gone mad? What would his bosses think?

The month passed. Gene's engineers returned from vacations around the world. Gene interviewed them — one by one. What was he looking for? Somehow, Gene knew that the answer to the high-voltage bushing problem would come from one of their stories.

Gene interviewed Cermak, one of his chief engineers. Cermak had spent his month traveling through France, Italy, Greece, and Egypt. At that time, King Tut's tomb had been opened to visitors, and Cermak was among the first to tour it. He told Gene that while in the tomb he had pocketed a small chunk of earthenware.

Gene phoned Cermak at 4:00 the next morning. "You said you visited a tomb and stole a souvenir when the guard looked away," Gene began. Getting a call from the boss in the middle of the night, Cermak wondered whether Gene would report him for stealing the Egyptian artifact. He need not worry. Gene told Cermak to take the Tut pottery piece into the lab, identify its chemical composition, and afterward design a high-voltage bushing from the same earthenware the ancients had fired. Cermak did.

When Gene and his team tested this new bushing at GE's laboratory in Schenectady, they applied such voltage that the very ground shook. The buildings shook. The engineers themselves shook. And the miracle occurred — that "Tut bushing" did not explode.

Years later, at Gene's retirement party, GE gave him a custom lamp made of that same ceramic whose recipe came from Tut's tomb.

The Answer Wasn't in the Lab

Most of the small business owners I encounter have a similar work ethic in approaching a tough problem: work harder. Put in more hours. Don't give up. And maybe, eventually, solve the problem.

Gene's behavior as a business leader defies convention. The answer to the hardest problem of his career did not come from working harder — it came from rest.

The innovation didn't need more force. It needed room.

As a business owner, you're working hard. It's busy season along the Gulf Coast. Tourism is at its peak. Amid all your hard work, is your idea fountain going dry?

If so, consider the lesson from Gene Eby. Step away for a spell. Make room for innovation.

A Few Things Worth Your Attention This Month

Sales & Lodging Tax — Due the 20th

For our Gulf Shores and Orange Beach short-term rental and hospitality owners, your monthly filing is due July 20. Confirm Airbnb and Vrbo are remitting on your behalf and that the city / state / county split is landing correctly in your MAT account. Five minutes now beats a penalty later.

Don't Spend the Summer Float

Peak season fills the bank account with money that was never fully yours — sales tax, lodging tax, and income tax are all riding inside those deposits. Move a fixed percentage of every busy-season dollar into a separate account now, so the quiet months and the tax bill don't catch you flat.

Take a Real Mid-Year Look

Before the season swallows August, pull your year-to-date Profit & Loss and reconcile through June. Your Q3 estimated payment is due September 15 — a half hour of honest numbers now beats a scramble later.