What You Think We Do?

Everything has not gone wrong, but we have had quite a few delays, difficulties, dissapointments and just plain trouble during the past weeks as we try to complete the project here in Thailand. The workers have been putting in extra hours in the heat. The owner has had most of his facility cluttered with our crane parts for way too long. And the customer has been patiently waiting to see his vision come to fruition so he can start seeing the benefits of all the time and money spent on his project. But his patience is understandably wearing thin.

It is Saturday, we had a much-anticipated shipment of parts, the parts that are the key to completion of the project. The parts that are crucial to the function of these newly designed cranes. The parts we had ordered about 5 months ago. The photo above shows the crew getting the shipment and opening boxes. It was like Christmas, we were all so excited.

I started checking the parts. Some key parts were missing. Many of the parts were the wrong size and would absolutely not fit onto our assembly. One of the parts was the wrong model, and way too costly to ship back to the U.S. I gave everyone my assessment. "We are not going to be able to complete the project with these parts. We are going to be delayed for much longer than I can afford to stay here. The customer is not going to be happy."

The man who fills in while the owner is out of the office (the owner was out of the office) and who shuttles me between the hotel and office (sings like John Bon Jovi) asked me this question. "What you think we do?"

I had a simple, succinct answer. "We go ride elephants." And that is what we did.