Wow, it was 15 years ago today that we first turned on the lights and opened the doors at Eclipse Awards! It’s been an amazing journey of learning, challenge, faith, determination, creativity, experience, improving and evolution - metaphorically, we are still turning on the lights and walking through new doors every day, so the journey remains challenging, magical and rewarding!
As the founder of Eclipse Awards, I’m proud that we have reached this milestone as less than half of businesses survive beyond 5 years. 15 years has given me the time to truly explore the many diverse elements of running a company, and in some cases it’s provided us with the opportunity to have some real breakthroughs in terms of designs and thinking. My hope is to build a business that will last 100 years while delivering quality, creating value and building community, so I feel like we’re off to a great start!
As a company, we are equally proud to have the opportunity to work with so many amazing organizations who value the happiness of their people and partners. We have fine-tuned our service and the quality of our workmanship to become a world-class supplier of recognition awards. We’ve balanced our roles as manufacturer, retailer, consultant, supplier, employer and thought leader. We’ve also developed an aspiring new vision statement to guide us through the years ahead, and most importantly, we are more committed than ever to building stronger communities through recognition and appreciation! And without a doubt, we’ll continue to explore the frontiers of recognition and appreciation, while also ensuring that we are delivering legendary service and quality, handcrafted awards.
This year, to honor all of the awesome people and organizations that we’ve worked with over the past 15 years, we’re gearing up to launch the Awesome Awards - a pay-it-forward recognition program aimed at celebrating the awesome unsung heroes doing awesome things in your community. Visit www.theawesomeawards.org to learn more, or better yet, nominate someone in your community to be recognized with one of the very first Awesome Awards later this year!
People refer to the 15th anniversary as the Crystal Anniversary, which is appropriate given the crystal awards that have been our foundation since day one. So in keeping with tradition, here’s an updated list of our secret business insights, with a special #15 added for this year!
- Treat Everyone with Equal Respect >> We may have different jobs and responsibilities, but in the end, we are all simply people trying to make our way in this world. The energy we put out is the energy we receive back.
- Your People are your Greatest Assets >> Work with great people, let them do their job, and find ways to make sure they feel happy, engaged and appreciated. These are the people that will work hard for you, generate ideas for you, solve problems for you...or not. Recognize their efforts and appreciate them as an important part of your community!
- Recognition is Powerful >> It speaks to a basic human need that we all have to feel recognized and appreciated and feel valued as a part of a community. Recognition empowers people and creates new opportunities for them. It helps engage them in your community and culture. Happy people make companies and organizations stronger.
- Put your Clients’ Minds at Ease >> Find out all of the things that might worry your clients, then put systems and policies in place to address them. Erase any worries or concerns from their minds. See #5.
- Be Bold & Daring >> If you make a guarantee, make it a strong one and stand behind it. If you embrace technology or sustainability, do it in a way that sets you apart from others. Businesses are amazing vehicles – think outside the box and unleash your creativity in ways that make the world a better place!
- Embrace Awesomeness >> “Going green” is simply the evolution of how we do business and how we choose to relate to one another and our planet. Understanding sustainability is the single greatest investment that you can make towards your future success, but it's not an end itself. At Eclipse, striving for sustainability is simply a part of our commitment to being awesome!
- Choose Simplicity over Complexity >> Wherever possible, remove excess and make things easier for everyone. Design simple systems and simple policies. Leonardo Da Vinci said “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” - he knew what he was talking about.
- If you Make a Mistake, Take Responsibility & Fix It Quickly (without complaining) >> It’s inevitable – at some point a mistake will happen. When it does, we accept responsibility and do our best to fix it, whatever the cost. It’s how we handle ourselves when things go wrong that is the most important.
- Enjoy Yourself! >> Have fun with the people you work with and the people you work for! Take care of business and make things happen, but don’t take yourself too seriously :)
- The Genesis of Recognition is Intention >> Recognition is energy and everything we talk about, think about and do is a form of recognition. What do you want to manifest in the world? Cultivate that with your energy through the things you choose to recognize.
- Get involved in your community >> A business is more than something to simply generate dollars. It’s about putting your time and resources into enriching the social, environmental and cultural aspects of the communities you’re involved in. I believe we should all be contributing 20% of our time in service to our communities - imagine what our world would look like!
- Collaborate! >> It’s hard to do everything alone, and not that much fun. Explore creative new ways to work with your staff, your suppliers, other organizations in your community, even your competitors.! All business happens within an ecosystem, and we can accomplish a lot more together than we can alone.
- Don’t Base Your Decisions Simply on Dollars >> In business school, they teach that everything comes down to money. However in reality, the truly magical and wonderful things happen when we de-prioritize money and focus on other things such as beauty, happiness, integrity, community and creating memorable experiences. See our commitment to the Living Wage.
- Compete on Value, Not on Price >> Our world is changing quickly and we need to find new ways to live together and with our planet. See #13, but when we purchase solely on price we are forcing companies to continually cut quality. Instead, we need to make our decisions based on the full spectrum of value that a company creates: financial, social, environmental and cultural - these are all important considerations for both consumers and successful companies of the future.
- Community is Everything >> At Eclipse we talk a lot about community and the importance of building resilient and engaged communities. After all, we all play roles in many different communities - your company, your team, your non-profit organization, your family, your association - these are all communities that we are part of. Recognition can be a powerful way to communicate intention, accelerate change and supercharge a community. Follow along, we’ll show you how it can be done!
So there we have it - these things took us 15 years to learn, but you can grasp them in 15 minutes. As we look to the future we are eager to help build a new economy that values happiness and the human experience.
How about you? What are the important lessons that you've learned on your journey so far? What are your secret insights? We'd love to hear from you - the more we share, the more we have!