The $700 Christmas Snake:

Back when I was an on-site manager for a tiny mom-and-pop storage company, it was Christmas Eve.

I decided to “help” in the kitchen.

I peeled enough potatoes to feed an army and thought to myself:
Garbage disposals are amazing.
Goodbye, potato skins.

Turns out, potato skins + garbage disposal = clogged main line for the entire facility.

No rental snakes available.

Only option? Emergency plumber on Christmas Eve.
$700 later, the drain was clear.

After the holidays, I told the owner I’d cover it. It was my mistake. $700 was a lot of money at that stage of my career.

He wouldn’t let me.

He told me something I’ve never forgotten:
“You learned the lesson. The company can afford the mistake.”

Then he told me about the time he did something similar himself.

That stuck.

Good operators take responsibility.
Great leaders don’t weaponize mistakes.

People who feel safe owning errors fix problems faster.
People who feel punished hide them.

I still double-check what goes down a disposal like it’s a risk assessment.
But I never forgot what that moment taught me about leadership.