Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Magic

Weird title for a blog that is about a PD pump in the oilfield, isn’t it? Inspiration comes in the strangest places, though. I recently finished a book, and I won’t even pretend it wasn’t complete fluff—but occasionally, we all need a little fluff. At the end of the day, I found a lesson I could learn.

The story was about the daughter of a company owner who was sent to a competitor as a fixer. Her job was to clean up the mess left by a colleague. The mess? Her company had essentially tried to steal an idea. When her colleague went in and made a lousy offer to “help” the small business—and was ultimately turned down—they decided it was easier just to steal the idea and reproduce it.

Near the end, as the happy ending approaches, one of the characters says, “People are always trying to steal magic. Someone can’t steal what only you can make.” I’m sorry, was this author speaking directly to me?!

For as long as we have been in business, someone has been trying to steal or replicate our idea. Several people wanted to say it was their idea, but I assure you it was not (you can check out our history if you need confirmation). The wolves are out… and I mean out. You wouldn’t believe the number of people who have talked about how much they respected Ted, who now want to be the leader in manufacturing his pump.

This brings a lot of unease to many people on our team, and I don’t blame them. The only advantage I have here is age and experience. The advantage we have as a company is quality and loyalty.

Here’s where the magic comes in.

If you’ve ever had a patent or trademark and tried to defend it, you know the process usually comes to a halt before it ever really takes off. Both are great ways for lawyers to get rich and leave everyone else licking their wounds. What we have found is that it’s best to build your business on magic instead—and that is precisely what we have done.

Our customers are not just buying a T&E pump. What really brings people through our doors is that we treat them like humans, not bank accounts….we don’t talk down to them, we listen to them. For us, the customer experience and their ultimate happiness are what we strive to excel at.

We’re going to work with our customers to help them develop a solution to any problem they have. We start them out with a quality product and make sure it works for them. We’re going to be honest and forthcoming about costs and potential setbacks. We will never quote a lower price to bring in work to hose them on the way out the door when it’s already done. We won’t pass off a lower-quality product at an inflated price. And we certainly won’t act like we know more than anyone, ever, on planet earth.

We sell magic—also known as good customer service. It’s about more than what you build or how much money you make… It’s about relationships. That is something no one can ever steal from you.

And as Christmas approaches, that feels especially true. The real spirit of the season isn’t about what you can buy or copy; it’s about what you can give that no one else can—your integrity, your care, your commitment to people. That’s the kind of magic we’re holding onto, no matter who tries to duplicate our pumps. Competitors will copy. Markets will change.

But if you build your business—and your life—on that kind of magic, the true, quiet kind, then no one can ever really steal what only you can make.