Recently, I had the opportunity to go to Worlds of Fun with my two daughters: Meghan (10) and Savannah (5). Being a father of two girls, I look forward to going to places like this because my girls have no interest in sports (other than soccer – which really isn’t a sport) and amusement parks are something we can do together that we all enjoy.

Meghan especially likes riding roller coasters. She is just barely tall enough to ride these things, but I’ve yet to find one that scares her. Now standing every bit of 58 inches tall, she meets the height requirements for every ride in the park (and costs me an extra $40 for her season pass). Being our first trip to Worlds of Fun, we had a whole new list of rides to entertain us. The biggest, most publicized ride at the park is the Mamba. The Mamba is named after a snake in Africa, but in my opinion, it should be called The Waiter (for how long you have to wait to ride it) or maybe even The Vomiter (because of the stains on the concrete in the exit).

Nonetheless, as soon as we entered the park, Meghan and I headed straight for the Mamba. As roller coasters go, I usually do pretty well. I’ve never been sick as a result of riding a roller coaster, although I usually steer clear of anything taller than my house or anything that goes faster than my car. I’ve been scared, but I’ve always managed to pull myself together and at least muster the courage of a 10-year-old girl.

Meghan is one of those great kids. She’s very conscientious about the feelings of other people and she has an innate ability to see other people’s attitudes by the looks on their faces. Her 4th grade teacher (who is at least 125 years old) told me that Meghan is the kindest kid she had ever had in class. (Yes, she is really my kid.)

Last weekend, Meghan did not appear to be very kind as we stood in what seemed like an endless line to ride the Mamba. This thing goes 250 feet in the air and reaches speeds of more than 70 mph. Just watching it is enough to scare you to death. After watching this ride for about a half-hour and seeing the faces of the people as they exited the ride (and what a few of them had for lunch), I decided that maybe this wasn’t the best use of the $125 season pass I just purchased. All of a sudden watching one of those hokey folk dancing shows seemed like the place to be. One glance over at Meghan and she seemed confident, determined and not bothered at all by the small pee stain on my shorts.

I began to think of as many excuses as possible to get out of this thing, but I didn’t even have the courage to propose an exit plan to a 10-year-old girl because of my fear. As the line got shorter and our turn grew nearer, I finally had to just close my eyes and stop watching.

I’ve been in the lumber business my whole life and worked for and around countless store managers. The one thing that separates truly successful managers is courage. No matter whether we’re talking about adding installed services or setting up satellite sales offices, the most successful managers today are fearless in their implementation of new and innovative ideas to help their businesses grow.

Well, we finally got our turn on the Mamba, and I was so scared coming down that big hill, that I couldn’t even scream. As we exited the ride, Meghan’s step was even a little unsteady, but she was clearly doing much better than I was. Her courage was contagious, and I was able to complete the ride, look brave (except for the small amount of pee) and actually have a good time with her on the ride.

She provided me with the motivation I needed to be brave, have courage, take a chance and enjoy the result. Your employees feed off of your courage in much the same way (as I fed off Meghan’s courage) and are fearless when making sales presentations to potential customers if they see your confidence. The rest of the day, we rode every wild ride in the park and probably went upside down at least 50 times and I never flinched a bit. I just needed that one little push to take a chance and the rest of the time was spent taking more chances and enjoying the results.

Yes, the lumber business of today is enough to make any manager pee a little, but the courage that you demonstrate will carry over to your employees and translate into future success … I promise.