You know how we love to poke fun at “trunk-slammers” and the messes they leave behind? Well, maybe it isn’t really that funny after all.
CEDIA chairman Dennis Erskine, offering closing remarks at the recent Business Xchange, reminded attendees, “We’re a community. I was once a trunk-slammer.”
Many of us hung our heads in shame as he recounted how veteran integrator Greg Margolis, principal of Dallas-based HomeTronics, “took me under his wing” in the early days of Erskine’s integration business.
He recalled also how Larry Pexton, founder of Triad Speakers, “took a risk on me” and opened his highly protected line to Erskine’s fledgling firm.
That’s what we are expected to do as members of the CEDIA community, he said.
Instead of castigating the “cable guy” or trunk slammer for bad work on a takeover job, Erskine has often reached out to the culprit, providing guidance when possible.
“When you take over a bad job,” he says, “find the installer. Maybe you can help them.”
At the end of the day, it benefits us all when we “build professionalism in the industry.”
Hear, hear.
