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Foreign. Welcome back to building build whip. This is number 37. We're stacking it up titled Christmas break and you should too. Again, we're a little delayed here on the podcast front to allow for my travel schedule. I travel every once in a while. If you're new here, you know, I get around. I get around. So we have about a four week buffer. I wrote this going into the Christmas break, but really it's for next Christmas break. What this is is my annual pitch for businesses to take a two week break around the holidays. And my argument is not rooted in being Mr. Nice Guy Employer. It's rooted in what's best for your people and for your business. We just got done with our two year break. I'm getting ahead of myself here, but we just got done. I'm recording this after our break and I am more and more grateful for it. I told our team this today. I'm more and more grateful for it every single year. I'm so grateful for it. And I know technically it's partially my decision, but I don't feel like it is. It's a team effort. Our whole team has to row in this one direction to allow us the opportunity to have the two weeks off. It's a gift, it's a blessing. It should be automatic, but it's by no means the standard in America and I do not take it for granted. One week, it's really good, but you need two to just hang out and to just let the weight off of the year and to spend time with people that you love without worrying about things. I can't imagine another way of doing this, but again, I'm getting ahead of myself. And let's dig into some of the history here and the logic of why we do this, because I think it's a great business decision. First and foremost. Foremost, we'll rewind the clock back to 2018, which was my first year officially of build wit, of building a business, Building Buildwit 2018. And it was kill or be killed. It's still kill or be killed. Trust me, it is. Someone over break said, stop selling. We get it. And I just chuckled. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't get it. I don't fucking stop if I stopped. If I stop, I starve. I don't stop. I'm not here by accident. I'm here because I don't stop. So back then especially, it was kill or be killed. And I was a man on a mission. So slowing down for the holidays, not a Chance. There was no way, even if I wanted to, I couldn't afford it. However, despite my desire to remain full send, few I did business with and the industry as a whole shared my enthusiasm. And it was as if I showed up at a tennis match with all the training, all the gear, all the vigor. I smashed the ball over the net, but then there's nobody on the other side. And so what happens? Well, there's, there's no tennis match. Then I was playing with myself. Hey, hey, hey, don't, hey, don't take that out of context, but it was crickets. So year two comes around 2019, and at this point we have a small team. You know, I'd hired Angel and Chell. Dan was, was in the wings. Jack maybe was involved at this point too. Chase. So we had this small team. It was really cool. It was like the good old days, man. And decisions no longer impacted me. So based on what I learned the previous year, rather than just pointlessly beating our heads against the wall, we hung up our hats before Christmas and then didn't turn the lights back on until after New Year's, whatever that first Monday of the year was, which happened to be two full weeks off. And we enjoyed the obvious benefits. This is no secret, this isn't top secret information here. Like everybody appreciating the unencumbered family time and avoiding the wasted effort. No one likes to waste time, of course, but the most significant benefit was a total surprise. And that was our productivity in January was bananas, absolutely wild. It was as if everybody returned rested and enthusiastic. What a concept. So we've continued to do this because it's been so beneficial for everybody throughout the years. And now, despite our team being well over 40, almost 50 people currently continuing the Christmas break this year, you would think it would be more and more difficult because it's more and more expensive. It's a lot of money to shut the company for two weeks and to pay everybody. It's paid, it's not unpaid. We're paying everybody for those two weeks and that's not coming out of their vacation time. They on average take between two and about three weeks a year. Additionally, on top of holidays, it's really cool, but you'd think it'd be more difficult. It's actually been easier and easier. And this year it was, it wasn't even a discussion, it's just, it was just automatic because it's good for our people. Our people. Me, I'm one of them. They need a break, they earned a break. And if it's good for them. It's good for our business. It's simple logic. It's really simple logic. But it's. It's. I think it's inhuman to just slog and slog and slog and then get to the end of the year. Oh, you got to work half a day on the 24th. All right, I got the 25th off, which was a Thursday this year. Okay, 26th, that's a workday. Come on back. And then just slog through the holidays again. And the holidays for people, they're not really time off. You've got your family, you've got your spouse's family. You're traveling. There's all sorts of stuff going on. There's financial pressure or maybe you're alone. It's a lot, man. And so to not have that time off and not have that time to reset and recharge and just take a deep breath and be human, that's tough. That's really tough. And the more we do it, the more I realize how beneficial it really is for myself included. For myself included. The top question I'm asked is, what does Bill Witt do? Our purpose is to build the dirt world's next generation. The dirt world is the companies and people building the critical infrastructure and supporting those who build our critical infrastructure that we need to live the lives that we do. Our business is much bigger than me. I run around the world building our brand. But the business itself does two things. One, we help develop the next generation through our product called billwhit Improve. It's a daily training and development platform that about 300 civil construction companies are using to not just make their people better workers, but better people. And of course, we have the 2026 Ariat dirt world Summit, the best opportunity to develop yourself and your teams as leaders. So check us out. Billwhit.com, book a meeting with us, and we'll talk to you soon. Now, Christmas break, it's common in Europe and Australia. You know, if you try to get anything done with the European company over the holidays, dude, you're not even gonna get a single email back. And that. And if you do, the email is gonna be like, hey, I'm out until, like, January 15th. So until then, kick rocks. And then Australia, I've spent the past three Christmases there. They shut down. The whole country shuts down for two weeks, if not three. A lot of companies, two to three weeks is standard. Everybody is off, everybody. So it's standard in a lot of other countries. A lot of parts of the world. But most American companies still believe that requiring people to work on December 24, December 26, December 31, is wise, is smart. And even if somebody is physically present, are they really present? Are they really productive? And the workers are there, but are the bosses there? Oh, the bosses. They have the time off. What the heck? And if safety really is number one, do you think somebody is mentally with it, fully aware on December 26th or December 24th? Do you think they're working safe? Do you think their mind is where their feet are? I don't know. My mind wouldn't be. I'm not that good. I would definitely be thinking about what the heck is going on from a Christmas standpoint, a holiday standpoint. So if safety were the top priority, wouldn't we prioritize rest? Wouldn't we prioritize rest as an industry? And what better time of the year to grant everybody the much needed rest than the holidays? Again, everybody's already taken their foot off the gas, so you're not even losing all that much. And who deserves more rest than those who build and maintain our world? They're out there grinding, man, 50 weeks a year, 51 weeks a year, 52 weeks a year. They deserve the rest. They've earned the rest. It's not a favor they've earned. Should be their right, based on their effort throughout the year. And what if this is crazy? What if their productivity before and after the break more than made up for the loss of productivity, quote, unquote, within that break period? I would bet you it does. I would definitely bet you it does. And if you told everybody, listen, this is what I do. Even if it's one week for us, it's two. I tell everybody these two weeks, it's not a right, it's a privilege. And you've got to earn them. And so beyond working all year, you gotta run into the damn break. There's no taking your foot off after Thanksgiving like most of the rest of the world post Thanksgiving. Ah, first week of December comes around, man, that's a January problem. No, we don't do that here. We run into the break, and then come January, we run out of the break. And guess what? We do our best work. If you listen to our update before going into the holidays, that was the best damn week of the year. Yeah, it better be. And then January first week comes around, huh? We're going, man. I guarantee you, if you challenge your people, hey, if you all make up the productivity, here's what needs to happen. If you can do that before and after, safely and with the same quality, and we get this time off, let's do it. It'll happen. It'll happen. Now, there are some of you out there that are like, well, we have to work. Yeah, I understand. I get it. If you are a power plant, you can't take Christmas off. People need power, People need warmth, people need water, People need their wastewater treated. There's all kinds of critical services that need to happen over the holidays to keep society moving. And I am more grateful than ever for those people. I appreciate them more than ever. So there is a subset of the population, especially of the dirt world, that has to work. And that's the point. The dirt world is the foundation of society. We don't take days off, but there's a lot of the industry, primarily contractors, that can take the time off. And this is who I'm arguing for, to take the time off. And I've talked with a lot of contractors. Now, some do take the time off, which is amazing. I've talked with a few that, yeah, we do this too. And it's great big, medium, little civil contractors. But a lot of them have pushed back, saying, well, the GCs don't allow us. Ah, the GCs don't allow US to take the time. Where are the GCs? What are they doing during the holidays? Where are their project managers? Are they working, too? Probably not, but you better work. This is where we have to stand up for our people. Where's the line? How much are we going to get pushed around? That's partially why we are in the situation. We are. It's no individual's fault. But as an industry, the dirt world, contractors, we've been pushed around by everybody, man, everybody. By suppliers, by lawyers, insurance companies, general contractors. When are we going to stand up and say, hey, we take this week off, that's it. And it's not going to impact the schedule. So what do you want from us, man? We've got to stand up for ourselves. We've got to stand up for ourselves. Selfishly, I've alluded to this already. It's my favorite two weeks of the year. It's my best two weeks of the year. I love it. Ed Mylett, he talks about separation season. He says, hey, everybody around the holidays is taking their foot off. This is when I mash my foot down, because this is when I can really pass people, or if I've already passed them, this is when I start to lap them, man. And. And, boy, does that resonate with me. And so these two Weeks. I don't do the same work. I work smarter, but I do a lot of work. It gives me the opportunity to organize like I've already talked about, to clean up my phone, my computer, my desk, et cetera. That's really important. And it gives me time to read, to think, to, and most importantly, gives me time to reflect. And I'll talk about this in next week's update, but Ray Dalio says pain plus reflection equals progress. You've got to reflect. And if you don't have time, set aside, especially at the end of the year, to just take inventory, you just roll into the next year, and then you just get clobbered again. What's the point? So these two weeks, they give me that time to reflect, to appreciate, to organize. So I go into January, and if you can't tell I'm in January right now, I go into January with far more clarity, far more hunger than I would otherwise. And it's a huge competitive edge. Huge competitive edge, because I feel unstoppable right now, dude. I feel on top of the fucking world. And it's because I just had those two weeks off. I didn't have them off. I used them. But I had them off from the rest of our business from the day to day so that I could do the stuff I don't typically do in the other 50 weeks of the year. So if you have the authority to grant the time off around the holidays and a business that allows for it, which I would argue is most construction companies, most everybody listening to this, I could not recommend it more. And that's not me being some silly millennial saying, oh, you know, employers need to offer two weeks off and vacation every other week and nap pods. That's not it. It's just good business. It's just good business. It's good for you, it's good for your people, it's good for your customers, it's good for your business. And hopefully one day we will get to a point, and I hope that day is soon, where most of the industry is choosing to shut down during the holidays for even one week, to give the people that are building the United States of America the time they need to rest, to relax, to enjoy time with their family so that they can come back and do it all over again for another year. As always, thank you so much for listening. I've got more planned this year for this podcast than ever before. I am so fired up. The people coming on here, the people I get to talk to, these updates, I'm really happy with how these updates are turning out. And I don't say this to toot my own horn, but I don't see anybody else giving a weekly update like this of here's what's going on at our company. I hope you can follow along or here Our mission is to build the Dirt Worlds next generation. That's a team effort. And while our business belongs to our customers, our team, our shareholders, it also belongs to the dirt world. This isn't just about me. This isn't just about us. It's about everybody. We're here to serve the entire industry and I want the industry along with us as we build and as we fail and as we succeed. And that's what this podcast, that's what these episodes and my newsletter over email and over LinkedIn are dedicated to. And if you are one of those people following along, I really appreciate it. In 2026, man, it is going to be, as my father would say, the best year ever. So we'll see on the next one and stay dir.