Yesterday, my friend called me to ask for help. This friend started out as one of my customers, who I ended up befriending. My wife and I also hang out with my friend and his wife. It is a really great friendship. I love him dearly—like a brother!

Water has been in my career since the mid-nineties. In the past 25 years, I have spent a ton of time in municipal wastewater, drinking water, and industrial plants treating water. If there is an area where I will not apologize for considering myself an expert, it is water treatment. I know these processes from the front of the plant to the back of the plant. In more recent days, my career has taken me away from the direct involvement of treating water; rather, I now work with the solids that are generated from water treatment.

My friend and I used to sit at his plant and be total geeks, talking about water treatment, doing math on a whiteboard, and just geeking out over the fun of it all. My friend is also an expert in water treatment. His main area of focus is drinking water. Of all the water treatment processes, drinking water is the toughest and most critical of them all. After all, people are drinking the water! My favorite area of water treatment is also drinking water. It is fun! Many chemical sales guys run from those plants. I love them and enjoy the challenge. However, it’s been a while…

Until today. We have had over 10 inches of rain in the past 2 weeks, and the more recent 6-inch batch royally upset the lakes that feed our water system in our area. My buddy now oversees the two large water plants that feed the city. Yesterday, he called me and asked if I was free to come help him and his operation. Reminder: I am no longer in this business directly. It felt really good that he considers me such an expert that he would bring me in as a consultant. When he asked, I did not even hesitate to say yes. “Of course, I will help you.” “What do you need?” This is what I do for friends. If you need help, just tell me what you need. I am there.

We met at the plant this morning at 8 a.m. It turns out my friend and many of the top supervisors and managers were at the plant all night fighting the problem. We reviewed what was going on—basically, the plant was limping along at ¼ of their production rate, and the lake was the primary reason. After a bunch of introductions, I went to work. I spent 2 hours with the plant supervisor reviewing the process and evaluating potential trouble points. I asked lots of questions and investigated, all the while working towards a game plan. Tests were the next part of the plan. I came up with three potential areas of interest as to what the problem was. Continued discussions revealed more, but just like doctors work, we cross off the most common topics before we consider the more rare-type issues. One of the numbers we got back did not make sense to me. That is where my narrow focus took me. That’s when the supervisor repeated a previous statement about a problem that would not have been a most likely scenario. It was now time to prove the theory that this part of the process was giving us false information. The results? Success! It took me 5 hours to solve their problem. Okay—so now you think I am bragging. Well, you’re a fool if you don’t think I am proud of myself. My friend was thrilled. He said, “Thank you! I am going to repay you with a big steak dinner!” Here was my reply to my friend: “If you want to pay me back, please accept my invitation to my house, and my wife and I will serve you a great big fat steak!”

Here is the deal, folks: Friends are precious. Friends give us HOPE.