Question: How important (and answer to yourself truthfully) are your employees--all those people who do so much to keep businesses viable? They are all very important, right? Without good employees, many people have told me, their companies would be next to nothing. It's tough, no matter how much you want to do yourself, to do it all alone.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about meeting with Bill Cobb from Coastal Industries. After running Coastal for 35 years, Cobb says without the employees--some who have even been there since the beginning, the company would not be as strong as it is today.

This week I talked with Jack Deyo from Mid-Ohio Tempering (read the interview from Oct. 31 online at www.usgnn.com.) Jack has announced he will be retiring this year and he, too, emphasized how important all of his employees are.

Over my almost eight years working for USGlass I have talked with a lot business owners and managers, and many agree: people are their companies' greatest assets.

So here's what I'd like: I want to hear about some of those great people in your companies. Tell me about some of the employees who take their jobs one step further; who do more than they have to without complaining. Maybe you've got a receptionist who is always pleasant to people calling in, a customer service rep who is helpful and polite to everyone (even the angry customers) or maybe it's someone who puts extra care and attention to detail into every single project. These people are just as important to the whole glass industry as they are to you, because we can all learn something from them in one way or another.