An exclusive excerpt from former WD-40 wunderkind CEO’s newest book.

Excerpted with permission from Garry Ridge and Martha Finney’s Any Dumb-Ass Can Do It (Matt Holt Books; March 2025).

Chapter 9: The Will of Your People Will Manifest Your Vision

“Don’t sell your house! You’ll be back within five years and you’ll want that fallback position!”

My mates meant well as I slowly let the word get out that my family and I would be moving from Australia to San Diego. I had just been offered the Director of International position at WD-40 Company, and I had accepted the assignment to transform it from a well-loved, highly recognized brand domestically (with growing but still modest European, Asian, and Canadian markets) into a global must-have in homes, factories, workshops, and offices all over the world.

Would the world embrace the blue and yellow can with the little red top? Did I have what it would take to transfer my belief in the WD-40 Company to consumers and distributors worldwide who had yet to even hear the brand’s name? Would we be able to persuade millions of people in 176 countries to put back their go-to, tried-and-true lubricant and reach for ours instead?

There was only one way for me to find out. And that was to go all in. You may have heard the story about the man who made progress on his epic life’s journey by “throwing his hat over the wall.”? By throwing his hat over every wall he encountered that threatened to block his progress, he had no choice but to scale that wall to retrieve it. And then carry on. (This story was a favorite among motivational speakers a while back. Now that I think about it in the context of these days, it sounds more like a story about trespassing. But you get the drift and spirit of the message. I hope. Moving on . . .)

By deciding to sell my house, I had thrown my hat over the proverbial wall. There would be no scurrying back to the safe, known territory I had called home for over three decades. Where my friends and family were waiting for me to change my mind and come back home.

Little did I know that in just three years, the CEO at the time, Jerry Schlief, would announce his retirement and that the board would extend the offer to me to be the next CEO. Along with the assignment, it had engaged my will. It would be up to me to make something a reality that did not yet exist except in the minds of the board, Jerry, and maybe a few eyes-only, ultra-confidential strategy documents.

My job—and honor, really—was to manifest the vision. To make it real. Not only for the company’s leadership but for everyone who would engage with the company, and its products, worldwide. There would be no turning back.

On my flight across the Pacific to San Diego, I thought about what I had going for me as I took on this new adventure. A product I passionately believed in. A company I was equally committed to. The support of leadership who had faith in me. The earliest sketches of a strategy that only needed time and better minds than mine to help solidify. A thorough understanding of my own limitations, that’s for sure.

And, most valuable than anything else, I had good friends throughout the entire company. Having already been working at WD-40 Company for eight years, my memory bank was a scrapbook full of scenes and stories of working together, traveling together, celebrating together, learning together, and teaching one another, and taking on each new challenge and competition like the happy warriors we were. There were anniversary parties, weddings, picnics, cake cuttings in the break room, funerals, moments when we dropped what we were doing to help out a mate who needed a hand. And there was that one time when I had led a busload of mates in a rousing rendition of “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” on a trip back to San Diego from Tijuana.

And I understood that the will of the people would be the magic formula for creating this dream and turning a vision into a reality. They were the ones who would breathe life into this idea that we had for ourselves.

I then returned my thoughts to the strategy we were developing to introduce the product itself around the world. Based on what we had learned while opening up new markets in Europe, Australia, Asia, and Canada, we knew that authentic connection depended on the affirmative answer to these three questions that made up our strategic framework:

• Do you need me?
• Do you know me?
• Can you buy me?

These three elements were critical to building brand and building consumer and user acceptance for many years. While we were wondering how we could amplify those elements to spread the WD-40 brand value proposition globally, we also began to explore ways these same questions could apply to the process of engaging the will of our people.

It wasn’t a matter of building factories; it was a matter of creating a culture that we’re going to spread all over the world. It was all about the individual’s choice to engage with us, either as a customer or a member of our team (we hadn’t yet developed the tribe concept at this point). How do we set a culture up that allows people to have a choice? We knew that as much as we couldn’t force customers to buy our products, we also couldn’t micromanage WD-40 Company employees into adopting the will to win. The answer, as I was soon to learn directly from Ken Blanchard himself, was to engage through their hearts.

This revelation was the beginning of a decades-long Learning Moment that I’m still on. But back then, in one of the first of his presentations I had the privilege of sitting in on, Ken said that most MBA programs get people in their head.

He said, “If we are really going to build sustainable organizations over time, we’ve got to start getting people in the heart as well. It’s about the heart. This is how we build an organization where people go to work, do great work, and enjoy it. And, therefore, the work is better work.

“A positive corporate culture is the key to attracting and retaining top talent, driving innovation, and achieving business success. By prioritizing employee well-being, diversity, and inclusion, companies can create a workplace culture where everyone can thrive.”

The challenge to me was not about strategy. The challenge to me was about creating the catalyst where we don’t have to micromanage them into a fearful state to activate the strategy.

We would create the cultural environment that allowed people to have what they needed to actually succeed. Revisiting the three-part strategic framework, we soon learned that there were corollaries in the experience of employee engagement and culture.

Do you need me? Do the employees crave a working environment where they belong to something that is purpose-driven and meaningful? Do they want a day-to-day feeling of connection, where they know that they matter and that they belong? Where they can work in the company of fellow employees who support, nourish, and protect each other?

Do you know me? Does the WD-40 Company brand promise of creating positive, lasting memories resonate with their deepest emotional desires for meaningful work? Does their experience of the culture fulfill their yearning for purpose? (If, for instance, when WD-40 Company doesn’t speak to that drive for purpose, it’s just selling oil in a can. A pretty blue and yellow can with a jaunty red top. But a can, all the same. Who gets excited at their deepest heart level by oil?)

Can you buy me? More to the point, in terms of a thriving culture of employee engagement, do you want to buy my opportunity to join our community? Do our mission, vision, strategic objectives, principles, values, and processes make sense to you in an accessible way? Can you see yourself building your own future in this community of true hearts working toward the same vision?

This is the will of the people. It’s that spirit that encompasses morale, inspiration, commitment, and a desire to offer discretionary effort.

Inspired by our successful story of taking the blue and yellow can with the little red top all around the world, I came up with this formula that has since served us well:

The will of the people x strategy = success

Best: Believe that your people want to be “hat over the wall” invested in the success of your company’s strategic vision for a transformed future. Resolve to be worthy of that commitment.

Worst: Assume high-level strategic planning is strictly the property of C-suite leaders.

First: Include all your people as essential partners in cocreating the vision to make it real.

Excerpted with permission from Garry Ridge and Martha Finney’s Any Dumb-Ass Can Do It (Matt Holt Books; March 2025). Click here to buy the book.

Garry Ridge is the former CEO of WD-40 Company and founder of The Learning Moment.