So, my cell phone died.

It’s one of those Motorola Rockrs. You know, the iPod phones? They took a bad rap post publicity-blitz, but it’s actually a pretty good phone.

Good design, intuitive layout, quality ringtones. And a fantastic MP3 player!

But even the best laid plans can sometimes go awry. The phone was low on juice so I plugged it into the charger and forgot about it.

Next morning, problem. No battery charging image, and the power button would not cooperate. Hey, accidents happen. Better call warranty support.

Commence disappointment: “Your approximate hold time is 15 minutes.”

Fifteen minutes? For cell phone tech support? In 2006? Huh??

Upside: marketing had clearly put plenty of thought into the hold music, as it was very soothing and, dare I say it, even enjoyable.

But after 45 minutes, the sooth was 30 minutes long gone.

So what’s to be learned?

You can be good at one thing in business if you want to attract customers.

But if you want to keep them, you better be good at everything commerce-related. That means learning how to diversify your passion.

It means ensuring that not only do you get your products and services right, you send out professional invoices, put some serious effort into your web presence - and appreciate that a hold time of any more than 5 minutes is absolutely unacceptable.

Sometimes even the heavy hitters stuggle to get it right. But who says they have a monopoly on genius? There’s plenty of opportunity for the little guys among us to pick up the slack, and make success work for us, too.

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