Keep Your Feet Moving

Peyton Manning once said, “You hear about how many fourth-quarter comebacks that a guy has, and I think it means a guy screwed up in the first three quarters.” That line always stuck with me—because I’ve never believed in last-minute heroics. I believe in preparation, consistency, and doing the hard stuff long before the spotlight hits. Success doesn’t come from drama; it comes from daily habits. That’s one of the core messages I share with my students in my “Last Lecture” every semester.

Inspired by the late Randy Pausch’s famous speech at Carnegie Mellon, my version of the "Last Lecture" is less about lofty dreams and more about day-to-day professional behavior. I tell students to show up 15 minutes early, make a to-do list, stay off their phones, and just keep their feet moving. Do those things every day, and the money will follow—because most people don’t.

I tell them to embrace the boring. The mundane. The stuff nobody gets excited about. It’s the secret sauce. While some folks crave chaos and firefighting, I’ve always been a creature of habit. I like structure. I like fixing problems before they flare up. That difference worked well between me and my dad when we built Tollgrade together—he thrived in crisis mode, I thrived in routine.

Early in our company’s life, we considered bringing in venture capital. I was the COO, and he was the CEO. I told him I didn’t want to take their money because I thought they wanted my job. He looked at me and said, “They don’t want your job. Your job stinks. They want my job.” Classic dad.

He always had faith in me. When problems popped up, he’d say, “You get a lot out of a day. You’ll figure it out.” When I graduated college and started working, he told me, “At the end of every day, pal, you better be able to tell your boss how you made money for the company.” That stuck with me.

Another thing I tell my students: pass what I call “The Bus Test.” Be so valuable that if you got hit by a bus, your boss would panic and say, “Oh no—what do we do now?” That’s the kind of professional you want to be. And trust me, when companies downsize, they don’t lay off the high performers. They get rid of the underperformers.

At Tollgrade, we built a winning team not with flash, but with basic blocking and tackling. We believed in systems. Nick Saban said it best: “When you have a system, you get into a routine of what’s important. And then you spend much more time thinking of things that would improve it.” That’s exactly how we operated.

As a public company, our lives were ruled by quarters—90-day sprints to meet revenue, gross margin, and expense targets. People ask me how long I worked at Tollgrade, and I always say 41 quarters, not 10 years, because that’s how we lived.

Every September, we started building the next year’s operating plan. Every team had input—sales, R&D, production, marketing. We’d spend weeks brainstorming goals, then assigning tactics and responsibilities. We focused on five key areas: revenue, expense control, manufacturing, product development, and marketing. Each department built their own plan. That helped avoid what I called “The Mushroom Program”—keeping your team in the dark and feeding them manure.

We believed that people work harder when they believe their views matter. As my old HR guy Joe O’Brien used to say, there’s a big difference between a bricklayer and a cathedral builder. If your people feel like they’re building cathedrals, not just stacking bricks, you’ve done your job.

We organized everything by month and quarter. Even before we went public, we sent quarterly reports to our investors. Transparency was our currency. If we hit a bump in the road, we brought it to light—because light is the best antiseptic.

Our weekly rhythm started with Monday’s “Management Review.” That came from our ISO-9001 quality certification process. Every Monday afternoon, our senior team—sales, purchasing, production, QA, product management, communications, and finance—met to review how we were tracking against the operating plan.

We reviewed quality stats, production plans, sales forecasts, R&D updates, and adjusted financial projections. We made sure our product mix aligned with demand and margin targets. These meetings started out as a quality requirement, but they became the backbone of how we stayed aligned.

Tuesday through Thursday, I was on the road with our head of sales, Mark Peterson. We met customers, listened to what they needed, and tried to anticipate the future. Because it took 18 months to build a product and another 18 to sell it, we needed to look three years out.

We used the Miller Heiman conceptual selling method, which taught us to understand four types of buyers: the Economic Buyer (focused on ROI), the User Buyer (focused on usability), the Technical Buyer (focused on compatibility), and the Coach (our internal advocate). We tailored our pitches to each one.

After the sales pitch, the RBOCs would issue RFIs and RFPs. Then came lab testing, field trials, writing deployment procedures, and finally—if we cleared all the hurdles—price negotiation. Once a Bell company opened the tap, revenue really flowed.

On Fridays, we held Sales Call Day. We wore jeans and t-shirts, shared stories from the road, and reviewed forecasts with the sales team. Salespeople are the funniest people in business, and we had a blast. That day dripped with esprit de corps—the spirit of the team.

I made sure our managers followed my “Seven Business Commandments”:

1. Meet with your team weekly.

2. Hold weekly one-on-ones.

3. Use a planner.

4. Have agendas for meetings—and assign action items.

5. Clean off your desk daily and prep tomorrow’s to-do list.

6. Do annual reviews by the first week of January.

7. Have some fun.

I also practiced what I call “Management By Walking Around.” Every morning, I’d stop at a bakery and bring treats to a different department. I’d chat for 15 minutes and get a feel for what was going on. At the end of the day, I’d walk the plant floor and do the same.

I wanted people to know I cared. And when someone went the extra mile, I’d send them a handwritten note to their home. Same for salespeople who hit their quota. It’s a small gesture, but it makes a big impact.

Customer service was sacred. When a customer called, a human answered. If we couldn’t solve the problem in an hour, someone was on a plane. Eventually, we placed tech support teams in every region to respond faster. They also joined sales meetings in case technical questions came up.

Our tech support team was elite—folks like Franco Tavella, Mark Lucas, Larry Mortimer, and Jim Livergood. Former RBOC veterans who knew their stuff and represented us brilliantly.

And yes—we had fun. We worked hard, laughed a lot, and built something meaningful.

So here’s what I tell my students: You don’t have to be a genius. Just show up every day. Stay in motion. Build systems. Listen hard. Lead with honesty. Send thank-you notes. And never forget to bring the funny.

Because if you do all that… they’ll throw the money at you.

Chris Allison, Co-Founder and CEO of Tollgrade Communications, Inc., teaches business at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA and is the author of the new book, Hit It!: A Tech Startup Story and Seven Rules For Entrepreneurs.