Helping First

When you’re a child, you’re often told that when you’re in trouble, you should “look for the helpers.” Pinches Schmaya has always been one of those helpers—for both kids and adults. (If you’re wondering about his first name, it derives from Exodus: Phinehas or Phineas— פִּינְחָס in Hebrew—and you’re almost certainly mispronouncing it.)

Most people spend their first jobs waiting tables or flipping burgers. Pinches spent his tutoring struggling teenagers in New York, helping them avoid dropping out and improving their lives. As a salesperson at a men’s clothing store, he quickly gained a reputation for his sincere attention to customers. In fact, he was so effective that former clients stop him on the street to thank him.

Later in his career, Pinches transferred his “helping” mentality to the entrepreneurial world. As operations leader at two different companies, he saved both organizations tens of thousands of dollars by instilling more accountability and helping people execute within the right organizational systems and structures.

Helping Others Get Unstuck

Like many future Implementers, Pinches was introduced to EOS in an environment of broken leadership. The company he worked for at the time suffered from a profound lack of focus and vision. Surrounded by so much dysfunction, growth didn’t have a chance. The company had clearly hit a ceiling, and Pinches and his colleagues felt frustrated and overwhelmed.

Luckily, they discovered the Entrepreneurial Operating System. By being involved in EOS implementation internally, Pinches saw first-hand the deep impact it could have on leadership, culture, productivity, and employee morale. Almost immediately, running on EOS helped everyone at his company become “unstuck” and crystal clear on their roles and responsibilities. Because one of EOS’s core values is Help First, Pinches felt a strong connection with the organization, so he decided to leave his job and join the EOS family.

Now an EOS Implementer in the Greater New York City area, Pinches helps his entrepreneurial clients get exactly what they want from both business and life. To date, he has helped over a dozen leadership teams achieve results using the three impactful steps of Vision, Traction, and Health.

Helping Others Get Aligned

As with everything else he’s done in his life, Pinches sees being an EOS Implementer as a “helper” vocation. He helps individuals get aligned on where they need to go and how they’re going to get there. He helps leaders infuse greater discipline and accountability throughout their organizations so everyone can work toward the same vision. And he helps teams become more cohesive, open, honest, vulnerable, and fun-loving.

As someone who worked with Pinches recently said, “With his vision that nothing should fall out of the loop, Pinches saved our company tens of thousands of dollars in sales per year. He totally transformed the feeling around here from frustration to motivation.”

Well done, Pinches!