Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/933470
W hen the New Year rolls around, many people make resolutions to try some- thing new. I suggest otherwise. Resolve instead to get better at something you're already good at. The reason is this: few people are very good at multiple things. Jimi Hendrix couldn't play acoustic guitar for beans. John Fogerty (Credence Clearwater Revival) dropped out of the rock and roll circus and tried to learn how to play bluegrass. He failed, even admitting he couldn't quite get the hang of it. Music is just one example of where tremendous skills on one instrument area don't often translate very well into oth- ers, even if they're similar instruments. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book on this theme, "Outliers: The Story of Success." He believes most success is a matter of practice, and it takes 10,000 hours of practice to get good at anything. 10,000 hours is five years, 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. This idea runs counter to the all-American myth that you can be whatever you want to be if you just try hard enough. What the millions of advertisements, school coun- selors and self-help gurus don't tell you is how long you have to try. Most American's haven't got the patience. Europeans know this. Training for people in the trades starts in middle school. The last two years of high school typically involve a part-time apprenticeship followed by a journeyman period. On a tour of Lichten- stein about 10 years ago, I decided to take a walk, get some fresh air and inspect the quality of their road paving. The cut stone curbs impressed me, but what really amazed me were the manhole covers. They were set so perfectly into the asphalt that there was barely a one-eighth-inch height difference between the pavement and the steel of the manhole cover. That takes the kind of skill that requires decades of experience. Construction, medicine, the military; there are still vocations in this country that demand years of diligence. But too many young people today don't know this and tend to wash out after some initial frustra- tions. If you manage young people, you have to take this into account. Attention spans have never been shorter. Everybody wants to be a rock star, but few are willing to practice scales late into the night. That many people see construction as a tem- porary job, a job until they find something better, only adds to the problem. In today's world, you don't want to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. Generalists are a dime a dozen. Easy to hire, easier to fire. Let your young people know this. And if you want to be one of the best in what you do, set the example. Resolve this year to build on the skills you already have and get your people thinking that way too. January 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com 66 final word | by Tom Jackson A New Resolution TJackson@randallreilly.com