Sep 12 2009
Good Fortune
I’ve been around long enough to know that people generally aren’t in our lives for the whole term and I am fortunate enough in my professional career to currently be part of a team that’s led by a wealth of experience and practical knowledge unlike anything the average individual gets to experience – or chooses to notice – in their regular work-a-day life. One could say that I am in the right place at the right time.
Industry has always been improved upon by one generation standing on the shoulders of the previous, learning from their triumphs and mistakes and indebted to them for their efforts whatever the result. We can not get better by repeatedly re-inventing the proverbial wheel, nor will we contribute one iota to successive generations’ improvement by obliviously repeating the same thoughtless actions day after day, noticing only years or decades later that a lifetime has passed by and we’ve done nothing other than create an existence that did little more than “pay bills” for useless material possessions.
Times are few and far between, indeed, when one crosses paths with a single mentor who will pass down the benefit of their experiences to an open ear and possibly spare us a few of their struggles, but to be placed in the midst of a group of these individuals, all working towards a common goal, is an opportunity that far exceeds anything anyone could possibly hope for in a productive working career. It’s the stuff the best memories are made of.
It’s not that I don’t understand that some others are either too slothful, insecure, or too egocentric to appreciate these people for what they’ve done and learned – God knows these types are smarter than and can always do a better job than their predecessors, (just ask them, they’ll tell you ;-) ) – it’s just that I choose not to waste my time relating to those issues. By the time, if ever, these mental adolescents get over dealing with their own malconceived perceptions and realize what these individuals had to offer, it will most probably be too late and they’ll have to continue complaining about the next upcoming set, lest they actually admit a mistake and learn from it.
It’s also not that I haven’t been corrected as of late, but to need correction means one must’ve made a mistake, no? If someone who is better or more experienced than me at something is trying to make me better, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m going to put my ego in my back pocket and listen:
Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you;
Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. 3
Anyone with “eyes to see” could notice this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of synergistic proportion – a mutually advantageous conjunction of distinct elements with the sum of the contributors producing an overall greater result than if each single member were working toward the same goal individually. And knowing that at some point some of us will eventually be looking back on all of this and trying to build on it, the last thing we should want to have to deal with would be thoughts of “I wish I had paid more attention when…” because we were paying too much attention to delivery methods, personalities, or any of the other “minors” losers tend to major in and not the actual content of the message.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
Vince Lombardi
We should do everything we can with the time allotted to compress time-frames – that is, getting as much from each moment as possible thereby accomplishing more in less time – and glean as much from the thought processes of the more experienced & record their technical knowledge for future reference.
IMHO those who are willing to heed the signs & front-end load their efforts will be the persons best poised to capitalize on that vacuum of knowledge and experience I’ve been speaking of for years. It’s making its way towards American Industry the same way the low pressure system (vacuum) created Katrina, made its way through the gulf, and hit American soil with devastating results; and again we’ve had plenty of advanced notice before it hits.
The choice of how to interpret the data is obviously your own, so if anyone wishes to ignore, twist, or perceive my actions as anything other than that already mentioned, it is their prerogative and has no effect this side of their cranium. :-P
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