Twenty Years

I spent a lot of the last few days in meetings and on the road.  In the past, this always meant I had a lot of time to think.  Historically when I would come off the road, the people who work around me just waited for a download of the things I worked out while traveling.  This week was different.

This week I spent time wondering how I lost twenty years.  I was thirty - then I was fifty and there just wasn’t twenty years of time in between.  Don’t misunderstand me; there are some great memories in there: having children and watching them grow; friends and acquaintances; both good and great adventures.  However, there just aren’t twenty years of memories in there.  So, upon deeper thought and consideration, it strikes me that the part that I can not remember is the work.  Most of my work history during this time was spent in the lumber industry, both retail and distribution.   I learned a ton, all of which I remember, but I can’t remember the time itself.  Do you suppose this was a survival mechanism, or a flaw in me?

Those twenty years were hard years.  The greatest chunk of time was spent working at Payless Cashways, fighting to save a company that wasn’t to survive.  I can say that now, looking back; but when in the middle of the fight, it was impossible to have the long view that history brings.  The group of people that I worked with was (and still is) very committed to companies that we worked for, spending untold hours and long weeks making sure everything was (and is) done at the highest possible level.  It was the right thing to do.  Or was it?

So, from my travel and thought processes this week comes the following challenge - not to the people that I work with, like usual - but rather to myself and each of you.  How do we make sure that our children, our friends and even our future selves, don’t get lost while doing the right thing for the job?  How do we make sure that we capture every day as a gem to hold and remember?  How do I make sure that I teach this to my son and daughter?

Well, the first thing I am going to do is talk about it … a lot.  This is the beginning, but it isn’t the end.

Thanks for taking this little detour into my thoughts.  The next thing that you will hear from me about will be mancave stuff again.  I have a couple of GREAT thoughts going on there.

Plateaus

Tuesday night I was working at the Toy Box when it struck me how many ways we plateau in our lives. The one that is of course the most personal to me regards weight as I have spent a lifetime attempting to lose it, only to plateau time after time and find myself unable to push through to the next level. 

It is surprising though as you really take time to contemplate it, how many other examples there are.  Take the project I am in the middle of.  I have about exhausted the lumber I bought for the project and have nearly accomplished all of the work I was committed to in this stage.  I have hit a plateau.  And as I sit and think about it, I kind of seem to be rocking back on my heels, saying "That is OK."  Why am I not pushing forward to the next step of the project?

At work we all face the same thing.  I have spent a lifetime of trying to make things better: operations, sales, etc.  I have had a good deal of success in many of these things, but have always faced a plateau level that I seemed to be comfortable with.  And, as I look back across my career, that is typically when I got bored with what I was doing.

Alright, some of you know that one of my favorite authors is Seth Godin.  I think I may be having a moment where Seth would tell me that I heed to push my lizard brain out of the way and just "ship."  For those of you not initiated into the Godin way, in this case this means "Just Do IT."  So, I will regroup, set a larger goal and try to not let progress flatten out into a plateau.  This is my commitment for the day.  What is yours?

Tools

I was working at the Toybox Tuesday night and I started thinking about how Andrew (my son) and I had learned to use tools.  In particular, I thought about nail guns. I own four, all from Stanley Bostich, and I can’t imagine building anything without them.  They are always one of the first tools pulled out for any project.

Anyway, when my father died, my mom sold the table saw because she was told that was the only piece of equipment I could really hurt myself with.  There might have been a question as to the wood lathe, but what the heck.  So, I had a relatively complete shop that was mine to play in and since then, that is really what I have done.  That is the way I learned much of what I know today, trial and error.

Fortunately for me, and it actually was the same for Andrew, we both had good High School Industrial Arts teachers.  Mine was Russ Bennett and he taught me how to use saws - table and radial arm, and more importantly to respect the power of each.

So, as I think about air nailers, and how people learn to use them, I circle back to some of this basic training.  Hundreds of people a year get hurt with nailers. As I learned to use them, and as I’ve taught Andrew: first and foremost, respect their power and what they are built to do - drive pieces of steel through hard objects.  If you always remember that, you are good to go.

The last weekend Andrew was here, he watched me for about 3/4 of the weekend use my framing nailer.  A couple of different times I asked him to nail something and he declined.  We talked about safety with equipment like this and before we were done, not only had he learned to use them safely, but had added a little bit from his generation.

Gangsta style.....

Be safe out there.

Welcome

Welcome.  You have arrived at the beginning of what I hope to be an interesting and funfilled journey together.  A couple of years ago, I had someone tell me that if someone could knock on the door to your "man-cave" and tell you to come upstairs for dinner, it really wasn't all that you wanted it to be.  So, after a lot of thought and consideration, in November of last year, I bought a building that will act now and forever as my shop (a.k.a. "man-cave").  Welcome to the journey that makes it just right.  Also, understand that there is a standing invitation to share with me what you have done to fuel your desire, as that is what this is all about for me.

Let's go back to the beginning.  I came from a family that was always handy.  We were typically inclined to figure out how to fix things ourselves rather than spending money to have others take care of issues.  My father was a woodworker, and at a very early age (probably 4-5) I learned how to sand bowls on the turning lathe.  These were some of the most wonderful times of my life.  My father died when I was still very young, but my grandfather and my uncle Norm continued to fuel the desire in me to understand all things mechanical.  I was living in a wonderful time when things around the house broke, and were held together with screws so they were easily dismantled.  I remember some TVs that I took apart and partially reassembled several times.

Fast forward to High School.  I went to a school that offered two years of wood shop, but through some persistence, I got the shop teacher to offer an Independent study in wood shop.  What did this mean to me?  I got to take shop all four years of high school, and my senior year I spent half of every day in the shop.  By that time, I was torn between being an Industrial Arts teacher and going on to some other type of education.  My dad had always told me to keep the thing that you loved as your hobby, not your job.  Because of this, I went to Drake in business.  But since then, every place I have lived, I’ve had a shop, and in all of them, I have remodeled the house through that shop.

This time is different though.  Rather than fitting into the space that I had, making it work and moving things multiple times, I am building this one from the ground up.  I started with a 25'x40' space and over the next several months I will turn it into my oasis.  I am currently working on the office within this space.  This will give me a place to have a drafting table/desk and a refrigerator, as well as a couch to take a nap. 

This should be quite the trip.  Please come along for all of the trials and tribulations.