Failing Fast

I participate in a monthly roundtable with a group of executives from other industries. We meet once a month and typically one of the members presents a current problem they face. The group spends time helping them dig deeply into the issue and almost always offers solutions which had yet to surface.  The exercise is always enjoyable and offers an opportunity to stretch mental muscles in ways that aren’t possible in our daily activities.

This week our meeting was a little different.  A guest speaker spoke on innovation. Following his presentation, the members of the group talked about our own past innovation as well as that which we are currently involved in, and when we thought it might finally affect our daily lives.  This was really interesting for me on an introspective basis. I had to admit my life’s work hasn’t been as much about innovation as it has been about seeing how things are done in one environment and figuring out how to remold those processes to work elsewhere.  I often say that if you can find a really good idea and print it on your letterhead, it becomes yours.  As I look back over my career, that is one thing I excelled at as a District Manager - recognizing the strength in one location and seeding the knowledge to the rest of the organization.  I always figured I was “spreading the wealth” but I guess that some might consider that quite innovative.

In November 2011, I posted a blog entitled, “Tripod.”  I wrote about a person I met on a trip to China and the tripod he used to determine if the possibility of having fun when in his endeavors.  I feel fortunate to say he has become a friend and I continue to learn from him regularly.  What he has taught me in combination with my roundtable introspection is the concept of “failing fast.”  If you are attempting to penetrate a new market, open a new business, or really get anything done; you should charge forward so that in the event something goes wrong, you have time to try again before anyone else has an opportunity to try the first time.  This is a really bold form of moving ahead, but I will tell you I can see how it would work.  At the same time, I know that one thing which sets entrepreneurs apart is their ability to set failure aside as though it never happened.

I could use more of that confidence, and I bet there are times you could as well.  Seth Godin tells us that we have to “ship.” All of the good work or thought we have doesn’t count if we don’t send it out into the world. I must admit I am average at best because I FEAR failure so much.  So, as I continue to figure out how to get things done in my shop, I must embrace the concept of failing fast and getting things out. This is the only way the world can let me know if I have created a good product.  I must have the faith to let the world tell me whether I have hit the mark or not.  If I miss, then I have to find a way to use that information to try again and get it right the next time.  Interestingly enough, I’m pretty good at allowing the folks who work for me to move forward in this manner, but I have more difficulty accepting it in myself.

Now is the time to embrace the concept of “freedom to fail.” Go ahead and get something done. Release it to the world to see what happens.  The first step for me today is to post this blog.  Take a minute to shoot me a note and tell me what you think.  Thanks.

Time

Several weeks ago, I had the good fortune to hear Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, speak about leadership.  One thing he talked about was that in identifying your true leadership skill, you will also find that is where you seem to have the greatest insight.  I thought it was interesting, and have obviously been thinking about it, but I have come up with an idea equally as powerful and maybe more directive in our lives.

I contend that when you identify the activity which causes time to stand still, that is the center of your true passion.  There is no question that the place this happens for me is in the shop.  Sara would be the first to tell you that in all the years of our marriage, it is the one place I go and really lose myself.

Interestingly enough, time does stand still at the Toybox, not just figuratively, but even more than that.  I have three clocks there, all of them battery powered, the kind of movement which uses a AA battery. They typically run very well and for a long time.  But that is not the case at all with these clocks.  I have to replace batteries often to assure I have the correct time.  I have come to believe it is the universe’s way of telling me that the Toybox is where I belong.

So, what deep and profound thought should I take from that?  The beginning of January is always a good opportunity to look back at the last year and forward to the coming year.  If you are a regular reader, you know something about my last year.  It was a year with many challenges, but overall, it was a great year with plenty of things to marvel at. There were more than a few messages telling me there are times when someone was looking out for all of us.  One thing I haven’t really written about is that 2012 was when I decided to take more control of my own health, and I currently weigh less than I have in a more than a decade.  Time will tell if I can continue this journey, but, so far so good. 

Now what about looking forward?  Since I bought the Toybox I talked very quietly about things I wanted to do and now it is time to make them happen.  In 2013, I will have an Open House to let folks know what I have been doing at the Toybox, and I will make it enough of a business to cover its utility bills.  Just to be clear, these aren’t monstrous hurdles, but I believe we get to big results by beginning with small successes. 

So, I guess that you could say this is my manifesto.  It is what I commit to in 2013 in order to change what has been my life and to spend more time in the place where time stands still.  I have a handful of friends who have been doing the same over the last few years and I am very proud of them.  I am a late starter, but I have begun.  I know each of you have a secret passion and you would like to let it loose in public.  Will 2013 be the year that you finally make it happen?  Is there a way that I can help you find your way forward?  Let’s work together to move this whole tribe forward.  When we come to the end of 2013 and look back, let’s meet back here and share the progress we have made as a group.  Are you ready for the challenge?

Farmboy Engineering

Last winter, the handle had somehow broken off the dipstick of my son’s car.  We took it to Jack, who does all our repair work and asked about the cost.  He quoted us $65.00 plus a new dipstick.  This seemed fair, but was more than I wanted to pay. I can be very frugal (read: cheap) sometimes and suggested to Andrew that we could extract the old dipstick ourselves and save some money.  He looked at me as though my third eye was showing.  To make a long story short, we took his car to the Toybox, I drilled a small hole in the top of the remaining piece of the dipstick, and by threading a small screw into it, extracted the old dipstick.  After spending $17.00 for a new one, the problem was solved.

My son was amazed. He asked me where I had learned that trick and I had to think about it very carefully.  I didn’t have a clear answer.  I hadn’t taken a class, nor had I read an article about how to remove a broken dipstick.  What it came down to was that I watched people accomplish things and learned from them.  Working with my grandfather signaled the beginning of this training.  He taught me early on that if you stopped and thought about what you needed to do, there was always a way to get it done.  When we were building a barn and needed to stand vertical beams up that were way too heavy to handle, he figured out that with a rope and a horse, you could walk those timbers up to a standing position.  He also taught me (in a time when vehicles were much simpler) how to shut the engine off going downhill if you were short of gasoline and needed to get home. 

Following his training, I had the opportunity to work with a yard foreman in a Payless store. I honestly believe he could have moved anything with just a couple of rubber bands and a paperclip.  He had a lot of common sense.  He would sit back, look at a problem and then come up with an ingenious solution.  He was not a brilliant man, but he knew how to get things done.  My father in law was also that type of person. He would come up with ways to handle problems others would never consider.  For example, in his shop there was a small square hole cut in the wall. If the electricity failed, he could reach through the hole and pull the rope that released the garage door opener.  He was also the first person I knew to have a quick disconnect on his gas grill on the outside of the house.

I learned plenty from these folks and others about slowing down and thinking through a problem.  I guess it is my turn to move that on to new generations, namely my son and maybe someday, his son.  I heard a speaker say in the last few weeks that when you reach the age of 65, you automatically get wisdom.  I look forward to that day. I will enjoy feeling that I have at least gained some wisdom, and since my son will be over the age of thirty by then, I am sure I will have become much smarter than I was when he was sixteen.  Great things come with age.

I encourage you to look around for people in your life who make things happen, maybe even in ways you do not understand.  It may be the janitor at work who keeps things cleaner than you expect, or the person that serves you the most amazing hamburger at lunch.  It could be a friend, a spouse, or anyone.  Watch them, slow down and think about easier, smarter ways to do things.  This is the heart of farm boy engineering.  Relax, take some time, and figure out an easier and smarter way.

Ugly

Whenever I drive to the Toybox, I pass a new building which is going up. It is some type of government building which will house some type of support function.  I’m sure it will work well for what it is designed to do, but it is ugly.  Even though it isn’t finished yet, no matter what they do to it, I believe it will remain ugly.  I keep asking myself why someone would choose to build an ugly building.  This fall, in an architectural tour around Des Moines, the same challenge came from some of the design professionals on the tour.  Why build ugly?

I spent a great deal of my life in the building materials business and I will say that without question, the difference between an ugly building and a beautiful building is not significant.  Add a little extra trim to the outside of a building, broaden the eaves, or add some nice landscaping and almost instantaneously the building changes.  On the inside, you can change the species of door or add crown molding. Adding something as simple as wallpaper on one focal wall can change a room, and transform a house from drab to interesting.

In our daily lives, we really face the same challenge, though I believe this is a much more difficult task.   We all work to make the things we produce, whether writing, music, math or woodworking; beautiful.  We work to add things others like and find enjoyable.  In woodworking, I find this to be the challenge.  I have a tendency to think and work in right angles and straight lines.  Check out the article on Sam Maloof in Wikipedia.  You will find this picture of a rocker he produced.  There is not a single straight line in the piece - anywhere.  This isn’t what you see in my woodworking. Fortunately, I have found that in using contrasting woods and finishes, I bring beauty to my pieces.  As I continue grow as a woodworker, maybe I will find ways to add curves and variety to my work, but I seriously doubt that Sam, if he were still alive, would ever have to feel threatened by me.

As I think about buildings, work, and hobbies, I also think about what I do to add beauty to my life.  It doesn’t take huge changes to make a difference.  I can change the way I look by losing a few pounds or getting a haircut.  These are outer changes are usually noticeable to the world.  Inner change is much more difficult.  I have lived for almost 56 years and making changes to the basic way I interact with the world is tough.  But the payoff is worth the effort.  I’m fully aware of the areas in my personality and mannerisms which are weak and those are the things I want to work on.  It seems to me that 2013 will be a great year to work on transforming my inner self.

I began this blog thinking about ugly buildings, and by the end, I've begun considering new ways to become a person in whom ugliness will not reside.  I am going to commit myself to adding beauty wherever I can: the house where I live, the woodworking I do, and the person with whom each of you gets to interact.  Each day is a gift, and together we need to make the most of it.  Enjoying each other should be a big part of that enjoyment.  Join me on the journey and let’s see what beauty we can make together.

Momentum

If you spend enough time speaking with any business person, whether from a small or large company, they will tell you they believe in momentum.  Good or bad.  What I mean is when things start going well, in a funny way, your luck starts running along the same line.  Things that could go either way tend to fall your way.  In reverse, it can also happen when things start going badly.

OK, what can we do with that?

It is interesting the way the world works sometimes.  I have a friend who moved back to the state of Iowa in the last few years, and continues to be amazed by the way people treat each other here.  Time and again, I hear positive stories about how they were treated in grocery stores, restaurants, by repairmen and shop owners. I am not surprised as these are the exact type of people I grew up with.  Orrin Black, the grocer, who let me sign for groceries as a college kid and take care of the bill when I could. Rob Marget , who would let me repay a loan at the bank on my terms. Bill Schumaker, the high school principal who allowed me to address the student body when I thought people were acting poorly.  These were the people and stories that I grew up with, so none of this surprised me.

I went home for lunch today and caught the tail end of an episode of “American Pickers.”  In this episode Mike and Frank picked a couple of hand painted tent sides from the old sideshow days.  They paid several hundred dollars for them, and were able to sell them for ten thousand dollars.  It was time for high-fives all around. It was a great story, but then, the better story occurred. They went back to the person who had sold them the pieces and gave him half of their earnings.  Sure, you can be cynical and say this was done for the television audience, but I believe at least part of this story comes from their Iowa background and a desire to do the right thing.

In our family wanderings, we’ve lived in several cities, sometimes in places where each night the news told of the large number of drive-by shootings and other types of violence which had happened throughout the day.  I know this is now part of our culture, but I love the fact that in Iowa, there are more stories about the hit and run driver who felt so badly about it he turned himself in, and oh, by the way, the victim found it in her heart to forgive him; the family whose father is killed in Parkersburg in the worst of situations and spoke first about forgiveness.  Accidental?  I don’t think so.  I think this is Iowa momentum and it is who we are.  Others might say that we are naive, even backwards, but I spent ten years fighting to move back here and much of it was because of things just like this. Iowa has a positive personal momentum, and this is where I want to be.

If this were not a good enough story, momentum happens personally, too. As I begin creating things in my shop, and people see these projects, they ask about them and then want to place an order to buy things.  Sara has begun to get her quilting business up and going and her list of project request is already enough to carry her through the first six months of 2013. 

Momentum is what it is all about.  You can survive with no momentum, or negative momentum, or you can go out and create positive momentum.  I will tell you which I suggest. Now, you should probably know that I grew up in a community whose slogan was, “Just Naturally Friendlier.” Get out there and be the beginning of positive momentum.

Countdown

I am headed to the shop tonight and I am all sorts of excited.  Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with family, friends, and my kids, but time in the shop … wow.  My bet is we all feel like that. 

Did you ever stop to think what you would do differently if your life were a countdown, though?  Would you live differently or would your life still look as it does today?

This idea has been imagined before.  There is a movie called “In Time.” The premise is that you pay for everything with time and you are paid in time.  And then, there is the song, “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw.  But really, what would you do? 

When I build furniture, like my daughter’s bookcase, or the Settle I finished for Sara not long ago, I think about the fact that I am building items which will be around after I am gone.  And then I think about the bedroom set my dad built in high school which my sister has in her home. My father-in-law built a corner cabinet which is now proudly displayed in our home.  I think about the cutting boards I have been asked to make as door prizes for a winter fundraiser.  I may never know where they have gone and it almost feels like I’m sending a message off in a bottle. There are many things like this which have visible effects long after we no longer think about them.  Our words and actions can have the same effect on others.

I remember a woman named Marcia, who worked in the paint department at a store I managed.  She asked me a question in passing one day and I had responded curtly, not even thinking, just passing by.  Several minutes later, someone found me and said Marcia was on the sales floor in tears.  When I got to her, she told me that what I had said to her had hit so hard she couldn’t stop crying.  Honestly, at that point, I didn’t remember what I had said; Marcia had to tell me what those words had been.  But you can believe I still remember them today.

Our lives are often so transitory that we affect others and don’t pay enough attention to recognize what the effect was. Too much of my life feels this way. 

If I were living on a clock, with a visible countdown of the time I had left, I think that is the biggest difference I would make.  I would ensure that every time that I spoke with someone, the conversation would be clear, no matter how long it took.  But, guess what, I can do that right now, I just need to focus.  The people I would work the toughest on this for would be family and friends.  They’ve put up with the worst of me and it seems only be fair for them to enjoy the best I can offer.

Now, I will still go to the shop. That time is precious is precious to me, but I can ask more questions and take more time.  As the Holiday season approaches this is a good time to consider the importance of paying attention and taking time to communicate well.  We can all work to take better care of each other.

And then, maybe just for kicks I will go and ride a bull name Fu Manchu. 

Who knows?

Bumps and Bruises

If you have experienced my woodworking you know I do things quite differently than what is considered normal by many standards.  I tend to use extremely dissimilar woods in the same project.  An example would be the armoire I built for Sara out of tiger maple and medium stained cherry.  Right next to each other, I used a very white wood, and a very deep red wood.  Another example is the Settle I finished earlier this year out of white maple and walnut. Again, I incorporated a very light/white wood next to a dark wood.

The other thing which shows up in my woodworking is that I have a tendency to use woods the industry either considers substandard, or at least did at one time.  I love the look of my shop cabinets which are made of pine and knotty alder. The tiger maple in the armoire is a second example of the same idea.  The character of these woods shows imperfections which is what I consider the beauty of the wood. 

When I was still in the lumber business, we were forever running into customers who wanted “perfect” lumber.  No blemishes, no imperfections, no color variations.  Boring.  Nope, not enough emphasis - BORING.  Trees, like people, grow over tens of years, some over hundreds of years, and when you look at the lumber that comes out of them: every variation in grain and every mark has something to do with the environment at a time in the tree’s life.  But again, just like people, beauty comes from the differences, not the sameness.

My grandfather was very important in my life.  My father died when I was very young and grandpa stepped in to do all he could to make sure I grew up as the right kind of person.  He was a laborer, not a professional, but he was very wise about the world and how to actually get things done.  I learned an unbelievable amount from him.  As a child, I remember looking at his weather-worn skin and knowing there was a story in every wrinkle. The life he lived played out on his face and in his hands.

Now I have come to the point where there are several years behind me and the person looking out of the mirror at me in the morning is much older than I think he should be. I look at myself, and my hands, and all of the bumps and scars, and I know that they all tell a story.  Whether it is about stitches earned building a deck on a house in Des Moines, or discoloration from too many summers as a lifeguard with the belief that the sun may be hard on others, but not me, it all tells a story. We all have stories which are told by our bumps and bruises, scars and imperfections.

In a time when it seems like so many are looking for homogeneity - or beauty without flaw; I to honor the scars and bruises.  They are part of how we got to where we are today, and are part of the beauty which defines each of us.  Whether in woodworking, or in life, I recognize the imperfections as beauty marks, signs of how things came to be.

Look around you for the imperfections that came from bumps and bruises; the scars which come from a life well lived.  Look and see beauty in each of them.