The “Harvard Review on Managing Yourself” has a section titled “The best advice I ever received” that I thought was awesome. In the section successful business men and women shared some stories about advice or lessons they have learned from others. The most interesting part was the majority of them didn’t share stories of sage mentors setting them down and dispensing worldly knowledge. Their stories usually involved serendipitous discoveries of knowledge.
For me some of the most instructive moments of my life followed the same pattern. I’ll share one with you and hopefully you could share some of your own.
“You have got to move stuff to find stuff Skippy”
I used to be a steam plant mechanic on nuclear reactors in the Navy. The process of becoming a useful mechanic in the Navy is much the same as any other mechanic. You start off with some schooling and hands on training, get assigned to someplace, and then work as a gopher ( Gopher is a term for someone who’s job is to get things for other people. They get asked to “Go For” things ) and helper until finally you have enough experience and trust to be let loose on your own.
One day we were working on something, I don’t remember what, and I was the gopher. I was of course asked to go get some special tools. The special tools tended to get buried in lockers and could be hard to find. I went to the locker the tool was in moved around some of the crap that was piled on top and decided I couldn’t find it. I went back to my boss and told him I couldn’t find it.
My boss Larry Schultz ( if you ever read this you rock man ) just looked at me and asked if I had removed everything from the locker. I hadn’t done that of course I just rummaged around in there. The locker was huge, packed to the gills, and everything was heavy and awkward. I don’t remember what I said to him but I do remember Larry’s response.
Larry set down what he was doing and walked with me to the locker. He looked at me and said “You have got to move stuff to find stuff Skippy” and proceeded to pull every piece of equipment out of the locker. I was really embarrassed. Here was a guy who had been in the Navy 18 years was an awesome mechanic and had always treated us good and he was doing my job.
He could have yelled at me.. he could have sent someone else.. he could have been doing his job planning how we were going to get our upkeep done. Instead he took the time to show me what work ethic was about.
I learned a lot from that and he probably doesn’t even remember it. He showed me real leadership. Sometimes leadership means keeping your cool even when your subordinates are being dumb asses and just leading by example. Also in that moment he showed me that there was nothing he had asked me to do that he wasn’t willing to do, I really respected that. Lastly it showed me that sometimes you just got to roll up your sleeves and do it, even when you don’t want to or its boring.
I puzzle over why that affected me so much. I can honestly say that I think about Larry and that incident at least once a week. It was such a mundane thing and I have done so many things that were harder. Maybe it was because the mundane rote things are hardest for me to complete.
I’d like to know what the best advice you ever received was. Any type of advice is great. Lets try the tag thing since that worked so well..
What was the best advise you ever received..
Alan ?
Marc ?
Graywolf ?
Nick ?
John ?
Todd ?
//edited after a few proof reads..
//added:
HttpWebWitch
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| Filed under: Misc — Scott @ January 23, 2007 2:09 pm |
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[...] If I keep this up I’m sure someone will call me the meme whore but since Scott’s post was so good I’ll play along. [...]
Most memes are lame, but this one I really like. Graywolf responded with a great post and I’m excited to see the others.
Thank you, I wish I could take credit for it but I stole the idea from a great book. I strongly recommend it for anyone…
http://www.amazon.com/Harvard-Business-Managing-Yourself-Paperback/dp/159139970X
I laughed when I read Michaels post too. It is a great post.
[...] I thought about this over the past 24 hours, since I saw Scott’s post, and I really couldn’t pinpoint one piece of life (or even SEO) advice that stood out as the very best in that time period (I’m sure it will dawn on me shortly after posting). Lots of GOOD advice, lots of FUNNY advice, but the overall best advice I was given was probably from whoever convinced me to attend my first pubcon (I wish I could properly credit them). In retrospect, I can look back to the first conference I attended as a big catalyst as a turning point in both my career, and line of thinking. For those who have questioned whether or not they should attend one - you definitely should. Don’t let $$ be the reason you don’t because it is worth every penny. I have paid my own way to several, and they are definitely worth it for the relationships and contacts I have made that have been extremely valuable on both personal and professional levels. You can’t put a price tag on having a network of like-minded people that you can count on to help answer difficult questions, and bounce ideas off of. Without that, you are stuck on an island. I like the idea anyways, of offering the best advice you’ve been given, so figure I’d help to spread it. Feel free to comment here, or create a post of your own - just be sure to credit Scott for a good idea. Michael’s also given his best advice. I love Social Media! - Votes are noticed and appreciated:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
pass the meme, please. According to meme rules, I mustn’t write until someone throws me a link.
Screw rules just post it. I’ll gladly link to any one who writes.
[...] Following another internet meme, this time from the Web Professor - I’ll attempt to choose and blogcast the best advice I ever received. This is a tough one but worth the introspection. [...]
You never told us whether the special equipment you needed was actually there…?
;)
Yeah it was there buried in the back.
Thanks, was purely curious. I’m actually writing a paper comparing this blog to that of Michael Gray’s “Best advice I ever recieved” blog for a class…and it occured to me after reading that it never was made clear whether it was there. I know it isn’t the point.
I’m curious about your paper. If your cool with it send me an email. Thanks man.
Best advice I’ve ever received…
This is driving me nuts. I was just reading Scott Horne’s blog (which is excellent by the way) and he’s got people sharing the best advice they’ve ever received. This is great because I love advice like sunflowers love sun. The problem is, I know…
[...] is a “Best Advice I ever received” blog tag thing happening. Sounds educational to [...]
[...] has been a lot of talk about this “Best Advice Web Professor ever Received then we had Best Advice Received By Gray Wolf then he had Best Advice Received By John Scoot and [...]
[...] is a “Best Advice I ever received” blog tag thing happening. Sounds educational to [...]