business – Encouragement is Personal

When was the last time you assembled a puzzle?

Did you do it yourself, or did you have help?

How long did it take to assemble? Minutes? Hours? Days?

In our house, whenever we started a puzzle, it was an “all-hands-on-deck” affair. We’d all start working it. Some of us would focus on organizing the pieces to make them visible. Others would dive right in and start putting pieces together.

I worked the edges. It’s the only thing that helped me get my bearings on the puzzle. Start with the flat sides and establish a border…then work into the middle. Working from the middle, out, was way too random for me.

“Hey, does anyone want some hot chocolate?” always seemed like a good question for me to ask after about a half-hour of diligent work. With marshmallows. Without looking up, I’d get some slow yesses and a few grunts. By the time I came back with the hot chocolate, I was always amazed at the progress.

I’d get back to working the edges.

Each of us had our specialty and our own pace. Some of us were easily distracted (me). My wife would stay focused for hours…one piece at a time.

“Hey, who’s up for a break from the puzzle? Maybe we can hit it again in a couple of hours with fresh eyes.” I was always a proponent of fresh eyes.

But, then we’d get most of the edges completed. I’d get my own personal rhythm, and I could start to see the patterns. The puzzle started to take shape. First, in my mind and then on the table. My perspective on the puzzle and my ability to add value to it changed as the image emerged from all the pieces.

I don’t know if my wife and daughters (or anyone else who’d stop by and get sucked into the assembly project) went through the same evolution in their perspective as I did.

Our latest puzzle is a new business (actually, an existing business that we recently purchased). Once again, our family is building a puzzle together. This time, it’s not at the dining room table with a clear picture of the final product. In fact, new pieces are being added to this puzzle all the time.

Once again, we’re each approaching the puzzle in our own way. Center-out. Edges-in.

Distractions? Definitely.

Is an image beginning to emerge? Yes.

The best (and most challenging) aspect of this puzzle is that it’s never finished. It grows and evolves. It occasionally leaves us feeling a bit perplexed. But, it also takes beautiful shape before our eyes as we continue to build, one piece at a time.

Anyone up for some hot chocolate? We’re gonna be here a while!

“I’ve been with this company for 35 years.”

“I’ve been in this industry since it started.”

“I remember when we used typewriters to fill out those forms.”

“I’ve forgotten more about this, than that new guy will ever know.”

“I’m not sure how things are supposed to work. I just started a couple of years ago.”

“I hope they give me a raise soon. I’m the only person who knows how to process all the claim types.”

“There’s no way someone will ever figure out how to replace me. I wouldn’t even remember all the steps if I had to tell someone. It’s automatic for me.”

Experience counts. There’s no replacement for the lessons learned by doing, succeeding, failing, recovering, making it up as you go, reinventing, punting, switching directions, and trying again.

There’s no shortcut to learning how a business or industry ebbs and flows throughout a year, or through the ups and downs of the economic cycle. A business that’s a no-brainer during the up-cycle can, and will, turn into a nightmare in a down-cycle. A person who can lead a business through an entire up and down cycle can’t help but learn all the ins and outs of that business (and its industry).

But, what’s the true value of all that experience? Nope, that’s not it…

The real value comes when you teach and mentor others. It’s relatively easy to master something for yourself. The real challenge, and deepest learning, is in teaching others. Not just the raw facts and steps to something, but connecting and passing on the passion that you have and watching your “student” define their own passion about the topic.

Consider your years of experience doing something. Maybe you’ve been in a particular job for twenty years. Can you honestly say that you’ve had twenty real years of experience, or twenty one-year experiences?

What’s the difference?

The difference is whether you’ve merely stacked the same one-year experiences on top of one another, or built and connected a compounding level of expertise in your twenty years. It means looking back at the (hopefully) countless people you’ve helped along the way to become the best versions of themselves. It means that you’ve found ways to multiply yourself and your impact by working with, and teaching, others.

The school of hard knocks never issues a diploma, but it does yield a lifetime of experience. That experience only counts if you take the time to pass it on to someone else.

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