Like Father, Not Exactly Like Son
My brother-in-law and sister gave me a book for my birthday called the "Cashflow Quadrant" written by the Rich Dad, Poor Dad guy. I won't go into it in detail but from the first little bit I've read it has started to change my outlook on how to make money. My Dad has been the hardest worker I've ever known. He's always worked for himself from playing music full time in the early days to remodeling and construction and a vending business in the past several years. He's never been cut out for doing things someone else's way and I've found in the past ten years that I'm built the same way. He thrives on the freedom and individual responsibility inherent to that kind of life and I can tell that, despite the uncertainties that come up from time to time, he wouldn't have it any other way.
My senoir year in high school I began working with my Dad on some of his projects and began to notice, although i didn't realize it at the time, what principles were most important to him. He didn't waste time... he never sat around BS'ing...he was always doing...even if sometimes that doing had to be undone and redone later. It mattered more to him that something was getting accomplished. And I also saw that nobody could do something better than him. In other words, hiring someone to come and do a task that could be done "in house" was not an option. If he needed a plumber, he put on the plumbing hat. If a drywall finisher was needed, he had a hat for that too and so on. You could never save money or time by hiring someone to do what you knew how to do...period. So he naturally has gotten pretty good at most things in that field.
After a few years of doing this kind of work and learning by going out on my own with some projects, i've learned that there is a value to my time just as money has a value to me. When you are broke, money is worth more than time. When you have money, at least enough...and you start to gain more...it's value starts to go down and your time starts to be worth more to you. To me there are some aspects, of construction in this case, that are not worth my time and worry...usually because i don't like doing them or I'm not that good at them. I guess i don't want to be a professional at everything. I want to do a few things that i like and be masters of them and then hire other people who are masters of the things i don't like or can't do well. I think that's the first step to moving towards being able to build a business that runs itself. My brother and i have done a few projects with our dad and it's been a challenge to keep with our way of thinking throughout the process.
Take this example, for instance. Just a few years ago my wife and I moved back to Knoxville, where I grew up, from Salt Lake City. My dad and mom were just getting ready to break ground on building their dream house on the lot they had bought and I joined in on the journey. Literally about the first thing that happens after excavating and pouring footings for the house is to build the foundation. We'd never layed a block foundation before and this one was goign to be huge! He decided he'd hire a guy to come and lay block to teach us and that we'd help. The biggest problem with this task was not laying the block, but getting the block down to the building site. It was on a downhill slope and the delivery trucks could not get it where it was needed so they dumped it 30 yards uphill. The days after saw us trying to figure out how to get the hundreds on blocks down to the site where the mason could lay them. Instead of hiring an excavator to cut in a small road down to the site so that the block could be loaded and hauled, we decided that we'd hoist up a rope with a pulley attached that went from the upper landing to the lower site. We'd zip the pulley with a rope attached up the line, attach one block at a time, and zip them down the line to another guy waiting. What an awesome idea! I think that's how they do it in the remote mountains of Brazil!...I forget how many days it took us to move hundreds of blocks, one at a time, down this zip line but I surely will never forget the experience... neither will the fourteen pairs of gloves I went through.
I guess sometimes it seems like the best way to learn something is to try it and make it work as you go. That's what the Hinckley thought process is: "I don't know really how to do this, but i'm going to do it anyway". That's what I've done for years now...figured it out as I've gone along because I've never had any other educator to tell me a better way. I've found through the example of Todd via the book he gave me some knowledge about what makes people free to have their money work FOR them.
My Dad has worked hard for every dime he's ever made and I think that's honorable and awesome. I've worked hard (by working hard I mean swinging a hammer in Southern 95 degree heat) for every dime I've made and I admit that I enjoy coming home after that kind of day knowing that I was productive and worked an honest day. But am I any less of a hard worker if I put my mind to work just like I put my physical body to work out in that sun? I don't think so. I think that there are infinitely different souls out there who measure success with very different sticks. Some will be content with getting their hands dirty all day every day knowing they are doing it their way. Their independance is more important and more valuable than the potential for more money. This is the category i've talked myself into for the past several years. And i love doing it my way. Some will crave the stability that comes with working for a big company and all the benefits that are attached to it. We need those people badly too. That's my wife. But some will choose that the thought of having more time to do what you want is worth more than what those two categories can offer. For those who are self employed and do their own thing, freedom is one of the driving forces behind what they do. But maybe they could think of it this way...If you hired guys to go do what you do during the day at the jobsite, you could be out revving up more business. If you're good, you could line up jobs for six months that your employees will keep busy with while you keep the books, pay the bills, keep the business running. But it won't take you eight hours a day, five days a week to keep the business part of the business running. You can be on vacation while your guys are on site, as long as you've trained them well enough and you trust them...and you can make the same money in the Bahamas as you would sitting at your desk. That sounds like freedom to me. Am I so concerned about the actual physicality of the job that i have to be there having my own hands do the work? Does that sense of accomplishment sound more productive and worth while than the chance to be out with my kids playing, seeing new things, making the relationship with my wife better? I can't justify that. Todd and lindsay came out to Knoxville for Christmas and made money the whole time they were here playing. Now that's how to work it! They had shoots going on and bridal shows where they were represented and all they had to do was pick up a cell phone and check in with the gal they hired to do it. That easy. I know Todd still has things he wants to learn but he is an example of thinking a different way. I want to develop that too. I've had the urges over the years to do it but i've not had the right mindset to make it reality. I'll steal a Covey word and say i needed a "paradigm shift". Yeah, now I sound like a Harvard Grad! I think I'm starting to get there...not to Harvard...to another way of thinking.
So, back to the title. I could go on for a while about how my dad and I are very similar but i'm tired of typing. Let it be enough to say that we are. We are musicians and songwriters, we're a little stubborn, we're good with our hands, we think about better ways to do things, and we both like to listen to Rush. But call it my generation or just call it me, I want to work hard in the newer way...the way that gives me more flexibility to go out and do lots of things and see lots of places...and to do those things during the work week and any other time. I want to be okay with letting an employee of mine do what i'd do...I don't want to be so concerned about the detail of how it's done, just that it's done and everyone's happy. I want to have that same feeling of pride and satisfaction after making a phone call as I do after I finish building a deck or tiling a bathroom for someone.
My dad hasn't necessarily taught me how to be succesful in a profession, he's taught me how to work hard and be proud of creating something and now it's up to me to take that ethic and turn it in to success.
My senoir year in high school I began working with my Dad on some of his projects and began to notice, although i didn't realize it at the time, what principles were most important to him. He didn't waste time... he never sat around BS'ing...he was always doing...even if sometimes that doing had to be undone and redone later. It mattered more to him that something was getting accomplished. And I also saw that nobody could do something better than him. In other words, hiring someone to come and do a task that could be done "in house" was not an option. If he needed a plumber, he put on the plumbing hat. If a drywall finisher was needed, he had a hat for that too and so on. You could never save money or time by hiring someone to do what you knew how to do...period. So he naturally has gotten pretty good at most things in that field.
After a few years of doing this kind of work and learning by going out on my own with some projects, i've learned that there is a value to my time just as money has a value to me. When you are broke, money is worth more than time. When you have money, at least enough...and you start to gain more...it's value starts to go down and your time starts to be worth more to you. To me there are some aspects, of construction in this case, that are not worth my time and worry...usually because i don't like doing them or I'm not that good at them. I guess i don't want to be a professional at everything. I want to do a few things that i like and be masters of them and then hire other people who are masters of the things i don't like or can't do well. I think that's the first step to moving towards being able to build a business that runs itself. My brother and i have done a few projects with our dad and it's been a challenge to keep with our way of thinking throughout the process.
Take this example, for instance. Just a few years ago my wife and I moved back to Knoxville, where I grew up, from Salt Lake City. My dad and mom were just getting ready to break ground on building their dream house on the lot they had bought and I joined in on the journey. Literally about the first thing that happens after excavating and pouring footings for the house is to build the foundation. We'd never layed a block foundation before and this one was goign to be huge! He decided he'd hire a guy to come and lay block to teach us and that we'd help. The biggest problem with this task was not laying the block, but getting the block down to the building site. It was on a downhill slope and the delivery trucks could not get it where it was needed so they dumped it 30 yards uphill. The days after saw us trying to figure out how to get the hundreds on blocks down to the site where the mason could lay them. Instead of hiring an excavator to cut in a small road down to the site so that the block could be loaded and hauled, we decided that we'd hoist up a rope with a pulley attached that went from the upper landing to the lower site. We'd zip the pulley with a rope attached up the line, attach one block at a time, and zip them down the line to another guy waiting. What an awesome idea! I think that's how they do it in the remote mountains of Brazil!...I forget how many days it took us to move hundreds of blocks, one at a time, down this zip line but I surely will never forget the experience... neither will the fourteen pairs of gloves I went through.
I guess sometimes it seems like the best way to learn something is to try it and make it work as you go. That's what the Hinckley thought process is: "I don't know really how to do this, but i'm going to do it anyway". That's what I've done for years now...figured it out as I've gone along because I've never had any other educator to tell me a better way. I've found through the example of Todd via the book he gave me some knowledge about what makes people free to have their money work FOR them.
My Dad has worked hard for every dime he's ever made and I think that's honorable and awesome. I've worked hard (by working hard I mean swinging a hammer in Southern 95 degree heat) for every dime I've made and I admit that I enjoy coming home after that kind of day knowing that I was productive and worked an honest day. But am I any less of a hard worker if I put my mind to work just like I put my physical body to work out in that sun? I don't think so. I think that there are infinitely different souls out there who measure success with very different sticks. Some will be content with getting their hands dirty all day every day knowing they are doing it their way. Their independance is more important and more valuable than the potential for more money. This is the category i've talked myself into for the past several years. And i love doing it my way. Some will crave the stability that comes with working for a big company and all the benefits that are attached to it. We need those people badly too. That's my wife. But some will choose that the thought of having more time to do what you want is worth more than what those two categories can offer. For those who are self employed and do their own thing, freedom is one of the driving forces behind what they do. But maybe they could think of it this way...If you hired guys to go do what you do during the day at the jobsite, you could be out revving up more business. If you're good, you could line up jobs for six months that your employees will keep busy with while you keep the books, pay the bills, keep the business running. But it won't take you eight hours a day, five days a week to keep the business part of the business running. You can be on vacation while your guys are on site, as long as you've trained them well enough and you trust them...and you can make the same money in the Bahamas as you would sitting at your desk. That sounds like freedom to me. Am I so concerned about the actual physicality of the job that i have to be there having my own hands do the work? Does that sense of accomplishment sound more productive and worth while than the chance to be out with my kids playing, seeing new things, making the relationship with my wife better? I can't justify that. Todd and lindsay came out to Knoxville for Christmas and made money the whole time they were here playing. Now that's how to work it! They had shoots going on and bridal shows where they were represented and all they had to do was pick up a cell phone and check in with the gal they hired to do it. That easy. I know Todd still has things he wants to learn but he is an example of thinking a different way. I want to develop that too. I've had the urges over the years to do it but i've not had the right mindset to make it reality. I'll steal a Covey word and say i needed a "paradigm shift". Yeah, now I sound like a Harvard Grad! I think I'm starting to get there...not to Harvard...to another way of thinking.
So, back to the title. I could go on for a while about how my dad and I are very similar but i'm tired of typing. Let it be enough to say that we are. We are musicians and songwriters, we're a little stubborn, we're good with our hands, we think about better ways to do things, and we both like to listen to Rush. But call it my generation or just call it me, I want to work hard in the newer way...the way that gives me more flexibility to go out and do lots of things and see lots of places...and to do those things during the work week and any other time. I want to be okay with letting an employee of mine do what i'd do...I don't want to be so concerned about the detail of how it's done, just that it's done and everyone's happy. I want to have that same feeling of pride and satisfaction after making a phone call as I do after I finish building a deck or tiling a bathroom for someone.
My dad hasn't necessarily taught me how to be succesful in a profession, he's taught me how to work hard and be proud of creating something and now it's up to me to take that ethic and turn it in to success.
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