First we have to suck. Then we get better. But only if we allow ourselves to suck.
I once had a conversation with a teacher at a vocational school. He trained youngsters who dreamt of becoming auto mechanics to a point where they would be good enough to complete their education as trainees at an actual auto repair shop.
We were kicking tires and talking as he showed me the shop. His on-campus garage had a fully equipped, professional looking repair shop with all the tools of the trade. The place smelled of oil, tires and exhaust fumes, the music was loud and everything seemed just right. They even had a couple of very nice cars sitting on the lifts, plus a few more waiting their turn outside, completing the illusion of a commercial repair shop.
I assumed that people would book a repair, drop their cars off at the shop and wait for a few weeks to get a repair done by students, at a very slow pace, overseen and validated by a professional. In return for a longer stay at the shop, customers would get a very fair price on an otherwise expensive repair. That made sense to me.
The guy laughed. No, these cars would never be driven by anyone, except for the youngsters at the shop. In fact, once the cars had stayed in the shop for a while they would typically have sustained quite a few damages. Usually you’d expect the opposite of a repair shop.
“They’re just kids,” he said. “Some of them walk in the door, so sure of themselves, inflated egos, convinced that they’ll be World class mechanics in a minute. They usually don’t last long though. The ones who last know how to suck.”
Youngsters, full of high expectations of their own mad skills, rushed in, and made a shit job of even simple repairs. Broken bolts, ruined threads, missing bits and so on. When faced with their own–expected and natural–incompetence, those, who had never learned how to suck, left.
First we have to suck. Then we get better. But only if we allow ourselves to suck. We are not meant to be good to begin with. We need to lower our expectations. Strive to suck less today than we did yesterday. And then keep at it until we don’t suck. We are meant to suck. We are meant to practice. And gradually to suck less.
So where did the nice cars in the repair shop come from? It turned out that local car dealerships sponsored cars for the students to work on.
Why? What is a better way to make sure you can get qualified trainees to your dealership, specialized in your brand of cars?
Give them a nice car to work on…