WCEI
Senior Member
- Location
- Central Virginia
- Occupation
- President/Owner, Wayne Cook Electric, Inc.
Let me start with a bit of background information. I‘m nobody special but I’ve been reasonably successful as I made my way through life. A lot of my success was because I realized early on that self improvement depended on “ME.“ In my career in the fire service and the electrical industry, I had lots of training, schooling, and OJT. But, I realized that if I truly wanted to be successful, just being a good learner was not going to do it. I constantly challenged myself to exceed all assignments in my training courses in the fire service. If I needed to read 10 pages this week, I read 10 chapters. If I needed to write a two page report, I wrote 5 pages. If the assignment was to answer 25 code questions, I answered 100. And on and on. And not because I was smart, because I’m not, but because I wanted to be better than just average.
I guess it was not long after Mike Holt really got cranked up in the training industry that I stumbled across him, (and Sabrina, bless her soul). I bought just about every VHS tape set he had from Fundamentals to Masters Prep. Night after night, hour after hour after hour of watching, and reversing and rewatching, as Mike imparted his wisdom. There was no real need for me to make this sacrifice, because I could have probably taken a test prep class at the local Community College and passed my exams and been just as much of a licensed electrician as the next guy. But I wanted more. I guess I was just self motivated for personal reasons.
My question to you, the brain trust in our industry, is how the heck do I get these young guys that work for me to realize, that just the status quo hampers their growth and advancement. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got great young men working for me, but that is what is so frustrating. I see so much potential, and yet they seem to think that they are going to get everything they need from just a few college classes and OJT. Selfishly, I need them to be so much more than that. I need hungry guys that want to be challenged, want to be pushed beyond their comfort zone. So that they can step up in the future and be the leaders in my company, or wherever they end up.
I’ll take all suggestions. I’m trying every trick I know, but I’m not really seeing the proverbial light bulb come on. Maybe you know something that will help me push the right button.
Along this same line, back on the VHS tapes Mike made in the 80’s, he did a monologue on the rule of thirds. Put a random sampling of 99 people in room and a third are just lost, basically failures, a third are good, but just loyal worker ants, but the last third are something special. Mike went on to paint a picture of each 1/3 of the top third. And so on until the last person or two are the ones that are truly successful, the CEO’s, the Company President, and so on. Do any of you have this analogy, either by Mike, or someone else, that you would share with me.
Thank you all.
I guess it was not long after Mike Holt really got cranked up in the training industry that I stumbled across him, (and Sabrina, bless her soul). I bought just about every VHS tape set he had from Fundamentals to Masters Prep. Night after night, hour after hour after hour of watching, and reversing and rewatching, as Mike imparted his wisdom. There was no real need for me to make this sacrifice, because I could have probably taken a test prep class at the local Community College and passed my exams and been just as much of a licensed electrician as the next guy. But I wanted more. I guess I was just self motivated for personal reasons.
My question to you, the brain trust in our industry, is how the heck do I get these young guys that work for me to realize, that just the status quo hampers their growth and advancement. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got great young men working for me, but that is what is so frustrating. I see so much potential, and yet they seem to think that they are going to get everything they need from just a few college classes and OJT. Selfishly, I need them to be so much more than that. I need hungry guys that want to be challenged, want to be pushed beyond their comfort zone. So that they can step up in the future and be the leaders in my company, or wherever they end up.
I’ll take all suggestions. I’m trying every trick I know, but I’m not really seeing the proverbial light bulb come on. Maybe you know something that will help me push the right button.
Along this same line, back on the VHS tapes Mike made in the 80’s, he did a monologue on the rule of thirds. Put a random sampling of 99 people in room and a third are just lost, basically failures, a third are good, but just loyal worker ants, but the last third are something special. Mike went on to paint a picture of each 1/3 of the top third. And so on until the last person or two are the ones that are truly successful, the CEO’s, the Company President, and so on. Do any of you have this analogy, either by Mike, or someone else, that you would share with me.
Thank you all.
