Re: Interesting

["ABLE1" <royboynospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:75de4045-ce24-499c-a355-b1fa44154cab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Dec 22, 10:21 pm, "ABLE1" <royboynos...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Jim said:
> =============================================
> Mine is practical and hands on.
> I've always thought I would have made a good engineer, as I have this
> automatic basic understanding of how most things work and I've always
> had "good hands" . But .... some people just don't get all the
> talents necessary towards their preferred endeavors. Me? really bad at
> math. Just couldn't remember the formulas. So I stuck to the technical
> end, and following the good advice of a mentor, I got into the
> business end of electronics and used my innate knowledge of how things
> work to out-shine most of the other people in sales and marketing.
> Ultimately finding that I had a talent that had been hidden from
> me ..... the gut's and ability to utilize all the things I learned in
> big business ..... to run my own business. Took off the three piece
> suit and have been crawling in attics and crawl spaces ever since. I
> just have to know how every thing works and can be made to work better or
> how to fix it.

> ===============================================
>
> Geezzzz Jim, sounds like you have been plagiarizing my bio. :-)
> Either that or we are clones. :-) :-) Except for the sound thing
> you do, almost scary to think.
>
> Les


But, ya know ..... it took me a long ...... long time to realize that
I can do things that lots and lots of other people can't do. For some
reason, for a good portion of my life, I thought that just because * I
* could figure out how things worked and was able to "fix"
things ..... I thought that everyone could do that and that I was just
sort of average. After lots of years and being able to make money
doing what I like to do ... did I finally come to realize how many
people just don't know how to do what I can do. And it's not only
because they're not interested in it ..... they just really can't do
it! People like us are not necessarily unique ... it's just that there
are few enough of us to make it worth while.

I realized this when one of my early customers said something to me,
just off the top of his head.

I had this kid working for me for a few months and he just couldn't
get things straight. Couldn't remember where anything in the van was,
Couldn't learn to strip a wire and so on. I was getting ready to tell
him I was letting him go at the end of the week because I was begining
to get angry at him. While on a job with him my customer noted that I
was being abrupt with the kid and when the kid went out to the van, my
customer asked me if I was having trouble with him and I used the
opportunity to tell him all the things the kid couldn't do. The
customer said something, very simple to me that just turned on a
light. He said ..... Jim, if he could do what you can do ...... he'd
be doing it.

It was right then that I realized that I could do things other people
actually *couldn't* learn to do. It's not that they don't want
to  ...... they just cant do it. I thought about it for awhile and, I
guess, up till then I had always thought that I couldn't catch on to
higher math, not because I just couldn't do it, but because I didn't
try hard enough. With those few little words from my customer, it sort
of opened up all the doors in my life from that point on.

Just one of those revelation turning points in a persons life.
=================================================
Similar here.  Not that is was a revelation or anything like that but I had
a customer make a comment some years ago while doing a Network/Telephone do
over in a car dealership.  He was and is a techie that enjoys the latest
buzz thingie.  He said: "You know Les, I have never seen someone come in and
look at all that wiring and grasp what is what and needs to be done.  Very
impressive."

I have this what I call my inherited troubleshooting capability that just
boils things down to their common denominator.  What happens most times is
that I figure things out on stuff I have little or no background in.  What
frustrates me is that I have a very difficult time selling those skills that
I have honed over the years.  So I just sell what everybody else sells and
hope that a portion of the people that I meet can see the value in what I
offer over the other guy.  This does not happen often but enough to keep the
food on the table.

I was also told by another customer that was also a business person.  I was
discussing issues with the local competition when she stopped me and said.
"You have no competition."  I looked at her and said. "Huh?? But there
is...."  She said, "Think of it this way.  No one can do what you can do the
way you do it!!  You have NO competition!!"  I thought that sounded very
cool.

I am sure that others that are reading this will think we are a bit over the
top and maybe arrogant in nature.  And some(few) others may fully understand
because they are reading their own similar traits.  We are a rare breed and
without us (types) I can't imagine what the world would be like.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Les