Tell ’Em You Can Do The Job (Then Figure Out How)

In 1949, in the city of Hazel Park, Michigan a father and son opened a construction and remodeling business.

As the decade marked by war wound to a close, there was an optimism that fueled cities and towns across the land. Young people were marrying and starting families. Families needed homes in which to grow.

So this father and son discovered and seized an opportunity.

Armed with an old Ford pickup and a wooden toolbox full of tools, Barnett and Son Builders opened its doors. Its proprietors? My great Uncle Jess and my Great Grandpa Jesse.

They instilled a love of carpentry in their nephew and grandson, my dad. And he would pass that love of carpentry on to his sons.

I am a fourth generation carpenter.

Long after my Great Grandpa died from Parkinson’s and my Uncle Jess succumbed to old age, the Barnett and Son Builders name was going strong. My dad’s cousins David and Denny kept the name and ran the business in Michigan.

Years later my dad and I revived it to name our business.

My dad told me stories about working with his Grandfather. Grandpa Barnett was a gruff man, but he loved his grandkids. He was the product of Kentucky farmers who moved north to Detroit seeking work like so many others struggling through the Great Depression. He didn’t land in the automotive industry where steel is the medium. He crafted wood.

My dad told me the story of learning to drive the old Ford work truck. He hopped in the passenger seat. One morning Grandpa came to that side and told little Billy to slide behind the wheel. After a moment of confusion, Dad slid behind the wheel and at fourteen years old drove them both to work, gears grinding in protest.

One lesson Grandpa and Uncle Jess taught stuck with me even more than I realized. I’ve used it often in my life and career.

Bidding on carpentry jobs is a risky proposition. If it’s remodeling you don’t see what lies beneath the surface so you have to guess what you will find. New construction has its challenges too. Sometimes you identify how to tackle part of the job, but not all of it. You can estimate the parts you know and call on someone else to help fill in the gaps you don’t.

Or you can act as if you know what you’re doing, bid the job and then figure it out as you go.

For a person accustomed to working with their hands each job combines a puzzle, a treasure hunt and a riddle. You perceive the desired outcome; you have to organize the pieces to bring it to reality.

My Uncle Jess took the hungry entrepreneur approach. He didn’t want to pass up any jobs, so he bid them and if he didn’t know what he was doing, he’d learn as he went.

This mindset has become a part of my thinking.

I’m proficient at carpentry and woodworking, but I’ve grown up around other phases of homebuilding. While I’m not an expert I do understand plumbing, electrical, HVAC, tile, landscaping, etc.

Until recently I never realized figuring things out is a skill some people have and others don’t. But it’s also a skill you can learn. You can build your confidence and talk your way into an opportunity that wasn’t there before.

Pivoting Through Life

In The Art of Work, author Jeff Goins introduces the concept of the pivot. He gives illustrations in his own life of how he pivoted from one career opportunity to the next. Gone are the days when you go to work for one company and put in your forty years and retire with a gold watch and a pension. In today’s economy the pivot is vital to growth and success.

In my career the best opportunities have discovered me. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t prepared for them when they happened. If you wait to prepare for an opportunity, you’ll miss it when comes.

My first job out of college was for Georgia Pacific. I attended a college career fair and as I looked across the room full of employers, I gravitated to this manufacturer of building products. I met a man named Chris LoPriore, a New York transplant living in the Deep South.

We hit it off, and he noticed something in me that perhaps I didn’t even realize was there. Although I grew up in the South, he steered me towards a job selling building products to customers in the Northeast.

I’m not sure why he pointed me in that direction, but for the next four and a half years I developed relationships with people of different backgrounds than me. I became a top salesman and grew within the company.

Learning To Teach

My next pivot came when I graduated from Seminary with a desire to teach. I had no formal teaching background, but I was inquisitive and a constant learner. I applied for a part time position at a local community college in their Adult Education department. When I interviewed, the lady who would become my boss said, “I realize you have no formal teaching experience, but there was something about the way you wrote your cover letter that makes me want to give you a shot.”

She hired me and I spent the next six years teaching in various places throughout the college.

Becoming A Writer

My third major pivot came when I took a job as a full-time professional writer. Like other jobs before, this one found me. A friend found a job posting for a content writer with the John Maxwell Company. I had a job teaching and I loved it. I excelled at what I did and I impacted the most fragile of populations — at-risk youth.

But my heart wanted to write, so I put together a resume and portfolio and submitted it figuring that would be the end of it. Although I’d blogged for years and written thousands of words, I didn’t feel like a “real” writer.

I applied on Wednesday, received a phone call requesting an interview on Thursday and interviewed on Friday.

At the interview, Charlie, the man who would become my boss said, “You can improve your writing style, but there’s something about you and I’m willing to take a chance.”

A week later I took the job.

So what thread that ties this together? I think these five characteristics are all it takes:

Confidence

Be confident. Confidence isn’t false bravado or a braggart who claims to do everything well. Confidence is self-awareness. It’s knowing what you can — and more importantly — can’t do. Take calculated risks and learn from your mistakes. Don’t be prideful. Ask for help and be willing to share credit and wisdom so you help the surrounding team.

Charisma

My dad was a person who liked people and people liked him. He had a ready smile and a kind word about everything. Dad made you laugh because he didn’t take himself too seriously. He could light up a room. He was larger than life. Some of those characteristics come naturally to me while others I’ve had to learn. Not everyone is charismatic by nature, but you can smile more, laugh more and encourage more. Work to become a person you’d like to be around.

Charm

Charm is sincere not smarmy. It builds on charisma and when it’s genuine, it wins over a room. Start by being polite, kind and classy. Become a person who others can visualize themselves working with. Make others feel good and you bring out the best in them. Charm helps people discover you are the person who will make them better.

Character

Character is integrity in action. A person of character has one set of guidelines that governs their life whether or not anyone else is watching. A person of character is honest with themselves and with others. They need not puff up or inflate their egos, they recognize who they are and they are comfortable in their own skin. Character is an internal characteristic manifesting itself for the world to see.

Completion

Completion just means you follow through. People don’t have to wonder if you’ll get the job done, you’re a completer. Give you a task and you’ll make it happen. A person with this quality isn’t concerned about who gets the credit; they’re concerned with a job well done. They make their teams better and bring out the best in others.

The good news is that even if you are lacking in one of these five areas you can improve. The first step is some genuine self-analysis. Take a long look in the mirror and discover where you need to improve.

Then apply the 1% rule. Challenge yourself to get 1% better each day. Be nicer to people. Put them first. Encourage others. Follow through. Do what you say you’ll do. Be more sincere.

It may take time, but in time opportunities will find you and you may just pivot into your next great adventure.

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