The "Build A Deck" Theory

I have a private theory I'd like to share this month.  Some who have worked closely with me have heard it, but most have not.  I think it applies to the current market conditions we face today.  I came up with this little theory of mine just a few years ago.  It was formed though, almost thirty years ago.
 
I got my first job when I was fourteen years old.  I was a general laborer, on a farm I could walk to from my boyhood home.  A large part of my duties included cutting acres and acres of lawns and grass fields every week, all summer long.  Many times it took me over twenty hours, using the big tractor with gang mowers, the small tractor, a push mower, and weed eaters. My record time is 14 hours.  I would actually time myself on each attempt.  I was paid by the hour. No one in my family taught me how to "ride the clock".  For many years I thought I was normal. Till this day, the owners send me Christmas cards addressed to: "the best lawn boy we ever had". I was just having fun, outdoors with my crinkled pouch of Red Man, and a well oiled pair of boots.  I made the best of the situation by taking pride in my work.  I actually believed I was doing the most important job in America. 
 
I kept that same job until I graduated from college. After college, I left the farm and worked a few, but not many different jobs up until today.  At each one, I outworked my peers at an embarrassing margin.  Not with hours, or brains, but with spirit and attitude - - that allows the hours and the brains to do their best work.
 
On one job, I was a merchandiser for a major window manufacturer.  My boss was traveling with me and watched me dusting and cleaning the displays.  I remember, he turned to me and said, "If I told you to dig a hole, you would go and do it with a smile, and pride."  I didn't see that as strange.
 
OK, here's the theory:
 
Whatever your job is, pretend you were hired to build a deck.  That is your job.  Your entire career is to build one single deck. Now take all the things you wish were different about the "tools" your employer gave you.  Or, the conditions of the "job site" environment, and just forget them. Ignore them.  You were hired to build a deck.  So you build the deck.  I don't care if it would be easier if you had a nail gun, or if your employer only gave you a hand saw.  There are always going to be things you have, or do not have that are going to effect how effectively you can build the deck.  Just make the best of the situation, work with the tools and materials that you do have, and build the freakin' deck already. With whatever it takes, to get the job done.
 
Do the best job that you can, with the tools, rules, and materials that you have at hand.  Smile during the day, on your way home, and when you get there.  Rest up, and do it again, trying to break your own grass cutting record.

Yours truly,