“Whatever industry you are, it is crucial to work with experts because that’s the only panacea to success.” – Oyewole Sarumi
There are different formats of today’s story that littered the cyber space. However, I chose this bent to help me with the points that I have to emphasise here. Please let’s learn from it unhindered.
“A giant ship’s engine broke down and no one could repair it, so they took it to a Mechanical Engineer with over 40 years of experience.”
“He inspected the engine very carefully, from top to bottom. After seeing everything, the engineer unloaded the bag and pulled out a small hammer.”
“He knocked something gently. Soon, the engine came to life again. The engine has been fixed!”
“7 days later the engineer mentioned that the total cost of repairing the giant ship was $ 10,000 to the ship owner.”
“What ?!” said the owner.
“You did almost nothing. Give us a detailed bill.”
“The answer is simple:
Tap with a hammer: $ 2
Know where to knock & how much to knock: $ 9,998.”
LESSON’S TO LEARN:
1. The importance of appreciating one’s expertise and experience … UNTIL the words “it’s easy” and “that’s all”, should be set aside. Why? Because maybe the experience is the result of struggles, experiments and even tears.
2. If I do a job in 30 minutes it’s because I spent 10 years learning how to do that in 30 minutes. You owe me for the years, not the minutes.
3. From another perspective, if I can finish a job in 30 minutes, it’s because I spent 10 years learning how to do it in 30 minutes. You paid me for those 10 years, not 30 minutes).
3. Let’s start respecting and wisely respecting the work of others.
4. When a person does not respect others, that person is brought low at the same time
4. Expertise and experience are very expensive. You can’t get it to buy on the shelves.
Unfortunately, our people still look down on that.
NOTE:
Experience simply marks the time we’ve been doing something, but it’s a bad gauge of how well we actually do it.
Expertise, on the other hand, is a far better gauge of our competency.
The adage says ‘Perfect practice makes perfection’ The problem is that perfect practice and experience aren’t the same things.
Perfect practice (Eriksson’s 10 000 hour rule) gives you expertise whereas general practice in a wide range of environments, with a wide range of people, over a long period of time gives you experience and it is this experience that helps you make better decisions in uncertain situations.
Your experience does not reflect your expertise and if you want to accelerate your career, become more successful, and have more options, you need to be focusing on your expertise.
Be an expert, not experienced. How much of your time do you dedicate to your expertise?
AND MY THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Experience is a part of expertise. One can have experience without having expertise but not vice versa. Expertise is contextual, applicable knowledge that is gained over time.
It is the applied combination of education, formal or otherwise, experience, skill, practical knowledge, thought and action. Expertise also implies a vision for the future.
Experience is nothing more than a statement of time, a look backward to the past. Expertise is a statement of the current and future value of all that one has endeavoured to learn through experience, study and practice. It takes time, effort and commitment to build, just like anything of lasting value.
© Dr. Oyewole Sarumi
Coach. Trainer. SpeakerTCN@LIFE-LEADERS COACH