4 Lessons from my Carpenter's success!

What is the future of someone in India, whose father was a sugar mill laborer, lived 18 years of his life in a remote village in poverty, studied only till 8th grade and came to Mumbai and worked as a daily contractual laborer, 20 years back?

What if I tell you he can have a flat in Mumbai, a car and a comfortable secure and prosperous life, earning more than many of us? What if I say he works only 20 -22 days a month and most often 5 hours a day?

If that surprised you, I was too. I am not sure how many of us can affirm to match up to those success parameters?

Intriguingly it did not take me much to commit to research a bit about his life and understand what fell in place for him to be successful. As I recall my experience with him on two occasions, I could dig into the reasons for Babulal's meteoric rise.

1. Customers’ need to be elated: My first brush with him was 8 years back when I had to get a shoe rack made aesthetically enough to be kept in my living room. My neighbor recommended this man in his 50’s called Babulal, to be tried. In the first visit, what surprised me were his punctuality, humility, and never say NO attitude to my requests. His questions were precise to understand my expectations, clearly facilitated through his outstanding listening skills. He built agreement on what the final product would look like and the specifications. His  work was neat and exhibited his attention to detail.  Finally he created exactly what I expected both in quality and timeliness. Just as we thought it was a good job done, he suggested something which I had not thought of, a glass top on the shoe rack aesthetically matching the other glass work in the living room…. truly elating. What would you feel if you were his customer?

1. Integrity Pays: Then there was this day while I was making his final payment he asked me to pay Rs 2500 less than the agreed amount, for what he said was a calculation error on his part while calculating material cost and his labor. How many would do that, when the customer has agreed on an amount and is satisfied with his work? Who would come to my mind if my friend needed someone to do a similar job?

1. My Team is my biggest asset: Since the last seven years Babulal had become so busy that he created a team of carpenters, electricians and masons as his growing customers asked him to do more than just carpentry work for them. He had become a contractor. From doing the job himself to getting it done. He was this new Babulal who was a team leader. Recently we had asked him to do some work at my flat which took about a fortnight & we could observe his team management skills.

• He would always arrive before his team arrived and explain them in detail what needs to be accomplished on that day and then leave for his next site. He was tremendously respectful and always above the line even when he reprimanded them for a work not done well.
• He was always there for them ready to help. On one instance two of his workers were absent and I could see the old Babulal working as a carpenter himself with other carpenters to get the work done for the day. Sometimes he would get samosas or sweets for his team when it was working overtime to complete a project.
• I later learnt from one of his senior carpenter that he was with Babulal for the last 7 years while many other contractors have offered him more money, he loves to work with him. When I asked babulal once about his team, he retorted, "sir for me this TEAM is my only asset".  I was forced to reflect about how I make my team members feel each day?

1. Keep High Standards even when others don’t observe: On one occasion few days after completing his work and taking his full payment he arrived at our place to replace a lock and re-paste a vinyl sheet, without charging any money. We had not noticed anything amiss in the work he had done, however later we learnt that he had observed that the finishing was not done well in one area. What struck me is what he said when I asked him what made him come back and correct it, he politely responded…. “Sir every work that I do says something about me too.” How many of us think the same way about the work that we do?

No wonder … BABULAL is so SUCCESSFUL and I don’t see any reason why he will not remain the first choice for me and many others in future! Thanks Babulal for those precious learning!!