Know where to tap
You can have all the tools in the world, but if you don’t know how to use them correctly, you’re still going to be in trouble. Having a hammer means very little. Knowing where to tap is the real skill.
It reminds me of this story below, variations of which I’ve heard many times over my lifetime. The message still resonates strongly:
“What do you want to be in life?” asked a father, as he walked with his son.
“Rich!” replied the boy. The man laughed at his son’s answer.
“That was not what I asked,” he said, “but that is a good goal. How will you get there?”
“By working hard, getting good marks and a bit of luck,” responded the boy.
“Hard work? Good marks?” The man laughed again. “They are a good start, but no, they won’t make you rich. And what exactly is Luck?"
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” the man said.
"Opportunity is always there. Even if it weren’t there, you can create it. So, opportunity is not the issue. The real question is, how prepared are you? Are you ready to get lucky?”
When his son didn’t answer for a long time, the man softened and said, “Effort is important son, but it bears lean fruit."
"For richer pickings, you need vision, passion and reason to direct your efforts. Directed effort is what makes men rich. Knowing where to make the effort makes all the difference!”
“Tools don’t make the expert, knowledge does. You can name your price if you know your stuff. I read a story once, about a steamship boiler failing."
"The owner tried one expert after another, but none could figure out how to fix it. Then, they called an old local mechanic who had been fixing boilers since he was young.”
“The frail old man came, carrying with him just a small bag of tools. He listened to the distraught engineer, asked a few questions, then went into the boiler room. They followed him in.”
“He looked at the maze of twisting pipes and felt them with his hands. He listened to their heartbeat and heard what they had to say."
"Then humming softly to himself, he reached inside his bag and pulled out a hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the boiler awoke from slumber.”
“As it hissed and roared, the old mechanic put away his tool and left. There was much jubilation on the steamship. Later, the owner received a bill for ten thousand euro."
"What?" he exclaimed when he saw the invoice, "€10,000 for a puny tap. He hardly did anything. I was prepared to pay him well, but this is outrageous!"
"So, he had his solicitor write to the old mechanic, requiring an itemised bill. He got back a bill which read:
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“Dad, people can’t do that kind of thing in real life,” the boy objected.
“He wouldn’t get paid today!” persisted the boy. “He’d have to fight for it in court. And be lucky to win!”
“There’s luck again,” answered the boy’s father. “Luck is about seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It was seeing what other people don't see and pursuing that vision."
"Today is no different. Don’t multinationals pay millions in salaries to some when others barely earn pennies. They are not being paid just for their hours. They are being paid for their skills, for their knowledge, for their experience.”
“The mechanic did what no one else could do despite their best efforts. How much was restarting the boiler worth to the steam-ship owner? How much was the time lost unproductively in waiting, worth?"
"How much was he paying in wages while all his crew sat twiddling their thumbs? What was the replacement cost of the boiler? Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.”
“But that’s blackmail surely,” argued the boy. “Isn’t it?”
“No, son,” his father said. “If you overvalue your work, the world will likely step in to knock down your price. But if you undercharge yourself, it's unlikely that the world will step in to compensate you appropriately."
"You can’t rely on others to value you correctly. It is not in their best interests to do so.”
“The mechanic knew where to tap. It only took him a moment to fix the problem, but it took him a lifetime to learn how to recognise it in the first place. And to learn how to fix it. Why do you value knowledge so cheaply?"
"His job seems easy to you because he made it look so easy, because of his intricate knowledge, which took him a lifetime to acquire.”
“To others, it remained undoable. Just because something is easy for someone, doesn’t mean that it’s easy for everyone else."
"Become a hammer tapper my boy, always learning new stuff, new tools and techniques, new ways of doing things. Creating a niche is the road that will lead you to riches.”
“Knowing where to tap the hammer is what will set you apart from the rest. Set you apart from the blind - who will try the same things over and over until they fail so many times, that they declare it impossible."
"For hammer tappers, impossible is just an opinion. To them, impossible reads just not possible yet. Let me see where I need to tap.”
At Dovetail, custom software is our hammer, and we know where to tap!