What I learned about business by digging a trench

Some of the most valuable lessons I've learned about corporate culture and business processes were lessons that came early. They were hard-earned doing manual labor. But the lessons were sound, scalable and applicable everywhere. Including the lessons I learned from digging a trench. 

When I was in high school, I owned a lawn mowing company with my best friend. We had a great time and we made substantially more money than all our friends which was awesome. Not only did we make good money, but for the most part, the work was pretty enjoyable. That being said, there was one particular job that was absolutely brutal. It was so brutal, that I’ll never forget it. 

We were hired by the local Comcast office to dig a 200-yard long, 18-inch deep trench. They hired us because the trench could only be dug by hand because there were literally hundreds of cables running horizontally through this trench that could not be cut. Comcast had requested bids from many other companies, but the bids were either too high or they flat out turned it down because of the frustrating difficulty of it. Eventually they called us, a couple of inexperienced, money hungry, high school kids. As you would expect, we drastically underbid the competition and won the contract. We also drastically underestimated how hard the job would be! It was in the dead middle of summer, so it was about 100 degrees outside everyday, and the work itself was a total nightmare. 

After the first day of digging, we considered quitting because it seemed like there was no way we'd ever get the project done anywhere close to the timeframe we'd expected. We had bid the project out hoping it would only take a couple full days of work, but after 10 hours of work we’d only covered about 20 yards. At that pace, it was going to take us the entire week! We drove home totally dejected. We considered backing out of the project and giving Comcast’s money back to them, but then we said to ourselves, "No, we do what we say and we say what we do!” So we stuck with it. 

I'm glad we did, because the next morning, shortly after we got started, we realized there was a pattern with the cables. There was a group of 2-3 cables every 3-4 yards. Which means we had 3 safe yards of trench we could dig between without worrying about cutting a cable. Once we knew the pattern, we put together a strategy so we could move faster. The cables were consistently about 12 inches under the ground, so we dug the entire 200 yard trench 12 inches deep first. We then went back and dug the remaining 8 inches down into the safe areas. Once that was done, we went back and carefully punched out and cleared out the areas where the cables were. We ended up almost getting the entire trench dug that second day. All in all, the project took about two and a half days in total. Which was not far off what we estimated! 

We learned 2 valuable lessons from this experience:

Lesson #1 - Don't give up at the beginning of any new process, no matter how hard it is. The beginning of any process is always the hardest part of the process. If you stick with it long enough, you'll start to recognize patterns and make adjustments that allow you to move faster and more efficiently. Stay focused on accomplishing something each day, constantly improving things as you move forward, and staying positive. It will get better. In business, we often don’t give new processes enough time. We just need to stick with them and work hard to make them better. I call this “awesomization”.

The beginning of any process is always the hardest part of the process.

Lesson #2 - No matter what you do and how much you love your job, you'll have periods, projects, customers, etc., that are a nightmare. There's no way around it, so expect it. If you love the person you're working with and the team you're on, that will always pull you through. While digging that trench, I was working with my best friend, so even though that was the worst project ever, it ended up being a great memory we’ve laughed about for years. The tough times often leave you with the best stories! That's why culture is so important. It pulls you and your team through the tough times.

If you love the person you're working with and the team you're on, that will always pull you through.

There you go...that’s what I learned about business from digging a trench.