Who holds the keys to your life/career?

Before we get into this, I'm going to apologise for the lack of pictures and fluff - I found it insanely difficult to track down images that portrayed the emotions and intent I'm trying to capture in this article. Forgive me as this is a bland, text-laden read.

I was driving back from an event this week - not a looong drive, but long enough to let the music take me away while I reviewed a few things that led me to where I am now.

That doesn't mean I was driving unsafely. Fully focused on the task at hand, I was able to let the background threads process for a while and see what came out of the steaming heap of my mind.

I had a fantastic week. For the first time, I helped man a stand at a trade show. I was quite nervous about it beforehand. I'm not a sales guy, and I hate hearing people say "everyone is a salesperson". Bullshit. To some people, it comes naturally. However, some of us do our best work in a dark room solving problems. Regardless, I was "Johnny on the Spot" this week, the guy in the right place who had to fill the need. And, by all accounts from the others who helped on the stand, I seem to have done an OK job. Still not quite in my comfort zone, but yes, I could do it again if I had to.

And, I got to thinking, how did some bum electrician from a small town get from there to here?

As I drove and ran through the sequence of events, both for work and for a few other topics, I came to the realisation that there were a few key people without whom, things may have ended up differently.

For a part of my career, I worked at places where the golden rule is that old gem "He who has the gold, makes the rules", and heaven forbid you try to do something that steps outside the "established and proven ways" - unsurprisingly, those businesses have either failed to develop further, or failed completely.

But there were those few instances where the right place, combined with the right manager, lead to opportunity. Let me share a few.

Ding, ding... Round one.

Chronologically, one of the first key moments wasn't related to my paid career. My "other career" is in martial arts. I've studied for 40 years and taught for nearly 30. That makes me quite experienced. If you had a 40 year paid career, you'd be considered an expert in your field.

<Allow me to digress for a moment>

In martial arts, people use terms like Master, Grandmaster and other titles. My official title is "Kyoshi" which roughly translates to "Professor". Some people argue that because my title wasn't issued by their "recognised authority", it's not valid. I've got to the point where I say "Let's let the skill do the talking, shall we?"

Let me summarise my digression in this way; I have met dozens of "masters" in my time, but I've never, to this date, met a Master.

Never. Not one.

Plenty of people have mastery of skill in one field. I've never met anyone who has mastery of life.

Because of that, I've gone away from using titles. I'm just "Marty the 'whatever' Guy". If you know me, you'll understand that reference.

<End digression>

I'd been studying martial arts for about 6 years when I started working with a teacher who was a bit different. His way tended to ignore what was considered "right", and work with what was proven instead. He would teach something, give me the space to experiment, and I would often come back and say "well, that didn't work as planned, but this does." - Bill gave me the space I needed to develop the critical thinking that has made me the martial artist I am today.

I did get to tell him how much I appreciated what he did for me. But again, thanks Bill.

Working in Retail

I spent a few years working as a PC engineer in a retail PC store in my home town. The guy who ran the place had made a change in his career, moved out of the bright lights and was working to build a solid business based on home and small business computing. If he's reading this, he knows who he is.

My role was to design, test and build the production models we would sell. We would generally have three or four models of PC available at any one time, and I had to make sure that whatever combination of hardware we purchased came together in such a way as to make a reliable platform that did the job it was intended for. I really enjoyed that part of the job.

The thing that made this role special was being given the tools and space to do the best work I could. Looking back, there isn't much I would change about how I executed my role. If I was to do it again today, with the resources we had then, I'd be able to apply 20+ years of extra experience, both technical and professional, but not much would change.

Having the resources and freedom to experiment, to work a problem, and to deliver a result with very little constraint was something I was too immature to appreciate.

As I said, if the owner of that store is reading this, he knows who he is, and I hope he realises how crucial his involvement in my development was - even if I didn't realise it at the time.

There was also another key player in that business - his experience and business acumen were also very impactful, albeit in a far less direct way. He also knows who he is, and one day we will catch up for coffee - even if it is 20+ years too overdue.

Learning to run a business

The next key player in my story was, in my opinion, one of News Zealand's most quietly successful electrical contracting senior managers. Although retired now (which was well overdue), the skills I learned in the few years we worked together were absolutely fundamental in my continued development. If he's reading this, he will know who he is, and he will know that he will always be a close friend.

We were such a good team, that we not only worked at our initial company, but continued to work together when I ran my own business (which I completely modelled on the skills I learned from our time together, and which worked like a Swiss watch).

We then came back together several years later to work at another business where we observed conclusively, that it was possible for poor management to take something that had all the elements for raging success, and turn it into a complete fustercluck.

We both had to hang on while the business careened out of control in the hands of a pair of decidedly dodgy "experts" (perhaps, even "masters"?) who put the well-being of 100+ staff in peril for their own benefits.

We then had to mop up the mess. I used the skills I had learned from my good friend to find jobs for all 14 of my staff within 7 days of the business failing. I'm going to continue to count that as one of my career successes, but I learned the skills from my close friend.

I learned my tendering, estimation, proposal writing, project management, financial management, reporting and a host more skills from this man. These skills travelled with me for what is over 20 years since we first worked together. I have used these same skills, mostly unchanged, in every business I have worked in since. Often, I have been able to teach these same skills to other people and help them develop just as I did.

I cannot put a value on what he taught me.

If you're reading this, you know who you are, you know what you taught me, and you know how valuable our time together was. I hope you spend more time sailing now than you were able to in our time together. I miss working with you.

Business got bigger

As I moved into a larger business, one key manager played her part in my ongoing development. She knows who she is. She knows how much I value her part in my journey, and she knows that I have tried, and will continue, to repay her for her impact. She also, is a close friend.

Trust plays a huge part in the development process. If a manager can show trust and allow their team the chance to find the statue hidden in their personal block of marble, everyone will win.

This is what happened to me. We had a task to complete. It was a large task. It needed a lot of resources. It had a lot weighing on the outcome. Instead of trying to manage my performance, she got the "H-E-double-hockey-sticks" out of the way and let me work my magic. Along the way, she learned enough to allow her to pivot her career into something bigger and better also. It was my pleasure to be able to facilitate that learning.

The end result was (in my humble opinion) as close to the best it could be - even if I redid the work today, the outcome wouldn't be much different. We smashed this one out of the park.

Let's wrap it up...

At the bottom here, let's summarise the discovery I made while driving home last Thursday night.

I've heard people say that you hold the keys to your career. Well, I think that's kind of true.

As you walk the path that takes you from noob to expert, there will be certain people along the way who will perhaps show you where the lock is that your key fits in? Perhaps you'll already know where the lock is, and have the right key, but you'll be turning it the wrong way? Maybe you're standing in front of 'a' door, but it's not 'the' door and someone will grab you by the shoulders and turn you around?

Regardless of the metaphor that fits your story, recognise those crucial moments and people who make that difference - analyse what they did that made the difference, until you understand how and why it worked. Give credit where it's due. Help those people when they need your help. Help other people to find the right place and time for their key to turn a lock that opens a whole new level of expertise and life experience.

You might call it collaboration. You might call it synergy. You might call it "Alfred" - I don't care what you call it, if you don't play your part, like those key people played their parts, someone, somewhere will be missing out.

Don't let someone miss out. I wouldn't be where I am if all the people I've mentioned here (and these people are only the ones I remembered during a 4-hour drive home) didn't play their part.

If I didn't mention you or your part in my story, that's because I'm saving it for part two one day... You know who you are. You know how important you've been.