I left my hotel room this morning to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, and saw part of a man standing in the hallway. His feet were on a ladder. The rest of him was somewhere in the ceiling.
I introduced myself, and asked what he doing. Along with satisfying my natural curiosity, it seemed a good way to delay my appointment with gravity, which I was in no hurry to keep. His name is Corey Mundle, and like many who work in tight spaces, and he recognized me, and we quickly got to talking.
“Well Mike, here’s the problem,” he said. “My pipe has a crack in it, and now my hot water is leaking into my laundry room. I’ve got to turn off my water, replace my old pipe, and get my new one installed before my customers notice there’s a problem.”
I asked if he needed a hand, and he told me the job wasn’t dirty enough. We laughed, and Corey asked if he could have a quick photo. I said sure, assuming he’d return the favor. He asked why I wanted a photo of him, and I said it was because I liked his choice of pronouns.
“I like the way you talk about your work,” I said. “It’s not, ‘the’ hot water, it’s ‘MY’ hot water. It’s not, ‘the’ laundry room, it’s ‘MY’ laundry room. It’s not ‘a’ new pipe, it’s ‘MY’ new pipe. Most people don’t talk like that about their work. Most people don’t own it.”
Corey shrugged and said, “This is not ‘a’ job; this is ‘MY’ job. I’m glad to have it, and I take pride in every thing I do.”
He didn’t know it, but Corey’s words made my job a little easier that day. Because three hours later, when I was trying to work up the courage to leap out of a perfectly good airplane, I wasn’t thinking about pulling the ripcord on the parachute – I was thinking about pulling MY ripcord. On MY parachute.
Personal responsibility…
there is no substitute.
Mike
PS. We’re raising money for the next round of Work Ethic Scholarships, which means I’m auctioning off more of my C.R.A.P. Latest video is here. It’s weird, but potentially interesting to those of you with an affection for, (
or a suspicion of,) collectible dolls…
PPS The Hampton Inn of Spring Lake North Carolina is superior to many 5-star hotels. I’m not even kidding, and I’m not getting paid to brag on them. The staff is excellent, the room are enormous, Pavan the GM lives on the premises, and Vanessa and Mrs. Liz will make you feel like family. Check ‘em out if you’re ever near Ft. Bragg.
PPPS Many thanks to Cisco, and all of you who tweeted your fingers off two weeks ago. Thanks to your relentless button pushing, we raised an additional $20,000, and got a lot more kids to this years Skills USA event. Awesome. More on that later.