In 2007, I built my own house. I decided that I wanted to be the general contractor and do a lot of the work myself. I had never built a house so it was quite an experience. In fact, if you've read my first book, you'll know there are many applications of building this house to many other areas of business and marketing.
I hired a framing crew and timed them to start as soon as the foundation was ready to go. They drove in on a Tuesday night at about 5pm and started working by about 5:20pm.
The work these men performed was very different from the expectation set by reality TV today. There was no arguing, no worrying and no backbiting. They just got down to work from the first moment they arrived until the job was done.
I had the opportunity to help them one day. I took time off work and arrived when they started one day at 7am. We worked until close to 10pm with only a short break for lunch and dinner. Given I'm normally an indoor type of guy, you can imagine I was pretty tired after a full day of this hard labor.
What impressed me the most about their work was how well they worked every job that needed to be done. Too often we see that a job is beneath someone. It might be picking up the trash or sweeping the floor. It might be running an errand or filing papers. In their case, there was nothing that was too menial. They simply jumped in when something needed to be done and did it.
There were only four of these framers (an occasional fifth helped them out) and they worked hard and fast. They didn't run or even seem to rush but they all knew their role and took care of things when something needed to be done. They understood the principle that it was always their job and they did it.
This experience working with this framing crew taught me a valuable lesson. If your team works together, knows their part, isn't too proud to help in every area of need and is willing to work hard, you'll have amazing results.
In this case the result was a fast framing of a home that turned out great. When we had the inspection the punch-list took a total of one hour to complete. Now, six years later, we still love living in the house.
Oh, and my real job on the day they asked me to help? To stay out of the way unless they specifically asked me for something.
