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We were just a couple of dopey kids in a boiler room back then. We’d combined our YEARS OF EXPERIENCE like so much loose change and did the best we could to buy ourselves out of a roomful of problems.
 Some of what we’d done was even right! Well, enough of it was right enough to keep the heat limping upstairs all these years. It’s just that it wasn’t quite right.But now an older and more-experienced Alan and Dan got to go back and look at what "those dopey kids" had done years before. We were getting a second chance. This time (hopefully!) we were a little better armed. Neither of us laughed or pointed a finger at the other as we went over the mistakes that morning. But I noticed Alan had that all-too-familiar gleam in his eyes. I probably did too. "Gotcha!" You learn from a lot of people in this industry, but mostly you learn from the dopey kid who used to wear your clothes and sleep in your bed. You bring him with you on every job you work on. There’s no getting away from him. He follows you all your working life.
Fix it without finding fault. Everybody needs a break now and then. Even the guy who was there before you. Besides, while you’re using all your present brilliance to make things right, that horrible job just might start looking uncomfortably familiar to you. Who knows? Some dopey kid who used to wear your clothes might have been there years ago.
Dan Holohan
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The next time you look at someone else’s work and find it not quite up to your current high standards, take a minute to look backward and inward. Remember that dopey kid who helped train you. And then without laughing, use what he taught you to make that job better.
| Dan Holohan - [Intro] | [Email] | [Website] |
| The views expressed in this article are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of MasterPlumbers.com |
