#127: Always Start With The Basics.

We all tend to aim high trying to answer the important questions and doing the really difficult stuff.

Why not start with the mundane, most fundamental tasks?

The learning curve is steep. You get imminent feedback and understand why something does or doesn’t work.

I started my apprenticeship 33 years ago. It was April 16, 1988. On my fist day at the bank, I was tasked to count US Dollar banknotes. The piles of banknotes added up to two hundred and fifty thousand. That was a lot of money and still is today. For a 15 year old it is impossible to grasp.

On the other hand, a quarter of a million isn’t much on a bank’s balance sheet. Hence, starting presumably small is the right thing to do for someone wanting to grow into a proper banker. It also helps to make your hands dirty, which I can assure you is what happens when you count so many banknotes by hand.

As an apprentice you had to empty the trash can. It was also you who ran over to the store next door to pick up the sandwiches for the team event. Those weren’t tough challenges, nothing to be proud of or learn from.

No learning opportunity at all?

You did learn that those tasks had to be done by someone. If it wasn’t you, it would be someone else. They could also be done brilliantly, although differences could be nuanced and subtle, or not so well. It was entirely up to you.

It felt like a déjà-vu today. One of my best friends who did the apprenticeship with me at the time helped me out at our hemp shop. We filled hemp seeds into the packaging. I had done it before, a first timer for him.

As you can imagine, anyone could do it. However, it reminded both of us that you had to start with the first process step before moving on to the second and finally completing the final step. And we both realized that you naturally improved after doing a repetitive tasks over and over again. It felt good to notice the progress you made. We then also discussed ways to reengineer the entire process, to automate parts of it or to outsource all of it to a professional service provider.

It taught us that it is good to start with the basics. It feels right, shows possibility and allows you to push it forward as far as you want.

No need to worry about how high the sky is as long as you start with both feet on the ground.