During the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college, I worked for a brick mason contractor. We spent most of that summer doing the brick work on an apartment complex in Reynolds, PA. The crew was made up of a wide assortment of interesting characters. One of the most interesting was a guy named Wes. He was an older African American man in his early sixties. I’m certain he was one of the most intelligent men with whom I’ve ever interacted. His perceptive abilities were uncanny. He sized up problems on the job site and immediately chose the best solution.
One morning, when we were on our 10 minute coffee break, Wes motioned to me to come over to talk. He was a man of very few words so I was almost taken aback when he called me over. As I sat down next to him he simply said, “You take too many steps.” I looked at him with a questioning face. He said again, “You take too many steps”…but then he added the magic words…“Watch me…do what I do.” So I did. I watched Wes for the next few days. It was amazing! He wasted nothing…time or motion. He was never in a hurry, yet never stopped moving. He always had a tool of some sort in his hands, even when moving from one task to another (cleaning a shovel, scraping a trowel). All tools were always clean and ready for use. To this day, I measure my effectiveness in nearly everything by comparing myself to Wes.
Todd Rivetti 