The other day I was updating my LinkedIn profile and stumbled upon this parable:
Never underestimate the value of experience!
A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after
another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.
“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”
So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer………………….. $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap…………………….. $ 9,998.00
My grandfather, a very wise self made man, that started his professional career as paper boy (with a borrowed bike from his neighbor) and became vice president of a now 88 years old newspaper in Brazil, always told me that the formula of success is passion (energy/motivation), knowledge and practice. He also said that I could not just go to work and do things, I had to get my bachelors degree (as I did) and wake up with the same motivation as a new employee every day, for months, years, my whole life like he did.
“if you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
– Eppie Lederer
When I visited for the first time the Metropolitan Museum, I was fascinated by the things I saw there. But one old quote (over 2400 year old) from a Greet General and Historian made me pause and read a few times:
“We are lovers of beauty yet with no extravagance and lovers of wisdom yet without weakness. Wealth we employ rather as an opportunity for action than as a subject for boasting; and with us it is not a shame for a man to acknowledge poverty, but the greater shame is for him not to do his best to avoid it.” – Thucydides
All the history I could see at the metropolitan museum made me think deeply about:
What is truly important in your professional life?
I am a professional web developer, SEO/SEM specialist, eCommerce consultant and web entrepreneur, with over 23 years experience in Web Development and over a decade in Online Marketing.
- Digital marketing,
- Internet related new technologies,
- web programming,
- database driven systems,
- E-commerce,
- social media,
- open source projects,
- snowboarding,
- dogs,
- soccer,
- meetups.
These are indeed the things I could do for the rest of my life with no regrets and with the same motivation every day.
