Wax On, Wax Off

“Show me wax on, wax off.”

• Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita (1932 – 2005) in the original Karate Kid move (circa 1984)

Teaching is an excellent place for a Difference Maker to show up. Mr. Miyagi was a great teacher. Ralph Macchio’s Daniel hated the pace (and method) of teaching his mentor used. (Ralph is a couple months younger than me, and sometimes I lost my patience with Dick Heston, so maybe it’s a late Boomer era thing…)

He just wanted to learn to fight.

“Show me sand the floor. Show me wax on, wax off. Show me paint the fence…” (some language in there, spoiler alert).

Nowadays, we’re probably more called upon to lead with the “Why?” but in 1984 with an impetuous teenager, Miyagi led with the what without any context. The context came later, in the scene linked above. Just as it did in the 70’s with Dick Heston and his own impetuous teenager. “Why not put another layer of bales on the wagon, Dad? We’d get done 20% faster.” A few years later I learned (the hard way) that Heston Farms hay wagons weren’t meant to hold 72 bales. I just wanted to get it wrapped up…

A prospective Client a couple of weeks ago asked me: “OK, how do we do this and get it wrapped up in, say, the next year or so?”

I’m pretty sure I already know the what, but what he didn’t have yet was the context. And, in business, the vertical and ancillary markets, intended outcome, timing, exit plan, etc. all play into what “the what” may be.

“Until we dig in and do an assessment, we can’t prescribe a specific set of actions,” I replied. “There are three or four things we know we’re going to need to do, but doing them in the right order, in conjunction with whatever else we find out during the assessment will pay off in multiples.”

It’s possible we could have booked a 12 – 18 month engagement at the table that day. Instead, we’re asking for a shot to spend a few weeks assessing and laying out a plan upon which he, me, or we can execute. I’m suggesting we sand the floor, paint the fence, and put the wax on and off.

There’s a chance we won’t win the bigger gig. When we do, there’s an even greater chance that everyone will get more out of it and sleep better because we will have done it the right way. Doing the job the right way still matters, even in the instant gratification, AI-infested world in which we operate.

Doing it the right way. Difference-making stuff.