I had an interesting experience while building my wood shop these last few weeks.  I got a bid from a framer for $3,000 to frame and sheet the whole thing (40 X 50.)  That’s a great price and I knew it.  I knew of the framer and had seen his work.  He does excellent quality work, so I was surprised when he was willing to do it so cheap.

But after talking to him, I hired him.  He told me that with his crew he could frame it in two days.  Wow!  That sounded good, but I figured I’d have to watch him to make sure he did quality work if he was going to do it so quickly.  We agreed that he’d start on a Monday at 9:00 a.m.

Well, he showed up about the crack of noon.  He seemed pretty disorganized as he started and I was concerned.  But as he got going, they did a tremendous amount of very high quality work in a very short time.  By 5:00 p.m. they had three walls up and were closing in on the fourth.  Then, suddenly — when I didn’t hear anything outside — I looked out to see them driving off.  They came back in about two hours and worked for about 45 minutes and it was too dark to work.

They said they were staying on the mountain and would be back the next morning at 8:30 ready to go.  Once again, at about 11:45 they came dragging in, apparently pretty hung over.  And once again, once they got rolling they got a tremendous amount of work done in a short time.

Long story short, it took five of those half-day sessions to get it wrapped up.  The work was absolutely all I could have hoped for.  The building is perfectly square and perfectly plumb.  The seams on the sheeting are tight and everything is exactly where it was supposed to be.

But here’s the rub:  Had they stayed on task they could have done the whole thing is two 10 - 12 hour days.  They could have done that in one trip to the mountain and had only one night to pay for hotel.  They could have made a fortune on the job, but by working hit or miss, they ended up making a wage — nothing more.

Here’s how I figure it.  The boss had two other guys.  One was obviously very skilled.  His wage would have been about $250 a day.  The other guy was a flunky who cut the boards and did the grunt work.  He couldn’t have been making more than $100 a day.  That’s $350 a day for labor. Multiply that by two days and you have $700 for labor.  Figure $250 for hotels and gas to get to the mountain, and your costs as the owner are $1,000.

Now the owner worked right along side his workers.  Had he done the job in two days, he’d have $2,000 (or $1,000 a day.)  If he did that five days a week (and he could, if he had the work ethic,) he’d have made a quarter of a million dollars this year.  But as it was it took five days.  Instead of his costs being $1,000 they were closer to $1,800.  So instead of reaping $1,000 a day, he got more like $250 a day ($1,200 divided by 5 days.)

That made me crazy.  Here is a talented man with a superb crew.  They are in demand and rightfully so.  This man could be wealthy by any standard, but by his unwillingness to get in and git ‘er done, he’s chosen to make about $50,000 a year.

So in summary, the problem isn’t that this man and his crew aren’t talented.  They are.  It isn’t that they aren’t experienced.  They are.  The problem is they don’t have the focus — the work ethic — to reach their potential.  I told my wife what I wanted to do was run his business for him.  If I just scheduled and managed his crew I could split the difference with him on the increase in his income and live comfortably.

But alas, that’s not going to happen.

Evaluate yourself and determine if your problems are work ethic related or skill or talent related.  And look at others through that same lens, and I’m sure you’ll discover that the problem is seldom talent, experience, or ability.  It’s almost always work ethic.  Give me the guy with the work ethic.  I can teach everything else.  I can’t teach work ethic.