Construction

This entire week I was working construction. It gave me a deeper appreciation for the day to day craftsmanship of these people. There’s good amount of things that go into a building a house, that no one really knows or talks about. I consider myself blessed to have this experience and to understand the little things I could.

I was alone, in a cold building just sweeping, vacuuming and cleaning the site overall. I didn’t listen to any music or podcasts, just focused on tidying the place up. It was serene, almost mind numbingly so. I found it interesting what my mind went to. I was genuinely in a flow state making the funniest jokes imaginable. I was so funny, unfortunately no one heard these jokes to confirm, but I came up with some comedy gold.

However, I also wondered about if what I’m doing is right. Am I playing around by trying to start a startup in the construction industry? I don’t know the answer to these questions. I’ve been here before, faced with uncertainty about the future. There is no correct answer, but the best thing I can do is put my best foot forward into the construction startup. That is the best mechanism to salvage this experience if it goes awry.

I also found some satisfaction in taping perfectly. If you have to paint over something, you have to tape up the edge so you don’t get paint everywhere. The straight edge corners are easy to do but curves can be tricky. When I first started out it was jagged the curves were just a series of edges, but towards the end I was flowing, the curves were smooth. The bigger picture was finding passion in the little things no matter what you are doing. There is a sense of pride that comes from doing a good job, no matter what job it is. I’ve always thought about the satisfaction that comes from work, I think it’s important that you choose something you want to do, and something that can make you money. Lately, I’m shifting towards doing a good job, no matter what it is, which takes away the formal “passion”, instead of worrying about if this is the right thing for me, or finding different things to find satisfaction in, maybe I should find passion/satisfaction/pride in the work I do now.

Origin of Speices:

I don’t like reading this book, I genuinely feel like it’s saying the same thing over and over again.

Instead I picked up a new book called “The Learn Startup”, which is not only productive,currently, considering my own startup it is also good and easy read.

One thing that stood out to me, was how important the customer is in the business. Trying your best to understand the customer’s problem is at the heart of every company. I want that for my own company as well, that’s why I’m working in construction, when all my peers are doing fancy internships in big buildings, I’m sweeping floors and taping door hinges.