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April 2024 #16297 Page #24
Advance Your Career and Earnings By Learning From Mistakes We Are All Prone to Make
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ach generation has to learn all the life lessons either through their own Todd Drummond mistakes or the counseling of the older generation. The vast majority of us wish not to repeat the same mistakes and, if possible, avoid them altogether. If you wish to avoid embarrassment, whether you are new to being an employee or in a management position, hopefully, you can learn some important life lessons from the older generations’ counsel. Sadly, some of the most needed behavior changes we have learned are lessons from mistakes we created ourselves. Still, it is a mature individual who can explain to the younger generation how they are able to learn from playing the role of a fool. Do you think I am a dumb@ss? – Decades ago, when I was a private in the US Army, I did a very sloppy job of cleaning the M1 Abrams tank I was assigned to do. Typical of all young Privates (E-1 in the US Army), I tried to give some lame excuse to my supervisor, who was a Staff Sergeant (E-6), of why the tank was in such a poor condition compared to the expected standards. The resulting “conversation” between the Staff Sergeant and Private Drummond went along these lines. Staff Sergeant, “Private Drummond, do you think the US Army gives the responsibility of these million-dollar tanks to idiots? Do you think the US Army promotes an individual to my rank and position because they are a complete dumb@ss? If you cannot do the simplest tasks, such as cleaning the tank, how do I know I can depend on you to take the time to properly check the engine oil when it is being asked of you? We could blow an engine in the middle of combat and get us all killed because Private Drummond is too damn lazy!” Looking back, the Staff Sergeant was completely correct. I was not being reliable, and my team (platoon) could not rely on my work as being trustworthy. That day ended with me not only being closely supervised to clean the tank properly because, obviously, I needed further training for the simplest of tasks, but also with a whole lot of motivational push-ups. A few years later, when I obtained the rank of a Buck Sergeant (E-5), I had the same type of conversations with the individuals (Privates) I was responsible for supervising. Continued next page
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