Hey – Walker and Davis here!
Happy Saturday morning to the Laying Foundations community!
Your first year on the job is tough and comes fast but the key is to learn as much as you can as soon as you can. But, to set yourself apart, how can you accelerate that learning?
Today’s issue takes about 6 minutes to read and was written for you by Walker Lott
Enjoy!
Quote Of The Week
Accelerating your learning sounds easy and for some people, it may be. But the concept of accelerating learning is a hard one to grasp.
Everyone learns something new every day (if you don’t then that’s step 1). Learning is what helps us continually grow and build ourselves up personally, professionally, and spiritually.
As a new man or woman in construction, you will be learning something new constantly but so will everyone else. So, how can you take your daily learning and accelerate it so you can make an even bigger impact on the project?
1. Ask LOTS of Questions
Anyone can do it, most won’t. Because asking questions requires you to be vulnerable and admit you don’t know something.
For most of us, we want to try and “prove” something and show our “knowledge” but in your first year, you don’t know as much as you think you do trust me.
You will be bombarded with information on the daily but by asking questions you can begin to process that information, pry deeper into topics, and discover things you wouldn’t have if you didn’t ask.
Asking questions accelerates your learning because it forces you to think, reason, listen, and learn more than you would have by sitting at a desk or staring at plans that are foreign to you.
2. Fail Fast And Fail Often
Failing is not fun but unfortunately, it’s part of the job. You will make someone mad, you will send the wrong file, you will instruct someone to do the wrong thing which may cost money.
So, instead of being afraid of what you might do, go out there and try.
Because the more you fail and get right back up the faster you learn how NOT to do something and can avoid it in the future.
Don’t be afraid to try something and admit you were wrong. We are all wrong at some point in our life but when you do get knocked down, get up and try it again.
3. Admit When You Need Help
I get it, you don’t want to show someone your “weakness” but sometimes by not doing so, you can create an even bigger hole to fall into.
When you are stuck on something and have exhausted all of your resources, ask your PM or Super how they would approach the situation.
Get advice from trade partners who are experts in their field.
Call the architect and let them walk you through the drawings so you can understand them from their point of view.
Asking for help can drastically excel your learning because it allows you to learn from someone else’s experience.
Quality of the Week:Vision: The ability to vividly see what you want for your life and pursue it passionately.
20-Year-Old Self Advice: “Later” is the enemy of “Now”. Don’t wait till later to get started when you can change your life right now.
Next-Gen Vision
This is inspired by SiteNews – the modern voice of Canadian Construction. Laying Foundations believes in painting a picture for the younger generation. By doing so, we want you to submit your best job site photos for the month of May. We will release the best photos at the end of the month of June to share with our subscriber base. The best photos will get a shoutout on the newsletter, and laying foundations merch!
Help us paint a picture for the younger generation to see how awesome the construction industry is by submitting your photo here!
Check out episode 122 on The Laying Foundations Podcast!
Join us for a conversation with Dan Boggs, field engineer at Robins & Morton. In this episode we talk about Dan’s path into the construction industry, starting out as a survey technician while working his way through school. Once graduating from college, Dan started his full-time career with Robins & Morton, a #2 ranked contractor in Modern Healthcare.
Are you looking to invest in the next generation of builders? Whether you are an individual or company that is looking to make a last impact within the next generation there is an opportunity to sponsor Laying Foundations to continue to educate and create resources for the next generation of builders.
If you want to learn more check out the link here:
