Will Bachman: Some of the best insights come when we ask questions the way a child would. In some ways, school, society, employers have taught us not to ask those questions, and maybe, occasionally, we need to practice, or get a reminder, to regain that simplicity and curiosity of a child.
Hey, welcome to Unleashed, the show that explores how to thrive as in independent professional. Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, and I’m your host, Will Bachman.
A friend of mine told me this story. He was with his daughter, who’s about eight years old, and they were in the lobby of a doorman building on the upper east side. They were picking up another girl, and the father was going to take both girls … walk both the girls to school.
So, they’re waiting in the lobby, and his daughter looks at the doorman. She’s looking at his shoes, and she finally asks him, “Why are the soles of your shoes so thick?” Now, this is a question that might come to my mind, and I might have refrained from asking it, but the answer that he gave was the following.
He says, “I’m on my feet a lot more recently than I used to.” He’d been in the job for a couple of decades. He said, “When I started this job, there used to be a big rush in the morning, when everybody was going to work, and I’m opening the door for people. Then there’d be a lull, and it would be quiet all morning long, with a few people coming and going. Then there’s a big … on your feet around lunchtime, where people are going out to lunch. Then there was a big lull in the afternoon, and then it would be busy at the coming home time.”
But he says, “Recently, over the past five, six, seven years, the work has changed a lot.” He says he’s on his feet almost all day long. Two things are driving that. One is receiving packages, so far more people are ordering stuff online, packages coming all day long, number one. Number two, with the rise of independent professionals, and work schedules being fragmented, and more people working from home even if they have a full time job, there’s people coming and going all day long. So, people working from home, going out at 10 a.m. to their yoga class, coming back, people coming into the building who might be collaborating with someone who’s working from home. He says he rarely has a chance to sit down.
That whole story came from a girl who was asking about the soles of his shoes. It reminded me to get back to asking questions like a child, and I hope it inspires you to do so as well.
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