“This one? Ok, I see… I’ll do this for a small tip when I finish the paint job”
After that Mr Martinez casually turned around and went back to the font side of the house to put another layer of paint on the garage door. As usual, he was whistling some Spanish song as he made his way.
“Hold on, did he just agree to replace this board for a small tip??”
I was still standing on the deck, a bit stunned from what I just heard.
“Yep” answered my wife, gave me one of her signature “I told you” looks and went inside.
—
When we bought the house about ten years ago we ended up replacing the wooden deck that literally fell apart shortly after moving in.
As you probably know, wooden decks require periodic upkeep like painting and sealing. Even though we did an ok job (I think?) maintaining it, eventually one of the boards right in the middle started to crack and rot away.
Last fall we finally installed the new siding on the house but I forgot to ask our contractor to swap the rotten board as well. To add additional complexity to my life and to keep the rain water away from the wall, they added a new channel that extended couple inches into the deck essentially covering the first row of nails securing deck boards to the wall…
Now, in order to take any of the boards out, you would have to somehow get under the siding channel, pull out the old nail and then screw in the replacement – all of that without damaging the wall and other boards nearby. A very scary proposition especially for someone like me who got used to dealing with loosely coupled modules in software development.
Not surprisingly I spent A LOT of time on YouTube researching possible alternative solutions that would allow me to repair the damage, ranging from fancy specialized support equipment to fillers and glues, but with every passing month the cracks on the board were getting deeper and deeper. After a while I finally realized none of the temporary fixes would work here – the whole board has to go out.
Because of the complexity I created in my own head due to the lack of the hands on construction experience I was hesitant to do the job myself. At the same time I assumed it would require a whole costly rebuild if I were to involve a professional.
A classic stalemate, right?
So the board just sat there annoying me every time I would come out to the deck.. and this pain literally lasted for more than a year…
The worst part about little problems like that is that they steal productive brain cycles that you could’ve used for something else. That constant feeling of unfinished business, a perfect escape road for distracting yourself by brainstorming possible solutions instead of doing the work that really matters…
The more unfinished “projects” you have in your life, the harder it will be for you to focus on getting ahead.
Anyhow, after our contractor was done with the siding ( they finished the whole house in about 4 days by the way! ) we still had couple more items on the to do list to complete the look. One of them was painting the brick and garage door on the front.
Once the weather improved we invited our local handyman Mr Martinez who calls himself “a professional painter” for an estimate.
While he was walking around the house looking for more work to do I decided to ask his opinion on the best way to replace my rotten board on the deck.
As I started showing and explaining all of the potential complexities of the project I quickly realized Mr Martinez was no longer there. Turns out he was already under the deck checking things out.
Couple minutes later he crawled back from the darkness, patted the dirt from his pants and said:
“Yes, I will do this for you for a small tip after I finish the main paint project”
Then he simply walked off humming some Spanish song along the way…
Initially I was a bit taken aback, but decided not to pay too much attention to his words thinking he must’ve misjudged the scope of the problem or maybe even completely misunderstood my words, but I couldn’t believe my eyes when I came back home couple hours later after taking my son to the soccer practice.
The rotted board was gone and replaced by the brand new one! Not only that but shortly after he covered it with couple layers of paint that I had sitting in my garage. After pretty close inspection I didn’t find any signs of the damage to the siding or other adjacent boards.
To this day I have no idea how he did it, but I’ve learned my lesson..
1. Just because something looks very complex TO YOU doesn’t mean it actually is
2. Be honest with yourself and don’t try to be great at everything – respect your limitations
3. Find your own Mr Martinez in every major area of your life – whether it’s construction, health and fitness, accounting and tax planning, law, real estate, or technology.
4. Pay to get your problem solved
If you follow this simple four-step formula, I guarantee you’ll free up some of the annoying clutter that’s been slowing you down and create space for the things that truly matter. Just don’t expect a thank you from your wife, though! 😉
In my technical world this could mean the difference between creating a business or never launching anything at all. It looks like a trap that many non-technical entrepreneurs fall into. They oftentimes switch into endless research / micro-management mode trying to do your job instead of focusing on pushing the business forward.
I’m sure you have your own examples.
Don’t fall into the trap, get help and fix your nagging problems so you can focus your precious attention where it really matters!
—
My wife just came in saying there is a leak under the bathroom sink, I guess it’s time to dust off my YouTube tab, roll up my selves and switch into the plumber mode – a much needed distraction..?! Oh well..
Until we meet again!
Also published on Medium.
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