I often wonder how common it is that individuals will have exceptional talent or aptitude but a complete lack of ability to convey this to others who might be able to use this talent. I ran into this occasionally in my years running diesel truck repair shops. Guys that I had worked with for years turned out to have some great talent that no one ever knew about. I suspect it is very common. If so is their any workable remedy for this?
I ran an import repair shop for years, i worked as a tech at my dad’s still thriving import repair shop for years & also worked in a few dealerships in the parts departments, also for years.
needless to say, i know & have been around a bunch of techs as a result of this. most were pretty good techs, several were great. they all had lots of talent. this wasn’t talent they hid or were afraid to talk about though, it’s what they used to do what they did daily.
any chance you could further expand on or give some examples of the talent you’re referring to?
Some examples might be, fabrication, welding cutting etc, another seemingly simple task but one shops highly value is someone who is good at inspections. Some guys will see things no one else sees and they do this consistently. Some guys are very good at writing up work orders and warranty applications but may not be the best mechanics. Electrical work is also highly valued, guys that can trouble shoot. I found with electrical that most guys who are good at it will also be good at trouble shooting in general. Some guys are lazy and don't like to get dirty so will try ti find a niche that will allow them to get off easy. While others that struggle just to keep their job will welcome all the jobs that no one else wants and thus they become valuable also.
Oh well, I can turn a straw inside-out with my teeth. Not tech-y or mechanical, but a talent, nonetheless.
pretty much everything you listed was my experience too, i just don’t consider the areas one person shines compared to another hidden talent i guess.
on a side note, i love troubleshooting. give me an electrical problem or a drivability problem and I was happy. timing belts, tune ups, clutches, cv joints & such made the better money, just boring though.
i still enjoy troubleshooting, i just do it doing HVAC & electrical work. no grease makes me happy. i hated my hands when i was wrenching full time.
really a lot more examples than I gave and I see more examples outside of work also. Art, writing, mathematics, innovativeness, problem solving in general and many more things I see in people who under rate themselves and other underrate them as well.
I had a student who was profoundly dyslexic and took my course three times before he finally got through. He was a wonderful guy and a hard worker.
Come to find out that he’s a track car genius designer (like the reality garage shows guys) and is seguing into the new field of 3-D material modeling, designing and printing mechanical parts. He hired someone to read mechanical engineering texts onto a tape for him.
I constantly find out amazing things about my students.