Curiosity

I passed my quarter of a century mark this year working with technicians. As with people who have an infatuation with great sports stars like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretsky, Walter Payton and Alex Rodriguez, I have an infatuation with wildly talented technicians (and those who wish to be too!). Over time I’ll cover various traits that I’ve seen successful technicians share. Today’s trait is curiosity.

This trait is revealed in a question all great technicians ask: how does this work? Most often this question is asked when the technician is trying to fix something. It’s surrounded by a statement made with attitude: If someone can make it, I can fix it.

Great technicians open their eyes to the environment around them. They pay attention to how things that are working, work. They take in the whole system, not just the component that they are working on. They learn how the system operates by paying attention. They do this because they are curious. A need to know grows in their gut until they can no longer do anything about it but investigate and explore.

This is a hard, cold fact cast in stone: If you are not curious about the stuff you work on or with, you will not be a great technician.

If you want to be a great technician but are not sure if you are curious enough, here’s what to do. Pay attention. If you are working on a system, spend five minutes that night reading more about it and its components. The more attention that you pay to something, the more likelier you are to be more curious about it.

Don’t give up on your profession without devoting the time to pay attention. If after twenty years it doesn’t seem to interest you, you might want to think about changing to another line of work. (Just kidding! Hang in there. Devote time to pay attention and see if you’re curiosity doesn’t grow.