Ling
Author
We decided to remodel our kitchen. Our neighbor had recommended Kevin to us.
Kevin is roughly 6.1 feet high. Maybe he has Latin heritage. His brunette-wavy hair and two hazel eyes are always calm under the thick eyebrow on his square face. When Kevin was concentrating, his eyes looked a little melancholic. He’s a man of few words; unless he has to tell us something, he would be silent the whole day. When he had to talk to us, he would use very polite and unassuming words. His hands are big and robust, showing they often do hard work, but those big fingers are nimble and can do all kinds of delicate things.
Usually, when a contractor gets a construction contract, they hire workers to help because they all want to finish the project as fast as possible and move on to the next one. But Kevin primarily works alone, except for things he cannot do, such as electrical wiring and water, because he said he must ensure that his projects are high-quality.
During remodeling, Kevin came every day. He was like a lone ranger, silent and concentrated on his job.
On the first day, he only installed some craft paper to cover our wooden floor.
The next day, he only took the old bookshelf down.
On the third day, he had only put one piece of board on the new bookshelf.
I complained to Sandy that Kevin’s work was too slow.
I said, “Kevin said he would finish in one month, but I think it will take more than two months.”
After a few more days, we discovered that Kevin isn’t only a hard worker; he is more like an artist. He has an artisan’s spirit,
He would do his job to the best of his ability.
We were fortunate to have him; now, only a few people like him don’t think about money when working.
One day, I saw Kevin working on the air conditioning vent. The vent is under our bookcase, and after the bookcase is installed, it won’t be seen. So I told him I didn’t care if it looked beautiful because I hoped he could work faster. However, he still spent lots of time on it. He was meticulous in making it as beautiful as any other surface.
Kevin’s work reminded me of an article about Apple’s products. The article said, “When you open the iPhone, you can see the beautiful circuit board. It is like a work of art. Our consumers won’t open their phones. Maybe they may not care whether the circuit board is beautiful, but we will care about it. We, Apple, must push ourselves to make everything perfect. Our Apple people must have an artisan’s spirit.”
Kevin does the same thing.
In my experience, almost all workers were typically unhappy with customers changing their minds after the job had begun. Yes, we did that; we changed my mind a lot.
My husband, who used to be an architect, maybe just took a nap, then had a new idea, then asked Kevin to do it for him and expected Kevin to work out his idea perfectly.
Only the two shelves end on the wall; we changed them from round to square and finally decided they should have beveled angles.
Kevin is a capable carpenter.
After Kevin installed the cabinets we wanted, we realized we needed to remember where to put our microwave, coffee maker, and toaster.
So we asked him to change the cabinets. Kevin listened to us very carefully and said that we didn’t need to change the cabinets; he could do it. Then Sandy asked him if we needed to return the cabinet to the factory, but Kevin said he would modify it. Anyway, we had the cabinet we wanted. Kevin specially made it for us.
Kevin is different from engineers who have a high education in modern companies. Instead, he is a traditional blue-collar worker. It is people like Kevin who make our society work.
We need more of these hard workers, more dedicated, lean, and focused people, and more people with an artisan spirit.
An “artisan’s spirit” is a kind of professional spirit. It embodies professional ethics, professional competence, and professional quality. True artisans have professional values and behavior.
Everyone should have an artisan’s spirit.
Meticulous, artisan, thoughtful, capable.
