Surviving and Thriving

When we moved into our house, we found a great builder here in Raleigh to do some work on our house.  He was (and is) a true craftsman.  The work he did was first rate, and at the time he had all the work he could do.  Then 2008 hit.

I just saw him again yesterday because we need to do some small cabinet work in our kitchen.  I asked him if he was still in the building business and he said “Nah, I do small jobs like this here and there, but I am actually buying and selling auction cars now.  I work at a shop that buys cars at auction fixes them up and sells them.”

If you knew Tim, you would understand he is the kind of guy that can do just about anything, and will do just about anything.  But to go from building houses to reinventing himself as a guy in the car market?  That’s a pretty amazing transition.  I get the feeling he would rather be stabbed than work for someone else again, so he did what he had to do to get smart on something else and now makes (I imagine) a good living in the car business.

What made the story even better is that he wasn’t grudgingly telling me about what he was doing now, and yearning for the good old days of building homes.  He was genuinely excited about his new work, and was effusive about how he had learned this new business.

Stories like this remind me that 95% of life is about showing up, digging in, and being unwilling to quit.