What a Bunch of Rivets Taught Me about Value

You value what you do when you see the value you provide. But you're bored, and on the clock, and who cares anyway!

At the Boeing factory where I helped build the very first 767, sometimes my day consisted of nothing but installing hundreds of stupid little aluminum rivets to hold airplane parts together. I can still feel the shaking and pounding of the rivet gun in my right hand and the steel bucking bar bouncing in my left. It just had to be done. Sure, I got to go to the bank with a paycheck. And that was nice. But I hate boring, and sometimes this repetitive, noisy, hour-by-hour job got real boring. And I saw no value in that.

Until the day I went for a ride in the very airplane I had just helped build. No longer the employee who'd punched a time clock that morning, I was suddenly a passenger... a living human being, transported through the sky by the sum of the very parts I'd helped put together with all those rivets. I pictured hundreds and thousands of passengers riding on these passenger jets in the years ahead.

Back on the ground, my rivets no longer represented time on the clock for which I received a pay check. Now I saw those rivets and parts as the very thing that would carry people safely through the sky from city to city. My rivets provided safe and fast travel for thousands of people... people visiting grandchildren, attending business meetings, or traveling for pleasure. People I'd never meet but who, nevertheless, would benefit from what I provided them. From that point on, I saw value in that.

How do you see whatever it is that occupies your time? What is it you are providing? How is that valuable to people?

Today as a speaker, I sometimes finish a keynote presentation, and people from the audience come up to say hi and compliment me on the presentation.

And that's nice... but when I get a note like the one that follows, then what I do as a speaker, standing on the stage, takes on new significance. When what I say rings true for audience members, and they take the key points home and improve their lives or relationships or business because of what I said, then my time at the microphone on stage is no longer about the hour telling my stories and making my points... it's about helping people find a way to soar to new heights in their own lives and businesses.

There were three key words that he used: Aviate, Navigate and Communicate. These three words have helped me in keeping direction as a new, small business owner. 'Aviate' - reminds me to stay focused on what I want out of myself and my business. 'Navigate' - reminds me to keep my eyes on the future and where I want to go. And 'Communicate' - reminds me to keep my mind open and listen to what I need to do to get where I want to go. I want to thank Dennis for what he gave me that day." ~Emily McConnell, business owner

If you stop and ask yourself, "Why am I doing this?" and you're not seeing the value, picture how people benefit from what you do, the value they receive from your time and labor. Because you feel valuable when you provide value.

And you never know how far-reaching that will be!

Aviate • Navigate • Communicate