Being Human - Case Study #1

My father, like me, doesn’t like plumbing. So my father, like me, hires a lot of plumbers when the pipes burst or things go awry. Lots of plumbers through lots of years.

There are two types of plumbers in my estimation: the usual, who shows up a little disheveled and out of sorts, and the exceptional - the buttoned up type you could take out on a roadshow pitching a new tech company or IPO.

Yesterday, my father hired one of the exceptional. This was his card:

There’s a crazy boldness about this card I’m learning from. One thing advertised for the world to see is ‘Master Plumber’. I’ve never had the courage to call myself a Master Writer, or a Master Filmmaker - even though I’ve done well at both. There’s a magnificent boldness to that, an answer to the void.

The second thing is his tagline. Find it.

When you have two types of plumbers who can show up at your door, I know which one I want to meet and learn from. The type who teaches me about the kind of person I want to be. Perhaps in the plumbing profession this person is in short supply, which I imagine is the point. Scarcity can equal value, and value scarcity.

So when I walk to work today, I’ll be singing his song.

Impossible? Nothing.

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