The Teaching Customer

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Yesterday a family stopped into the shop looking for a bike for their six-year-old son.

One of our mechanics helped them downstairs, sized up a handful of bikes, and found a sharp-looking orange one that was just right.

There was only one problem.

It needed a kickstand. Mom and Dad weren’t too excited about another bicycle ending up on the garage floor.

The job landed on Will’s workbench.

Will measured the kickstand, clamped it in the vise, picked up the hacksaw and started cutting.

Standing just a few feet away was the customer’s dad, Jake.

As Will worked through the steel, Jake could see the cut wasn’t coming as easily as he’d hoped.

He could have stood there politely and waited.

Instead, he stepped in.

“Try holding it this way.”

“Use longer strokes.”

“Let the saw do the work.”

A minute later Will had it.

Then Jake looked over at the bench grinder.

“Now let’s clean up that edge.”

Safety glasses went on.

Will carefully dressed the end of the kickstand until it looked like it had come from the factory.

The bike rolled out looking great.

But the kickstand wasn’t the best thing that left the shop.

A lesson did.

The part almost everyone would have missed...

A few of our younger mechanics weren’t watching the hacksaw.

They were watching Jake.

Later someone quietly mentioned his watch.

It wasn’t the kind of watch they normally see around the shop.

What fascinated me wasn’t the watch itself.

It was that they noticed.

Young people have their radar on all the time.

They notice how adults solve problems.

They notice how they encourage someone who’s learning.

They notice patience.

They notice confidence.

They notice generosity.

And yes…they notice the watch.

They’re constantly asking themselves:

“Is this someone I want to become?”

Yesterday Jake answered that question without ever saying a word.

He simply taught.