Remember your first time?
(….I mean- cutting an onion)
Way back when, I learned how to correctly cut an onion from my friends at the firehouse. Until then, I just hacked away at it mercilessly and with reckless abandon.
Hey! Nice hatchet job there, Lizzie Borden.
If I wanted to dice an onion, I chopped it. If I wanted to slice an onion or mince an onion, I chopped it. And if I was lucky, I was able to chop an onion when I actually needed some chopped onion.
I never really knew how to do it correctly, but I got by OK…. No matter how the onion pieces ended up I was still able to use them and still managed to get the job done. It may not have been pretty- nothing like your guys picking some outer onion skin from the pasta sauce you served up that night. And I managed to keep the blood out of the food, know what I’m saying?
Where am I going with this?
All I needed was someone to show me how.
Someone who could take 12 seconds out of their life to give me the direction necessary to get you to dice that onion just right. Ahhh….
Once someone showed me the PROPER WAY, I was golden. I never looked back. No sauce was compromised, everyone’s dinner was not just good, it was damn nummy!
The key? Someone took the time to show me the best way to get it done.
It made me better, it made us all better.
Remember the onion when you see a guy struggle with getting his gear on. Maybe he doesn’t take the time to get his suspenders lined up for that quick pull-on.
Remember the onion if your partner continually shows up in the nick of time at the start of your shift leaving little room for error thereby showing disrespect for the off-going crews
Remember the onion if he doesn’t completely clear out all of the glass from the window during extrication.
Remember the onion if the new guy fumbles for his handlight because he’s got too much crap in his bunker pockets.
Remember the onion when your partner has trouble throwing a ladder because he isn’t grabbing it at the right points taking it off the truck.
If you take the time to give a quick hint or offer a helpful tip, you’re entire team has just improved. While one member has become ever-so-slightly better at what he does, that just made you all better. Show them how to show the next guy, and so on.
It means the difference between just getting the job done somehow- and getting the job done right.
Which would you rather do?
Remember the onion.
Stay Stoked!
-J
