Keep Your Chainsaw Sharp

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Chainsaw Day. Yes those are my USAFA boots

A post shared by Jeff Carter (@pointsnfigures) on Aug 6, 2019 at 8:57am PDT

Yesterday, I had to use my chainsaw to clean up my lot.  A few years ago, the beavers did quite a number on the trees.  They have been laying there and litter like that on a forest floor is no good.  My grandfather was in the USFS and instructed our family on the finer points of keeping your lot clean of forest litter, and how to trim trees so that if there was a fire, it could roll through the lot with minimal damage.

Turns out, my chainsaw chain wasn’t very sharp.  That made the cutting go a lot harder.

One of the things that you have to do is keep your skills sharp.  Even as you age, you need to sharpen the chainsaw once in a while.  Sometimes that means taking a risk. Sometimes it means trying new things.  Sometimes it means meeting new people.  You can’t sit still.

Same with companies.  Once a company is off and running with good product market fit, the thing that kills them is refusal to keep trying new things.  The refusal to keep growing.  Compare Amazon and Walgreens.  Walgreens is going with the Black Knight Strategy and closing 200 stores.  Amazon keeps innovating into new things.

I was wearing the combat boots I wore when I went through BCT at USAFA.  Yesterday was Acceptance Day.  That day was one of the proudest of my life because I knew I earned it.  I was crying when they put the shoulder boards on my shirt.

When you earn it, you know.  You only earn it when you are sharp.

(Yes, taking the saw into town today for blade sharpening)