Are you Making an Anemic Clothes Pin?

It has been the hottest summer on record in parts of America’s Midwest this year, including the home of MEAPA co-founder Peter Abramo.  Taking advantage of the outside furnace, his family has been hanging their laundry to dry.  The challenge drying clothes in this fashion is the stiff wind that often howls across the plains. 

The fabric is connected to the clothesline by a simple mechanism called a clothes pin.  It is two shaped pieces of wood connected with a spring mechanism that presses together like a small vice.  Into this vice goes the corner of a sheet and the clothesline, all held together by the spring.  We noticed, however, that some of these clothespins held tightly to the line while others flew off under the pressure of the wind.

After observing this, we examined the clothespins and found some differences.  Some of the pins had darker colored wood, were longer, had indentations on the end, and a hefty looking spring with an angle in the coil that gave it more gripping power. 

The other pin looked anemic in comparison with a small underdeveloped spring.  If you were to make clothespin earings (be honest, haven’t you ever put clothespins on your ear lobe?) then one ear would be red and sore while you might not notice the other.

It is not difficult to see what was behind this difference.  The strong clothespin is older, having been in our possession for many years.  The anemic one is new.  Look at the picture above and you can see the differences; perhaps enough of a difference to save some miniscule amount of money on each pin.  The business decision is understandable – all those pennies add up to cost savings for the manufacturer.  However, the end result is a less effective product that bursts apart in the wind and litters the landscape with clothing.

People take this same approach to their education and careers.  In the process of preparing themselves for the future, they take shortcuts that cost less or reduce their discomfort.  They justify this along the way and then feel like they made the right decision because they hold a degree at the end of school or they have a job. 

What happens when the wind blows?  You graduate with your degree but can you find a professional job?  Do you have the skills that employers are looking for and can you market them?  Have you skipped over some tough classes that would have better prepared you or switched majors just to graduate sooner or with a better grade point average?  Did you take out loans rather than work and now find yourself in the ranks of the average college graduate who owes $23,000 in loans?

Perhaps you already are working and have been for years.  Have you used those years to prepare yourself for the wind?  Recession hits and you lose your job – how do you handle that?  Are you equipped with the skills you really need to move on? 

What personal traits and habits can you rely on to move forward?  What happens if you become responsible for making the money you need because nobody is hiring?  Living a life of purpose means building yourself to be a strong person who sets goals, preparing yourself for the future and taking intentional steps to increase your self-awareness.

The time to build a strong, old-fashioned clothespin is right now.  Today you can make yourself stronger and be prepared to have a powerful grip when the winds of life blow against you. 

There is only one person who is responsible for your professional or personal development.  And you see that person every time you stand before a mirror.