You are never too old to teach. At the end of my construction management career I was in charge of a fifty million dollar project for the military. We were down to tiny punch-list items and all of my crew but one laborer were gone. We had a large lobby and entry area with a terrazzo floor and I had this young 18 year old laborer get a mop bucket, squeeze wringer and a big mop from the janitor’s closet as the lobby was going to be photographed the next day and it was late.
I watched this kid scrub forward and back with a mop making a bigger mess on the floor than what was there. A civilian facility manager (retired military E-8) in charge of the monster building was standing there with me. I patiently took the mop away from the kid and going back to what I had been taught 53 years earlier showed him how to wet and then dry mop a floor as to not to leave streaks.
This military manager could not get over how I had shown the kid, mopped a fourth of the floor myself and given him a detailed skill set. He laughingly talked about how this Project Executive running his building knew everything in tiny detail down to properly mopping the floors.
It is amazing how often people just need some patient detailed instruction and how many of our peers can’t figure out how to provide it.
in 1968 my dad (old man) was 40 and my brother was 12 and i was 13. we had to learn to pull our weight in our new house.
later learn how to clean the pool, and balance the chemicals too.