In my long years of professional career, I have searched, re-searched, re-defined my understanding of being professional at my job. Sometimes I managed to my satisfaction in this endeavor, sometimes I could feel I have failed in being professional.
This feeling of being professional is very internal, and it changes from situation to situation. Sometimes we are overtaken by our emotions, we know that we are not behaving the right way, but yet, we indulge in satisfying our ego trips.
Being professional has various benefits in the corporate environment. Professionalism not only enhances individual careers but also contributes to a positive, productive, and respectful work environment, I don’t want to bore you with that, there are lot of stereo type documents available in the internet, I am going to share a story of my own which had an influence on my personal life.
Socio economic condition at the backdrop of the incident
To understand the story, you have to visualize the socio-economic condition I was growing up.
The incident took place some 40-45 years back in my native country in India in late 1978-1980 (don’t remember the exact year). I was probably 5-7 years old.
India was still under the influence of socialist style of economy, and major part of the population was extremely poor. Import of foreign goods were heavily restricted. We were unaware of any foreign brands. We used to stay in a rural mining hamlet, called Dhanbad. It was not luxurious life, but happy and comfortable life.
My parents were comparatively better off, as my father was a central government bureaucrat, he was doing pretty well as compared to other segment of society. However, unlike today’s consumerism-based value system, was not prevalent in Indian society, we had only one pair of black shoes, one pair of canvas shoes, may be two set of school uniforms, and when our shoes were damaged the first option was to go to a cobbler and get it repaired, rather than buying a new pair. A new shoe was bought only when the shoe is beyond repair, or our feet outgrown the shoe size.
My shoes were always in bad condition, and constantly required repair every now and then.
The Indian cobbler (The Persona)
It is important to understand the persona of the Indian cobbler in this context.
The Indian cobbler comes from the lowest stature of the society. Even today they struggle to get proper human dignity, and barely manages get a proper meal or to send their kids to school, constantly they need government aids to survive. Their skill and craftsmanship are passed on from one generation to another, thanks to the caste system prevalent in few parts of Indian society.
But they earn their livelihood gracefully using their skill, rather than begging. They wear their little dignity with pride, rather than surrender to begging and committing petty crimes (exception do happen, but rare)
In those days the cobbler’s use to ferry their services at our doorsteps, they had a small wooden toolbox and a cast iron base which they carried on their shoulder and shout out loud while passing by the neighborhood. Some of them were creative too, they shouted in a retheme or make some special sound.
The encounter with an unlikely professional
The Request for quote
One day my mom, called one such cobbler while he was passing by, asked him how much it will cost to repair my shoe. He looked at my shoe pair and said some amount to my mom. My mom said it was too high, a small negotiation started between them, and I was watching two grown up bargaining hard. The cobbler justified his price because he needs to stich and for better finishing need to apply glue, which is costly. My mother is also a hard negotiator, after all she is responsible to run and maintain the family budget.
Signing of agreement & project kick off
She told him just use nails, no need to use glue and stitching. The cobbler used some emotional wisdom and argued back and said the nails might come out and hurt my little toe. Mother being a mother agreed for the stitching but no glue. Hence a new price was settled, which the cobbler agreed. I can clearly see the cobbler was not happy, but still agreed to do the job. Probably it was a hard day for him, maybe we were the only client of day. He kept on murmuring his unwilling acceptance of the job. But he started to settle down my laying down the toolbox, rolled out his worn-out mat to seat upon. And took out the required equipment.
For me and my brother it was an exciting event. At that age, I am sure, for every kid watching a craftsman doing his job was always exciting. Whenever any carpenter, masonry worker, electrician was engaged at our house, me and my younger brother use to seat tight and watched them. My parents use to say the house is calm, as we were engaged.
Change Request & Cost Escalation
So, we both (me and my brother) dragged our little chairs and sat in front of the cobbler while he was working on our shoes. My mother went inside to do the house chores. After some time, well near completion of the job, he called for my mother, and said that he wants to apply the glue or else it is going to have bad finishing look, it will cost some extra, as the glue is costly for him.
My mother disagreed, probably she might have got worried that the extra cost might upset her calculation of the household budget. She told him not to apply glue and stick to what they agreed on.
The exit criteria (booking loss with over demanding customer)
It was visible the cobbler was not happy as he was talking to himself to justify his ask. Suddenly he started to take out the synthetic glue and started applying on the shoe. He was constantly murmuring and speaking to himself to express his disagreement and occasionally looked at me and brother as if he was talking to us. He was saying that he is applying the glue even if it is not justifying the cost, because the finishing look was not good enough for his quality of work. He cannot do a bad quality of his work just because he agreed on a low price.
Keeping the door open for customer reference
After finishing he called for my mother and handed over the shoes and my mother handed over the agreed money. He took the money and started to pack his stuff, there was a sense of satisfaction in his face, he was murmuring some tune while he was packing. There was a sense of pride, satisfaction of the job well done. He was an aged man, feeling happy after a work well done, even if the price was not to his satisfaction.
My mother could see that he applied the costly glue in spite of the agreed low cost. She came back with some extra cash and some snacks for his kids. He received it with a brightened eyes and blessed us before leaving. He gave his unique shout out for the next customer.
We are responsible for our own brand
I was too young to realize the depth of that action, but years later in the complex corporate dynamic world, dealing with my clients, bosses and team members, the sentiment of uncompromised quality of deliverables can become our own brand identity.
No matter in what condition and terms we are working, once agreed, honor the quality of deliverables. Cutting corners can give a temporary victory, but in the long run we are responsible for our own brand.
That professional act by the cobbler made a mark in my mind as a kid. I can still remember the face of the old man, a sense of satisfaction, pride, achievement was probably present in that moment.
No matter what the socioeconomic status is, one person’s integrity cannot be more valuable that another.
It is unfortunate that in Indian society still such skilled worker like Cobbler, Carpenter, Black Smith etc. are not given their due respect, we should recognize that, they are skilled worker, they are craftsmen.
