CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Team Charleston, as I prepare to deploy, I would like to share with you a story that illustrates the importance of living by the Air Force Core Value of excellence all in we do, no matter what your mission is or where you are in your Air Force career; just entering the AF, performing your day-to-day duties, preparing for deployment, or even getting ready to retire.
The Carpenter
There once was an elderly carpenter who, after many years of successfully building homes, decided he was ready to retire. He approached his employer and told him his intentions to leave the house building business. He shared how he wanted to live a more leisurely life with his wife and extended family, and he felt he needed to retire.
It was his time to go.
The company's owner was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if the carpenter could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but his heart was no longer in his work. He showed up every day but his work got sloppier and sloppier.
Where once the carpenter took great care to give his best to every task he now found himself satisfied with doing the minimum. Over time, his commitment to quality and desire to produce something superior surrendered to shoddy workmanship, his eye for excellence willingly accepting a product that was inferior.
It was an unfortunate way to end a career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the company's owner came to inspect the house, he walked through quietly, never commenting on its sub-standard condition. He simply handed the front-door key to the carpenter, saying, "This is your house, my gift to you, a gift for your many years of faithful service."
The carpenter was overcome by shock at the immensity of the gift and shame at the realization he had fallen far short of his potential. Had he known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in a home he had built none too well.
So it is with many of us.
Many of us possess great gifts, but we often fall short of giving our best. At important points in our lives we choose to step down instead of step up. We fail to recognize that all we undertake is in many regards a building project. What we give is a reflection of how we choose to live.
But it need not be this way.
Instead, how might things be different if we too saw ourselves as carpenters whose efforts reflect our commitment to quality and excellence in all we do?
What if our desire to produce something superior with our lives overshadowed any willingness to accept that which is inferior? What if we took great care to give our best to every task, never satisfied with doing just the minimum that was being asked?
Only you can answer these questions for yourself. Only you can choose to change if things need to be different. Only you can choose to live by the Air Force Core Value ... excellence in all we do ... do a good job because you want to, not because someone is looking over your shoulder.
Choose wisely. After all, it's the only life you will ever build!
Team Charleston - Take the Fight to the Enemy!