Walk Away and Clear Your Mind
written 2/8/2012 in Montreal, Quebec — updated 4/7/2021
I want to share this with you. It’s a a technique, so simple, yet so powerful.
This technique helps in so many situations, not in just the type of situation described below.
I learned this from a very wise man, who I respect and admire. He was my Yoda, and though I didn’t realize it at the time, his teachings are a huge part of my current success.
Thank you Missak, for teaching me and guiding me. Here is a brief back story of my experiences with Missak.
I used to repair sewing machines for a company called Brother back in my 20's. It was not an easy skill to learn at all, especially since I was just thrown into the role without any prior knowledge of mechanical or electro-mechanical engineering — but hey, my boss had faith that I could learn from Missak, who happened to be a master technician who had been repairing and maintaining industrial sized sewing machines for almost 60 years.
Missak was on course for retirement, and they needed someone to take over his position as the technical trainer for our service centers across Canada. I was chosen to extract as much information and knowledge from his mind as possible. Missak did not write anything down, he did not have intricate instructions on how to take machines apart and repair them — it was all in his mind. I remember him telling me that the service manuals were garbage, and that they would lead me in the wrong direction.
Missak was an interesting man — stern, but humorous. He grew up in the mountains of Lebanon. Him and his family were Armenian refugees who escaped the genocide perpetuated by the Turks back in 1915. He had been through a lot, and you could see it in his eyes, and in the way he held himself. He smoked cigars, ALL THE TIME —He was friends with Fidel Castro, and loved showing me pictures of him and Fidel smoking cigars and drinking Scotch together. He loved Scotch, and also taught me how to drink it properly (neat, with a drop of water).
At first, it seemed to me that Missak was reluctant to share his knowledge — I remember having my notepad, and sitting there, watching him wrench on a machine, not saying a word. After a few weeks of this, I finally had the courage to ask, “Hey Missak, when are you going to teach me how to disassemble these units?”, he responded “Haven’t you been watching? Here, take this screwdriver, start taking that unit apart”. I remember thinking, ‘really? I’m gonna break this thing!’.
The learning process was not what I expected. It was an unorthodox way of teaching. I later realized, it was the only way.
Missak taught by using the hands on approach — He threw me in, and watched me break the many machines. It was infuriating, but he would never get upset about it. I could see he was amused by it. It frustrated the heck out of me, but I did not give up, I kept trying. I realized after a while that whatever I broke, he could fix. It really wasn’t a big deal to him, because he knew that no matter what, he could fix it.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, he also taught me a very valuable technique that I will now share with you.
He would give me a machine that he broke himself without me knowing what it is he broke. I would then have to use the machine to try to sew, and depending on the results of the stitch, I would have to figure out what was wrong with the thing — was it the tension on the belt? Was the upper shaft not timed properly with the lower shaft?
I would disassemble the unit, tinker, reassemble, test, but the issue would still be there. I would feel as though I was getting so close, but no dice.
I would spend hours trying to figure it out, sometimes days.
Scratching my head, adjusting this screw, that belt, testing — still nothing.
I would become frustrated with my lack of expertise and would become more and more involved without getting anywhere.
Then he would push me aside, tinker with a few gears, and BAM, it was fixed. It was infuriating. He would not even allow me to watch what it was he adjusted — how was I supposed to learn anything this way!?
One day, he stopped me about 45 minutes into repairing one of the machines he broke.
He said, “Do you know why I am stopping you?” I responded, “Because I suck at this?”, he said “No, not at all, it’s because you are getting frustrated, and as soon as you get frustrated, you go blind” I looked at him, confused, he continued “you must step away from the machine, go take a walk, go chat with a friend, have a Kit Kat” (word for word, that Kit Kat marketing stuck with Missak, he used it all the time). He went on, “Then, when your mind is clear, come back, sit down, and the machine will fix itself”.
Though I thought he was just messing with me, I was desperate, so I took his advice. I stepped away, went out for a smoke, walked around the block, and returned about an hour later. I sat at the work bench, grabbed the tools, and started my process — to my disbelief, I fixed the issue within 15 minutes. I celebrated, and Missak celebrated too. He said, “See! You know how to do this, you were just being blinded by your frustrations!”.
We tend to get so deeply involved in a given situation, that we miss the obvious lesson, or obvious solution…if we step away, clear our minds, and then go back, the issue tends to resolve itself. This technique was crucial to my learning, and I’ve used it over and over again in so many different situations, and every single time, it works.
The next time you run into a problem that you cannot resolve, and you feel yourself getting frustrated over it, walk away — take a reprise, clear your mind, go back to the issue, and it will fix itself….
I hope this helps anyone out there who is frustrated with an issue they cannot seem to resolve.