The Two Woodcutters

My Grandfather was a woodsman. He spent long years cutting new forest wood that largely went towards things like construction, rather than anything like fancy furniture.

He and another woodcutter would regularly work together. They were long days, starting with the dawn chorus and often not letting up until dusk. My Grandfather told me that he got on very well with this other fellow, but found one thing about his approach to work curious and borderline infuriating.

In the midst of these long days, the other woodcutter would always disappear for an hour or so, and then return, saying nothing. They would then carry on the rest of their day.

At the end of the day, my Grandfather’s colleague would always boast the larger pile of cut wood. Though my Grandfather worked the longer hours, he always came up second at the weigh in. It was a source of perpetual frustration that, despite his greater exertions, the praise always went to the second man.

One day he finally broached the subject. “You best me every day, even though I work harder and longer. You disappear without trace while I stay swinging away. What’s your secret? How do you do it?”

The other man says, “oh, it’s simple. I go home and sharpen my axe…”

The Point of it All

This is one of those stories that I wind up telling every couple of weeks, particularly as an opener to training sessions. This is a story about great use of tools, and advancement through very literal ‘sharpening of the axe.’ It is about the recognition that, though extremely important, effort alone is a blunt instrument (ha!). We must constantly seek ways to leverage our efforts through good use of tools and constant development of those tools.

(It is not a story about the importance of regular breaks…)