Ah… my first car.. my first love… how I miss it.
Bal, what’s your first car got to do with technology, innovation or anything remotely digital?
Not much if I’m honest. It’s just, I do a Throwback Thursday, on every first Thursday of the month – and thought, why not ‘throw back’ to my first car.
So, we often talk about failure. And how we learn from failure…. here’s a story about my first car and failure.
Like any young lad… I wanted to have some really good speakers in my car. So out I went (we didn’t really have internet shopping at the time) and I bought some Kenwood 6×9 speakers. These were to be installed on the rear parcel shelf of my hatchback VW Golf.
I took the speakers out of the box. And there were some instructions. A paper. With the speakers outlined. You were meant to cut out the paper, and use that as a template, to cut out from the parcel shelf and then install the speakers.
Understood.
Cut the paper. Put it on the actual parcel shelf. Drew around it. Marked it well. Got the jigsaw. Cut out the holes for my 6×9’s. And was super excited.
Took the speakers out of the box. Slowly placed them within the newly cut hole… and guess what… they fell straight through!
What?! – I’d only gone and cut the hole – the same size as the speaker! – on the paper, was a dotted line… I was meant to cut to the inner hole… so the speaker could rest on the shelf and I could screw it in!
Couple of lessons….
- Read the instructions carefully – and then read them again to make sure
- If it’s the first time – practice on something else, other than the original parcel shelf (in this case)
- Take your time – excitement is good… but control it.
- Don’t rush… measure twice, cut once.
Believe you me – I’ve definitely learnt from that experience!
Therefore… it’s okay to fail. As long as you learn from it.
And if you don’t want to hear from me… but an A-list Hollywood star… here you go… Will Smith,
