What does it take to really learn something? You can read or watch all you want, but until you actually do that something, actually feel it, the learning isn’t really part of you. I think that’s why I’ve never much been a fan of spectator sports. Oh, I can watch a game or a race or some other test of physical prowess and mental acumen, but until I actually do it myself, including trying to compete, there is something missing.

In my college days, I was a bicycle enthusiast. I even resisted buying a car, cycling miles in any weather to work or school. But it wasn’t until I started racing that I really understood cycling. I wasn’t all that fast, but I competed in club races, at a velodrome, and in road events. A friend recruited me for the college cycling team, and I participated in intercollegiate races. All of this required a huge amount of training and interacting with other cyclists. Bicycle racing has long been a team sport despite emphasizing individual excellence.

It was all those team events and training sessions that really taught me. I could ride on my own for hundreds of miles, but training with other racers in a peloton (a tightly grouped pack of cyclists just inches apart) really accelerated not just your speed, but your coordination, mechanics, and mental agility.

I was thinking about this as I returned from Wood Pro Expo Florida and prepared for the upcoming AWFS Fair in Las Vegas. In Florida, I chatted with a solo shop owner who builds mostly cabinets in Reno, Nevada. He came all the way across the country to attend the show, to learn more about closets and the opportunities they present. 

He could have stayed alone in his shop, but he chose to immerse himself in a flood of new ideas amid more than a thousand other shop owners and craftspeople to learn something new. Not just read about it, but to dive in and experience it. Talk face to face with people to absorb and question everything.

There’s just something about meeting someone new, shaking their hand, looking into their eyes, listening to their story, and asking questions. Immediate feedback and the opportunity to continue the exchange creates energy not unlike cyclists at full sprint, racing for the finish line.

Let’s be honest, as a percentage, very few people in the woodworking industry ever attend trade shows. The majority are content to stay in their shops and plod along. But for those who do leave the shop and try to learn something new, I have to believe the success rate is drastically higher.

One gentleman who attended the show later thanked me and told me that a single contact with a single vendor was going to save him $3,000 on a project. Other people I talked to were excited about entering new markets or changing their approach to businesses. Face-to-face contact accelerates improvement and corrects direction. It reminds you that practicing business is not a race to a finish line, but a team sport that requires unending effort and sometimes a change of viewpoint.