Heard a welder say 'patience pays' and it clicked for me today

I was out on a job near Denver yesterday, watching a welder take forever to set up a boom section. I almost said something, but he told me he spent 15 minutes just aligning the pin holes because he rushed a similar crane job 5 years ago and it cost him a whole day of downtime. That got me thinking about how I used to hate waiting for the wind to die down before a pick. Now I just sit, watch the flag, and wait instead of fighting it. Has anyone else had a moment like that where someone else's slow work changed your mind about rushing?

2 comments

2 Comments

markm271mo ago

That line about the pin holes hitting him for 5 years really stuck with me. I read somewhere that most crane accidents happen because someone was in a hurry, and ever since I saw that stat I've been way more patient about waiting for the right conditions.

ruby5611mo ago

Yeah I used to be the same way honestly, thought I could save ten minutes by just rushing through a setup. But @markm27 that stat about accidents from being in a hurry really hit home for me too. Now I just tell myself that ten minutes is nothing compared to what could go wrong.