Hi, it’s Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 440 of The Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of uncommon sense for anyone who wants start, grow and love their own tutoring, teaching and coaching business – the same way I love mine. I’m here to share ideas that have helped me in my business journey as a teacher, entrepreneur, investor and mentor in a no-nonsense, No BS kind of way... in the hope that it helps you have as much fun at work and in life as I do. And – of course - I’m listening: so if you have any ideas that you think might be worth exploring on the show – get in touch info@neilcowmeadow.com or on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and maybe you can help me to learn something new, something better? Because I’m smart enough to realise that I don’t have all the answers – nobody does - and if I rely on my own tiny, pea-sized brain to solve all of my problems…. Well..... If you’re good with that, let’s crack on... Now as many of you know, I'm massively influenced by Japan and Japanese culture. This is a post that's quite personal to me because it resonates deeply with something I've been living in for a long time. It's the idea of teaching or any kind of job really being a craft. I connect that with the Japanese idea of Shokunin, which is a Japanese word that means artisan or craftsman. It's actually any person who is in work or a professional. Superficially that's fine as good as it goes but there is a kind of reverence attached to this. True Shokunin are revered within Japanese society. Maybe it's the depth of what they do, the spirituality and the commitment to mastery of the craft, which means every day trying to do the craft a little bit better. Now I also connect this with the daily exercise, the daily practice of constant never-ending improvement, which is epitomized to me by the Japanese word Kaizen. Kaizen has been responsible for many of the incremental improvements that have made companies like Toyota such a powerhouse in the world. Every day they strive to do what they do a little bit better every single day and everyone involved in the production of, say, a Toyota car has the power to stop production to make an improvement. Everybody gets listened to because they're the people with their hands on the tools who are bolting things together, putting trims into place, who could maybe tweak a process and save a few seconds here, a few seconds there. Make something a little bit better, a bit neater, to constantly improve the production process. That's Kaizen. It's the way of constant improvement. Now tied into Kaizen is this idea embodied within Shakunin of having a social duty to do your very best and to become the very best at the thing you're supposed to do, to take pride in the work that you do, pride in your products, whether you're a manual laborer or a master craftsman. Shakunin is the same path. It's lifelong dedication to the craft itself. For me that's just like teaching. I'm dedicated to it. I love it. I love the act of teaching. When someone gets it, it lights me up. When they realize that they were never the problem after all and maybe after 50 years of wrestling with a guitar, they finally get the thing that makes them go, "Oh gosh, it wasn't me all these years. It wasn't me. I'm not the problem." Give them the gift of being able to see themselves better. That's why I'm still teaching. That's why I show up for it every day I can because I'm dedicated to the craft of being a remarkable teacher. This is how it rolls in martial arts, business, and life. The core of the activity is the same but we're always working to just nuance it that little tiny bit. Do it that little bit better. Use Kaizen in the process to develop it to be a little bit better today than it was yesterday and tomorrow to do that improvement. We'll cycle all over again. In my opinion as your nuance within your craft, within your profession, develops, then your own understanding of the craft, the depth of it, and the way you interpret and implement the craft itself will also change. This explains for me completely the daily practice of a skill you already are extremely good at, something that comes so naturally to you, you embody it. Your body is thinking rather than your brain. You just want to do it that teeny tiny little bit better, an imperceptible improvement stacked on another imperceptible improvement. Suddenly it starts to make a difference because they compound up over time. This is the cycle of daily practice, followed by reflection on how it went today, adding a new nuance or a slight tweak to it, implementing and testing that, and then repeating that modified behavior over and over again until it becomes the new norm. For myself the moral aspect of it is simple: it's the work ethic. Don't do anything half-assed. If you're committed to the profession you're in, the business you're in, the job you're in, the work you're in, don't go off half-cocked. Give it your everything. Get balls deep in what you do and stay balls deep in it for life. Keep on refining the craft and in turn that will refine you, the practitioner. If the practitioner gets better maybe the family gets better. If the family gets better maybe the village gets better and so on up to the level of the universe getting better. Maybe not for everyone but for you because you did it better. Take pride in what you do, execute it as well as you can, and try tirelessly to do it that little bit better. Just summing that up I guess my take on it is: get to the point where what you do is absolutely exquisite, where it's grateful, elegant, perhaps even classy. The effort of performing your professional role appears effortless because it is effortless. It's not something you actually notice doing anymore. It's simply an embodied process. It's part of you in the same way that your leg is. It just is. It's like performing a martial arts movement set, a kata or, say, the Sunim Tao from Wing Chun Kung-Fu. Initially these movements are incredibly clunky but you try to do it a little bit better every time. After a while these movement patterns, the kata, are felt more than done. They're thought and enacted by the body itself and to do them any other way than the right way feels uncomfortable, feels morally out of character. It's a jarring incongruity or maybe a fracture of the smooth running of the skill of the master craftsman or the master martial artist. I believe that bliss is in the craft. You can lose yourself in it. It becomes intrinsically rewarding. You don't need anyone else's approval to do this. Doing it is reward enough. That in turn can become addictive, compelling, and alluring. If this resonates with you, you are not alone. There’s probably a proverb somewhere that says “the craftsman who dies with a chisel in his hand dies happy though wishing for another day to use the chisel with more skill”. That's the path of the master craftsman, the path of the master teacher, the master business person, the master writer. I believe it doesn't matter what job you are in, whether you are sweeping the streets or running a business empire. The idea of Shakunin is a consistent principle you can apply. If you recognize this in yourself, get in touch. I'd love to hear from you. What do you think? I’d love to hear from you, so get in touch! Drop me an email to info@neilcowmeadow.com and if you have any comments, questions or problems, get in touch - again it’s info@neilcowmeadow.com or on X where I am @The Tutor Podcast Let’s leave it there for today – I hope this show has got you thinking and has been some help to you and that you’ll join me next time on The Tutor Podcast for more No-BS tips and ideas of how to Start, Grow and Love YOUR Tutoring Business – just like I love mine. Till then, remember that your time is precious, your life is largely what you make it, so always make it good. Be excellent to yourselves - stay healthy, stay useful, and Have a Fabulous Day!
