Education

   "Education is never wasted." I have heard this all my life and, in some sense, I would agree. I have met people though, who have pursued an education most of their lives and do nothing with it... and I mean nothing! They have spent little or no time in the work force so as to put any of their education to practice or to be able to get smarter with their education. I know that doesn't sound intelligent but I hope to be able to help make sense of this comment. As parents, we spend the biggest part of our adult lives working to pay for the raising of our children and part of that is seeing they get a good education. We send them to school in hopes they will learn the stuff to make them smarter and to be able to be productive members of society and not just to earn a paycheck.  In this pursuit of education they begin with simple things and advance to more complicated things, building on what they learned yesterday.  We hope.  But, there is always (or maybe I should say almost always) a time(s) in everyone's life when we have an Ahhh-Haaa! moment and discover there is a reason we were taught something and there is a pertinant application! Like, if I take 2 apples away from Sally, and 2 apples away from Ben, I now have 4 apples-simple math.  If I also take 1 apple from Bobby, now I have 5 apples and can have 1 apple each day in my lunch. (Yes, I know that's steeling but we are not discussing morality here :) ) Or we suddenly discover that if we don't use some periods and comas in our sentences we sound like a complete imbecile when some one tries to read our blog... or something...  These are simple explanations but I think you are beginning to understand my point. We can educate all day but if there is no opportunity to use it and discover what it means to really apply it then we are just educated, not smarter.  I'm not against education, in fact it's quite the opposite,  I believe in ever learning, but I don't believe it ends there.  Some of the smartest people I have ever met do NOT have degrees or PHD, MD or any tag after their names, but have learned far more than education alone could ever give, and as a result have lived more life than anyone else.
   Smarter. That's what we all aim for in our pursuits in life. "Smarter"enables us to get more work done with less effort.  "Smarter" allows us to make more money with our time spent working.  "Smarter" makes us more valuable!
     Here at ACC we have Monday morning trainings, each Monday we have a subject we go over to "educate" our Techs and/or office staff in hopes that it will make them "smarter."  Sometimes a subject comes up because of a difficulty one has had in the field so that the next time we encounter this problem we will know how to handle it.  Next time we are "smarter."  This week it was Colby's ( my oldest son) turn to teach the training while I observed (very, very, difficult for me to do). You know what I discovered? My guys are "smart" and not just a little smart either!  I watched as Colby would teach the often difficult subject of electricity, its symbols, what they mean, examples of how they are applied, and as he did, I watched my staff give example after example of their knowledge from time in the field and all had some sort of Ah-Ha moment.  ACC believes in education. We strive to make each employee smarter so that they are more valuable to the company and to the customers we serve.  Even my 12 year old got up at 6:30 a.m., so he could be at the training.  Some day that kid will be one smart cookie and will be adding value to his employer and customers (hopefully it's at ACC).
     Just remember it's not about how educated you are... it's also about how "smart" you are. We don't want to WOW you with our education, (we could do that, we have certificates lining the walls) we would rather impress you with how smart we are when we show up and take care of the problem. I happen to believe we have some of the smartest people in the business.

All this technology!

Just signed up to blog- I barely even know what that means, but here I am blogging. So I type my brilliance for all the world to see, figure out how to put it out there and, presto, there it is.  The theory behind this effort is if I have the rest of my stuff, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and on and on the list goes, properly setup they will somehow lend their support to my website.  SEO stuff going on here! Well, providing I use the correct wording in my blogs, posts, tweets, blurbs, spats, ect. I have to say things like heating, air conditioning, indoor air quality, efficiency, ventilation, and other key HVAC related verbiage. I'm tired just thinking about it. Anyway, hopefully more helpful, educational, entertaining, and cool blogs will follow...but don't hold your breath. While you wait adjust your thermostat if you're too cold or too hot to stay comfy and if it doesn't work give Advanced Comfort Control a call.