Ep. 30 - Crafting an Unforgettable Presence - The Walter Chrysler Story - Dirty Chai with Chio

The podcast focuses on personal and professional success through mindset, emotional regulation, and personal development. The host is starting a series called Crafting an Unforgettable Presence, inspired by the book Make Yourself Unforgettable. The aim is to demystify success and show that anyone can achieve extraordinary things. The first story in the series is about Walter Chrysler, who became successful in the car industry by learning about cars and understanding their mechanics. The key takeaway is that success requires both vision and technical competence. It's important to have a complete understanding of your industry and continuously develop your skills. Hello, hi, welcome to this week's installment of the Dead Shy Podcast with me, your host, the podcast where we focus on holistic professional and personal success by growing and developing the common denominator to all your successes, all your failures, and everything in between, you. It's about the mindset, emotional regulation, and intentional personal development that underpins holistic success. Today, we're starting a series called Crafting an Unforgettable Presence, Crafting an Unforgettable Presence. And it's a series that is inspired by a book called Make Yourself Unforgettable. As I was reading the book, I realized that the idea of demystifying success, which is the purpose of this blog, to demystify success. I just say this blog because I've been a blogger for many, many years. But the purpose of this podcast is to demystify success through stories and to allow us to peek behind the curtain and to understand why the quote about Abraham Lincoln that goes, he was one of you, but he became Abraham Lincoln, is so profound. It's because the person who goes on to do extraordinary things is the person next door to you, is you. And once we understand the makings, once we take away the mystery, once we stop looking at people who are successful as outliers, and we understand that they are just like you and me, and they put together the nuts and bolts that they had at their disposal in a particular way to create an extraordinary result, then we also receive implicit permission to try and assemble our nuts and bolts in extraordinary ways. And also an understanding that the choice to be extraordinary is there, that you can choose to do great things, and you simply need to know how. It is a skill, a muscle, just like fitness and health and well-being. It is not a special power endowed by a superpower. So we are going to do this series, like I said, called Crafting an Unforgettable Presence. And we are going to tell stories of people who have done these extraordinary things. And we are going to break down those stories to take away the mystery and to show you, me, and everybody else engaged with that story that success is not some outlier event. Today's story is not about Abraham Lincoln, although I love that quote. Today's story is about Walter Kreisler. Walter Kreisler, I know Kreisler, I know Kreisler building, I know the cars, but I had never looked into the story of Walter Kreisler. But I'm doing the 75 hard challenge, and I hope I make it to the end. I think I'll make it to the end and I'm using all the wrong language, because I should just say I will make it to the end. And one of the required items to complete each day's challenge is to actively read 10 pages of a personal development book. And that's how I came to start reading Make Yourself Unforgettable. Make Yourself Unforgettable, and the tagline is How to Become the Person Everyone Remembers and No One Can Resist. And it's written by Dale Carnegie Training. The reason why I've had this book for so long and not read it is because I was a little bit worried that the title sounded like Machiavellian. Machiavellian titles or Machiavellian books or Machiavellian anything is really stuff that is based on the idea of being cunning and being clever and manipulating a result. And I'm not a big fan of that. One of Machiavellian book, for example, would be the 48 Laws of Power. It's not to say that the things that they say are not true are not true or not valuable. It's simply to say that it doesn't really sit well with who I am and the way that I would like to do things. But I needed a book that was on hand. And I needed a book that would teach me something that would give me a tool kit that I could use. So I started reading this book. And I really just told myself that if it wasn't what I wanted, I could simply just stop, right. And about three chapters in, I came across the story of Walter Kreisler. Already in the three chapters that I've read, I've received a lot of value. But the story about Walter Kreisler was good enough, in my view, to be the very first story in our series, Crafting an Unforgettable Presence. And the reason, so one of the things that I'm not going to do is to run this series on over a preset time period, because I don't know which stories I will come across when. So what I'll do is, every time I come across a story that makes an impression on me, that I think is worth sharing, that I think allows us to look under the hood of success, right, that allows us to fetch a nut or a bolt that we will then be able to use in our own creation, I will do a chapter or an installment under the banner of the series. So the story to get us going is the story of Walter Kreisler. So according to Dale Carnegie, business leadership is based on two elements, vision and technical competence. So top people in a given industry always embody at least one of these two elements, according to him, sometimes, but rarely, they embody both of them. Simply put, vision is the ability to see what other people don't. So it's a Ford executive named Leela Cocker realizing that a market existed for an automobile that was both a racing car and street vehicle, and coming up with the Mustang. I love looking at the Mustang. I don't think I would ever buy it, but I think it is a gorgeous car. I just love looking at it. It's Stephen Jobs realizing that computers needed to be sold in a single box like a television set instead of piece by piece. Can you imagine? About 100 years ago, Walter Kreisler was a plant manager for a locomotive company. Then he decided to go into the car business, which was a hot new industry at the time. Chat, GPT, anyone? Then he decided that he needed to know more. The trouble with him wanting to go into this industry was while he was a trained machinist, and he had done his apprenticeship for four years, he didn't know a lot about cars specifically, except that they were beginning to outnumber horses on the public roadway. To remedy this problem, Kreisler bought one of the Model T Fords that were becoming so popular. To learn how it worked, legend goes, he took it apart, and he put it back together. Then just to be sure he understood everything, he repeated this. Then to be absolutely certain he knew what made a car work, he took it apart, and he put it together 48 more times for a grand total of 50. By the time he was finished, Walter not only had a vision of thousands of cars on American highways, he also had the mechanical details of those cars engraved in his consciousness. Perhaps you have seen a play. So they go on to talk about an example of the opposite. So perhaps you have seen a play called The Music Man. I haven't seen that play. But according to the book, it's about a fast talking man who arrives in a small town with the intention to upgrade the marching band. But he can't play any instruments. He doesn't know how to lead a band. He doesn't have any musical skills whatsoever. It's a comedy, but it's not totally unrealistic. And this is because there are so many managers who find themselves in leadership roles based on their technical competence, but have little to no operational knowledge of this animal that they are leading, of this machine that they are driving, of this machine that they're wanting to sell. You see, a lot of people get trapped in this idea of being a well-educated executive, and they lose sight of the fact that in order to be an exceptional executive, to be an exceptional leader, you need both the technical competence and the vision. And there is no vision if you do not understand the nuts and bolts of the idea. So it is not a good idea to lack the fundamental technical skills of your industry. Walter Chrysler understood that a big change was coming. He understood that the landscape of the business was about to change. He understood that something major was happening. And he also understood that in order for him to create an excellent competitive product, he needed to know exactly how to create the excellent competitive product. It is so much easier for most people to simply go and hire someone who will tell them what to do, or a consultant, etc., etc. But do you know whether the things that you're being told to do are good? Do you know that it will work? Do you have a complete vision? And you cannot have that if you have not got a proper operational understanding of what it is you are trying to create. And I thought that the story of Walter Chrysler had a lot of lessons for all of us. He is credited with a number of quotes. And one of those quotes is, the reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for a four-leaf clover. In other words, a lot of people want to blame luck or missed opportunity for not making the most of a particular circumstance or for a particular circumstance not finding them. But what he is saying is, you need to work for your luck. You need to create the luck that you're looking for. You create that luck by arming yourself with both operational competence and technical competence. I think that is the big takeaway from this. So as far as you're concerned in your industry, take a moment to sit down and assess whether you are both academically competent and technically competent. If you are only academically competent, as in you only understand the things that you were taught in school about the business, if you rely entirely on the things that you were taught in school about the business, then perhaps there is an additional muscle that you need to start working on. If you only understand the operational side, if you only know how to deal with the nuts and bolts only, then perhaps there is a muscle that you need to be working on. If you only look at the bolt that you have as separate from that bolt and putting those two together, but you don't in your head have an idea of what the finished product would look like, perhaps there is a third muscle that you need to be working on, which is now your ability to have a vision, your ability to see where you are going with it, your ability to say to yourself, this is the goal that I'm heading towards, and these are the technical and operational skills that will take me there. An important thing that the Walter Chrysler story tells us also is the idea of getting inspiration and not necessarily imitating. It is so much easier to imitate. To be honest, while I have a lot of respect for Indra Nooyi and I have a lot of respect for PepsiCo, every time I look at a Pepsi, I just think of it as a Coca-Cola imitation. I just think of it as an attempt, an uninspired, oh, this is terrible, as an uninspired attempt to copy Coca-Cola. And I think Pepsi really took off, as in started to really do well in their own right when they stepped away from focusing purely on competing with Coke. And this is credited to Indra Nooyi. We spoke about this in the last podcast episode, and I also spoke about it in the life lessons from Indra Nooyi episode. When PepsiCo stepped away from imitation, they stepped into an inspired space where they actually closed a gap in a market before Coca-Cola spotted it. Like I said, I've told the PepsiCo story before, but one more time for the people in the back. When Indra Nooyi was CEO of PepsiCo, she was following the previous strategy, which has always been to compete with Coke. And then as a parent and as a mother to two children who was attending things related to children and events with other parents, she noticed that other parents did not give their children PepsiCo products. And this was because they were an unhealthy choice. And then she realized that there was a gap in the market, in the provision of things that people could, in good conscience, give to their kids. And they were a healthy option that people could eat for themselves and that they were a healthy option. She noticed that as the health revolution was taking off, even their own executives, their own team members who had PepsiCo products available to them to consume while they were working, started steering away from picking up the can of Coke or PepsiCo, sorry, of Pepsi, the can of this or the can of Mountain Dew, and were instead trying to bring to work their own healthier options. And having spotted that gap, she went on to introduce health products or to change the strategy and to introduce health products, such as smart food and sun chips, right? Smart food, which is popcorn, sun chips, which are made healthier, water products, granola, hummus, electrolyte products for athletes, it's products that boost, that contain ginseng and magnesium, things that boost health drift, well, I think it's called. It's all of these things that elevated the PepsiCo offering. And the understanding I get from that story, together with Walter Chrysler's story, in this particular, as told in this book, especially under a chapter called Inspiration, not imitation, is it's okay to look at the thing that the next person is doing and think, oh, wow, that is working. But you will never be as good as that person at being that person. So when you see something that someone else is doing, do not base your approach entirely on imitating what they're doing. Do not base your approach on reproducing exactly what they're doing. Understand what they're doing, and why they're doing it. This is why Walter went and bought a Ford and broke it apart and put it back together and broke it apart and put it back together 50 times, because you need to learn how it works in order for you to then adopt it and apply it with the flair that only you can bring. That is what makes you a leader of distinction. And we must always remember, right, when I speak of leadership, that you are a leader of yourself, as well. There is always the leadership of other people, but you are also responsible for leading yourself. So as a person leading you, make choices that allow you also to preserve the essence of who you are, because that is the magic that you bring. See, Walter didn't then go and create a Ford. He went and created a Chrysler, and he now has a building named after him. He's inducted in the Motor Car Hall of Fame. I don't know if that's what it's called. It's called an Automotive Hall of Fame, because he allowed himself to see a change in the wind, to not be frightened by that change, to step into a space that people were still reticent to step into, to understand how the skills that he had as a machinist could empower him to learn what this new industry was about. He broke the vehicle apart so that he could see what made it. He demystified the vehicle. It wasn't the intimidating new machine that is replacing horses standing over there. He looked under the hood, and once he had looked under the hood, he's like, oh, this is how it works. I can make my own, and this is how I can make mine better. This is how I can make mine different. This is how I can make a Chrysler. You know, if you know, you know, but I cannot say the word Chrysler and not think about Cat Williams. The next thing to consider, or the next thing that comes from Walter's story is this. He took the car apart, not once, not twice, but 50 times. It's interesting that that part of the story made particular sense to me on one of the days of 75 when I couldn't get, so I have to, because I'm still on leave and the kids are still on school holiday, my chance to read a book in the way instructed by the challenge is not always convenient. What happens is when I pick up anything, my kids want to participate. So I had a 15-minute gap in which they were somewhere else in the house, and I needed to read my 10 pages, and you cannot read a digital book. You cannot listen to the book. You have to actually read a physical book, and you have to make notes. So I decided to start a parallel read because the universe works in mysterious ways, and it will bring you the information that you need in that moment. So I go to read Nice Girls Still Don't Get the Corner Office. That's the book I picked up. It is a second edition or a subsequent edition to the original Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office, and I read the first 10 pages of the first chapter, so after the introduction, and in there was a concept that I think is aligned with the reason why Walter Kreisler took the car apart 50 times. In there, she explains that what you want to do is to achieve a level of competence in a particular area that is unconscious, and let me explain to you what that means. So conscious is you're aware. Competent is you're good at it. So think of these two things together. When you start in any new thing, when you start at anything, so let's say now we start learning to lead ourselves, right? Oh, no, let's not. At zero, at ground zero, you are at a point where you are unconscious, in other words, unaware that you have a problem, and you are incompetent. Because you are unaware that you have a problem, you have no competence in fixing that problem. How can you have any competence in fixing a problem that you are unaware of? So the starting point is unconscious incompetence. Then you learn something. You read a book, you read a chapter, you read a full book, and you think, oh, my God, there is a thing that I am not good at. There is a thing called chat GPT that is coming. There is a thing called automobiles that is coming. Now you are aware that you have a particular incompetence. Now at that point, you are at a level of conscious incompetence. You have grown, but you still haven't mastered the thing. Then you start learning the thing. This is now Walter. He goes and he purchases the vehicle. Then he takes it apart the first time, right? He now has achieved a certain level of competence, but he needs to concentrate. He takes the car apart one time, two times, three times. He still needs to remember where the piece goes. He's still referring to the diagrams that he drew. He's still making mistakes. Why is it not starting? Oh, I put the starter in the wrong place. Let me put it here. Let me put it somewhere different. Let me do this rather. Oh, my goodness. What if this thing is inconveniently placed? What if I put this here? Then what would happen? Oh, this is what happens. That is a place of conscious competence. You are aware of what you're doing, and you are good at it now, but you still need to pay attention to get it right. You still need to make an effort to get it right. You still need to apply energy and effort to being this person. Then by the time he gets to putting the car back together the 50th time, now he already knows how he would improve this. Now he already knows where this piece goes. If his mind drifts, he can still put the car back together. That is the goal. That place is called unconscious competence. This is the point where you don't even need to think about it. You are so good at it. That is where you want to get to. That is the place from which a vision comes. Remember, we've spoken about this in previous episodes. Remember that your ability, your brain space, your capacity, it gets used up on a daily basis. Your will gets used up on a daily basis. The more energy you're applying, the more brain power you're applying, the more effort you're applying, the more you're operating from a place of conscious competence or conscious incompetence. The more energy that is going to trying to be conscious and to be competent. Once you get that right, once you're operating at a place of unconscious competence, you now have free brain power to create the vision. And that is why he puts the car back together so many times, because he doesn't want to be spending time figuring out where the starter goes five years from now. He already knows that that's like a brainless activity. Give me where we are taking the business in the next five years. Give me how we are growing this industry. Give me how we are improving this industry. I have created brain capacity for that by creating or by building myself up because it is a muscle, by building myself up to a level of unconscious competence. I was so inspired by these two stories together because I read them on consecutive days. I was so inspired by these two stories together that I thought I must share them with you, that we must have this chat, that I must start this series called Crafting an Unforgettable Presence. And I must start with telling you about Walter P. Kreisler. So to recap, Walter's story teaches us that a leader or the best kind of leader, the one who is crafting an unforgettable presence, has both vision and technical competence. He tells us that a lot of people miss opportunities because instead of building their particular competence, they are out back looking for a four-leaf clover, in other words, looking for luck. He tells us that you want he and Louise P. Frankel, who wrote Nice Girls Still Don't Get the Corner Office, together tell us that you want to develop yourself from a level of unconscious incompetence through a level of conscious incompetence into conscious competence, and then ultimately into unconscious competence. That you want to understand the nuts and bolts of any changes and any improvements that are happening in the industry because they are not a mystery. They are simply something that you don't understand yet. And yet is the magic word, and this comes from one of my kids' TV shows. Yet. Always use the word yet to give yourself and your brain a cue and a reminder that nothing is out of reach for you. It's just something that you don't get yet, and then go and get it. I hope you enjoyed the start of this series. I loved recording it. I enjoyed the story. I learned so much from it, and I'm truly appreciating this concept of active reading and only reading a small portion at a time so that I give the information time to percolate. Just a reminder that we will not be running the series as time-specific. We'll be running the series as story-specific, so we might talk about something else next week. But if I come across another story that is befitting of the series, it will join the series. But there you go. There's Walter P. Kreisler. He was one of us, and he became Walter P. Kreisler. You are one of us, and you can become exactly who you were meant to be. Step into your greatness. Let's go and do something great. Have a great week. If you enjoyed the podcast, please share, please subscribe, please tell a friend about it, please get someone else to listen. I so appreciate it when you do that. It makes such a big difference to the algorithm. I've noticed more and more of you are doing that in the last couple of weeks, and it has made a dramatic difference. The pod is making its way to the top 10 in multiple countries, which is amazing. It's the top 10 on Apple Podcasts specifically and in the careers category. It's so exciting for me, and I'm so appreciative of your time and your ear, and I work hard to make it worthwhile. Thank you, and we'll chat next week. Bye.