If you know the story of Fedex, they operate on a hub-and-spoke operations and their hub is located at Memphis. What this means is that all Fedex packages, large or small, in the US are shipped to this centre in Memphis first before going on to their destination location.

You can imagine the amount of packages that are handled on a daily basis at this distribution centre. And to handle such an amount, the technologies involved are also mind-boggling.

One morning, EVERYTHING stopped working.

There was electricity at the centre because the lights and computers in the office still worked. However, all the machinery that processed the packages simply refused to function.

The pressure is on and every minute that passed by implied ten of thousands of dollars lost.

The centre manager was almost in a state of panic and called the repairman again.

“I’m just 5 minutes away,” the repairman said.

Once the repairman arrived at the centre, he surveyed the conveyor belts and machinery.

Within a few moments, he walked over an electrical junction box in the middle of the centre, opened it, took out a screw driver from his toolbox, and turned a screw in the electrical junction box a quarter of an inch.

Immediately, everything started working again.

“Wow, you saved my life!” the centre manager said. “How much do I owe you?”

The repairman said, “Ten thousand dollars.” (US$, mind you)

“What??! You were barely here for 5 minutes and it costs US$10,000??”, the centre manager exclaimed.

“OK, please give me an itemized bill so that I know the breakdown of the US$10,000,” he continued.

“Sure,” the repairman said, took out a pen and a piece of paper, wrote on it and gave it to the centre manager.

The centre manager looked at the note, smiled, walked into his office and brought back US$10,000 in cash and paid the repairman.

In the note, it says:

“Turning screw: US$1″

“Knowing which screw to turn: US$9,999.”

A lot of times, we look at successful people and high achievers and think that they are just lucky. Sometimes, we even think that their jobs are so simple and easy that we can do them for just half their pay.

Just like the US$10,000 that the repairman charged, turning the screw is the act that most people see and, indeed, it is a simple thing to do and you don’t need a degree to do it.

However, to know which screw to turn within a short period of time that will solve the problem, the repairman would have taken years of discipline, training, practice, mistakes, errors and more importantly, learning and improving.These are the effort and experience that people cannot see. Yet, without them, the problem cannot never be solved.

We will be successful only if we learn all the time – when we do things well AND when we make mistakes.

In this new year, make a fresh start by always daring to try new things and learn from them. Never be afraid to make mistakes or be concerned with what other people may say or think.

They are not living your life. You are.