Professionals who care
MICHAEL YOUNG
Michael Young is a trainer, coach and contracts engineer in the HVAC industry. He graduated from the
University of the Witwatersrand in the field of Mechanical Engineering (B.Sc Mech Eng) in 2008 and
qualified as a Professional Engineer (Pr.Eng) in 2013. Michael is passionate about promoting knowledge
and helping other young engineers grow within the industry through his training workshops and
coaching sessions.
HOW TO BECOME A COMPANY
ASSET AND BREAK FREE FROM
BEING AN AVERAGE ENGINEER
By Michael Young
“What really hurts you are the things you don’t know.”
Back in 2007, I was studying to become a mechanical
engineer, and being a student, going to parties was high
priority but money was always low. As I well knew, the only way
to solve the problem of having zero money was to get a job.
So, I applied for a job as a food delivery guy and my Friday
and Sunday nights revolved around delivering food from
various restaurants. I must admit, the job was not that bad,
I got paid a delivery fee as well as tips for delivering the food
within a certain time frame.
Now back in those days, smart phones had not been
invented. There were no fancy apps like ‘google maps’ and
the only way to know where you were going, was to look
in a map book. We had a huge map of the suburb that we
were delivering to and when we received an order, we would
remember the road name and route for our delivery.
Now as you can imagine, this was not easy as we often had
to drive at night and find street names which were not always
available. We also had to deliver the food within 40 minutes, or
we would receive no tip.
There was one instance where a caller played a prank. The
caller ordered hamburgers and told me to deliver it to some plot
which was 25km away at 10pm. For the person playing the prank
it was funny but for me, I lost out on the tip as well as unnecessary
fuel usage as the delivery fees did not cover the trip.
Now working as a delivery guy and going through this
prank taught me the importance of knowledge. The more
roads I knew, the faster my deliveries. I also learnt how to
allocate resources according to the clients that were serious
and the clients that were playing a prank. As I got older, I also
learnt that the more you know, the more you are able to do.
All grown up now and working in the corporate world, I
learnt that the application and the amount of knowledge
that we possess is what sets us apart from our competitors.
We become more successful in business when we know
what drives our clients to buy from us. We become more
successful when we have better technical knowledge than
our competitors. We become more successful when we
provide solutions rather than just sell something and run for
the hills.
So, the bottom line is, what you don’t know is what is
holding you back. This is applicable to everything in life, be
it training for your next running race, be it relationships with
your loved one or even something as small as trying to cook a
delicious meal.
The advice I give all of my students is, “Find someone who
is smarter and better than you and learn from them.” The truth
is that there will always be someone better than you so instead
of envying them, rather learn from them and become a better
person. Business is all about learning and the moment you
stop learning, you essentially die.
So, if you feel inspired, if you feel like you would ike to learn
from someone, email me at michael@myengineeringcoach.
co.za and I would love to teach you not only about business,
but also how to succeed within the HVAC industry.
Wishing you a successful month ahead and chat soon. RACA
44
RACA Journal I August 2020
www.hvacronline.co.za