Finishing Touch

The difference between "professionals" and "amateurs" is the Finishing touch.

I used to go a "training school" for hairdressers when I first came to Adelaide. It was for obvious reasons. Saving money. Then I started last week (after I got my job here) to go a professional hairdresser and the difference is simple.

The training school ones where decent ones. Some of them were good, they had the natural ability, knew the styles of cutting the hair, talked to you some time (small talk) and tried to do it at a fair pace. However, the major difference was how the professional took that extra time to show me my hair in the mirror, ask me more than a couple of times if I was satisfied, used the hair blower to set the hair and made some minor changes to the 'locks' to make it look good.

All these small changes and extra last effort - what you can call the 'finishing touch' made all the difference between the professional and the 'amateur'.

I see the same thing in the MBA classroom while submitting assignments. Some of the experienced guys go with that extra oomph. Colours, binding, graphs, stats and great proof-reading and presentation.

Just that last effort, that finishing touch made all the difference between them and mine.

I learnt a lesson the hard way and the best way to compete was to "be great at finishing".