Blaming the Tools

photo credit: hmboo via photopin cc

“If you have two people and one has great equipment, but no experience and the other has years of experience, but poor equipment, my money is on the guy with experience every time.”

It was early 2011 and I was at the Gurus of Church Tech conference in Chicago. The speaker was legendary audio engineer Robert Scovill. He verified what I’d been thinking.

I’ve used cameras that cost 6 figures and camera phones. A great camera is a thing of beauty to use.

A great piece of gear doesn’t fill in the gaps of ability, but makes it easier to accomplish what you’re trying to do.

There’s something about limitations, though. Sometimes not having what you need opens up possibilities that you didn’t notice before.

It’s tempting to say, “if only I had…” and use that as an excuse for not doing what you want to. If you have limitations, look for someone who has more.

Here’s a classic example. I wanted to start running. I knew that I was almost 40, so I could have used that as an excuse, except…I have two friends with bigger excuses. One is a few years older than I am, so age isn’t excuse for her. Maybe it shouldn’t be for me. The other recently lost a few hundred pounds. I might have been a little out of shape, but he was very out of shape. They both did it, so why couldn’t I?

Look for people who have more limitations, worse, equipment, poorer tools and see what they did and then learn to do the same things.

Once you have better tools, it will be so much easier and you’ll be able to use them to their fullest.

Paul