Tag: Learning

Fake it till you make it

September 25, 2026

This is one of those sayings I don’t agree with. Another is, “It is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” I don’t like people who are not what they try to make me believe they are. Salesmen who do not know the products or services they sell. People who say they are Christians and have no idea what the fruit of the Spirit is are examples of this.

I believe that we should all admit our weaknesses and let the words, “I don’t know,” be my mantra. If you don’t know what a mantra is, it is a saying you keep repeating to remind yourself of something. I have made this statement to many and then followed it with, “but, let me check for an answer for you.”

This worked well in business for over forty years. Every job I had meant I needed to learn new things. I was offered a purchasing job, and the owner of the company asked if I knew anything about it. My response was no, and within six months he considered me one of his best purchasing agents.

When I started in a pet store, I saw a rack of books for sale. These ranged from simple books about the different animals to volumes on how to diagnose and treat illnesses. After three months, I was promoted from a salesman to a store manager and within a year I became the assistant livestock manager at the wholesale distributor owned by the same man.

My second purchasing job started a twenty-five-year career with the company. I moved straight from that job to office manager and was over all the inside sales staff without ever having the job. I trained myself and had more product knowledge than some hired to sales before me. How’d that happen? I read the catalogues.

When I left there, I returned to purchasing as a buyer and a few months later became the supervisor in the department. I completed my career as purchasing manager for another manufacturer. I am now doing what I have done as a hobby my entire life.

I publish my own writing, edited by me, based on what the Lord is telling me to create. Did you know that there is a parable told by Jesus about three men who are given different amounts of money? The king is leaving them with money to invest for him while he is away. When he returned, the one who was given an amount called five talents had doubled the amount. 

A talent was a year’s salary for these men. They were given five, two, and one year’s pay to invest. If your boss gave you this kind of money, would you know how to invest it for them? I don’t think I could double it like the first two did. The third man buried his.

We, teachers and preachers, use the term talent to encourage our listeners to use abilities that we have been given rather than wasting them. For more on this, read my column The One Talent Man. I consider that younger me only knew how to write. When I was called to ministry, I had added an ability to speak before groups. I’ve just shown a few other ways that Jesus has allowed me to grow. Don’t fake it, just make it.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

PURCHASING

March 31, 2026

I have been purchasing for almost 40 years. My first job as a purchasing agent was in 1978 with General Petco in Springfield, MO. I was promoted from assistant livestock manager to purchasing agent on the recommendation of two men whom I had worked under in that company. When these two managers were asked who in the company might be able to handle purchasing, my name was given. 

I was told that we would try it for six months. Purchasing and I were such a good fit that in 1979, I took another purchasing position with a company I worked at for twenty-five years. I began as a purchasing agent and was promoted to inside sales, office manager, outside sales, back to office manager, and then operations manager.  There was no job that I had not done. I trained people in purchasing, warehouse, sales, and clerical positions.  I helped write the procedures manual while I was there.

While my title and job description varied over the years, I maintained purchasing responsibilities for the twenty-five years I was there. When I left there, I went to a manufacturer as the maintenance and repair buyer. MRO and OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) buyers vary in the products and quantities they purchase. 

I retired as the purchasing manager at a manufacturer.  Most people with average intelligence can be trained to do what I did.  I was there for years and had a good handle on the position. The training process was not well thought out and implemented when I started. 

This company is not unusual. Experienced people are hired and expected to do their work with minimal training. Few and far between are the positions where training is a priority. If you get two days with the last person to do the job, you are lucky.

I’ve trained everyone from truck drivers to salesmen. I know how to show anyone how to do any of the jobs I have performed over the last fifty years. I always gave new employees a steno pad to make notes. No one has as good a memory as they think they do. I encourage newer employees to broaden their horizons and learn as much as they can.

When I was a high school student, my first position was as a fry cook, and I learned how to do everything there and was put in charge of closing the drive-in from time to time. My first job out of college was as a food service management trainee. Every time I took a new job, I did my best to learn where I could go next.

I study anything I can to train myself, whether it is reading books or articles, or stepping into other roles to learn what they do. I told the president of a company I was interviewing with that on my first day, I would start training to take my boss’s job. Believe it or not, that was the reason they gave me the job.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

NO ONE CAN TEACH YOU WHAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO LEARN

July 1, 2025

It seems like an easily determined idea, doesn’t it?  Parents, teachers, and employers all fail to recognize this one fact. A father or mother attempts to teach a child how to use a spoon, a fork, or the potty chair before they want to. And it is always a struggle. I know. We tried that with Heather.

She would sit on the pot and not do anything.  Then she decided she wanted to use the chair because she was tired of diapers. Why do training diapers help so many kids? They don’t want to lose the security of the protection from accidents, but they want freedom in the bathroom. They also wish for Mom and Dad’s approval.

Effective teachers find ways to encourage their students to learn, but may use games, toys or other activities that catch the attention and are interesting. This type of learning must be customized for every student. If you are fortunate, more than one person is captured by the same activity. Others require a different approach.  Learning centers in classrooms take advantage of this principle.

Although I have never carried the title of “trainer” as a supervisor, manager, or an employee hoping to help someone else get ahead, I have trained hundreds of people in dozens of areas. Often, the lessons I taught to others were taught the hard way by trial and error for me. The desire to make learning easier for someone else makes me want to discover how to help them catch what I am throwing at them. This is how it should be done in the workplace.

The truth is that many are afraid to instruct others in what they know. They believe their job security depends on no one else knowing as much about their job.   

On other occasions, we want to pass on knowledge, but do not know how because our school was hard knocks. We learned by doing and believe others will also.  On-the-job training is good, but why shouldn’t those with more experience guide the newbies?  Show them the things you tried first that did not work. Tell them why you do it the way you do and all the other methods that are not as good. These stop wasting time and effort.

If they listen. That leads us back to the title of this article.  No one can teach you what you do not wish to learn. If you are stubborn and will not take instruction, you are doomed to repeat other mistakes and be thought less of. 

When your trainer takes the time to show you their errors, you don’t have to repeat them. Hopefully, you will not be greeted with the worst of all educational philosophies, “Because I said so.”

It is time to take your company to the 21st century. Write a procedures manual that includes every process in your business. This is one of the requirements for all major companies. Certifications that multinational companies must maintain to bid on government contracts require this manual. Start with this item and see where it takes you.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger