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00:00The call came through at 1.30 a.m. while I was elbow deep in the guts of a seized
00:04bearing that
00:05had shut down the main turbine at Midwest Steelworks. My phone buzzed against my hip
00:09through my coveralls. I ignored it. Then it buzzed again. I pulled off my work gloves and
00:15checked the screen. Shane Murphy, the new general manager, calling from his warm bed
00:19while I was lying on cold concrete trying to save his production line.
00:23My name is Mason Turner. I'm 56 years old and I've been turning wrenches on industrial turbines
00:29for 28 years. What happened next taught me the difference between being valued and being
00:34expendable. I almost didn't answer because when you're dealing with a bearing that's
00:38locked up tighter than a bank vault on a turbine worth $12 million, phone calls feel less important
00:43than the metal screaming under your flashlight. But 28 years of being the guy they call when
00:48everything's going to hell conditions you to pick up when management calls, even at 1.30
00:53in the morning. Turner speaking. Mason, it's Shane. I need to inform you of a company restructuring
00:58decision. Effective immediately. We're eliminating your position as senior turbine technician.
01:04Your employment terminates at 6 a.m. today. I looked at the bearing assembly in front of
01:09me. The main shaft was seized solid. Temperature readings showed the housing was still running
01:14180 degrees. The whole production floor was dark because this turbine generated power for
01:20half the plant. Rachel Martinez, the plant manager, was standing 10 feet away looking desperate because
01:25I was literally the only person in the building who knew how to rebuild a 1992 Westinghouse
01:30turbine this size. I understand, I said, keeping my voice steady. I'll inform Rachel that you'll
01:36be handling the turbine repair since I won't be an employee in four hours. Long silence.
01:41I could hear him breathing through the phone. What turbine repair? The main turbine that's been
01:47down since 11 p.m. last night. Seized bearing on the primary shaft. It's costing about $87,000
01:54per hour in lost steel production. I'm in the middle of a bearing replacement that requires
01:59another six hours minimum. Since you're eliminating my position, I assume you'll send someone else
02:05to finish it. More silence. When Shane finally spoke, his voice had changed. Mason, let's discuss
02:11this after you've fixed the turbine. I don't think that's appropriate. You just terminated my employment
02:17effective 6 a.m. It's now 1 to 37 a.m. That gives me four hours and 23 minutes left
02:23as a Midwest Steel
02:25employee. After that, I shouldn't be working on company equipment. Wait, Mason. I hung up and looked
02:32at Rachel. She'd heard enough of my side to understand what just happened. They fired you, right now, while you're
02:38fixing our turbine. That's what the man said. Effective 6 a.m. I'm no longer employed here. Rachel's
02:45face went white. But you're the only person who knows this system. What happens to our production?
02:50That's an excellent question for Shane Murphy. Before I explain what happened over the next week, let me tell
02:56you who I am and why that phone call was the most expensive mistake Shane ever made in his short
03:01career.
03:02I started at Midwest Steelworks in 1996, fresh out of eight years in the Marines where I'd learned that when
03:08machines
03:08break, you fix them fast or people get hurt. The Corps taught me that reliable equipment keeps people alive.
03:15And that lesson stuck with me when I transitioned to civilian industrial work.
03:19Midwest Steel manufactures structural steel for construction projects across the Great Lakes region.
03:25When their turbines run properly, they produce about $2.1 million worth of finished steel products per day.
03:31When the turbines are down, the entire plant is offline and 400 people go home without pay.
03:37My job was maintaining the power generation turbines that kept everything running.
03:42These weren't modern computer-controlled units that some kid fresh out of engineering school could troubleshoot with a laptop.
03:48They were 1990s-era Westinghouse turbines built like tanks but requiring hands-on knowledge to maintain.
03:54Over 28 years, I'd rebuilt every major component multiple times.
03:59I knew exactly how each unit behaved under different load conditions, which bearings wore fastest,
04:05how the cooling systems responded to temperature changes, and most importantly,
04:08I could diagnose problems by sound and vibration that would take other technicians hours of testing to identify.
04:14You don't learn that kind of knowledge from YouTube videos or technical manuals.
04:18You learn it by getting your hands dirty for three decades.
04:21By listening to how a bearing sounds when it's got 500 hours left versus 50 hours left.
04:26By feeling how the housing vibrates when clearances are getting loose.
04:29It's the kind of expertise that comes from honest work day after day, year after year.
04:35That knowledge made me valuable to the plant.
04:37That knowledge also made Shane Murphy think I was expensive and replaceable.
04:41Shane had been hired eight months earlier with an MBA from some university
04:46and a mandate from corporate to modernize operations and reduce labor costs.
04:50He'd been pushing hard for outsourced maintenance contracts to replace what he called legacy workforce overhead.
04:56In his mind, my $85,000 annual salary could be eliminated by hiring cheaper contractors when needed.
05:03What Shane didn't understand, what they don't teach you in business school,
05:06is that specialized knowledge isn't the same as general labor.
05:09You can't just call up a contractor from the Yellow Pages and say,
05:12how do we fix our 30-year-old turbine when that contractor has never seen the specific modifications, repairs,
05:18and workarounds that accumulate over decades of operation.
05:21But Shane was convinced he could modernize his way to better profit margins,
05:25and I was apparently part of the old way of doing things.
05:28The crisis that led to that 1.30 a.m. phone call had started 14 hours earlier
05:33when the main turbine began showing abnormal vibration readings during the evening shift.
05:37I wasn't scheduled to work that night, but Rachel called me at home around 10.30 p.m.
05:42because the readings were getting worse fast.
05:45Mason, I hate to bother you at home, but we've got some troubling numbers on Unit 1.
05:50Vibrations climbing and the temperature's running hot.
05:53I'd been watching Monday Night Football with a beer, but when Rachel calls about turbine problems, you listen.
05:59She's been managing that plant for 12 years and doesn't panic easily.
06:03If she's worried, there's good reason.
06:05What kind of numbers are you seeing?
06:07Vibrations at 8.5 mils and climbing.
06:11Temperature on the main bearing housing hit 165 degrees about an hour ago.
06:15That got my attention real quick.
06:17Normal operating vibration on those old Westinghouse units should run around 3 to 4 mils.
06:22Anything over 6 mils means trouble.
06:24At 8.5 mils, we were looking at potential catastrophic failure if something wasn't done soon.
06:31And bearing temperatures over 160 degrees meant the lubrication was breaking down.
06:36Shut her down, I told Rachel.
06:39Right now.
06:41Don't wait for the numbers to get worse.
06:43Already did.
06:44Triggered the emergency shutdown about 10 minutes ago.
06:47Can you come in and take a look?
06:49I was pulling on my work boots before she finished asking.
06:52Give me 20 minutes, the drive to the plant gave me time to think about what could cause those symptoms.
06:58High vibration combined with elevated bearing temperature usually meant one of three things.
07:03Bearing wear, shaft misalignment, or contaminated lubrication.
07:07Given the age of the equipment and the maintenance history, my gut said bearing wear.
07:13Those main shaft bearings had been in service for about 4 years,
07:17which was approaching their expected lifespan under continuous operation.
07:20When I got to the plant, Rachel met me at the entrance with the maintenance logs and recent inspection reports.
07:26The night shift supervisor, Tommy Rodriguez, was waiting by the turbine with his flashlight and a worried expression.
07:32What do you think, Mason? Tommy asked.
07:35Never seen vibration numbers climb that fast.
07:38I spent the next two hours with my hands on that turbine feeling for abnormal vibrations,
07:43listening to the sounds it made as it cooled down, checking clearances and alignments.
07:47The diagnosis wasn't complicated if you knew what to look for.
07:50The main bearing had developed excessive clearance due to normal wear, allowing the shaft to wobble under load.
07:57The wobbling created heat, which expanded the metal and made the problem worse until the automatic shutdown system kicked in.
08:03It's the main bearing, I told Rachel around midnight.
08:06The clearance has opened up beyond tolerance.
08:09We need to pull the shaft and replace the bearing assembly.
08:13Rachel ran the numbers in her head.
08:15How long for the repair?
08:16If everything goes smooth, about 8 hours.
08:19That's assuming I can get the right bearing from our supplier and nothing else goes wrong during disassembly.
08:24What's it going to cost us in lost production?
08:27About $87,000 per hour while we're down.
08:30Maybe $700,000 total if I can get it done in 8 hours.
08:34Rachel made the call to approve overtime and emergency parts procurement.
08:38I called our bearing supplier and arranged for a rush delivery of the replacement bearing.
08:42Cost was $3,200 for the part, plus another $800 for same day delivery.
08:48Expensive, but a lot less expensive than extended downtime.
08:51I started the disassembly work around 12.30am.
08:56First step was draining the lubrication system and removing the housing covers to access the bearing assembly.
09:02Then came the delicate work of lifting the turbine shaft using the overhead crane and supporting it properly while I
09:08pulled the old bearing.
09:09That's when Shane called and fired me.
09:12After I hung up on Shane, Rachel looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
09:15Mason, you can't just stop working.
09:18This turbine needs to be fixed.
09:20Rachel, I understand your position, but I was just terminated.
09:25I can't ethically continue working on company equipment when I'm no longer a company employee.
09:29This is insane.
09:31You're the only person who knows how to rebuild this turbine.
09:34What am I supposed to tell corporate when they ask why we're still offline?
09:38You tell them Shane Murphy eliminated the position of senior turbine technician at 1.30am while the plant was in
09:43the middle of an emergency repair.
09:45Rachel pulled out her phone and started making calls.
09:48First to Shane who didn't answer, then to Jordan Phillips, the COO in Chicago.
09:52I could hear Jordan's voice getting louder through the phone as Rachel explained the situation.
09:57After 20 minutes of heated conversation, Rachel hung up and looked at me.
10:02Jordan wants to reinstate you immediately.
10:04Full back pay, promotion, whatever it takes to get this turbine fixed.
10:09That's nice of Jordan, but Shane was pretty clear about my employment status.
10:13I was terminated, effective 6am.
10:16It's now 2.15am, which gives me less than four hours left as an employee.
10:21Mason, be reasonable.
10:23This is obviously a mistake.
10:25Maybe it is.
10:27Maybe it isn't.
10:28But Shane made his decision, and I'm going to respect it.
10:31At 6am, I stopped being a Midwest Steel employee, and I stopped working on Midwest Steel equipment.
10:37Rachel started pacing around the turbine like a caged animal.
10:41Every minute we stood there talking was another $1,450 in lost production.
10:46Every hour the plant stayed down cost more than most people make in a month.
10:50What if we hired you as an independent contractor?
10:53She asked.
10:54Emergency maintenance contractor working directly for Midwest Steel, but not as an employee.
10:59I thought about that for a minute.
11:01It was an interesting proposition.
11:03What's your budget for emergency contractors?
11:05Whatever it costs to get this plant running.
11:08Every hour we're down, we're losing $87,000.
11:11If you can fix this turbine in eight hours, we'll still come out way ahead.
11:16I quoted her my standard emergency contractor rate, $1,200 per hour, eight hour minimum payment in advance.
11:24That was about 15 times what I made per hour as an employee, but it was still cheaper than keeping
11:29the plant offline.
11:30Rachel didn't hesitate.
11:32Done.
11:33I'll have accounting cut you a check right now for $9,600.
11:37One more thing, I said.
11:39As an independent contractor, I work by my own schedule and methods.
11:44No interference from management, no second guessing my procedures.
11:47I fix the turbine my way, or you find someone else.
11:51Agreed.
11:52Just get us back online.
11:53At 5.45 a.m., Rachel handed me a company check for $9,600.
11:59At 6.00 a.m. sharp, my employment with Midwest Steel officially ended.
12:03At 6.05 a.m., I resumed work on the turbine as Turner Maintenance Services, independent contractor,
12:10earning more money in one day than I'd previously made in six weeks.
12:13The bearing replacement went smoothly once I had the right tools and the freedom to work without some MBA looking
12:18over my shoulder,
12:19questioning every move I made.
12:21That's the thing about skilled work.
12:23It looks easy when you know what you're doing, but there's a thousand ways to screw it up if you
12:27don't have the experience.
12:29I had the turbine shaft supported on jack stands while I pressed out the old bearing using a hydraulic puller.
12:35The bearing came out clean, which was good news.
12:38Sometimes when bearings seize, they take part of the housing with them, and then you're looking at machining work or
12:44even a complete shaft replacement.
12:46This one had just worn beyond tolerance normal wear for a bearing that had been running 24-7 for four
12:52years.
12:53The new bearing pressed in perfectly.
12:56I checked the clearances with feeler gauges minus 003 inches radial clearance, right where it should be for a bearing
13:03that size.
13:04Then came the careful work of reassembling everything with proper torque specifications.
13:09The main bearing cap bolts get torqued to 450 foot-pounds in a specific sequence to ensure even pressure distribution.
13:17Miss that sequence or under torque those bolts and you'll have the same problem again in six months.
13:21By 1am, I had the mechanical work finished and was ready to start the lubrication system.
13:26That's another step where experience matters.
13:29You can't just dump oil into the system and fire it up.
13:32The lubrication has to be circulated and heated gradually to prevent thermal shock to the seals and gaskets.
13:38The oil temperature needs to reach 120 degrees before you can safely start the turbine,
13:43and that takes about 45 minutes with the circulation pumps running.
13:47While the lubrication system was warming up, Rachel came over to check on progress.
13:52How much longer, Mason?
13:53Another hour for lubrication warm-up, then about 30 minutes for startup sequence and testing.
13:58We should have power restored by noon, thank God.
14:02Corporate's been calling every 15 minutes asking for updates.
14:05They're not happy about the production loss.
14:07Maybe they should have thought about that before they eliminated their senior turbine technician in the middle of an emergency
14:12repair.
14:13Rachel shook her head.
14:14Shane's been trying to call you all morning.
14:17Jordan Phillips wants to talk to you, too.
14:19I'm sure they do, but right now I'm focused on getting your turbine running.
14:24That's what you're paying me $1,200 an hour to do.
14:27The startup sequence began at 11.15 a.m.
14:31First, I engaged the turning gear to rotate the shaft slowly and check for any binding or unusual resistance.
14:39Everything felt smooth.
14:40Then I started the lubrication pumps and gradually brought the oil pressure up to operating levels.
14:46The pressure held steady at 45 psi, right where it should be.
14:51Next came the actual turbine startup.
14:53I opened the steam valve incrementally, bringing the turbine up to speed gradually while monitoring vibration and temperature readings.
15:00The vibration stayed below 2 mils throughout the acceleration, better than it had been running before the bearing failure.
15:07Temperature readings were normal across all monitoring points.
15:10By 11.45 a.m., the turbine was running at full speed and carrying electrical load.
15:15By noon, the production floor was back on line and steel was moving through the rolling mills again.
15:20Total downtime, 13 hours.
15:23Total production loss, about $1.13 million.
15:27My contractor fee, $9,600.
15:31Rachel was watching the production monitors with visible relief as finished steel products began moving through the facility again.
15:38Mason, I can't thank you enough.
15:40You saved us from what could have been a complete disaster.
15:44That's what you paid me for.
15:45I'll write up a technical report on the bearing failure and replacement procedures.
15:50You should share that with corporate so they understand what happened and what it cost them.
15:54Will you consider coming back as our head of maintenance?
15:57I'm sure we can work something out with corporate.
16:00I appreciate the offer, Rachel, but I've gotta say, this contractor arrangement is looking pretty attractive.
16:06I made more money today than I usually make in six weeks.
16:09Around 1 p.m., my phone started ringing.
16:12First, Shane Murphy.
16:14Then Jordan Phillips.
16:15Then someone from corporate HR.
16:17I let them all go to voicemail while I finished documenting the repair work and cleaning up my tools.
16:22Shane's voicemail was interesting.
16:25Mason, there's been a misunderstanding about your employment status.
16:28Please call me back immediately so we can resolve this.
16:31Jordan's message was more direct.
16:33Mason, this is Jordan Phillips.
16:36We need to discuss your situation.
16:38Shane made an error in judgment.
16:40We want to make this right, but the most interesting call came at 2 p.m. from a plant manager
16:44I'd never met.
16:45Mr.
16:46Turner, this is Bill Crawford at Great Lakes Manufacturing in Toledo.
16:51We heard through the grapevine that you're doing independent turbine maintenance work.
16:55We've got a 1988 general electric turbine that's been giving us problems and our regular maintenance contractor can't figure it
17:02out.
17:03Would you be available for a consultation?
17:05Word travels fast in industrial circles.
17:08By the end of that week, I'd gotten calls from six different manufacturing plants across Ohio and Michigan.
17:14Plant managers talked to each other at industry conferences and trade association meetings.
17:19When someone finds a turbine specialist who can solve problems that stump everyone else, that information gets shared.
17:25Each caller had the same story.
17:27Critical equipment failure.
17:29Local maintenance staff couldn't diagnose the problem.
17:32Regular contractors were either unavailable or didn't have experience with older equipment.
17:36Could I help as an emergency consultant?
17:39I helped every one of them.
17:41My rates stayed at $1,200 per hour for emergency work, and I was averaging about 80 hours of billable
17:48time per month.
17:48That works out to roughly $96,000 monthly, or over $1.1 million annually.
17:55More than 13 times what I'd been making as Midwest Steel's employee.
17:59But it wasn't just about the money.
18:01These plant managers respected my expertise because they'd seen what happened when specialized knowledge wasn't available.
18:07They understood they were paying premium rates for premium results.
18:11Nobody questioned my methods or complained about my fees after I'd restored their production equipment and saved them from extended
18:16downtime.
18:17By September, I'd incorporated as Turner Industrial Services and hired two other experienced turbine technicians who'd been laid off during
18:24various cost reduction initiatives at plants around the region.
18:28Carl Washington had 24 years of experience with steam turbines before his plant eliminated his position to streamline operations.
18:37Mike Sullivan knew gas turbines inside and out after 31 years at a power generation facility that decided to outsource
18:44their maintenance to save money.
18:45These weren't guys fresh out of technical school.
18:48They were craftsmen who'd spent decades learning their trade, only to be told their skills were obsolete by managers who
18:55couldn't tell a bearing from a bolt.
18:57We became the go-to team for complex repairs on older industrial equipment that companies had written off as unmaintainable.
19:04The irony wasn't lost on any of us.
19:07Companies were paying us three times what we'd made as employees to fix the same equipment we'd been maintaining before
19:12they eliminated our positions.
19:14The real satisfaction came three months later when Rachel called me with news about Shane Murphy's career at Midwest Steel.
19:20Mason, I thought you'd want to know.
19:23The board terminated Shane yesterday?
19:25Effective immediately.
19:27I was in my new shop at the time, a 4,000 square foot facility I'd leased on the outskirts
19:32of Detroit to house Turner Industrial Services.
19:35We'd outgrown my garage pretty quickly once word got around about our emergency repair capabilities.
19:40What finally did it? I asked, though I had a pretty good idea.
19:45The numbers.
19:46They calculated that Shane's cost-cutting decisions ended up costing the company over $8.2 million in direct losses over
19:53eight months.
19:54The turbine downtime was just the beginning.
19:57Two other clients reduced their contracts after hearing about our maintenance staffing problems.
20:01Plus, we've been paying premium contractor rates for repairs that used to be handled in-house.
20:07Shane's expensive lesson had ripple effects beyond that one emergency repair.
20:11When you eliminate experienced maintenance staff, you don't just lose their labor, you lose their institutional knowledge, their relationships with
20:18suppliers, their ability to prevent small problems from becoming big problems.
20:22The guys who got laid off in Shane's modernization effort were the same guys who knew which valve sounds different
20:28when it's starting to fail,
20:30which bearing gets hot when the ambient temperature rises, which control system quirks require manual adjustment during seasonal changes.
20:37Without that knowledge base, minor issues that used to get caught during routine maintenance were now becoming emergency repairs.
20:43Emergency repairs cost ten times more than preventive maintenance.
20:47And that's if you can find contractors who actually know what they're doing.
20:51Who's replacing him? I asked Rachel.
20:54Jordan Phillips is taking over as interim GM while they search for a permanent replacement.
20:59Jordan specifically asked me to reach out to you about a consulting arrangement.
21:03Two weeks later, I was sitting in the conference room at Midwest Steel across from Jordan Phillips and the plant's
21:09new maintenance director,
21:10discussing a formal maintenance contract for Turner Industrial Services.
21:14Mason, I want to be straight with you, Jordan said.
21:17Shane's approach was wrong, and the company paid a heavy price for his mistakes.
21:22We understand now that experienced maintenance personnel aren't just labor costs.
21:27They're operational insurance.
21:29We want Turner Industrial Services to handle emergency repairs and serve as backup for our internal maintenance team.
21:35The contract they offered was generous.
21:38$18,000 monthly retainer for priority response and consultation, plus $1,200 per hour for actual repair work.
21:46The retainer alone was more than double what I'd been making annually as their employee.
21:50But the most satisfying part wasn't the money. It was the respect.
21:56Jordan understood that specialized expertise has value that goes beyond simple labor calculations.
22:01When you eliminate that expertise, you're not cutting costs, you're transferring those costs to emergency situations where they become much
22:09more expensive.
22:10By December, Turner Industrial Services had maintenance contracts with seven different manufacturing facilities across the Midwest.
22:17We specialized in older industrial equipment that most contractors wouldn't touch.
22:22The 1980s and 1990s-era turbines, compressors, and generators that formed the backbone of American manufacturing but required hands-on
22:30knowledge to maintain properly.
22:32The work was steady and profitable, but the real reward was working with guys who understood the value of craftsmanship.
22:38Plant managers who'd seen production lines shut down for days because some MBA thought experienced maintenance workers were overhead knew
22:45better.
22:45They paid our rates without complaint because they'd learned the hard way that expertise isn't something you can download from
22:51the internet or outsource to the lowest bidder.
22:53We also started taking on apprentices, young guys who wanted to learn the trade properly, instead of just getting a
22:59certificate and pretending they knew what they were doing.
23:02Jake Morrison, 22 years old, had been working dead-end jobs since high school until his uncle recommended him to
23:08us.
23:09Now he's learning to read vibration patterns, understand bearing temperatures, and most importantly, how to listen to what a machine
23:16is telling you about its condition.
23:17There's no substitute for time and experience.
23:19I told Jake during one of our training sessions,
23:22You can memorize all the technical manuals you want, but until you've felt how a bearing sounds when it's got
23:27500 hours left versus 50 hours left, you're just guessing.
23:31Teaching Jake and the other apprentices reminded me why this work matters.
23:34We're not just fixing machines, we're keeping American manufacturing running.
23:39Every turbine we repair, every production line we restore, represents jobs for hundreds of workers who depend on that equipment
23:46to earn their living.
23:47The skills we use aren't obsolete, no matter what some business school graduate thinks.
23:52They're the foundation that everything else is built on.
23:55You can automate a lot of industrial processes, but when something breaks, you still need someone who understands how the
24:01machinery actually works to get it running again.
24:04Shane Murphy learned that lesson the expensive way.
24:07He thought he could eliminate legacy workforce overhead and replace decades of experience with cheaper alternatives.
24:12What he discovered was that institutional knowledge isn't overhead, it's infrastructure.
24:18When you eliminate it, you don't save money.
24:21You create vulnerabilities that show up at the worst possible moments.
24:25Last month, I got a call from a plant manager in Wisconsin whose main turbine had failed during peak production
24:31season.
24:31Their regular maintenance contractor couldn't diagnose the problem, and they were losing $120,000 per day in production capacity.
24:40Mr. Turner, we heard you can fix problems that stump everyone else. How quickly can you get here?
24:46I was on site six hours later.
24:48The problem was a control system modification that had been installed in 1994 and wasn't documented in any current technical
24:55manuals.
24:56It took me 20 minutes to identify the issue and another four hours to fabricate a replacement component in their
25:02machine shop.
25:03Total repair time, less than one day.
25:06Total cost, $12,000, including travel time and materials.
25:10Without that repair, they would have waited three weeks for a replacement part from the original equipment manufacturer, costing them
25:17over $2.5 million in lost production.
25:19They paid my invoice without question and immediately signed a maintenance contract for emergency response services.
25:27That's what Shane Murphy never understood.
25:30The most dangerous thing to eliminate isn't the person who complains the loudest or costs the most on paper.
25:36It's the specialist who quietly keeps everything running until the day you decide their expertise isn't worth paying for.
25:42Because specialized knowledge doesn't disappear when you eliminate the specialist.
25:46It walks out the door with them and becomes available to everyone except you.
25:51And when the next crisis hits, and there's always a next crisis, you discover that institutional expertise can't be quickly
25:57replaced, easily substituted, or downloaded from a manual.
26:01Sometimes the most effective response to being undervalued isn't arguing or pleading for recognition.
26:07It's simply allowing people to experience the full consequences of their decisions.
26:12While you build something better with the skills they thought weren't worth keeping.
26:16Shane wanted to modernize by eliminating experienced workers.
26:19I helped him achieve that goal.
26:21What he learned was that modernization without expertise is just expensive chaos.
26:26And that the real value of knowledge isn't measured by what someone pays you for it.
26:30It's measured by what they lose when they don't have access to it.
26:33When you fire the guy who knows how everything works, you don't eliminate a problem.
26:37You become the problem that needs solving.
26:40The difference between a cost and an investment is simple.
26:43Costs disappear when you cut them, but investments disappear when you need them most.
26:47You can find people that you don't have a problem.