Brian Doesn’t Know

Over the years I’ve hired dozens and dozens of painters. No matter their experience, their ethnicity, or their gender, one idea seems to ultimately come out of the mouth of virtually every one of them—Brian doesn’t know anything about painting.

My company has painted thousands of homes. Since I land about 1 in 3 jobs I look at, this means I’ve looked at a tremendous number of jobs.

I have had 3 to 5 crews in the field for the past 15 years. While each individual crew only sees the job they do, I have seen 9 to 15 jobs. In other words, I see and experience far, far more than any individual crew or painter. Yet, I know nothing about painting.

This idea seems to arise because I do not have a paint brush in my hand. If I'm not painting, how could I possibly know anything about the subject? But I don't need to poke myself in the eye with a stick to know that it will hurt. There are other ways to learn about something besides actually doing it.

These comments usually arise when I make a suggestion about the project. This is particularly true when my suggestion involves doing some new. My comments are met with blank stares, shakes of the head, and/ or dismissal.

Despite the fact that I know nothing about painting, guess what happens when they have a question or a problem? They are calling me. Which means, while I don’t know anything about painting, I am also supposed to have all of the answers. Kind of ironic, huh?

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