Monday 5 September 2022

Who has earned your admiration in life?

Anika Ghandi

How many people in your life have you found worthy of admiration?

Apart from my father, said by others to be a "brilliant engineer" and a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Squadron Leader who was my boss, most other people I have admired have been women.

Most recently, I stumbled upon the site of Anika Ghandi who provides YouTube videos about woodwork and carpentry tools. As an amateur carpenter who attends the local Men's Shed and is learning to craft wooden products - at an advanced age I might add, I find her blog, email messages and YouTube videos very helpful.

Anika even provides top quality plans for some of her projects. How good is that?

When I first watched one of her videos I thought, "She must be a tradesperson, she's very good at this." Little did I know that she is actually a degreed electrical engineer (like my father who was an electrical and mechanical engineer) who decided to transition from electricity to timber. Obviously doing practical things with timber (or lumber in the US) appeals to her more than designing power installations and high-tension power lines.

Anika is obviously very smart - aren't all engineers - and also talented. She's adapted to woodwork and made it a career. One has to admire her achievements even if you aren't into engineering or woodwork.

I'm beginning one of her project shortly and I look forward to viewing Anika's videos and reading her blog frequently as I hone my skills.

As a one-time adult educator/trainer, I have a sound understanding of competency-based training (CBT) and assessment and I'm using CBT principles as I develop my skills base piece of timber by piece of timber. 

Only time will tell how successful I become and time isn't something I have a lot of since I'm closer to the end than the beginning. 

Who have or do you admire? Tell us in the comments.

#Robinoz