𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨 𝐏𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐧

Yesterday afternoon, after wrapping up a consulting job, I needed to help a neighbor plant a food plot for deer season. To do that, I headed to the back corner of the barnyard to pull out my dad’s old International 37 disc.

I couldn’t get the thing to raise.

I tried and tried. Switched hoses. Sprayed the hydraulic cylinder rod with penetrating oil. Got a pry bar out to force the wheels down. I could move the lift axle manually, but I couldn’t make it lift. I was starting to get frustrated; of course, the oppressive humidity and high heat index didn’t help my mood.

I even switched hydraulic outlets, just to rule out the obvious. But that didn’t make sense either, since I had just used every outlet last week with no issue.

And then I found the problem.

Not because I’m a genius, but because I’ve been around the block.

You see, I do have the intelligence to understand hydraulic circuits, valves, and what could restrict fluid flow. But it wasn’t my book smarts that fixed the issue, it was experience.

When I pulled out the hydraulic hose, I saw it immediately: one of the tips was a high-flow, newer-style coupler, not the old Pioneer-style tip that this 55-year-old tractor was built for.

I’ve seen this movie before. In fact, I wrote about it once: the time I was trying to unfold a newer piece of equipment and couldn’t get it to work. Back then, I made a few phone calls asking for help, swapped the tips, and boom, it worked.

Same thing here. I went up to the loft, grabbed a spare tip, swapped it out, plugged it back in, and just like that, the disc lifted and dropped like it should.

This morning, I’m writing this reflection as a thunderstorm drops rain and I prepare for the funeral of a young man taken too soon. An intelligent, inquisitive kid with big dreams of becoming a nuclear engineer.

What breaks my heart is knowing he won’t get the time or opportunity to turn that intelligence into experience, the kind that deepens knowledge, hones wisdom, and teaches lessons no textbook ever could.

It’s a reminder to all of us: experience matters.

Whether you’re fixing a hydraulic line, formulating a pig diet, or crafting a marketing campaign, sometimes it’s not just what you know. It’s what you’ve been through.

Let’s not overlook the value of experience in our coworkers, our families, and ourselves.