Life Lessons from a Lubricant

I bought a can of WD-40

For those of you who haven't heard of WD-40 before, it's a spray used for predominantly lubricating metal joints, hinges, clamps etc. It has other functions but I bought it specifically to lubricate a heavy metal gate's hinges to make it swivel smoothly.

I was so impressed by it that I decided to use a lot of it on all my doors and windows even though they didn't have any such problem. After a few days, all the doors and hinges were amazingly smooth and opened and closed without any sound.

But that's when the problem started. The lubricant was so excellent at its job that the doors now required very little force to open/close. That meant that even a gentle breeze would result in the doors and windows slamming like a storm was passing through. Now, I have to buy stoppers for all my doors or live with the constant sound of slamming doors.

In other words, by trying to solve a problem that pretty much didn't exist, I've created another problem that will haunt me for a long time or cost more money to fix.

I think we can apply that to the problems we face at work too. Don't try to solve a problem that doesn't exist just because you like a solution too much.

Life Lessons from a Lubricant

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