Letter 7

Hi Folks, this week I want to congratulate the team at Kimbo who is currently building camper # 500. And then I want to say a few things to you that I hope encourage you this week ahead.

A couple of days ago I walked into the shop to pick something up late at night. I see Kimbo 498 at the front of the line in the Fit and Finish section and then crane my neck to see the start of the line. The guys spray painted a “500” on a sign with all of the sub components laid out ready to be assembled the following morning.

Today I want to say thank you and congratulations to everybody; current and past who worked to get to this milestone. This is something to be really proud of and it’s something that doesn’t happen without a high standard, upheld everyday. Kimbo is built with an attention to detail and it comes from the culture, but it comes from the hands of the people who decide to care when no one is looking.

Quality isn’t a single component or a single process. It’s the culmination of a thousand components or processes that each have standards of excellence. So today I want to say thanks to the team for just-some of the little things I’ve seen.

-Thank you for sanding the edges of the doorway so that nobody hurts their foot.

-Thank you for masking off the seams on the roof before you apply roof coating so that it looks more crisp.

-Thank you for caring about how hard a rivet pulls, and thank you for learning how to find the faulty ones.

-Thank you for measuring where you place the logo in dead center, down to the 16th.

-Thank you for cutting the butyl tape excess off of the hammock ties after you tighten it down.

-Thank you for making jigs for where to place your drill holes.

-Thank you for innovating a way to run a constant strip of lights.

-Thank you for double checking the interior caulking at the corners.

-Thank you for the countless hours adjusting the margins, how the panels meet against each other.

-Thank you for caring so much about milling the table flat so your chamfers are all the same z depth.

There are more and more and more. Thank you guys for caring. It’s the little moments like where you learn the apex of tightness for a bolt that cumulatively builds quality. Thank you for caring and learning and improving every day. Nobody can take improvement and learning and betterment away. You built it into your character and you get to keep it. It transcends into every corner of life and into every conversation. Passion is a good thing when it’s got a direction.

What you guys don’t see is the moment when a couple of people, years from now, pause in the middle of their meal and admire your handiwork. What you don’t see is when a friend wakes up in a borrowed Kimbo for the first time and feels safe in the wilderness; this is the first time in their life they’ve seen this many stars. Only they get to be there, but only because of what you’ve learned to do. What you decide to become excellent at gets the opportunity to be seen, even if it’s not understood. And that’s something worth being proud of.

So congratulations everybody! It’s a moment to pause and celebrate and remember. I hope you party like it’s 1999. Whatever the next milestone becomes, we get there because of the little things. They aren’t easy, they’re hard; but you can do it. Keep up the great work.

And to any customer reading this letter, I want to say something encouraging to you. You’re worth it and you’re doing great. Keep pressing yourself a little bit every day to become better behind the scenes. You get to keep every care that you instill into your life through the building of your character. Quality is made of a thousand details, and the best of you is built with a thousand silent decisions to do what’s harder instead. What you decide to become excellent at gets the opportunity to be seen, even if it’s not understood. And that’s something worth being proud of.

-M