A person who has done something badly will seek to lay the blame on their equipment rather than admit their own lack of skill. It is always said and is I feel accepted by all that: “A Bad Works man always quarrels with his tools”. People say a bad works man blames his tools when someone says that something he/she has done is not of good quality because he/she does not have the correct things to do it with, to mean that it is really because he/she does not have enough skills. A bad works man is he or she, who does not realize his/her own shortcomings but picks up holes with the instruments he/she is to work with. He/she develops an attitude of pooh-pooh and blames his environment in which he/she is to apply the tools to complete a work.
A bad workman, even if he were provided with reasonably a good environment, would grumble about while doing work. He would not like to look into his sleeve to identify his personal shortcomings but would blame the tools in one way or the other. The tools are least to blame. They can be made use of dexterously if the workman has the necessary level of expertise to apply them. The bad workmen attribute low output to their tools and not to themselves. Conditions have never been ideal for a person. A person himself or herself has to change the bad environments to his/ her advantage. Tools symbolically can be taken for environments. Environments pose challenge to man and he is to accept them. A person has to respond to the challenges through well-conceived practical strategies. A person, who has the initiative, grit and go in himself/herself, can cope even with the blunt tools. The proverb, if properly is understood, and interpreted, is a valuable guide to practical life. We cannot always find every convenience for doing a job. There are many difficulties that have to be overcome. The incompetent person always grumbles. He/she finds nothing to his/her liking. He/she makes this and excuses for his/her poor performance and incompetent work. He/she thinks less of what can be done than of the conditions of work, which are never to his liking. He/she does not know how to make the most of the existing conditions. But a good worksman always takes everything sportingly and turns things to his/her advantage. He/she knows that he/she cannot have everything to his/her own choice. He/she sets himself/herself to the task of removing his difficulties. A good worksman always makes for success. He/she knows there are difficulties, but he/she knows also that he/she is to be overcome with persistence and intelligence, with adoptability.
In order, therefore, not to quarrel with one’s tools or complain about difficulties regarding the conditions of work, or bad luck, a good works man has to develop certain mental qualities that make it unnecessary for him/her to complain. In the first place, he/she must be self-reliant. He/she must have faith that he/she also can do what others have done. A person who is having the best equipment in the world, but he not aware of how to use them will not able to complete the task efficiently, instead, he will blame the tool. Whereas a person completed his work efficiently with the tools available to him can do any work make it a success, because he’s not wasting his time by looking at the fault in his tool. Tools help to improve the quality of the work, therefore they are necessary for the work to be done, but it is important how they are used and who uses them. A good works man is known by his efficiency in handling his tools. He/she knows how to put the tools to proper use and he/she does not blame them. A bad workman does not know how to make the proper use of his tools, so he/she quarrels with them. As a result, his/her quality of the work will be low. Here, he/she is not ready to accept his/her own lack of skill and talent. For this proverb, we can find a lot of examples in our surrounding’s and in a day to day basis. Usually, when a student is not able to write the exam well he/she either blames that the question paper was too tough or the teacher had not taught him/her properly. He/she never admits that he/she has not prepared well for the exam.
A good works man would take full responsibility for any fault and not try to blame his equipment. He is wise enough to learn from his mistakes and improve the quality of his work. Therefore, someone blaming poor work on his or her tools must not be very skilled. In other words, a person who is unskilled cannot do skilled work even with the very best tools.
(The author is a teacher at Govt High School Brakpora Anantnag. Views are his own)
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