The Utimate ETO
What makes a great yacht ETO?
What makes a great yacht ETO?
I’ve been thinking a bit what is it that makes someone a truly great yacht ETO and this is what I came up with.
ETO aspect
- ETO MASTER: Solves all the ETO related issues easily and independently.
- ULTIMATE REPAIRMAN: Fixes as many broken parts as possible instead of purchasing new ones and requiring service visits.
- VORACIOUS LEARNER: Keeps on learning ETO stuff that provide most bang for the buck.
- NETWORKER: Cultivates a large network of fellow ETOs, technicians and agents that can be summoned for help when needed.
- ABOVE AND BEYOND: Looking for ways how to surpass Owner’s and all the crew member’s expectations.
- YODA: Cares about his subordinates so that he is continuously providing them with challenging tasks which leads them to become better ETOs and takes care of their overall wellbeing.
- MACHINE: Continuously pulls long hours with minimum rest.
- TRACK RECORD: Multiple years of experience as the yacht ETO.
- IN IT FOR THE LONGTERM: Proven longevity.
Non-ETO aspect
- CALM UNDER PRESSURE: Composed even when most people are losing their sh..
- POSITIVE: Is a positive person that carries that smile just about everywhere.
- ENCOURAGING: Always has a kind word for everyone.
- FUNNY GUY: Good sense of humour.
- ADAPTABLE: Even when things don’t go his way, he finds a way to make the best of it.
- ARTICULATE: Excellent command of English and perhaps few other languages.
- EXCELLENT COMMUNICATOR: Easily verbalizes his thoughts and adapts them to the listener.
- ANTIFRAGILE: Becomes stronger after a setback.
- THE ULTIMATE EMPATH: Perfectly understands other’s needs, hopes and fears.
- GENUINELY GOOD PERSON: Consistently looking for the ways on how to improve the quality of life of the fellow crew members.
- UNDERSTANDS WHAT MATTERS: Able to prioritize correctly, delegate when necessary and give up on irrelevant.
- OLD SPICE: always clean, freshly shaved and smells nice, wearing that uniform as if it was custom made for him.
Now, this was my take on how to be a truly great yacht ETO.
I believe most of us ETOs out there don’t aspire to become a truly great yacht ETO and that is OK.
There are some many things in life that might be more interesting, exciting and rewarding.
However, even if you are not trying to become a great yacht ETO, there is a greater than 0% chance that developing some of the soft skills listed above will benefit you in virtually any area of your life.
But for those of you that do want to excel, I believe this might be a solid guide.
The greatest things about all of the above listed behaviours and skills is that they can be LEARNED. If you are really intent on being a great ETO, with a proper amount of sacrifice, you can do it.
And rather quickly. I suspect it might be possible to become decent in a skill in as little as 20 hours of intelligent and focused practice, check this article:
Now this will not make you a master of that skill, but there is a very good chance you will get decent at it.
And that’s a good start.
EXTRA:
Since I’m the kind of person that likes to quantify stuff, here is a bit different take 😊
Say there is a list of characteristics and behaviours that are vital for the yacht ETO’s role and you get rated for these them depending on the QUALITY and the CONSISTENCY of these characteristics and behaviours on a scale from 0 to 100;
0 being not behaving this way at all and 100 being behaving this way consistently with the highest possible quality.
For example, when rating how presentable you are - if you are Brad Pitt dressed in a custom-made Versace uniform, just showered and shaved and smiling – you get a 100.
If you are average looking, a bit of tummy there and you’re not a big fan of brushing your teeth, but uniform fits you nicely and you are clean shave , you get a 54.
If you can independently fix every ETO technical issue in 0 seconds, you are a 100.
If you can independently fix 70% of all ETO technical issues in 45 mins on average, you might be 74. You dig me?
Now, not all behaviours are equally important for the ETOs role and each one can be weighted.
For example, 0 is behaviour that is not important at all for yacht ETO and 1 is the most important behaviour of them all.
Following on this, being well groomed might be 0.5 and being able to solve technical problems might be 0.82.
So if you are Brad Pitt from the above example and you rated at 100 for appearance, you multiply that by 0.5 and get a total score of 50.
If you can independently fix 70% of all ETO technical issues in 45 mins on average and you are rated at 74, you multiply that by 0.82 and get a total score of 60.89.
All the behaviours are rated from the moment you join the yacht until the moment you leave the yacht.
All the behaviours would be rated by an omnipotent machine that can, among all the other things, monitor and rate every behaviour flawlessly and provide a real-time update on the total score.
And then total number of points determines how good you are.
And then we have the list of the best ETOs in the industry. Brilliant! Or scary :(
What do you think?