A beginning to my lean journey

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when I began to consciously look for continuous improvement opportunities.  Going back through my memory bank, I can specifically see an instance in my teen-age years mowing lawns.  Motivated to spend more time in conditioned air than pushing a mower in the Texas heat, I looked for ways to minimize mowing time without risking customer satisfaction.  A common characteristic of front yards contains a sidewalk from the mailbox to the front door.  I realized that by mowing the entire yard at one time resulted in passing over this walkway multiple times resulting in wasted effort (my pushing), energy (gasoline) and process (spinning blades) because the time spent on the walkway was time not cutting grass.  A quick adjustment to my mow pattern to work one half of the yard at a time usually resulted in passing over the sidewalk only one time.  Technically still waste in the process, however, my productivity did increase.