Pursuit of perfection makes young man a masonry master

Zou Bin, a young man in his 20s from central China’s Hunan Province, has been a master bricklayer for a number of years. In 2015, he became the first Chinese person to win a prize in bricklaying at WorldSkills, the world championship for vocational skills.

From a newbie to a master, Zou’s pursuit of perfection may explain his road to excellence.

Zou Bin at work. (Photo/Hunan Daily)

In 2011, Zou left his hometown in Xinhua county, Hunan Province and followed in the footsteps of his father to work as a construction worker at a construction site run by China Construction Fifth Engineering Division Corp., Ltd. (CCFED) in Changsha, capital city of the province. After the young man chose to be a construction worker, he made up his mind to work hard and do his best.

Zou began to learn bricklaying, starting from how to control an exact amount of mortar on the surface of bricks. He soon distinguished himself among his fellow workers in the construction site for his seriousness about his work.

When the first wall built by Zou passed quality acceptance, he was not satisfied with its quality as he found that the thickness of mortar joints varied. Then he paid very close attention to the amount of mortar between bricks and the verticality of walls and gradually polished his skills.

While his fellow workers tried to build walls as quickly as possible to earn more, Zou adopted high standards and pulled his walls down to rebuild when he thought they weren’t good enough.

After one year of hard work, Zou ensured that the thickness of a horizontal joint and a vertical mortar joint is no more than 1cm. He also guaranteed that the surface of the brick wall built by him looks smooth and clean and that the wall is vertical.

“Since I have chosen this career, I should do my best work,” Zou said.

It was this stubborn attention to detail and emphasis on quality that made him stand out. In 2014, Zou won a prize in a bricklaying contest held by CCFED. He was then recommended to take part in the 43rd WorldSkills Competition, which was scheduled to be held in Brazil in August 2015.

To prepare for the competition, Zou underwent intense training, which was an eye-opener for him. During the preparatory training, Zou learned how to use over 100 bricklaying tools, many of which he had never seen before. He also learned geometry, which presented him with great challenges because he previous knew little about the subject, and was able to make the necessary calculations concerning the pattern of bricklaying according to engineering drawings.

Zou continued insisting on pursuing perfection during the training, which won him influence as a true “craftsman” among other trainees.

Finally, Zou won a prize in the bricklaying contest of the 43rd WorldSkills Competition, setting a record for China in this field.

Back home, Zou was promoted by a subsidiary company of CCFED as a quality supervisor for construction projects, coaching other bricklayers. Now he is the quality director for construction projects of the subsidiary company.

“One can make something of himself or herself in every occupation. If only we can pursue fine workmanship on ordinary positions, we can ultimately succeed,” Zou said.