Graduate School

Graduate School

My year in graduate school was invaluable. This experience provided me with not only an advanced education but also exposure to real business managers and a great lead for my first job after graduation.

There were four reasons this experience was so valuable.

First, 90% of our classes were based on the discussion of cases relating to reading assignments. Not, lectures.

Second, over 50% of my fellow students were either active in business or on leave from a business that was paying for their education.

Third, most of our professors were business consultants.

Fourth, I met a lifetime friend who was always there when I needed a friend to talk to and always gave me great advice.

It was one of those professors who suggested I interview with the F & R Lazarus Company in Columbus, Ohio. I got an attractive offer and started my business career as a retailer.

Interestingly Bill, one of my wife’s associates at her work, also went to work for F & R Lazarus and became a great lifetime friend of ours. Even though Bill was in the school for correspondence, he made a lifetime career in Retailing. As he married, had children, moved from Columbus to Dallas, to Alabama, Cleveland, Long Island and eventually Delaware, we never lost track of each other, our families and our careers.

Lessons learned:

1. Business management in the real world.

2. Advanced marketing techniques.

3. Business economics in application.

4. Business law.

5. How to interact with business executives.

6. The application of logistics principles to the business world.

Later College Years

In my senior year of college I decided to move out of the fraternity house into an apartment with an old high school buddy and one other fraternity brother. After about six months, I decided to propose to Jan, who I had been dating since I was a sophomore. We got married just before my last semester of college. Jan is not only great support throughout my entire career, but was mother of our daughters. That was also when I decided to go to graduate school. I applied and was accepted at the Indiana University. I promised Jan, if she would work to support me during graduate school, she would never have to work again. Fortunately, I was able to keep my promise.

It was also at about that time my old fraternity roommate, a good friend, Ted, had a great suggestion. He had been working for his father's company two days a week, and was about to go on to graduate school, also at Indiana University. His father's company was the Gibson guitar company. He introduced me to his father as an applicant for his position, which was an internal company truck driver. I got the job. Because it was only two days a week, I could schedule classes the other three days and the pay was more than my pay as a full time night janitor.

It was through this work experience that I learned a different type of mentoring from a union steward who was my partner on the truck. Our responsibility was to deliver parts from warehouses to factory locations and then finally at the end of the day take the ashes from the incinerators to the local dump. My partner taught me how to get along with other workers at the company and in and in particular how to follow the rules of the Steelworkers union culture. I learned a lot about how the hourly worker thinks, what concerns them, and most important how to motivate them. Probably the most important thing I learned was how important good communications, listening skills, and empathy are to the morale of workers.

Lessons learned:

1. The importance of good communications.

2. How to really listen.

3. How to empathize with all types of people in a variety of circumstances.

4. The importance of good morale in an organization.

College Years

The Initial Independent Years

In my sophomore year in college after a very difficult freshman year my dad came to my rescue again. The company he worked for, The Upjohn company, had a program for the sons of employees who were willing to work nights as a janitor. It was a form of scholarship. They offered us a full-time job, accommodated our studying needs and paid us well, as long as our grades were a B. average or better. I held this job for about a year and a half and although I had to go to work every day 5:30 PM and didn’t finish 12:30 AM, but it was worth it. We really only had about two hours of work to do, and the ability to use all the office facilities and equipment for our homework and we had weekends off to enjoy college life with everyone else.

This job helped in several ways. It probably kept me out of trouble. But more importantly it provided me with enough income to join a fraternity, and move into the fraternity house I was a TKE. Now, I was beginning to become an independent adult.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that even though I moved out of the house mom insisted that I bring my dirty clothes home to let her wash them and I spent most Sundays at home with mom and dad and we always visited Grandma and Grandpa with all the other children, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandchildren every Sunday. These experiences always kept me centered and recognizing the value of family and everything that we do. As I recall the experiences with our large family there were several mentors who in their own way helped me realize my successes and failures in life.

Joining the fraternity provided me with another experience that would be valuable in later life. When I joined the fraternity we were living in a very old wood frame home that was condemned. Fortunately the fraternity had paid off its mortgage and had enough money saved for a down payment on a beautiful historical Mansion. When we moved into that beautiful I was elected House manager and pledge trainer. Now I was beginning to understand the value of becoming a good mentor. I not only had to make sure that our house will was kept financially sound but also was responsible for making sure the property was maintained properly, and all of our brothers had adequate housing and food. In addition, I had the responsibility, to our brotherhood, to develop the new pledges that were invited to join our organization.

Lessons learned:

1.The importance of family.

2. How to manage a household.

3. How to mentor young men.

4. How to recognize the many mentors that came from family and friends.

More of the Early Days

While I was still a teenager but a little older I was able to get a job as a bus boy and a very large upscale cafeteria in our town. During my high school years, I was able to work at this job on the weekends and in the off-season was when I was not playing football or basketball I could work during the week. Here I began to learn the value of individual and team performance. My first job was that of just a busboy and there I learned to clear a table of four in one minute or less. I also began to develop a system that would allow me to clear that table and closer to 30 seconds. This was important because during busy times there was a customer with a full tray of food leaving the cafeteria line looking for a clean table every 30 seconds. Our goal was to be able to accommodate all of those customers immediately.

Here again a good mentor was introduced to me, it was the manager of this restaurant, Joe. He not only noticed what I had achieved as a bus boy but also began to sense that I had some leadership skills and started to encourage them.

Eventually I became good enough that I was asked to supervise and train other busboys. Now I was beginning to learn how to manage and motivate and develop other people. I also began to understand the concept of teamwork. Eventually I became the head floor manager and was asked to come in early to help set up the food system and make sure all was ready in the restaurant prior to opening the doors. I held this job and a great relationship with the owner and his son until I began my college years.

Lessons learned;

1. Doing more than the job requires.

2. Recognizing the need to support the entire enterprise, not just my own job.

3. The value of developing a good team.

4. The ability to see all the parts of an enterprise.

5. How to work with a good mentor.

6. How and why it is important to become a good mentor.