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.