The Road to Management

I was asked by a new friend how did you get into management. This story like so many more in my life involves wonderful quality people I have met along the way. My dad died when I was fourteen and it was a devastating blow to our small family of my mum, my sister and me. You cannot imagine and I have no words to tell you how wonderful he was as a man, as a husband, as a father, as a friend to others and as a help in the local community.

The first Christmas after my dad died we received an invite to a Christmas party at my cousins home. She is quite a bit older than me and had married an older man some eighteen years her senior. He was a neat person and sadly he too is now with the Lord but he lived a full and productive life and was a good husband to my cousin. He was a senior manager with GKN and every Christmas would throw a party. He simply loved Christmas and loved sharing his love of Christmas with his extended family and one special friend.

Let me digress a little to tell you of this special friend. He was the toilet attendant at the plant that my cousins husband ran. He was an elderly batchelor with no family and no where to go at Christmas and had been coming to the party for many years. He would tell me how proud he was to attend and how he would get dressed up in a suit and tie just so that he looked nice that day. He said that everyone was jealous at the company that he was the only one to get invited. He told me with pride that he kept the cleanest toilets and made sure that no one ever ran out of supplies. He liked having a "family" to bow his head with and give thanks to God on Christmas day.

He told me of his first invite many years before when the big boss had walked in to use the "works" toilet on the day before Christmas eve and asked him what he was doing for Christmas. He replied just having a quiet time at home. He was surprised or should I say a little shocked to receive his invite to the party. He told me that when he asked why he was invited he was told you are the most conscientious worker I have and set the highest standard in quality and I respect you. "Respect you". His eyes would light up when he said that because he knew it was a genuine respect. Many "modern" managers and executives fail to realize that workers can spot fake interest in them a thousand miles away.

One year at a party my host and I sat in a corner as someone had finished singing and he asked me to come into the other room. He said he had a little present for me and handed me a little black pocket diary with neatly embossed letters on the outside of it that said IIM which upon reading I found out stood for the Institute of Industrial Managers. I am a member he said and inside you will find their recommended courses on management. I know that you have the talent and one day should take these courses.

Now for a young boy who had not even left high school to be told these words it certainly made an impression on me. I put the book away and stored his words in my memory and went on with my life. It is amazing how a word given to a child at the right moment and by the right person can direct your life. I kept that pocket diary for many years. I took the National Examination Board for Supervisory Studies (NEBSS) Certificate just as the book said and then the Institute for Industrial Managers Certificate and then the Institute for Industrial Managers Diploma a total of four years of management study. One interesting statistic I found out while taking the IIM courses was that their highest number of graduates was increasingly in Asia and not the UK. Facing them later in business I was glad to have had the same training.

Being Scots from a working class family I also did an apprenticeship with Rolls Royce to become an engineer. I was told on my first day at Rolls you are about to get the best engineering training in the world. Time has proved the gentleman who made that statement correct and the many wise men both at college and within the company who taught me mechanical engineering, chemistry, metallurgy, manufacturing processes but above all everything there is to know about gas turbines are owed a debt I can never repay. It has been my craft for over thirty years and allowed me to travel the world. During that time I have been called supervisor, manager, director, vice president you pick it I have had it for a title but in each position and in each job I have tried to the best of my ability to equal the standard set not by Rolls Royce nor the senior manager at GKN but of the toilet attendant who every day set the highest standard in quality and let his work speak for itself and for him.

You receive no praise worthy of respect when you praise yourself but when someone says this is my friend they honor you. When your child says I love you they glorify you and when someone comes to you for confidential advice secure in the knowledge that it will go no further then you are respected.

I hope you earn some honor today by being a true friend and respect for your integrity and work ethic but above all that you are glorified by your children for being a wonderful parent if you are blessed to have them.

Magnolia Thoughts

I was at the Magnolia plantation last weekend with my cousin and his wife. It was 108 degrees with humidity close to 100% and I have to say that though it was interesting it was terribly hot and humid. I like heat but a dry heat is the heat for me.

One thing that surprised me was that as we rode the little train round the large plantation to see all of the wildlife I was sitting there thinking I have all of this wildlife back home. Minus the alligators of course. My buddy on Daniel Island has one in his back yard but its no thanks to alligators for me.

So you are saying how can I have so much wild life in my little half acre. Simple I keep a portion ala natural in two places. One for the butterflies and another for the birds and squirrels. Then of course my back yard backs up to the lake. Follow me if you will through a typical Saturday.

Early morning 6:30 AM the sun comes up (see previous item on this) Mr Woodpecker starts hammering on a tree at the front of the house. This of course awakens Mrs. Mallard, who sleeps under my back porch, and she starts to complain which in turn awakens Mr. Squirrel from his slumber. Old Bill or is that Young Bill? Anyway he starts throwing pine cones at her to shut up which in turn starts Mr. Mallard squawking. Old man rabbit gets nervous and stops digging up my bulbs and heads for his burrow. Needless to say this startles the deer family who are busy eating my lovely flowers for breakfast. All this activity brings young Coopers hawk down to his favorite perch and all the cardinals, humming birds and sparrows go flying off in every direction through the trees. Mr. Blue crane yawns eats the fish he catches every morning from off my dock and then craps on the awning of my boat before flying off with a burp and a oh my that was a big one!

I really tire of cleaning the crap off of the awning of my boat but just as the deer don't carry auto insurance Mr. Crane doesn't buy toilet rolls and even if he did the park rangers would probably give me his ticket for dropping paper in the lake. Now just in case you thought that was all. Last year I had a pair of bald eagles nest in the big pine tree beside my home but they decided to go somewhere else this year. Probably too noisy for them. However I now have an Osprey that I like to sit and watch drop out of the sky for fish. Much more exciting than the crane and no crap to clean up.

Black snake? Yep I saw one two years ago but he or she was not happy having a lawn mower pushed in their direction and went to live at the neighbors. Most though not all of the chipmunks moved out when I moved in and started keeping the yard free of leaves. Hey Mr Hawk comes here for a reason. Unfortunately when the majority of them left they forgot to take those nasty beavers with them. One of my (EX) friends suggested that as I was such an accomplished beaver hunter I should have no problem luring them out of an evening. Yeah right!

I don't know who the beavers lawyer is but he or she is a good one. I must get their name and address just in case I ever need a prenup. Here is the law. I live in an area classed by the county as being one where I can hunt beaver year round (the furry kind folks) if they are creating a nuisance to my property but I cannot shoot them from my boat, nor can I shoot them from the bank if they are in the water. You guessed it I cannot shoot them from my dock either as it is in the water. I can shoot them only if they are off of the shoreline and on my property beyond the "shoreline". Now add to this the little suckers come out sometime after midnight and I don't own a gun and you have fourteen trees to the beavers and no beaver pelts to me. Oh and one final problem my prayer partner from Texas is called Mr. Beavers so I think they have a spy in my camp.

I think I will just go and lie in my hammock and stare at the sky or take my boat cruising down the lake. Yes after I clean the herons crap off of the awning and y'all have a nice day!

Romantic Getaways

I started to write on this subject and thought of the (many) places I have been. It was then I remembered Google does not like one to advertise on your blog and so even though I would not be advertising the simple mention of the establishments names and locations could be construed as advertising so I thought good defense, saved again.

Have a wonderful day and a safe weekend!