Professional Speaker and Advisor | Award-Winning Podcast Host | Hitchhiking Rabbi | Vistage Speaker | Create a culture of ethics that earns trust, sparks initiative, and limits liability
My father took his first job in 1947, after graduating from MIT on the GI Bill. He worked for the first company to produce a ball point pen for under a dollar, and he quickly worked his way up to become foreman. He came to the two owners and showed them how the could improve efficiency in a way that would boost profits by 30 percent. They weren't interested. They were making more money than they had ever imagined, and they had no interest in putting in more effort to make more. A quarter of a century later, I could still hear the contempt in my father's voice when he recounted the story. "If you don't need more money," he said, "give it to charity. Why would anyone pass up an easy way to increase revenue when it's staring them right in the face?" It wasn't about the money. Dad's tastes remained simple his whole life. It was about discipline, about mindset, about the potential to bring good into the world that money represents. I thought of my father when I passed these Los Angeles gas stations last month. They're barely a quarter mile apart, yet the one priced 30 percent higher is apparently doing business just fine. Why would anyone pay an extra $25 a tank just to save a five minute drive? Yes, we sometimes pay for convenience. And, yes, time is money. Be we can also be careless, lazy, and unappreciative for what we have. Money, time, talent, relationships, opportunities... these are all gifts. If we squander them, we might discover that they have vanished while we weren't paying attention. If we appreciate them, we might be surprised how the multiply without limit. How have you shown appreciation for your gifts today? BTW, the tenth anniversary of Dad's passing is next week. More on that to come. #ethics #mindset #values #perspective #culture
Yonason Goldson - Thought provoking and re-igniting memories. Quite a story. I was not exactly the brightest kid on the block, so my Dad spent a fortune on private boarding schools in order to hopefully brighten my educational capabilities. At least I learnt Latin. Although in those days we wondered why. A phrase that occasionally comes up is I 'Latin is a language as dead as dead can be, it used to kill the Romans and now it's killin me! The Latin master would smack a ruler one's hand should a verb be forgotten! I won a prize for gardening in 1956! Prize? 'Wonder Book of Science. Later I attended a day prep school which is still open! I Revisted a while back. Amazing. My Dad really did invest thiusands of pounds. He also taught me polite manners which still use to this day. I still ensure ladies board a bus first!!! Younger one wonder what the hell I am doing. Than you Dad for everything.
I can totally relate to your dad. I can't tell you how many millions I've witnessed companies lose, throw away whatever term you want to use while turning down Continuous Improvement opportunities. But they are quick to cut employees when they need a fast buck or revenue is down.
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Materials Engineering Consultant at R. A. Miller Materials Engineering
7moIf people will pay at the Mobil rate shown, is Shell leaving money on the table?