Career Choices

Sometimes I still wonder – how, exactly, did I get here? What choices, what interests did I express that set me on a path to becoming first an engineer, then to setting my sights beyond that? Most of us have a path that defines itself as much as we define it. We don’t start, as a few people do, knowing very early on what they are destined to do, to become. It has been a mystery and a journey of discovery for most of my life. Most of the time it’s been one great ride, and I wouldn’t trade it because it’s who I am. I like who I am, and I like that others see value in who I am. It’s validation I’ve done a few things right.

So, I got to thinking, what’s the summary of how I got here? Short of being born, here’s the rundown. I think it all started with both a love of sports and an aptitude for school. I was motivated to learn, probably because I was good at it and it was sort of a competition to be the best. Not sure why I was so competitive about things. It must have been engrained in me before I realized what it was. Maybe it was the perfectionism my parents surrounded us with.

As for sports, I would scour the sports section and the game box scores every night. Perched across my Dad’s hassock, I would pour over every line figuring out what all the acronyms stood for, what they meant. I learned how to do decimals and percentages by deciphering batting averages and ERAs, by looking at yards per carry, completion rates and win/loss percentages. Every season, every sport, had statistics to examine and try to understand how they were obtained, why they were important, and how they measured success.

Playing games with older boys taught me tenacity and determination. I wanted to belong and to prove I belonged. It wasn’t easy playing with boys 3 and 4 years older.

Thanks to my Mom, I learned to read music and play the piano. Because of her, I also had an interest in drawing the world around me – trees, water, mountains. Watching and helping my Dad developed my desire to take metal shop, print shop and, my favorite, wood shop. Drafting and architecture classes formed the basis for later being hired at Boeing. What a serendipitous choice that was. In those days, a job application was filled out by hand. My high school draftsmanship got me in the door.

High school turned from science and math to writing and the humanities when I took an English class from an extraordinary man, Brad Folensbee. He was a hard teacher, but he opened up a whole new world of learning that led to art, art history and expository writing classes. College was a mix of art, art history, drafting design, tech classes, business, and photography. Back in those days, photography meant film, developer, fixer and print paper. I built my own darkroom in a shed under my Mom and Dad’s deck.

That mix built on my sense of art and aesthetic composition, shape and color. It also gave me a foundation of economics and business. It was a combination of skills and experiences very few engineers had, and it ultimately separated me from them and gave me the crazy idea to start my own companies.

Early on, I tried my hand at commercial photography, but I didn’t have the money to afford a proper studio or equipment. Photography is really competitive and, ultimately, doesn’t pay that well unless you’re in that very small top tier. Wedding photography was a hassle and a headache – dealing with people who were distracted and rarely completely sober was a pain. I moved on.

I worked my way through college at jobs that included seven years at a True Value Hardware store, several of which I was the paint department manager. Again more training in color, shape and form. I learned a lot about plumbing and electrical, and business. In between, I also worked as a professional ski patroller and instructor. You learn a lot about people in those jobs – how to help them, how to listen, how to put up with them. All good training to becoming a manager and leader.

All these bits ended up working together in small and subtle ways to create a valuable set of skills I was able to recognize and leverage into further opportunities. It’s always amazing how your little bits of service and experience end up working together to make you into something that may have been originally unforeseen. That’s what taking on a variety of things that interest you do. In the big scheme of things trying new things will only make you better overall. It’s a no lose proposition, so give it a go!