You may have known someone like the kid that lived down the street from me. I’ll call him Sean. Fairly athletic, he was always outside tossing a baseball or football, depending on the season. At age 13, he wasn’t playing any organized sports, even though sports were a very big thing in our small North Florida town. No Sean didn’t look special - he just looked and acted like a normal 13 year old.
Normal, at least as the casual observer would classify normal. But normal he was not. At age 15, he was now playing organized baseball – and excelling at it. Even though he had not played the sport as a youngster, he was obviously way ahead of his peers with the baseball skills he possessed. As the years quickly flew by, he rose quietly through the ranks as one of the best high school players in the state, then college, subsequently being drafted by a Major League team.
The next time I saw Sean he was at the high school baseball field where my son was playing. Sean, now a major league pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, was giving an impromptu clinic for his former high school alma matter.
So how did this metamorphosis take place? How did Sean go from a non-baseball playing 13 year old to a Major League pitcher? Was Sean always destined for athletic greatness? Did the right coach take an interest in him? Or was it a neighbor down the road who noticed he could toss the ball harder and more accurately then any of his peers.
Questions like this have tugged at my mind over the course of my life and career. How many people in this world have unnoticed or hidden talents? How many kids could have been a world class athlete if given the right encouragement and opportunity? How many people go to work each day to a job they took because of the downturn in the economy, or because it started out as an entry level to a career that somehow got sidetracked, or ………..maybe they’ve been dead ended because their boss has never taken the time to discover the potential they possess.
Throughout my career, in roles as both employee and boss, I have been motivated by a quote I heard many years ago - “Possibly the greatest waste in life is the gap between what you are and what you could become” Zig Ziglar.
These are haunting words my friend. What I am and what I could become.
Did Sean have any idea of what he could become? Did his parents? His coach? At what point in our careers, and hopefully lives, do we realize or someone help us realize, what our potential is?
For me it happened at three distinct points in my life.
The first was my Grandfather, who when my mother left at age 5, took an amazing interest in me as a young boy. Yeah, I realize most grandfathers take an interest in their grandchildren, but from what I experienced and observed, Grandpa Dan, who lived with us from the time I was 5, went way above and beyond the call of grandfatherly duty. Grandpa Dan had a college education, participated in WW1, played violin in the Minneapolis Philharmonic but through the disaster known as “the Great Depression”, was relegated to working as a heavy laborer on construction projects. He would take his hard earned money and order me monthly science kits, so to help give me a learning advantage over others my age. He ordered me a subscription to Science Club book of the month for me to read. He shared with, and encouraged me, to read his Popular Science and Mechanix Illustrated magazines each month so I would be exposed to new technology and inovation. Besides sharing his thirst for knowledge and the desire to pass it on to me, he could do so many things and tried to teach me how to have an interest in a broad spectrum of subjects and activities. You see, beyond just being my grandfather, he could see I had a desire and the ability to learn different concepts, and a thirst for knowledge. Thankfully he had the imagination to see my potential.
Fast forward many years. The second major milestone happened when I was twenty three years old and it truly set the tone for the rest of my life.
His name was Tom, an aging white haired supervisor of 30 years which my peers called “the white tornado” - when he wasn’t within ear shot. Tom was a gruff, scary old man – especially to a twenty three year old kid in a crew of seasoned veterns. At the time, I had just returned to working in a large Naval shipyard employing over ten thousand people. I had worked there as a teenager and left to go to college. Two weeks earlier I had been rehired and assigned to Tom’s crew as a iron worker helper, the position I held when I had departed for college. As a helper, I was the lowest of the low, responsible for doing all of the grunt work for the mechanics I was assigned to assist. After only two weeks, Tom called me aside to talk. As Tom approached me, I was fearing the worst. I had been hired back as a temporary employee with no benefits and feared I might be laid off. But what Tom had to say to me was perhaps the most important words I would ever hear from another human being - that I am not related or married to. He told me that he saw something special in me – that he could tell I had what it takes to succeed.
It seems Tom unbelievably took the time to watch this young kid and apparently saw something he determined was worth while to help develop and did something about it. Tom had been watching how I handled myself with this ruff, gruff obscenity spewing crew of the iron workers.
I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. This person, whom the rest of the crew was scared shitless by, had just told me that I possessed something special. He went on to say he could tell I would make a good leader. That I would succeed and go places.
I often replay that scene in my mind. How did he know what I could be? And more importantly, why did he care enough to take the time to do something about it? This turning point in my life has never been replicated since that time. I have to wonder – did something like this happen with Sean?
I believe so. I believe it only takes one positive instance like this to totally change our lives. Tom went on to give me a promotion, convert me to permanent job status with benefits, assigned me the pick of the premier work assignments over much senior and experienced personnel, and recommended me for the Naval Nuclear program. Beginning with that brief 5 minute meeting with Tom, I went from the lowest of the low in the Shipbuilding industry to the youngest ever Naval Shipyard Superintendent - Managing a thousand people conducting maintenance on a fleet of 10 TRIDENT Nuclear submarines at the World’s premier maintenance facility 12 years later. I often ask myself - where would I be if Tom hadn’t pulled me aside that day……
The third major milestone happened at the start of my “third” career. I had recently left a large Southern California Engineering firm where I had been Vice President of Business Development and had recently begun my consulting business, busily looking for projects to jump start my business with.
I meet Willy through a former employee of mine who was doing some consulting work for him. Willy had been a Nuclear submarine office for a decade or so. At some point in his career he decided to leave the Navy and go into consulting working for one of the “Big Five” consulting firms of the early ‘90s.
Willy heard about me through this friend and a meeting in Atlanta was scheduled shortly thereafter. Over the course of the day and over dinner, Willy and I connected and I was offered a long term project in West Africa with the # 2 company on the Forbes 500 list. Since I was a rookie in consulting, the project seemed overwhelming and I remember asking Willy after diner if he thought I could do this project. His reply – “I wouldn’t give it to you if I didn’t have confidence you could do it”. What inspired Willy to offer me the job and to openly state he had the confidence in me to do it? We had just meet for the first time at noon that day and 6 hours later I felt like a trusted long time employee.
Although I had many bosses after Tom, I never had another another one take as much interest in me as Warren the person. No one else ever ask me or wanted to know what I had previously done in my life, what I was interested in, what I minored in, in college, or what I wanted to do with my life – not one.
The underlying challenge throughout the remainder of this book is as an employee, supervisor, coach or parent - take the time to see the potential in others – those you may supervise, those you may work for, or those you may see tossing a ball in the neighbors back yard as you drive home from work. I believe Zig was right.
I’ll call him Ted. Ted was a overbearing type A personality who seemed to always be in someone’s face. A chain smoker, Ted had been a real estate agent at one time, and although semi- successful, tended to run off potential customers more often than not with his rough, used car salesman tactics. I met Ted while looking at a house for sale. The next time we crossed paths, I was working as a planner and estimator. Ted had once been a rigging apprentice and since real estate wasn’t really panning out for him, decided to give rigging another try for the organization I was working for. For a short time I car pooled with Ted. During our rides to and from work we would strike up the general car pool conversations. Over time, I realized that there was much more to this person than appeared at first glance. After car pooling for a short time, Ted took a transfer to a new position on the other side of the country. I forgot about him shortly thereafter.
Fast forward a couple of years and I found myself in the midst of starting a new position on the other side of the country, now as the General Foreman of Nuclear Submarine maintenance for a fleet of 10 TRIDENT Class nuclear submarines. Since this was a totally new facility and organization, I began recruiting for positions we needed. Through the recruitment and interviewing process low and behold who did I run into again? It was Ted. Still the chain smoking, semi-obnoxious salesman type. During the interview, I again recognized something in Ted quietly tugging at me to give him the opportunity to show what he was capable of. Over the course of the next 12 years, Ted became my most loyal employee, far exceeding what his resume said of him or others for that matter, said against him. I realized that Ted had enormous potential to excel at what he did best – research and tenacity…… he just needed someone to recognize his real talent, give him a chance and help head him in the right direction. Most people never came to understand Ted as I did, which brought several challenges to me as his supervisor over the years, but when it was all said and done, I would not have been able to accomplish what I did without his untiring effort, loyalty and utilizing his ability to dig deep to get the information I needed to make solid decisions.
I met John shortly after taking a position as Chief of Operations for a company in Panama, Central America. John was a Instrumentation Technician in the shop which handled night vision devices, satellite communications and surface to ground missile systems.
On the outside John displayed a a “bad boy” persona and was pretty much ignored by his direct supervision. Tattooed and appearing rough around the edges, he was out spoken but generally recognized as being a “bark is worse than the bite” type.
One day, John invited me to go fishing with him, I decided to accept. John and I had a great time fishing that day. While fishing with him, I recognized there was more to John than met the eye. As a guy that spent most of his free time fishing the Panama Canal or Lake Gatun, John was an expert at catching Peacock Bass, the prevalent fish in those waters. During the course of spending time with John that morning and as John taught me how to catch these fish, I asked John about where he grew up, what his hobbies were, where he had lived – basically what he was interested in. I learned a lot about John that day, but most importantly I was able to see past the “bad boy” John and see who John really was. John became a real asset to the organization during the time I was there, and at one point played the most important role of any employee I may have ever had - you see, John uncovered a scheme to smuggle out surface to air missile systems. By dummying up fake work orders, and procuring repair parts for non required repairs, someone was in the midst of a scheme to build and smuggle unrecorded missle systems to General Noriega’s “people". These parts, if gone undetected, would have made up untraceable ”extra” units. John was always “good” at what he did. But with some understanding, recognition, and effort on management’s (my) part, John became utilized as an exceptional asset to the team and averted what could have been a real disaster.
