How You Should Honor Those Whom Have Invested in You
As you look back over the years, can you identify people whom have invested in you? People whom have given you opportunity, support, time, money, kindness or love? This post is about how I try to honor a fraction of those people in my life whom have changed everything for the better with an act of kindness towards me.
Evil does live in this world, and everyone has probably experienced their fair share. To dwell on it is corrosive. To allow a bully to have any bit of control over your present life because of your interactions in the past is allowing them to continue to take your power. Let's never focus on them, and pushed past that to remember those whom have built us up, gave us a serious chance, and allowed us to become our genuine selves.
I want to open up and share with you brief moments of my life's journey. I want to genuinely thank those people whom have believed in me, supported me, and gave me a real fighting chance.
1990 Jim
A complete stranger that introduced himself as "Jim" told me that a prospective student had failed the drug screening and lost the scholarship for the Nuclear Engineering program. He stopped me in the hallway to tell me this as I was walking out of College Registration. I had thought it would be better to go in person to see how much the Electrical Engineering program was going to cost. It turned out that it was way over my financial limits, even though it was the cheapest around. Jim picked me to tell this to.
1990 Dave P.
It turns out that Dave is the guy that does the interviews for the scholarship that I was soon after awarded. These amazing scholarships still exist, but have completely changed over time. When I got mine, they paid for everything from tuition to student fees and even books! Since the average semester was 21 credits, they also chipped in a $400 per month stipend for gas or food. All we had to do was maintain above a 2.0, which actually was quite difficult at such a pace. Dave picked me to fill that final spot.
1992 Wayne L.
Tom, Dick, and Wayne were the three supervisors in the Instrument and Control (I&C) shop. From what I remember, a person left the I&C shop to pursue other endeavors leaving a spot open on the roster of 16 technicians. Although there may not have been a lot of other qualified people to fill this role, getting into the shop was highly coveted, and a respected role in the organization. This sparked a whole new world of learning for me and was pivotal in helping me become whom I am today. Wayne picked me.
1995 Tim B.
Tim is easily one of the smartest operations people I've ever met, and he asked me if I wanted to be part of something really special and unique at the plant called the "Fix-It-Now" team. This team was made up of representatives from different departments with a main goal of protecting the schedule. If something in the plant broke overnight (or needed to be checked out), we would jump in it the next day, so the rest of the organization could continue to to support the planned scheduled work. In the military they call these Tiger Teams. Tim chose the reps for all of the other departments, and he also chose another I&C tech and me for this difficult, but rewarding task. Our team won the President's Award for the amount of work we were accomplishing. Tim believed in me.
1996 Bob E.
The plant where I was working (Unit 1) was permanently shutting down, and they allowed us to fill other roles in the greater organization and I found myself with the Root Cause group, helping to perform Apparent Cause investigations for Maintenance-related issues. This is when Tony Muschara came to our company and I sat in on my first Human Performance Training, and this sparked my love for the field. Bob chose me to head up any human performance efforts we were trying to make at the time, including starting our first Human Performance Committee, event clocks, what events and precursors were, and the gambit. I did this for almost a year before being forced to go back to the plant and be a technician again. Bob didn't want me to go, but his department couldn't afford to create a position for me, either. Bob (whom was also an ex I&C Manager) believed in me.
On the left is Bob at a company holiday party full of life - I am so lucky to have a picture with him smiling. He lost his life to cancer way too young towards the end of winter 2009. That day he was showing me his new computer and was not giving up. I was proud to show him my son before he passed. There is a lot more to that story, but that get's even way more personal between him and me. He was a great mentor, and he really had an amazing positive impact on my life and I will forever remember him in a positive light.
2007 Vince W.
Vince interviewed over 30 candidates for a position in the Organizational Effectiveness group. The open role was for the Self-Assessment Coordinator position. Bob E. was working as the Site Human Performance Coordinator/Lead. Bob later told me that he told Vince that he would move the the Self Assessment position if Vince would hire me into the Human Performance role. I know that it helped things to have Bob in my corner. Vince knew my passion, and had it reaffirmed by Bob. Vince had been in Causal Analysis for long enough to know the outcomes of many investigations. Our conversations usually were from two perspectives as I would know something about the front end, or the HPI side of things. It often felt like I was talking to Paul Harvey, because during a conversation with Vince, I would always get the "rest of the story." Vince gave me a chance.
2010 Connie P. and Mary H.
Mary supported my aspirations and introduced me to Connie and the Workforce Education Development program offered locally, but through Southern Illinois University. This was a way for me to learn how adults learn, and in the best inclusive environments. I started the program with Connie as the lead professor and had my world opened up to designing, developing, and delivering training, like no other classes I have ever been to - Connie told me that rarely would a student be able to learn something over the weekend and be able to apply it the following Monday. That is what our relationship was like. I started the program May 2010 and enjoyed it, and my classmates so much, that after moving to Kansas in June 2010, I still flew back every weekend for many months following to attend classes.
2010 Randy T.
Randy brought me into the a whole new culture and threw me right into the thick of things in my first week. I hadn't even been badged yet, and was part of a think-tank trying to figure out why some specific and significant errors were hurting the organization. This was a great way to add value right from the get-go and Randy had vision in that. He could've sat me in a cubical and just told me to get comfortable with the plant and the people, but we jumped right in. It was awesome to have an organization supporting you and treating you with the respect of an expert. It was more moving than I can describe. This made me want to do an amazing job for him and for the company. Randy believed in me.
2014 Darrel Y.
I never thought I would get out of a power plant environment, but an Electrical Transmission company wanted to bring in a Human Performance Improvement program (as a department Manager) and see what it could do to their organization. At first when they contacted me, my life situation didn't support the change, but when they contacted me again it did, and I was off to start something new, and the world was completely open to me. This was another organization that worked very well together and counted on each other to do their jobs. Mine was the first time someone was doing it, so it took a few months to get the message out and what would be different. Darrel trusted in my vision and always asked me if there was anything I needed. Darrel trusted me.
Punk
Punk is something I have called my father since I was a little kid. Through the dozens and dozens of drop offs and moves, Punk has been there to get me or drop me off whenever I asked. It is good to have someone believe in you through all of the changes that happen. That's what my father has done for me. Back in 1996 we had a talk about me doing Human Performance Improvement as a full-time job forever and he didn't think it was sustainable, as many people cycle through what seems to be a temporary position. Some people burn out doing it. Through the course of time, I have made him a believer, and having that challenge through it all, has kept me sharp. Punk supports me.
Wife
Cristen had no idea what Human Performance Improvement was until we met. She has traveled with me to almost every gig in the past 3 years and is an effective business partner. She and her parents have been an awesome source of calming in my sometimes chaotic life. Obviously, I could write many blogposts on how impactful she's been on me with her love, tolerance, and support. She allows me to be my most creative self, and encourages I follow my heart. I'm a very lucky person to have her by my side.
Honoring them
Every day I'm in the front of a class, creating training at home, marketing on a business call, learning something new, networking at a conference, or even right now making this blogpost, there are people I am trying to honor. There are certainly people in my field I stand on the shoulders of. There are also a wide array of people that have helped me, or allowed me to shape myself into what I am today. I am grateful, yet I am sad that I cannot include everyone in this post.
I am an entrepreneur doing what I love now, because so many people have believed in me over the years. I am adaptable to change because I have weathered many storms. I weathered those storms because people supported me, and I am filled with constant appreciation.
How do you continue to honor the people that believed in you?