Through out my fifty-some years on this earth I have had the opportunity to make casual acquaintance with several wealthy people. Some I have worked for and talked to on a daily basis; others from a more distant perspective.
I like to group the wealthy people that I have met and worked for into the following classifications:
1) Self-centered, egotistical you know what’s
2) Congenial, hard workers who were self-made
3) Children of #2 (some of which became #1’s , some became #2’s
4) People my parents knew
5) Recluses
6) A Billionaire
We’ll start with #4’s. You are probably saying: “That doesn’t make any sense, why doesn’t he start with #1?” Well, I’m the one writing this and I want to start with a chronological approach. Now your saying: “If that’s the case why didn’t he make #4 the #1?” My answer to this is that unfortunately I have met and worked with several #1’s and again unfortunately they have the most lasting impression on my mind.
#4’s: My first real recollection of a rich person was the man who owned the trucking company where my father worked for some 25 years. His name was Faye. That’s his first name. I always thought it was an odd first name. The name had a rather feminine ring in my young child ears. I would never have to worry about that because I always addressed him as Mr. E….. My father always spoke very highly of Mr. E….. It was Mr. E’s general manager that was the brunt of any negativity from my Dad. I never learned if Mr. E was a master of the “good guy – bad guy” style of management. What I do know is that Mr. E threw a heck of a picnic for all his employees. I can still remember the taste of straw as I counted the $3.55 I had found in the “HAY SEARCH”. I also look back with pride and remember how two ten- year-old boys bested the entire group in the egg toss. I picked some kind of a balancing rod ???? as my prize. The egg toss winners were very low on the pecking or should I say picking order of the five tables of prizes laid out under the big tent. Mr. E definitely qualified as not only a #4, but also a #2. God rest his soul.
Another #4 came from my Mother’s days as a maid in California. My Mother worked for a family who’s patriarch was an electronics / engineering genius. Mr. S….. invented several medical machines that made him a fortune. As I recall how my mother talked about Mr. S, he must have been a great guy. He treated my mother with a great deal of respect and she told me how she felt she was almost part of the family. I never met Mr. S, but I did meet one of his daughters who moved back to Ft. Wayne, In. to start up a hospital. She was gracious when we visited and remember that my mother had always wished for a chandelier. She even offered to ship us one just like hers to our home in Indianapolis. What she didn’t realize is that if we hung it, it would probably have pulled the roof of our tiny house in. What was important was that she remembered my mother and her dreams. Mother was pleased.
Wow, this is supposed to be a funny book and here I am getting nostalgic. But wait there’s more groups to come.
#5’s: Remember, I’m the one behind the keyboard.
You will recall from earlier chapters that I spent a formidable amount of time working for the Great A & ….. Company. The Hartford family owned it in great part. I never really met them, but I did get a Christmas card from them one time, so I’m counting them. Since they never came to any corporate function that I ever attended, and no one I ever knew at the “aches and pains” ever saw them, I have classified them as recluses.
#2’s: The Heratio Algers of our world.
I had the privilege of working for another grocery company; we’ll call it SLPA, because it acquired several names over the 8 years that I worked there. This company had six people that I would consider wealthy. There were degrees of wealth. Two of the six I classify as #2’s and one I classify as a # 3. The majority owners were multi-millionaires who had made their fortune in other businesses. They were brothers and fine Christian men. I remember the first time that I really appreciated them.
It was the first of the month and the brothers always held a financial meeting at each of their businesses on a rotating basis. This particular month was the first one to be held at our location. I had just started with the company as a buyer / merchandiser in the dry grocery area of the business. My bosses boss was the one who represented our department at these meetings. He was on vacation this particular week we are talking about; so it was up to my boss to present what we did the last month and what our plans were for the upcoming month. Bob was a very smart man with a lot of grocery background. He was also a good recruiter; after all it was he who recruited me. Bob had three weeks to plan for this meeting. He’ll never admit it, but he got so nervous over having to present an hour’s worth of material to board of directors that he turned green and you know what happened next. About an hour before the meeting was to start, Bob went home sick and dehydrated. Oh boy, can you imagine the chill that ran up my spine as our president (a #1) came to tell me that I was giving the presentation. Let’s see I have about 45 minutes to prepare an hour presentation. No pressure! No sweat!
It could have been worse than the fate of horse thieves back in the old west. It could have been worse than being exposed to a swarming hive of bees. Can’t get any worse right? Oh yes it can. As a “favor” to me they put me first on the agenda so that I could get back to work. Since I didn’t even have the opportunity to observe any presentations , I had no idea what the protocol was for this meeting. I started slow, trying to remember all those presentation skills I had learning in Speech 101 at ISU. Let’s see, stay calm; find someone in the audience who looks sympathetic and focus to them (well forget that one); tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; and then tell them what you told them. I was on a roll. I was gaining confidence. Re-capping the prior month was a breeze. Hey, this isn’t so tough. I kept imagining that this one fellow was smiling instead of frowning at me. And then it happened. A president of one of the other companies asked me a question. Foul ! No one told me that I had to answer questions!!! Then it happened. One of the brothers stood up and said: “Al is a last minute substitute for this presentation and we appreciate his appearing before this board with only a half hour of preparation.” Unbelievable! I have been bailed out of a tough situation when I could have just as easily been boiled in oil. I was instantly bonded through admiration to my millionaire owner. I was put so much at ease that I not only directly answered the question but went on to complete my summary of our plans for the next month with a great deal of confidence. The millionaire clapped his hands, followed by the whole board clapping their hands (they knew how to take a hint) and giving me kudos for the job I did. Within two months, I was mysteriously promoted to a vice-president and given a company car. My (#1) said it was his idea to promote me to the youngest v.p. the company had ever had; but I know who made it happen. Thanks Mr. J !!!!
#1’s: All the # 1’s that I remember operated on one simple philosophy. I remember Mr. P asked me if I knew what the “golden rule” was. I told him yes; it means “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. He told me that was good, but he had a different golden rule in mind. “The man with the gold rules!” He also reminded me daily of who had the gold. It wasn’t me. The man with the gold also had golden parachutes. He needed them as he destroyed 5 good retail companies. His legacy will be known in retail circles for years.
#4’s: I have only met one Billionaire in my lifetime. He is the son of a man who was at one time the richest man in the world. The father was embarrassed by the fact that he was so rich. He drove an old Ford pickup truck around to try to get people to forget about how rich he was. I have a friend who is a manager at the same company that I work for, but in a different store. We recently attended a company wide meeting in Houston, Texas. Attendees at this meeting were 1575 store managers, 300 home office people and one billionaire. My friend, P, has a history of sometimes being in the right place at the wrong time. P’s history caught up with him one day at lunch. P had loaded his lunch plate and desert plate and was at the drink machine. Having balanced his desert, a moist, gooey iced brownie on top of his main entrée plate, he was an accident waiting to happen. As P was turning from the drink machine he was bumped from behind by another manager. P’s brownie fell from his stack, doing a 180 degree flip in layout position (degree of difficulty 3.2) and landed icing side down on top of the shoe of the man standing next to P. A quick mathematical calculation tells me that there was approximately 2000 people in the lunch hall at the instant of the “brownie flip”. P started at the floor seeing the brownie on the loafer, slowly raising his range of sight, up past the kachki dockers, past the short sleeve cotton polo shirt and into the eyes of the recipient of the brownie. What are the odds? You should know this. It’s 2000 to 1 that the “brownied shoe” person would be the only Billionaire I have ever met in my lifetime. This is a true story and all I can say is that P’s past history has once again repeated itself.
What are the odds?????????
