BILL'S
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Career Objective: To be a good dad for the rest of my life. Reasons:
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Previous Employment: Johnson & Johnson Schering Plough American Cyanamid University Hospitals of Cleveland Corporate Rat-Racer, par excellence. Demonstrated skill at sacrificing values for short-term rewards - money and titles. Became carrot and stick expert. Looked like a fair deal at the time. Tried combining personal values with management style, and got away with it for 30 years until the game was up. They barely tolerated me the whole time. I must have been very good at it to get away with things I did for so long. I actually thought I could change the system. Several people thought I was right. We eat lunch together once in a while now. I think I had the right idea, but my timing was off. Next life - work on timing. Current Life - early retirement, Dad stuff.
Education: University of California, San Francisco (Pharm.D., 1973) University of California, Berkeley (B.A., Psychology, 1969) More than enough formally. School itself was the easy life. They tell you what to do. If you do it, you get a good grade. Simple as that. Most of what I really needed to learn was outside of the classroom. At the time, I didn't understand that, and I wasn't quite as good a student there. I had to repeat the curriculum several times before it sunk in. Just when you think you've got it, you discover you've been fooling yourself (and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool). It is more than worth it to keep trying, even if you get put in the remedial classes. The alternatives are not very good at all. My kids will get good grades. There is little doubt about that. But they will benefit from having a better set of life skills as they go through their education. I will make certain of that. They will know the subtle but insidious hazards of not respecting their own values when they try life on for size. I certainly was not a wild kid, but I did not pay close enough attention to my developing core values. Don't let your imagination go wild - it did not involve drugs, even though it was in the 60's.
Hobbies: Charging batteries - I do enjoy fiddling with mechanical things and getting my hands and clothes very dirty. I am a confirmed do-it-yourselfer, to a fault. That is a core value. Train impersonations - I am an award-winning whistler, a lifelong source of peace and pleasure for me. When I was running marathons, I could whistle while running sub-6 minute miles - I know, you don't believe me. Device Manager - If it can be put into or attached to a computer, I probably have it. I don't know where this came from, but it's getting worse. Computers attract obsessive types. This is the only reason I may need to go back to work.
References: Talk to my wife. She will give you all the information you need and then some. She is my one true love. That I found her is beyond explanation. We take good care of each other.
Heroes: well, more like idols, but that's pretty good these days. Willie Mays - the things I saw him do with a baseball, glove and bat will never be duplicated. As far as I am concerned, he was put on this earth to teach me how baseball should be played. I had a direct mental connection with him in my youth. BB King - My copy of Live at the Regal, autographed by BB 25 years after I bought it, is sacred. Please, Lord, he must live forever. Joe Pass - Too bad people don't. Richard C. Ball - my sweet little brother who died far, far too young. I live in honor of him. Alvin Toeffler - he absolutely nailed it in 1970 with Future Shock, a survival manual for the 90's. Must reading, if you think things are going too fast. ---------------------------- Despite my misgivings about the corporate world, I believe in hard work with a real purpose other than money and position, helping people in any way I can, staying in close touch with your feelings, pausing to reflect and put things into a different perspective regularly, being conscious not to avoid the touchy issues in relationships (keeping in mind that anger is just repressed hurt that needs to get out), and watching the assumptions you make about others. I have been learning these things, which may seem second nature to others, the hard way - by violating them repeatedly and suffering from the results. You can be successful in the corporate world with these values. I was for 30 years. Just be prepared for it to be very, very uncomfortable at times.
This page is last updated Monday, August 13, 2001 |
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