Good Advice

[05Venturer]

Some advice that always sticks with me was given to me by an old family friend and mentor in my career in the dairy business. I had known "Big John" for many years as my father actually worked for him in his early years. I was given a chance and took my first job in management at a cheese manufacturing plant and I was struggling a bit with employees that didn't have a "sense of urgency" which is often needed in the dairy business. One day John and I were sitting in his office having a smoke (him a pipeful of Prince Albert and me a Marlboro) discussing the issue of employees not having the drive to get moving  and he said "Kenny, sometimes you got to tell then to get moving because wait(weight) broke the wagon, and one other thing is that if things aren't going the way you want and you need to know why, sometimes you gotta look in the mirror. The latter seemed a bit harsh at the time but it was some of the best advice I could have gotten at that time. Since then John and I became very close and worked together for many years and he taught me more than I will ever remember. He is since retired and of late has had some health issues and been moved into a assisted living facility and I feel terrible that I haven't been to see him for months and I want to thank Dan for this thread and reminding me of this and I need to go make a visit to "Big John" in the next week or so before it's too late.

[Kid Montana]

05Venturer - 9/6/2018  7:26 PM

Some advice that always sticks with me was given to me by an old family friend and mentor in my career in the dairy business. I had known "Big John" for many years as my father actually worked for him in his early years. I was given a chance and took my first job in management at a cheese manufacturing plant and I was struggling a bit with employees that didn't have a "sense of urgency" which is often needed in the dairy business. One day John and I were sitting in his office having a smoke (him a pipeful of Prince Albert and me a Marlboro) discussing the issue of employees not having the drive to get moving  and he said "Kenny, sometimes you got to tell then to get moving because wait(weight) broke the wagon, and one other thing is that if things aren't going the way you want and you need to know why, sometimes you gotta look in the mirror. The latter seemed a bit harsh at the time but it was some of the best advice I could have gotten at that time. Since then John and I became very close and worked together for many years and he taught me more than I will ever remember. He is since retired and of late has had some health issues and been moved into a assisted living facility and I feel terrible that I haven't been to see him for months and I want to thank Dan for this thread and reminding me of this and I need to go make a visit to "Big John" in the next week or so before it's too late.

Good stuff Kent, I always struggled to understand if my actions as a leader were motivating or exasperating my subordinates.  Being willing to look at myself honestly and make adjustments made a huge difference.

[Kid Montana]

Just a reminder, this contest ends tomorrow morning.  Everyone will really enjoy reading your entry, and you'll enjoy the cigars available to win.

[Brlesq]

On my wedding day 27 years ago, my father-in-law took me aside and said "Listen, I have important advice to give you: If you ever come home from work and find the front door has a fresh coat of red paint, just use the backdoor."

 

[Kid Montana]

Brlesq - 9/7/2018  3:39 PM

On my wedding day 27 years ago, my father-in-law took me aside and said "Listen, I have important advice to give you: If you ever come home from work and find the front door has a fresh coat of red paint, just use the backdoor."

 

 

[Kid Montana]

Hey hey, so 11 folks entered my little contest, thank you all for sharing.  This is a contest I'd been thinking about for a long time and am grateful to everyone who took the time to type up a response.  I assigned each participant a number based on the order they posted their response, and had a random number generator pick from 1 to 11.  The winner is Silverstix!  I will PM you to confirm your address, and look for something in the mail early next week!

[benchjockey]

Interesting and well thought out contest, Daniel. Congrats to Tom.

[05Venturer]

Thanks for the contest Dan and congrats Tom.

[PETE314]

Congrats!!!!!!

Thanks for the contest!!!

[Murphy223]

Great Topic - Thanks for kickstarting it

[Silverstix]

Thanks guys, and THANK YOU DAN. This was a really great idea and it was really nice to hear everyone's positive stories.

[Brlesq]

Great idea for a contest, Dan.

Congrats Tom!

[quickme]

Great contest!!  Congrats Dan!

[Chefjohn]

Congrats Tom.

[junglepete]

  Nice...congrats Tom...clever contest.

[ninfiction]

Great contest Dan, thanks for doing it.

Congrats Tom!

[Silverstix]

Don't have access to a computer tonight, so I will post a picture tomorrow morning.  But let me tease it and say that this is the mother of all 5'ers.....and Dan's math may be a little bit off!

[Silverstix]

So here she is - the mother of all 5'ers (6'ers)

Forbidden X Toro (2016)

Padron Family Reserve 44 Years

Anejo #77 Shark (2013)

Drew Estate Dirty Rat (2015)

Southern Draw Jacob's Ladder Lancero (2018)

Illusione H-Town Lancero (2016)

[Silverstix]

Thank you again Dan for putting this together and for giving me such incredible cigars to smoke.  I will surely treasure them all and when I smoke each one I will think of the story I told

[benchjockey]

Wow, that's an incredible prize package!

[shakinghorizons]

Very nice prize pack!

[quickme]

WOW thats a great prize!!

[junglepete]

Primo Sticks!!!   ...real badass