Through sheer work ethic, I was able to build some solid career momentum in my late teens and early twenties. Never one to pass up an opportunity simply because I didn’t have the qualifications listed as required on a job posting, I took some chances that I was far from capable of - at least in the ...

I chose not to go to college for two primary reasons, with a third that could arguably make that list if I’m being honest with myself. I hated sitting still during class all through high school and had zero interest in paying for the opportunity to do more of it at the next level. Since my natural b...

Not long after making the decision to stop drinking completely, Ron (who I now reported directly to in my 5S implementation role) decided to step away from the behavior-based safety facilitator role and return to a manufacturing supervisor position. I don’t remember why but I distinctly remember bei...

The weeks and months that followed that heated 5S implementation session encounter involved less direct confrontation but they were far from smooth and rarely achieved the results or impact the corporate office expected. To that end, few were achieving the results even I expected - and I didn’t know...

Less than two months after the let down of not being offered the behavior-based safety facilitator position, I noticed a new opportunity posted on the internal job board. This was for a “5S Trainer” position, one of four throughout the facility, that would have responsibility for implementing a foun...

I had a few things going for me leading into the interview for the behavior-based safety facilitator role: a tremendous work ethic, a willingness to jump at any opportunity that was even mildly offered, and a hunger to advance. That said, there was very little polish to any of it. Couple my rough ed...

I’ll be completely transparent here, the only things I had going for me leading up to that interview for the behavior-based safety facilitator role was that I was willing to work hard and I had been actively involved in a few aspects of the process. I hadn’t touched a text book since high school, an...

Late ‘99 and early ‘00 was, at least to that point, the busiest period of our lives. We had just moved into our new home on two and a half acres of recently subdivided farm land so there was a tremendous amount of work to do there. I was picking up any side work I could find, carpentering and pickin...

Still far from being the most talented in the workforce, or even in my home department for that matter, I built some solid career momentum through 1998 and into 1999. My role as bouncer for my former coworker’s sister had turned into far more than that initial evening of her driving and me being a h...

I can barely wait to push forward in sharing more about how impactful serving as bouncer for my friend’s sister was as well as how my working relationship developed with the maintenance supervisor who walked by my machine a few times each day. We’re not quite ready for that yet, though. First, we ne...

Even at fifteen years old and riding a bicycle to the job sites each day, showing up on time consistently and giving it everything I was capable of - even when I wasn’t capable of all that much - helped me earn moderate respect from the men I was trying to keep up with. Carrying that same work ethic...

Working from 3:30p to 1:40a, at least Monday through Thursday with frequent Fridays and Saturdays scheduled for mandatory overtime, for most of my first two years in manufacturing was clearly part of God’s plan; I certainly wasn’t doing much planning of my own and that point. Any planning I had a ha...