Archive for June 2006
ceo reveals
For decades, Jay Thiessens hid a painful secret as he built his machine and tool company from a mom-and-pop operation into a $5 million-a-year enterprise. During the day he hid behind the role of a harried businessman, too busy to review contracts or shuffle through mail. At night, his wife, Bonnie, would help him sort through the paperwork at the kitchen table, in the living room, or sometimes sitting up in bed.
Other tasks he delegated to a core group of managers at B&J Machine Tool Co. who had no idea their boss couldn't read.
"I worked for him for seven years and I had no clue," said Jack Sala, now the engineering manager for Truckee Precision, a B&J competitor. "I was his general manager. He would bring legal stuff to me and say, 'You're better at legalese than me.' I never knew I was the only one reading them."
Few people knew of his shame and most burning desire: To be able to read a simple bedtime story to his grandchildren. But he couldn't keep his illiteracy secret forever. "It became too hard to continue to hide it," said Thiessens, who has begun to read at the age of 56. "Since I made the decision to let everybody know, it's a big relief."
On Wednesday, Thiessens will be honored in Washington, D.C., as one of six national winners of the 1999 National Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative Award. Sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and MassMutual, the award recognizes small businesses that have triumphed over adversity.
Thiessens' torment took root when he was in the first or second grade in McGill, a small mining town in central Nevada. "A teacher called me stupid because I had trouble reading," he said. All through school, he was the quiet little boy in the back of the room.
"I think the teachers just got tired of looking at me so they passed me on," he said. He graduated from White Pine High School in Ely 1963, getting mostly C's, D's and F's. He made the honor roll once, in his senior
year when he landed A's in auto mechanics and machine shop.
The day after graduation, Thiessens moved to Reno, where 10 years later he started a small machine shop with his last $200. Today, B&J specializes in welding, machine parts and precision sheet metal work. With 50 employees, the company conducts $5 million a year in business and just broke ground on
a new 54,000 square-foot expansion.
Despite his success, the stigma of being labeled a dummy haunted him through adulthood. He compensated by being a good listener. He rarely forgets details and has a solid grasp of math and figures, a trait essential to the industry, others say.
"The majority of everything we do is technical," said Randy Arnett of A&B Precision, B&J's longest competitor. "It has more to do with math, geometrical shapes, than verbiage."
"He's always been a decent competitor," Arnett said of Thiessens.
Two years ago, Thiessens was invited to join a local chapter of The Executive Committee, a kind of CEO-support group where non-competing chief executives discuss business trials and tribulations in confidence.
Thiessens was reluctant. "He was concerned he wouldn't measure up to the rest of the group," said Randy Yost, committee chairman and former CEO of Placer Bank of Commerce in California. "About 6 months after we met, he told me he had a reading problem," Yost said. "At that time, he was very tight-vested about it."
Thiessens confessed to the rest of the group last year.
"He was a little teary. His voice was shaking," recalled Doug Damon, a group member and CEO of Damon Industries, a beverage concentrate manufacturer. "It was clearly a difficult thing for him to do." Damon was surprised by Thiessens confession. "I knew he was a high school graduate, and so I guess I automatically assumed he knew how to read. He'd been very successful in his business. Who would have thought?"
Thiessens feared titters and jeers from his college-educated CEO peers. Instead, he was overwhelmed by support. "As much as I respected him for what he accomplished, it enhanced my respect for him," Yost said.
Last October, Thiessens found a tutor to instruct him for an hour a day, five days a week. That's also when he told his plant managers. The rest of his employees found out last month.
Thiessens recently read "Gung Ho," a book on employee relations, as a management team project. It was slow going as he underlined all the words he didn't know and later sought help with. But he finished it. He wants someday to be able to rifle through mail as quickly as his wife and "round file" the piles of junk mail that comes across his desk.
More importantly, he hopes his story will encourage others to learn to read.
"There is no shame in not knowing how to read," said Mrs. Thiessens, his wife of 37 years. "The shame is not doing anything about it."
site transferred to www.dhavalraja.blogspot.com
plz note this site wont be updated for long time
thank u
dhaval
Add a comment J June 2006
BEING OPTIMIST
There is a story of identical twins. One was a hope-filled optimist. “Everything is coming up roses!” he would say. The other twin was a sad and hopeless pessimist. He thought that Murphy, as in Murphy’s Law, was an optimist. The worried parents of the boys brought them to the local psychologist.
He suggested to the parents a plan to balance the twins” personalities. “On their next birthday, put them in separate rooms to open their gifts. Give the pessimist the best toys you can afford, and give the optimist a box of manure.” The parents followed these instructions and carefully observed the results.
When they peeked in on the pessimist, they heard him audibly complaining, “I don’t like the color of this computer . . I’ll bet this calculator will break . . . I don’t like the game . . . I know someone who’s got a bigger toy car than this . . .”
Tiptoeing across the corridor, the parents peeked in and saw their little optimist gleefully throwing the manure up in the air. He was giggling. “You can’t fool me! Where there’s this much manure, there’s gotta be a pony!”
Add a comment J June 2006
REFUSING TO ACCEPT FAILURE
Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest. On May 29, 1953 he scaled the highest mountain then known to man-29,000 feet straight up. He was knighted for his efforts. He even made American Express card commercials because of it! However, until we read his book, High Adventure, we don't understand that Hillary had to grow into this success. You see, in 1952 he attempted to climb Mount Everest, but failed. A few weeks later a group in England asked him to address its members. Hillary walked on stage to a thunderous applause. The audience was recognizing an attempt at greatness, but Edmund Hillary saw himself as a failure. He moved away from the microphone and walked to the edge of the platform. He made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a loud voice, "Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow… but I'm still growing!"
Add a comment J June 2006
WHY WE NEED PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
let us know why we need personal development
Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter ask for a job in a timber merchant, and he got it. The paid was really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.
His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees
"Congratulations," the boss said. "Go on that way!"
Very motivated for the boss’ words, the woodcutter try harder the next day, but he only could bring 15 trees. The third day he try even harder, but he only could bring 10 trees.Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.
"I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.
"When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" the boss asked.
"Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…"
hope u enjoyed the story and learnt from it
THE ARTICLE FROM HARDWORK IS COMING SOONER
dhaval
Add a comment J June 2006
WILL POWER
Ya i know it seems to be an inspiring word but most of us dont know how to use it lets define it
will power is the strong temporary booster in a positve direction for practicing self discipline
it is a spear head of self discipline its a temporary booster which is very powerful but remains for only a shorter period .many people make plans but are not able to follow those plans and say that there is nothing like will power.but they are mistaken because they dont know how to use will power
will power should be used to create a bleachead i.e. to make circumsrtances equivalent to help u reach ur goal
let me explain with an example if you are overweight and want to lose 20 pounds of your weight than youll make a plan follow it for a few days and then when ur will power decreases you quit because you just cant every day control yourself from eating junkfood daily. heres a better scenario after u make plans for ur diet ur will power is at its best during the first day so use it by doing the following task
throw all the junk food from ur refridgerator
join a weightwatcher club
keep lots of raw food in your house
keep some time in ur schedule to bring raw food
keep some time for cooking so u dont have to rush to eat junk food when ur hungry, but dont have time to make food
bring a book of recipies
bring a book on diet balance and plan for a balanced diet
tell those who live with you not to bring junkfood in front of you
post a weight chart in ur house where you can see it daily
ooooooof! a lot of work done on the first day of ur plan but these time ur gonna suceed because u hav already made circumstances that suit u .now you wont eat junk food because u hav lot of veggie at home a lot of reciepes option and some time dedicated to cooking so u wont eat junk foods
morever u'll have a lot of balance diet planned,and as ur a member of a weight watcher group which will be having weekly seminar for reducing ur weight ,this will keep u focused on ur goal and yes though ull hav to use some self discipline to maintain this but definately less,because u already have adjusted ur circumsatances matching ur goal
hence will power has to be used for what it is ,to create a headstart
the next post will be on hardwork(i know we hate this word)
thanks
dhaval
2 comments J June 2006
ACCEPTANCE
This post is a part of six part post series on selfdiscipline
ACCEPTANCE :
The reason why we cannot develop self-discipline is that we either underestimate or overestimate our capabilities,we dont accept our current position as we are
if we underestimate our capabilities we just live in our comfort zone and dont raise our bar which is neseccary for our progress
if we overestimate our capabilities we simply keep on trying and keep on failing by not reaching our targets & ultimately we get fed-up with the whole concept of developing self-discipline.
hence its necessary that we understand i.e. accept our present scnario ,don,t just think about it but document it,
by documenting ur discipline levels for a week atleast will tell u exactly about your current discipline level when you know where u stand u can actually than strive to grow in your life by making proper plans which depend on increasing your bar evrytime u conquer ur targets
hope u understood the concept of acceptance if u have any doubt feel free to comment and i will try to give a solution
the next will be about will power
it will tell u wat exactly willpower is.
thank you,
dhaval
3 comments J June 2006
