Recently, I'd mentioned to a friend how my comments years ago had shaped a family member into pursuing a better life and career. I suspect we all have had someone like that guide us, nudge us to be better, and make sure we are being the best we can be.
My father, the fourth child of a family of 7 children, was pushed by a high school teacher to think bigger. To leverage his analytical skills to be better. As a senior in high school, he did not plan to attend college. His teacher pushed him, late in his senior year to apply to college, specifically Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, which was nearby.
Dad was accepted, excelled in the Engineering program, and graduated very high in his class. That drew the attention of a recruiter that interviewed my father. They offered him an entry level Electrical Engineering job, and later announced to the team that he thought this young man would be a significant contributor to their small team designing the Atlas rocket.
The rest as they say is history. He solved a significant autopilot problem that made the innovative design functional. The Atlas rocket became the workhorse of the US Space industry. It's thrust to weight ratio was exceeded only by the Saturn V rocket, and now more recently the SpaceX Falcon rocket.
The Atlas rocket was the US's first ICBM, launched John Glenn and his Mercury capsule into space, put those huge satellites into orbit to provide telecommunications, GPS, and Spy functions, and launched almost every probe that went to the moon and the other planets – Surveyor, Pioneer, Voyager to name a few.
My father's teacher had motivated him into what became an incredibly successful and rewarding career. All thru that my mother was at his side. They were an inseparable pair, feeding off one another's strengths to be the best they could be.
They were always supportive and prodded us children to be the best we could be. When I was investigating colleges to apply to, my father expanded my short list, saying there were a lot of excellent schools for me to develop my math and science skills. Why not go for it, apply to the top schools, you might get in. Don't settle for less.
I didn't get accepted to the two top schools, but I did get accepted at one school that wasn't on my initial list. I am reminded of something an ice hockey partner told me once – you can't score if you don't shoot. You never know until you try.
My father's guidance to be the best I could be was significant. I attended an excellent college, graduated with skills that enabled me to get a great job at an incredible company and have had a wonderful and exciting career.
That lesson has allowed me to do the same for others, both friends and family members. Sometimes we just need a nudge. Other times we just need encouragement to overcome our fears. Or maybe help us see a bigger picture and to dream.
I never miss an opportunity to help others. How about you? Are you leveraging your experiences and strengths to help mold a young mind or maybe a person thinking of changing careers? You may not change the world, but you can certainly improve their chances of being happier and more successful. Your mission is to make sure that someone can rise to the challenge.
