A Company Man

I was listening to a Zig Ziglar CD, and he told a story about a man working for the railroad out in the hot sun, when a train came along and pulled off on the side track. A man yelled out the window and asked if that was so-and-so working out there? It was, and the man on the train invited him inside to talk. When he came back out, the other workers were impressed. “You’re friends with the vice president of the railroad?,” they asked. He told them that 30 years ago he and the other guy started working at the same time. The others asked how it was that he was still working out in the hot sun, while the other guy is now vice president? His answer was that 30 years ago the other guy “came to work for the railroad company, and I came to work for $1.35 an hour.” Pretty insightful. There are a lot of things that I seem to find out later in life. Thankfully, I don’t think that I am too old to learn new things. I am often led to wonder how different I may have turned out, had my dad lived a little longer. I was only 14 when he died, and still had so much to learn. But he did die young, and it hasn’t always been ‘A Wonderful Life.’


At one time, I was working for Cadillac Gage, my first real job after the Navy. I was working for the company, and appreciative of my salary and the benefits that the job provided my wife and I, and the family to come. I was treated with respect, provided training, and put into situations that provided opportunity for my professional growth.

Along the way in its corporate history, Cadillac Gage became part of a small conglomerate as part of Ex-Cell-O Corporation. Then, it became part of an even bigger conglomerate as part of Textron Corporation. As individual employees, our efforts to contribute to the success of a company became less important, as long range vision succumbed to short term profit and loss statements. As a new strategy to cut expenses and provide the Cadillac Gage legacy products at reduced production costs, our business was merged with another Textron subsidiary in Louisiana. Out of the many people who were loyal to the company, only a handful were selected for relocation. Unfortunately, for those of us who did make the move, there was no excitement for the Cadillac Gage business, the products, or the people who came with it. We were the “damn yankees” who were looked upon as failures in the corporate structure, and a big inconvenience to the status quo of the Navy business at Textron Marine Company. If my desire at one time was to be an integral part of the Cadillac Gage team, and its success, I suddenly found myself as part of the unwanted vehicle group, working to overcome attitudinal and cultural barriers.

- to be continued -