I was born in Indianapolis in 1962, the oldest of two boys. After attending public (Perry Meridian) high school, I enrolled at Purdue University. I started dating Paula, my future wife, when we were both high school seniors (we actually met when we were in sixth grade), and we married immediately after we both finished our Purdue undergraduate degrees.
At Purdue, I began studying Solar Energy Engineering. After my first semester working in the engineering co-op program, I decided Solar wasn't mature enough as an industry to be self-sustaining. As a result, I changed majors to Engineering Science (a hybrid of physics and mechanical engineering). The co-op program consisted of five semesters of work at what was then called Harrison Radiator Division of General Motors, in Lockport, New York. Paula did a co-op program at Allison Transmission Division in Indianapolis while she studied Industrial Management. We definitely had General Motors running through our blood back in the day.
In 1986, we both graduated, were married, took a honeymoon, and moved to Western New York, all in a span of two months. It was tough being far from family, but we learned a lot about self-reliance and delayed gratification. Both of us worked at Harrison Radiator (which is now, I think, called Delphi Thermal Systems.) I started in manufacturing engineering and soon moved to product engineering where I was the primary liaison with Adam Opel in West Germany.
As I worked I discovered that I enjoyed the business aspects of what I was doing more than straight engineering. I enrolled at the State University of New York at Buffalo, taking business classes in the evenings. Before long I realized most of my peers at SUNY were simply taking classes to "check a box." In my opinion, few would see a boost to their careers from the coursework. I decided that if I really wanted to get ahead, I needed to do something different -- so I applied for a General Motors Fellowship to Harvard University, and was accepted.
By 1989, Paula and I had a baby (son, Kenneth), moved to Boston, and went from two incomes to half of one -- again, over a period of about two months. The change was even more jolting than the first one. Harvard Business School was simultaneously stimulating and terrifying. I have never since been surrounded by so many smart and competitive people. In the second year, we had child number two (Emily). Borrowing from the Cohen brothers' film, Raising Arizona (Paula's favorite comedy), we refer to HBS and Boston as our "salad days" -- happy, although lean, times. It was then that the whole world was opening up in front of us.
After Grad school, I had an 18-month work obligation with GM, which I spent in a factory in Lockport. I supervised a production department and later became the project engineer responsible for our Japanese automotive customers. It was interesting work, but in those days a long-term career at GM didn't look particularly promising. The firm was shedding employees like leaves in the fall, and few people left the company voluntarily. There were many layers between where I was and where I someday hoped to be.
As a result, I changed companies, taking a job with Emerson Electric in St. Louis, a U.S. manufacturing company that seemed to be doing things right. It was there that child number 3 (Anna) was born. We liked the area but were there only a short time. In 1995, I had my first significant career break and the family relocated to Southern California when I became a vice president at the Rosemount Analytical Liquid division. A few months later, a result of being in the right place at the right time, I was named division President.
Emerson was a tough company. Unpleasant for those in management. They had a very aggressive management style. And Southern California, while having great weather, wasn't really our family's style, either. After three years, I started looking around. In 1998, I landed a job at Valmont Industries, a publically-traded midcap company in Omaha, Nebraska.
At Valmont, I spent seven wonderful years running their Irrigation division, the world's leading manufacturer of center pivot style agricultural irrigation machines. It was a great experience, and I grew to love the business. I was inspired by a division that was both making money for the shareholders and helping to feed the world.
By 2005, I made a move within Valmont to become Group President of the North American Poles, Coatings, and Specialty Structures divisions. I was dreaming about eventually being named CEO of Valmont and on paper this move was necessary to make that happen.
But then a funny thing happened along the way. Maybe I'd reached the limit of my capability. Or maybe this time I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In 2009, about six months into the recession, I was fired.
My reaction was to attempt to bounce back quickly, but I also didn't want to relocate our family. By this point, Paula and I were well along in the process of adopting identical twin girls (Candace and Sarah) from Ethiopia. We needed stability for them. We needed stability for all of us. I was left with only a few local options. A month after my termination from Valmont I joined their competitor, Lindsay Corporation, as President of their infrastructure business.
Almost from the beginning I chaffed at Lindsay. The entire company was smaller than the group I ran at Valmont, and I felt I was "over-managed." In November of 2009, I attended a one-day conference, "Courageous Conversations," which focused on assessing your career and where you want to go in the balance of your life. I discovered most career-oriented people (like me) set their course early and then systematically avoid thinking about whether the decision is still right. This typically continued until they hit a brick wall sometime in their forties or fifties. "Courageous Conversations" led to a lot of introspection. Eventually, I convinced myself that even if I somehow managed to become CEO of a public manufacturing corporation, it wasn't going to make me happy.
In March of 2010, I quit my job at Lindsay with no plan of what I was going to do next. I was taking a sabbatical and hoping my inner voice would help clarify things.
It did.
I'd written stories off and on over the years, particularly at times of career stress. It was an escape. And while I hadn't mastered the craft of writing fiction, I'd come a long way. At that time "Leverage" was in a drawer, recently "finished." As part of my sabbatical's exploration, I sent it out to a few agents.
Like many new authors, I received my share of rejections. Eventually, one agency saw some promise in my work. After an additional rewrite and plenty of help from a professional editor (Eric Dalen), "Leverage" was ready to submit to publishers. At this point, the novel gathered a second boatload of rejections. In September of 2011 I grew tired of waiting and hoping for a traditional publishing contract and self-published Leverage on CreateSpace and Smashwords to a limited audience of friends. The release of the book on Amazon on January 11th, 2012 was my public unveiling as an author.
In 2011, Paula and I adopted another child from Ethiopia, Thomas, and in 2014 we added Carlisle. Our brood now consists of seven children born between 1989 and 2008, as well as three dogs and three cats. We live on a lake in rural Nebraska and hope to never leave.
Since the original publication of "Leverage," I've written six additional fictional works, as well as two non-fiction books (one under a pen name). The books in order of release are "Incentivize", "Deliverables," "Heir Apparent," "Pursuing Other Opportunities," "Empowered," and "Synergy." In mid-2012, I released non-fiction "Navigating Corporate Politics," and followed it up with "Lessons Learned the Hard Way" written under the name of John Samuels. I'm currently working on "Supply Chain," "Outsourced," "Anergy," "Right Sized," and "Bad Boss, Great Boss."
A word about novel titles. During my career, I was exposed to large quantities of irritating "business-speak" -- jargon that is regularly overused and misused by the business community. Since my novels all involve a business connection, I've found it amusing to utilize some of the most flagrantly misused of these terms as titles. If it only amuses me, it's enough, but hopefully readers that have invested time in the corporate salt mines, can appreciate the irony.
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