Category: Uncategorized

I’ve had some odd jobs. As a kid early on most of these jobs came from the Recreation Center in my hometown of Nolensville, Tennessee. I picked up trash at the baseball fields where I played little league. I swept the bleachers in the gymnasium where I played basketball. As I got older I did more down at the Recreation Center. I mowed grass. I raked fields. I chalked lines on the ball fields. Still picked up trash. I also umpired baseball and softball games. Occasionally during the week but mostly on weekends. Picking up trash was hard work. Enduring mouthy coaches and parents was harder work.

I had odd jobs as a teenager. The summer after my junior year in high school I went to work at a retreat named Ridgecrest, located in the Black Mountains outside Asheville, North Carolina. It was my first time away from home for more than a week. I worked there for around two months. I believe my dad’s idea for me working there was about getting me ready for my senior year of high school and college. It worked. I learned a lot, and the experience helped better prepare me for both.

After that summer I took a job at a great big Baptist church in Franklin, Tennessee. The one I grew up going to. I did setups on Saturday and breakdowns on Sunday. I made sure the doors where unlocked on Sunday morning, kept the coffee pots full during the day, and locked the doors Sunday night. That job taught me real responsibility. People were actually counting on me to show up and get the job done. It would have been embarrassing to have let them down.

During college I generally only worked holidays and summer vacation. The summer after my freshman year I was a camp counselor for the Williamson Country Summer Day Camp program. I also started working nights at a dollar movie theatre. There were some characters at both places. The summer after my sophomore year I was a camp counselor at an overnight camp right outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee. I remember it as the greatest. Canoeing. Swimming. It was fun but dealing with that many kids was a challenge. That experience taught me a lot about teamwork.

There was one notable exception to only working weekends and holidays in college. I had spent my working in the warehouse for a publishing company and decided to see if I could add baker to my resume. What was I thinking. I was talked into working a 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM shift by the new sandwich and pizza shop that opened close to my apartment making bread and pizza dough. I really should have known better. I am not a morning person. You’re talking to a guy who avoided 8:00 AM classes his entire college career outside of his first and last semesters. The first was a rookie mistake. The second was unavoidable. Believe me. I was a baker for about two months before the owner decided that he only needed two bakers, not three, and I was the only one who put his classes and exams before the job. Don’t think he meant it as a good thing but that is how I took it.

Soon after I graduated and my jobs began to look and feel more, well, adult. Which is really what all of my jobs since have been like. Grown up. On some level I have enjoyed every job I’ve ever had. They have all taught me at least one or two things I’ve taken with me to my next job. And they were all wonderfully and perfectly odd.

As of today, I will no longer be posting on owenwbrown.com (well, okay technically as of February 3, 2011 but whose paying that close attention). Come see me at the new owenwalkerbrown.com and say hello.

It was good while it lasted. It’s not you. It’s not me. Blame it on the spam. Yes, we can all agree. Spam be damn.

Thirteen years. That’s how long I’ve been a “grown-up” member of the workforce. I graduated from college summer of 1997 and started working full time shorty after. I was considering that fact recently and it sort of popped into my head how lucky I have been to have worked for some pretty outstanding people. Specifically, I was thinking about a very nice thank you note I had in my inbox the past Monday morning. It was from my current manager, thanking me for some work I’d recently completed. It was a sincere thank you note, and for many of us, a simple “atta boy”, timed just right, can be (almost) as good as cash money.

That was the impetus; however, I still debated writing this at all. I didn’t want it to come across like I was writing the story for selfish reasons. So, my wife and I discussed it, and we agreed I should set some ground rules. In order to show up on this list, the following criteria must be met:

(1) I worked for you directly.
(2) I worked for you for at least one full year.
(3) I do not work for you currently.

Not too many rules but enough so I feel comfortable naming names! In order of chronology:

Paul Ellis – I worked for Paul at Lifeway Christian Resources in Nashville, Tennessee. He was my sales manager and taught me all I know that is worth knowing about sales. From being honest and straight forward, to never being afraid to ask (however creatively) for the sale. I learned my lessons well. While I may no longer be in sales in the classic sense, I still use those same techniques when selling myself, and my ideas.

Jackie Joo – I worked for Jackie at Lennox Industries (formerly Service Experts) in Brentwood, Tennessee and Richardson, Texas. Jackie taught me how to teach. She stuck with me and I will always be grateful for her patience and vision; in seeing in me an innate talent, and helping me become a better communicator and instructor.

Eric Andrews – I worked for Eric at New Horizons Computer Learning Centers in Culver City, California. He was the first person to give me the advice to learn and teach project management. That advice changed my life and altered my career path forever. I met and taught folks that would become a part of both my personal and business network; people that would champion me and guide me in directions I hadn’t previously considered possible.

Patty Coryell – I worked for Patty at Countrywide Financial in Agoura Hills, California. She was my great encourager. She always seemed to know just the right thing to say, and provided just the right amount of direction while always allowing me to be a “manager of one”. She taught me to to listen, observe, and then to do what a manager would do; set the tone, determine what needs to get done, and do it.

Marc Braunstein – I worked for Marc at Countrywide Financial in Chandler, Arizona. He was my first manager as a manager myself (that met the criteria). I have never, and I mean never, had a manager that worked harder at getting to know me, and my management style. I realize now how lucky I was to have had the opportunity to work with him, as the more he learned about me, and my communication style, the more he helped me improve; both as a manager, and as a communicator.

I hope this story comes across as sincere. I hope at some point each of these important people, these mentors of mine, somehow venture upon this story and know how much I appreciate each and every one of them. Thank you.

Happy Friday!