What my father taught me

[mount_oregano]

It was a Friday evening. I had just arrived at Green Lake, Wisconsin, where my family had a weekend cottage, and I was trying to get in some fishing, but the fish weren't biting and the weather was deteriorating. My father came ahead of the rain and took me to the local tavern for a beer and a chat.

That evening, he told me three rules for a success at work. They weren't great moral standards for the ages, nor the only things I needed to know, but they made my life better -- and, I hope, the lives of people around me.

1. Always be as polite as you can for as long as you can.

2. The people who work for you control whether you will succeed or fail at your job. Always treat them well, because you depend on them.

3. Always tip bartenders.

Comments

[birdhousefrog.livejournal.com]

My dad is a teetotaler, so I don't know if he would agree with number 3 (he probably would as he does know a lot about a lot), but he has always heartily endorsed 1 and 2 as the way to live.

Nice tribute.

Oz

[mount-oregano.livejournal.com]

My father said one reason for number 3 was so that the bartender would remember you, so that he or she would collude with you if on some occasion you didn't want to drink, but wanted to pretend you were.

I think my father did more industrial espionage than he told us about.