What was your first job?
At 8 years old I sold “All Occasion Cards” to anyone who opened the door to see a little kid with one sock up, one sock down, in shorts and a bunch of card boxes in a little red wagon. I bought a bike and invested $100 in a stock my dad picked. Other “first jobs” included lawn mowing, snow shoveling, handyman projects for neighbors, washing/waxing cars, and a newspaper route. My parents had no car, we were seven in a one bath home, so when you do the math, you can see that I arose to any opportunity that may have presented itself. At 16-18 I worked 2-3 nights a week at the A&P after wrestling practice, still made the honor roll. I made $1.00 an hour and was happy. Ok, the meat packer back in the freezer made us pay union dues ($10 a month). How can I forget that I was once a union member in good standing in the Amalgamated Meat Packers and Butcher Workmen of North America?

How old were you?
Started at 8, had odd jobs after school and during summers until 26 after graduating dental school.

How much were you paid?
I don’t remember but I made about $120.00 over a few months selling those cards. I was paid a buck an hour at the A&P in high school. Newspaper delivery netted around $3.50 a week. I was paid $.50 cents an hour for yard work. I had to bring the lawn mower! It was hand push and I lived in a very hilly town.

How was your first job different than you thought it would be?
Depends on what you mean by “first job.” Having all these part-time jobs, my only thought at the time was to actually GET the job but I was too young to discern whether it was different than I thought it would to be. In time I learned to tailor my dental education and skills to what I wanted it to be even though it may not have lived up to my expectations initially. Other than what I have written, I can say that during summers while in undergraduate school, I worked at a botany institute for $85.00 a week and thought I was rich. I also sold encyclopedias that paid for my first year at Georgetown Dental School. Waiting on tables and bartending for 3 years during dental school also helped me monetarily but taught me to reach for the moon, to follow my dreams so that I wouldn’t get stuck with my head in the sand. I worked at PanAm as a baggage boy, stuffing luggage during hot summers into the bellies of 747s during college. I also worked construction laying cement under bridge pilings. Yes I have had a myriad of jobs, they were all different but the same in that they all provided a means to an end: a source of money to pay tuition, gas, insurance, and some spending money. These experiences made me appreciate hard work and being frugal. And I met people, a lot of people. And during these years, I gained what I hadn’t realized until much later, that I was gaining self respect, confidence, and learned skills that helped me make decisions later on. How youth is wasted on the young!

What important lessons or skills learned in your first job have been instrumental in your success?
Hard labor made me realize that I had much to learn if I was ever to reach a pinnacle where I could run the show. A small book called The One Minute Manager made a huge difference in the way I ran my business and treated employees. When I worked for others it was evident that many employers did not treat their underlings well. So more important than learning what to do was what NOT to do. This is akin to the old adage that honey is better than vinegar and it works. I learned to manage by walking around and catching someone in the act of doing something right. This is always boosted their esteem and helped make them team players. But I also learned that most people never attain their goals because “stuff” gets in the way and is often used as an excuse not to succeed.

Did any of those lessons specifically carry into subsequent jobs after your first? How do you use those skills in your position today?
As an addition to the previous question, I can say that the sheer amount of blue collar work I had done taught me in my dental practice to treat people as equals but at the same time they had to know who ran the show. The human experience made me tough to make the right decisions, to keep good employees and dismiss the poor ones as soon as possible. With each job I had I felt that I grew just a little bit as a person, matured just a little bit each time, taking one step up the ladder at a time trying not to skip steps. Professionally this helped me working with the FDA on getting my patented dental implant approved for clinical trials because I had to work with, and convince, several bureaucrats the wisdom of my studies in the field of Oral Implantology as well as the efficacy of my invention. As Chairman of the National Academy of Implants and Transplants from 1989 to 2005, committee meetings were instrumental in getting the quality of speakers and education to the dentists in this surgical field of endeavor. Lessons from high school and college sports plus a healthy array of summer and part time jobs assisted me in attaining the mental skills necessary to be an effective employer of dozens of people over the years. What, in sum, I gleaned from all this experience is what you know after you know it all.

Have you seen how lacking those first job skills could have negative effects on others?
I think that without having prior job experience and not playing sports of some kind (it doesn’t have to be college but definitely town Little League or high school) the learning curve would not have been in positive territory, therefore the effect upon others as a direct result of my input probably would have been negative. We all have to learn what fair-mindedness is and to achieve that, if it does not come naturally, must be a learned experience, and this comes with time. Without it, we wallow in negativity, inexperience and low self esteem. The more skills one finds the more self esteems and confidence he/she should develop. Sports and employment teaches one to work with others. Since no man is an island, I think unless one is willing and capable to team up, then only negative results will occur.

Was there a specific event in your first job that taught you something you still  use today?
Definitely and I could write a book on this subject. But what comes to mind is this: during my early years in practice, when I was 29, a heavy set woman came in and I asked her pointedly “when are you due?” I knew I made a mistake immediately, as she slowly turned towards me, lifted her eyes, expressionless, and answered, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “I’m not!” To this day, when a woman comes in looking pregnant, I know nothing, I say nothing until I am directed to. The lesson here is that it’s better to listen than to engage in what may seem like idle chatter to one but can be hurtful to others. So I have learned to keep my big trap shut at necessary times. Not all the time, though, I am still learning.

Did you face any obstacles that had a significant impact on your career path?
The biggest obstacle would have been myself. For me, the actual methodology of planning for something before you try to accomplish the task is key. It is vitally important to form directives, to plan the task, or you will look unprepared and silly to others. As we used to say in Boy Scouts, and what our motto actually was, is to “Be Prepared.” This I think is the biggest obstacle for most people, being either lazy or putting off the most important part of a task, the planning phase. Showing up may be 80% of success, but if everyone shows up then you are at zero level again. This is known as competition. Remembering this, I stopped viewing others as the enemy and began to involve them in my growth process. Sometimes one has to be uncomfortable to get ahead or succeed and viewing your competition as enemies is quite costly and detrimental to progress.

What people or outside factors affected your work ethic or motivated you the most to succeed?
I had a history teacher in high school who told me one day after school, after I had failed to answer his oral questions earlier that morning, that day dreaming was actually pretty healthy. He didn’t pick on me, didn’t yell at me, just said that day dreaming was an escape from reality. From then on I paid attention in his class just to prove that I could listen. Even brought my grade up from a B to an A in the process. And that is exactly what life is, a process where the parts justify the whole. It is a journey where just sometimes you may find a ‘eureka!’ in there or a transformation for the best. But it works on the flip side as well. I was told by a teacher once that I wouldn’t amount to anything more than a gas station attendant. I always remembered this as a motivator in the negative sense, again, to prove I was better than what someone may have suggested in a negative light. Thirdly, being a senior dental officer in the US Navy and the Navy Yard, Washington DC during the Vietnam conflict made me aware of the suffering many go through. We repaired many broken teeth and were party to a lot of facial traumas during those two years. I wanted to be the best dental surgeon around to help those who may have required my services. I never forgot the suffering of those men.

What advice would you give to someone starting his  or her first job?
Maintain a positive attitude in the workplace, respect your co-workers and the employer. Do NOT say anything negative because you may be held accountable. Most importantly, plan for this job in advance by researching this position thoroughly beforehand. After all, you may be in this position for years.

What do you find most rewarding about your position today?
I didn’t do it my way, I sought the help from others and tried to consider everyone’s opinion important. What is rewarding is that I finally grasped this concept, put it into action, and it changed the way I did business. I was, in the end, able to do the surgical procedures I wanted to do most while delegating tasks that I may not have been that astute at. I developed more skills than most of my colleagues and rarely had to refer out a patient. The patients loved the “one-stop shopping” experience. I took a huge amount of post graduate courses, applied what I needed to, moved forward, retained the important material, and discarded what was not useful. For a pack rat, this was difficult but became easier with time and experience. All this attention to detail helped provide the competence to make me a better husband and father. That, is the most rewarding aspect of my position today.