In the introduction to Bud’s Rules, I mentioned the fact that my father had a fourth grade education. It seems that during 1933, when Bud was about ten years old, there was a terrible epidemic of scarlet fever throughout the country. Since my father had contracted the disease as a baby, he was immune. Therefore, he took some time off from his class work to help neighbors tend to livestock and various chores in the community when entire families were down sick and unable to take care of their farms. He never went back to school.
After I wrote about that, someone mentioned to me that they never knew he had quit school so early. The fact was, Dad could barely read and write; I used to pick out anniversary cards and write things for him because it was a challenge for him. But if you knew my father, you would have never guessed. What Bud lacked in academics, he made up for in what we call “common sense.”
Dad always seemed to apply the life skills he had learned to everyday living, and it gave him the confidence to take on goals he might not have otherwise tackled. During the 1950’s, some of the best employers in our area were companies like DuPont and Ford’s glass manufacturing division. Most folks would have been fortunate to have landed a job at either; Bud worked at both.
As he started out for his first shift of work at DuPont, my grandfather was not optimistic. “You won’t make it one night, son,” he said, shaking his head. He just didn’t think the slow, methodical sensibilities of a farm boy work ethic would translate to a fast paced industrial setting. But Bud did make it. Working several years at DuPont, when a product line played out and he was laid off, he landed a job to Ford and put in 26 years of service.
He worked in a variety of jobs and was a union captain with the local UAW. On top of that, he farmed a dairy and beef cattle operation with the help of my mother and his sons. He backed down from few challenges and seemed to be intimidated by no one. Not bad for a country boy with an elementary education.
The lessons I learned from his applied common sense and simple confidence in his own ability have helped me in my own life. Having worked in the blue collar field for nearly 20 years, I felt daunted by the situation I found myself in nine years ago, when a crippling motorcycle accident prevented me from returning to a workplace where I had made my living for quite a few years. Faced with the prospect of retirement on disability before I was 40, I applied a little of Dad’s common sense and confidence to my own situation, and returned to school, completing a degree in just over three years and becoming a Certified Public Accountant.
While that accomplishment may seem like an academic achievement, let me say that academics alone will not get you there. During the current economic downturn, I’ve seen many bright, educated young people that lacked the confidence to go out and sell themselves in a tough job market. Likewise, I have friends in their 40’s and 50’s that refuse to use a little common sense and adapt to the current situation. They also lack the confidence to reach out and try something new.
I believe that life still takes confidence and common sense. Yes, we live in a world that is more technologically complex and requires a higher level of base education in the workplace. I know that someone with an elementary school education would never get an interview for most jobs today. But once your foot is in the door, it’s going to take some practical application of knowledge and solid people skills to help you survive.
Many times, I have heard my father say that some individuals had “book smarts”, but lacked common sense. I’ve seen that myself; college graduates that maintained a 4.0 GPA, but were virtually unemployable. It has been said that knowledge is power; but knowledge without wisdom is like a fully charged battery with nothing connected. That’s what common sense is; wisdom, pure and simple. It is the ability to apply what you’ve learned to the problems that face us in the real world.
It is this common sense that gives us confidence. It’s one thing to the principles behind how something works. But what you really need is to be able to walk up to a situation, pick up the tools, and say, “I can make it work.” That’s common sense and confidence; and it will take you down the road.
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