Grumpa Joe's Place

Throughout this day I have been getting ideas for what to write about and now that I am finally at the keyboard they are all gone, damned old age and dementia. When I opened the writer I realized that my titles with the number of days for the posts are out of sequence, and that is something to write about.

I first began this blog with a goal to promote the power of positive thinking. I finished my work career on a high note because I finally adopted positive thinking as a lifestyle. My life began as a negative human being. My parents were always saying no to my ideas, actions, or aspirations and it rubbed off.

My first positive move was to break away from my parent’s recommendation to be a barber, butcher, doctor, or lawyer. At least I considered the doctor route while recuperating from my polio, but before I left the hospital I had resigned that I was way too lazy to become a doctor. The prospect of eight years of school, internship, and residency convinced me not to even give it another thought. I chose to become an engineer. I didn’t even know what an engineer was, at least not one that didn’t drive a train, streetcar, or subway. Why? My older brother was in that curriculum and he liked it so I will also like it.

As a kid, I was always taking things apart and greasing wheels or making a push car to race with my friends. Making model airplanes was also a favorite hobby. I enrolled in the science program at a local Catholic High School, also against my parents wishes. There I began to learn what engineers do. Math, math, and more math, German, chemistry, physics were all new subjects to me. I was determined to succeed, but it was with great difficulty. When it came time to take the tests to determine what kind of career I would be good at, all I learned was that engineering was not it. I never learned what I should have headed for. I prevailed and to soften the blow with my parents and counselors when it came time to enroll in college I joined a curriculum that was liberal arts-engineering. The program required that I spend three years at the liberal arts college and then transfer to an approved engineering school for two years. After the fourth year I would receive a degree in Liberal Arts, and at the end of the fifth year I would receive a Bachelor of Science in Engineering.

I finally got the B.S.M.E. degree in 1961 and became an engineer with Danly Machine Company. How I came to Danly is another long story for this blog.

Throughout my early career I had some pretty critical bosses. If I had an idea that collided with his, or his superior’s direction it didn’t fly. In other words I had my parents all over again except at least now I was earning money while being told no. That negativity went on for at least fifteen years. Whenever someone came up with a great new idea I had been trained to see all the reasons why it wouldn’t work, and of course I could never make it work either. One day I was tutored while in a design review meeting with our CEO and his Chief Executive. The Ceo was famous for ideas, and I was only known for seeing the negative side first. Then, the Exec stepped in a looked me straight in the eye and very sternly said, “why don’t you look at what will make this idea work instead of what will make it not work?”

I left the meeting and on the way to my cubicle the giant idea light-bulb lit over my head. I got it!

Why am I bringing this up when this diary is mostly about COVID-19? I see President Trump using every principe of positive thinking in every decision he makes. He projects positivity, he sees the positive outcome, and he encourages others to see it with him. I have never heard him once give a reason why something cannot be done. I have heard him brainstorm out loud much to the chagrin of the press. They have a field picking apart his ideas and use them against him. I see his ideas and am reminded of working with my boss who had the very same habits.

The President never gives his team open ended directions. He gives them positive instructions to get a job done, and then directs them to get it done.

President Trump is wise enough to select people who are action oriented toward the achievement of goals. He lets them know what he sees as success and what his expectations are.

I see and hear positivity from this man everyday, and I know from my own experience that positivity works. Just imagine if we had a two party system that believed in the same philosophy. What great things would we accomplish in America? Instead we have a two party system that is adversarial, like two nations at war. What we should have are two parties that debate ideas about how to make America stronger, and better. If they worked this way the result is often a compromise that makes the country healthy and strong for all the people not just the people of one party. When we enter into congressional dialog today, we enter as lawyers do when they enter a court of law. Instead of solving a problem that makes things amenable to each side, we lock horns and fight to win. The outcome is one side wins, and the other loses; the result is a divided country.

We all know that there is nothing worse than division be it in family, at work or in government. Unison works, positivity works, I pray we finally put them together and Make America Great Again.

Filed under: Biography, Education, family, Government, Motivation | Tagged: COVID_19, Division, positive thinking, visioning | Leave a comment »