Hey There Friend,

One of the questions from last month’s newsletter celebrating Camelot’s 35th anniversary got me thinking. In answering the question, I mentioned the many young men I have had the privilege of teaching and training as they developed their work at Camelot into a career. That got me thinking about my best boss and mentor. Bosses often get a bad rap (more than a few movies have been made about them), but they have the ability to mentor and advise in a way that can shape a person for life—a fact I try not to take for granted as an employer.

So who was my best boss and mentor? Without a doubt, it was my first: David, who owned a mini mart where I began working at the age of 12. Yes, times were different then! To keep you out of trouble, parents had you get a job. I have to say, it worked.

Work consisted of a variety of tasks, from "mowing the lawn" with a really cool pseudo-lawnmower that picked up litter in the parking lot to bringing up cases of food from the basement storage and restocking. David’s manager, John, did his share in educating me as well. One trick John taught me was to hang out in the walk-in freezer for a while in order to wake myself up when I was dragging. One day he discovered I had clean dozed off in the freezer! After that I got a stern lecture on not staying out so late with friends. That was one of many lessons—in word and deed—that I received at the mini mart.

David seemed to know either something or a lot about everything. Anytime I asked him a question that he felt called for more than a simple answer, a discussion would develop. Often I would find myself standing at the door to his office for an hour at a time in conversation—not so different from listening to a professor, but better because it was a one-on-one question-and-answer session. In an era before the Internet, when research required a good old-fashioned trip to the library and hours of reading, David seemed able to converse on just about any subject: outer space, ancient history, other cultures and societies, religion, meditation, engineering, plants, animals, arctic exploration, and on and on. He would tell me of recent studies and experiments on anything from plant life and varying human behavior to space exploration. He had practical knowledge too. When the air conditioner went out at his store, he got out a ladder and went up on the roof and fixed it. It was the best place to be for a young, lost mind that might do well with a spark.

David was a good, caring man, but he made mistakes from time to time. And I learned from him in those moments too. For example, one day one of the familiar neighborhood customers had been sent by his wife to pick up some flour, which he couldn’t locate. David, simply intending to give the regular client a hard time, jovially asked, "It's right in front of you. Can't you read?" John, who lived locally and knew the neighbors a bit better, whispered: "No." David, clearly feeling like crap, promptly and silently went around the counter and got the customer the item. I suppose I was learning stuff from him even when none of us knew it was happening.

There were no doubt times that David and John knew they were teaching me, giving me life lessons and shaping me into a better person, not just a better employee. However, there were many more moments when they did not know they were doing so, and those moments were just as—if not more—powerful. I hope I have walked in their footsteps and left a positive impression on some of my colleagues.