Wednesday, June 30, 2010

BloggeRhythms 6/30/2010

The last few days of recalling experiences with formal education have gotten me stuck in that track. And along those lines, my attitude toward educators themselves.

I’ve believed for a long while that the old adage is true that says: Those who can –do. And those who can’t –teach. Which further reminded me of a particular situation.

I’ve written over the past couple of days about my high regard for NYU and particularly, its faculty in what is now Stern School of Business, especially those whom succeeded in business by day and then taught at night. But, as in every walk of life, not all of them were winners.

I recall a basic class covering marketing fundamentals. Early on in the course, the instructor, professor or whoever, assigned a simple homework task. We were asked to create a newspaper ad for TV sets. I spent considerable time pondering the situation, finally coming up with a graphic that highlighted a console model surrounded by eye-catching background directing one’s focus to the set and its features.

When I handed my masterpiece in it was met with a sorrowfully shaking head, muttering “tsk, tsk, tsk.”

Obviously realizing a problem, I asked what was wrong. “The ad’s wrong” the instructor replied. “Haven’t you ever seen an ad for TV’s? They’re in the paper every day.” Then he opened the Daily whatever on his desk, flipped a few pages, then pointed his finger at an ad and said, “You see. That’s what I wanted. Everyone’s seen ads like this for TV’s. They all look exactly alike, so yours should too!”

I then asked, since these ads are by definition all exactly the same, would it have been alright if I’d just ripped the page out of the paper myself, and simply handed that in, saving myself from the migraine caused by attempted creativity and hours of drawing board work. “Oh no. You can’t do that,” he replied, “I wanted you to design the ad yourself.” Looking back, there’s humor in this classroom catch-22, but not at the time there wasn’t.

So, while this clump of protoplasm wanted me to be creative by replicating redundant ads that may or may not have served their purpose, I thought of something else. At the time I handed in my ad, I’d sold three AC electric lift trucks that very morning to a household name account in Jersey City. The total cost of that equipment was upwards of thirty thousand dollars. My commission was $1500.00+ which was an okay amount in 1966.

Over the course of that same year I sold more than 60 new fork lift trucks all told in a highly competitive market, at an average of about seven (7) grand a pop, among other types of equipment. You can do the arithmetic yourself, but vocationally, I think I was doing okay for myself as a kid in marketing/sales. In fact, I even won an all-expense paid trip for two to Nassau that year, courtesy of Allis-Chalmers for exceeding their sales goals.

The thing of it is, however, that my scholarship really was a life-saver…but not mine. It actually helped keep the sales educator alive. Because, if I hadn’t needed a high grade to maintain my academic standing, I’d have done some major harm to him on the spot for wasting my valuable time, with nary a second thought.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

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