Dear friends, welcome to another exciting issue of BIC Magazine. There is excitement in the air! Many of us have enjoyed holiday weekends and summer vacations with our loved ones, and now it’s time to get down to business, go back to school and, for many of us, another exciting season of football. What better time than September to remind ourselves, our families, friends and co-workers to “Stop, Look & Listen” in driving to work or school, crossing a railroad track or while on the job before taking chances or saying something without thinking.
As we begin September, let’s pause a few minutes and think about how many times we have seen our American and state flags flying at half-staff in the past few months and, for that matter, years. Let us say a prayer for the victims and families of our armed forces who were gunned down in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and for the families and victims of the shootings this summer in Charleston, South Carolina, and Lafayette, Louisiana.
Let us also think about what happened 14 years ago on 9/11 when nearly 3,000 people died, and 10 years ago when 1,833 people died after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and the levees were breached in New Orleans. Not only did these events bring loss of life to thousands and devastation to tens of thousands, they also brought forth many volunteers from around the world who donated time and financial support to those affected. These events and others showed us the importance of our country and our global neighbors working together for the betterment of all and force us to stop and look at ourselves, our community, company, politicians and country.
“Stop, Look & Listen” is also something we should always remember in our own family, community and workplace. It can be applied not only to our personal safety but also as a guide for finding greater peace, happiness and success in our lives both on and off the job. Having gone to rock bottom and back, I have a special place in my heart for those who have overcome adversity and have not only achieved greater faith, peace, happiness and success in their lives but are also willing to share their lessons learned with others. In fact, these stories have had such an impact on me and many others, we are in the process of doing a book and TV pilot on the same subject — rock bottom and back.
To help me keep up with all the tips, I have been keeping journals as long as I can remember. Just writing something down and repeating it can help us improve our memory about that topic by as much as 25 percent. When I became an entrepreneur, I followed the same principles of “Stop, Look & Listen” and kept a journal I had used as a youth and when climbing the ranks in industry. I didn’t stop with just speaking personally with folks and jotting down tips they shared but also sought out magazines, books, events, videos and more that helped me improve my communication, entrepreneurial, management and marketing skills and especially my skills in training others. That led me to produce training films as early as 1974 while at Ethyl Corp. and later to launch VideoScan, an energy-related training and video production firm, in 1980 and Training Coordinator Magazine, the forerunner of BIC Magazine, in 1981.
I remember our first plant article for the inaugural issue of Training Coordinator with Tiger Pirerra, a training manager at the Tenneco (now ExxonMobil) Refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana. I also remember taking notes when I heard Dr. Joseph Jacobs, founder of Jacobs Engineering, talk about entrepreneurship and his book “Anatomy of An Entrepreneur” at the Environmental Business Conference over 20 years ago. I seized the moment to jot down his words of wisdom in my journal and had the opportunity to meet him. Though my resources were limited, I purchased a case of his books to share with our BIC Alliance marketing partners. His book has been one of the marketing tools we have used for decades. I vowed that day if I ever became successful I would not only share the Earl’s Pearls I had learned but would also begin publishing books I could make available to others. We began publishing our own books in 2005. In fact, our first book “It’s What We Do Together That Counts — The BIC Alliance Story” was released the same week Hurricane Katrina hit.
I read some great “Stop, Look & Listen” tips in “The Emotional Survival Handbook” that Denise W. Anderson, who offers courses on emotional survival, shared with me (www.denisewa.com). She says everything we experience triggers an automatic response, but there are some things that affect us more deeply than others. Adversity and desperation can come from many sources ranging from our own choices and actions, natural disasters, terrorism, accidents and illness, death of a loved one, business failures and addiction, to name a few.
What Mrs. Anderson stresses and we stress in BIC Magazine and in our books is through training and practice we can learn to make wiser choices. During adversity or opportunity, there is a short window of time between when a catastrophic event happens or an opportunity arises that we must “Stop, Look & Listen.” Mrs. Anderson refers to this brief time period as a “split second opportunity,” and I refer to it as a “faith moment” when we can change our destiny and, in many cases, our lives and the lives of others forever. The great news is these are characteristics we can learn and master and help train others to follow.
In closing, BIC Magazine is full of tips from industry news and interviews with leaders who have mastered many of these skills. In this issue, Frank Cortez, cogen plant manager at Air Liquide Geismar, shares his own inspirational story of surviving adversity. We also have interviews with Chemical Industry Council of California Executive Director John Ulrich and Senior Consultant Tom Jacob, Adler Tank Rentals National Account Sales Director Dave Henry, Conco Service Corp. Industrial Services Division Vice President Jason Wilburn and Rain for Rent CEO Mark Lasswell.
We also include information on maintenance planning, safety programs and successes, lessons learned, leadership and more.
As always, please share this issue with your friends and colleagues by passing along this copy of BIC or refer them to BICMagazine.com. Also, several people we have written about in BIC will be featured in our next book, “Rock Bottom and Back,” and we welcome our readers to suggest others who have overcome adversity. Please send those referrals to me at the email address below or to rose@bicalliance.com.