The last meeting I had last week was a regular but informal meeting with two site managers and two executive directors of industry associations. Despite a relentless workload, I finished the week feeling refreshed. They speak wisdom into both my professional and personal lives. I treasure the time with these industry professionals and others like them.
Thinking about the value of time with these friends and mentors, I am reminded of the first business advice I ever received from my first business mentor, Earl Heard. Long before we worked together, he gave me two pearls to begin my career. The first was to find and develop a relationship with a mentor. Choose him or her carefully, and then be willing to do all of the work they can delegate to you. In exchange, you will learn your trade, and, when your mentor climbs the ladder of success based in part on your work, he or she will pull you up the ladder behind them.
The second piece of advice was to join the local professional association, and don’t just join but participate through contribution of effort. In exchange for the effort put into work within professional associations, one will learn more about the industry as a whole and broaden his network of meaningful contacts.
At the time, it didn’t surprise me both of Earl’s Pearls were related to hard work and learning, but it didn’t occur to me until much later the pearls had a deeper commonality; they both required working for the benefit of someone or something else. In one case, it was serving your mentor. The other was serving your industry by being active in its associations. One might generalize from these pearls that serving others humbly will increase your individual status. The pearls were practical applications of the biblical principle: “It is better to give than to receive.”
It also follows logically that endeavors are easier when you partner with others. I thought about this recently while training for a long distance bicycle ride. One interesting thing about riding a bike a long distance is it is so much easier to ride in a group than by oneself. Camaraderie eliminates monotony; peer pressure will keep you from giving up too easily, and tucking in behind other riders has a very positive aerodynamic effect, creating a windshield or even a slight “pull” that makes the pedaling much more effortless. My unscientific estimation is a solo ride of 30 miles is about the equivalent of 80 miles in a group.
It made me consider the importance of groups and how they optimize our work lives, social lives and spiritual lives, and how sometimes they are interrelated. When one participates in small groups — genuinely participates by giving a priority to attending and contributing effort — there is a strong human tendency to connect relationally and eventually provide mutual encouragement, support and accountability to one another.
Two current examples of working together to accomplish more in which I am engaged are The Get Together and an Industrial Procurement Breakfast. The Get Together is a Christ-centered networking group in which businessmen meet for lunch once a month. There are four chapters of this organization in the Houston area, and I am proud to chair one of them. All four chapters are doing amazing work for the community by simply leveraging business contacts and acumen. Please contact me directly if you’d like some information on the group.
Also, the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region and BIC Alliance are working together to present an Industrial Procurement Managers Breakfast on Oct. 23 in Pasadena, Texas. We will have keynote speakers from the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors and a panel of purchasing managers from area facilities to discuss upcoming projects and how they select vendors.
BIC Alliance itself is a group of companies banded together to connect people in business and industry with one another for the betterment of all. I think I can safely say our members are blessed by the mutual reciprocal support we provide one another.
In this issue of BIC, you will find a wealth of information to help you stay connected in your industry, including interviews with Deb Mamula, executive vice president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association; J. Mark Bogle, vice president and general manager of Eastman Chemical Co. Texas Operations; Chris Lamson, president and CEO of the Industrial Safety Training Council; and Joseph Derzapf, president and CEO of SPIR STAR.
We also have the latest on changes in U.S. crude oil production and OSHA’s Process Safety Management standard. You will find informational articles on safe turnarounds, winterizing your facility, becoming a world-class organization and more.
We hope to see you at an industry event soon! Please share this issue with your friends and colleagues by passing along your copy of BIC or refer them to BICMagazine.com.
tbrinsko@bicalliance.com