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P s i U p s i l o n F r a t e r n i t y ’ s L a s t C h a n c e L e c t u r e

DR. LARRY A. RAGERLast Chance Lecture

Delivered March 29, 2010

SAINT FRANCIS UNIVERSITY

It began on a May day in the spring of 1944 at Saint Francis Hospital in Peoria, Illinois where I was born. Surprisingly, a day and a half later my future wife would be born in the same hospital and we would be in the same nursery together. Her name was Linda Smith and ironically my family then lived on Smith Street. We would not know each other until high school and did not date until our senior year. We will celebrate our 45th anniversary this summer.

I’ve been very fortunate in my life, education and my careers. Part of that good fortune is being in the right place at the right time, the rest requires that you prepare (following the Boy Scout motto to “be prepared”) to present yourself for opportunities that may come your way. Here are my tips for success that may benefit you in whatever career path you may choose.

1. First tip, Live by the “Golden Rule”, be nice – to everyone, you never know where a mentor, friend or someone who may be able to assist you someday will come from. Your path will be easier and more enjoyable if you don’t embarrass yourself or think you are above any tasks. To get a clue, watch an episode of the show “Undercover Boss” where the company CEO is going out and doing some of the lowliest jobs in the organization – when they are done they have a new perspective on these jobs and a new respect for the people who do them. Everyone is important to an organization’s success, and if you treat everyone with the kindness and respect that you hope to receive, it will more likely be accorded you.

2. Over the years, I’ve had a lot of students ask about my suits, so my second tip is to remember these old truisms – “you never get a second chance to make first impression” and a Mark Twain quote “Clothes make the person. Naked people have little or no influence on society”. The harsh reality is that we make decisions about people within the first 3 seconds of meeting them. Dress like a professional –whatever your profession- and you’re more likely to act like a professional – from the Roman Legion to the United States Marine Corps, the world’s finest militaries have known that sharply dressed soldiers are more disciplined than ragtag militias. Even though we’ve heard the days of wearing a suit are gone, and about casual Friday’s or no one cares how you dress, all these statements ignore the fact that people have and will continue to judge you by your appearance.

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3. Next, as my Auditing students will confirm, I tell them many times to ask questions and let the answer help you form the next question, So the third tip for success is be curious – this is very important to success and there are researchers who have identified reasons why you should be curious:

• You will increase your productivity – a curious mind dives beneath the surface of common acceptance to unravel the details driving the process. The more you comprehend the details, the better you will understand the process. Thus the more productive you will be. Ask “What if” questions like a little kid wanting to know how or why. Don’t accept “spin” or “just because” answers! Your curiosity will also enhance your analytical skills.

• You will learn more – When your curiosity steers you into the unknown you will return with a greater wealth of knowledge. You will stretch the boundaries of your mind. The more you learn, the more you will want to know. Your bosses will notice.

• You will become more efficient – curious people look at a challenge from multiple angles. They discover alternative ways of accomplishing the same task and better ways to get things done. Management guru, Peter Drucker said “My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions”.

• You will establish new relationships – your curiosity will lead you down roads you otherwise would not have traveled. When curiosity is properly honed, it serves as a vehicle for establishing personal goals.

• The deepest kind of learning grows from curiosity about your values, examining them, owning them and living them.

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4. Next is Writing: A Ticket to Work or A Ticket Out of a Job? You may have heard that no one cares about your grades once you graduate and that does hold some truth, but it is equally true that most employers or potential employers do care very much about your writing skills. Tip four is to “master written and oral communication skills”. The single most important course I took in college was not an accounting course, but rather “Writing reports and letters in Business”. If you can write clearly and concisely, and you have an ability to listen as well, you will have an enormous advantage over your contemporaries with whom you are competing for a job-opening or for the next promotion. Early in my career, this skill enabled me to “leap-frog” several promotion ranks and triple my income in three years. Your ability to write an outstanding cover letter and resume will determine whether an interview will follow.

Even Mark Twain addressed the subject of clear and concise writing 132 years ago in a letter to Emeline Beach when he wrote:”To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself…Anybody can have ideas – the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph”.

And in a letter to D. W. Bowser in 1880, Twain wrote:”I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or wordy diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is hard to get rid of as any other vice”.

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5. Writing and Mark Twain bring us to Tip five, which is the importance of reading - Great Books and Newspapers. It has been said “A rule of thumb” for predicting future success is to know the number of books in the home. As Twain noted, “The person who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them”. From an educational perspective, being well-read places you in the small percentage of people who have a broader perspective of life – the movers and shakers of the world. Why? Because readers have superior language and thinking skills. They can see both the “big picture” and the details and keep a sense of perspective because they have read enough to expand their minds beyond the parameters of their own lives. Bill Gates has said “I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot”.

As to reading newspapers, I recommend the New York Times which is still the best of the best. As Warren Buffet has said, “The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves – and the better the teacher, the better the student body”. Be well-informed about current events and the world - we all our living on this one blue planet and we have to make it work!

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6. The subject of Tip Six deals with Mentors. During my many job positions and multiple careers, I was blessed with the presence and assistance of numerous mentors, people without whom I would not been able to achieve the recognition and rewards that their teachings and wise counsel allowed me to receive. I agree with a statement by Louis Whitehead I read recently that “a good mentor can make a world of difference in how we succeed and progress in our careers”.

Regardless of where you are starting your career, begin the process by establishing relationships with people who have extended experience in the organization who are willing to share their knowledge and experiences. If you are earnest in seeking their input and experience, many will graciously take you under their wing and “teach you the ropes”, be your advocate within the organization, give you career advice, help you with networking or any number of other things that a mentor can do. You can ask someone to be your mentor, but it’s best to sense that the person you are asking trusts you, feels supportive of you and your prospects for achievement, and is willing to commit to provide mentoring support. Or as often happens, the mentoring relationship develops on its’ own when you are a subordinate of the person and they recognize you as a person they are willing to support when you are seeking their counsel.

Why do you need mentors? Studies by the recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles and others have shown that executives who have mentors have earned more money at a younger age, are also happier with their career progress, and derive more pleasure from their work.

What did I learn from my mentors? And a footnote, they may not be whom you would expect as was the case with my first job mentor Carl B. Remalia. From him, I learned more real accounting than I ever did in a classroom at either of the two “top five accounting programs in the country I attended”. He didn’t have a college degree, only many years with the company and lots of real world experience – no theory, just practice!

From one of my next group of mentors, I learned the importance of being comfortable or adaptable to various environments. Rob Walker was originally from Midland, Texas, and President of the Group for which I was Group Controller. He taught me how to be at ease anywhere, and to relate with anyone by just being yourself, from a blue jeaned and cowboy boot and hat-wearing, owner of an oilfield equipment business we were trying to buy in Wyoming, to George H.W. and Barbara Bush who were his long-time friends from Midland and he invited to speak to our management group and

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a reception in their honor in 1978. When the corporation asked me to accept a transfer/promotion to New York City shortly thereafter, I felt torn for accepting and it damaged my relationship with J. Rob Walker because I had told him I didn’t expect they could make me any offer to move to New York that I would accept.

My next mentor was my new boss in New York – a charismatic, genius, ego-driven individual only 3 years my senior – I was 34, the new Manager of Investment Analysis for Armco Corporate Development and he was 37 and the Corporate Vice President of Corporate Development and Negotiations, reporting directly to the Chairman of the Board. James Henry Giffen taught me several things – how to dress even better (how to dress when you’re dealing with the likes of Nicolas Brady, the head of Dillon, Read our investment banker who subsequently went on to become the Secretary of the Treasury for George H.W. Bush). He also “fine-tuned” my writing skills in preparing reports for Board of Directors and our Chairman, Bill Verity, who became Secretary of Commerce for President Reagan in the late mid-80’s. He also taught me the insights to working for the executive management team – the do’s, and don’ts of who, what, where, and when. Working in New York City is a whole different world – I’m glad to have experienced it, but if I’d stayed there, it would have tested what I believe and who I am. My family is important to my life, and getting home from work at 9:30 PM or later many nights as well as having to travel regularly to other locations around the country was not conducive to home life something Giffen didn’t care about since he was having an affair with my former secretary who he had promoted to Jr. analyst. It was a blessing when a headhunter called about a position as Director of Acquisitions in Atlanta. As a side note, James Henry Giffen my former mentor is currently out on $10 million of posted bail for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Five years later, he has not yet gone to trial as the federal government (including the Bush White House and CIA) refused to respond to an order from a Federal Judge to provide materials the government has which would show that the government knew of and approved of what actions he was taking in negotiations between American oil companies and bribes paid to the government of Kazakhstan which he represented as the Assistant to the President of Kazakhstan.

There were numerous people that I regard as mentors during and after these years that I have not mentioned, and for their encouragement, guidance and

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support I am eternally grateful. So identify your mentors and savor what they share. Later in your careers, it will be your obligation to mentor others.

7. Tip Seven is find work that you love and that your passion, enthusiasm, and excitement about what you do will be evident to your family, co-workers, clients or customers. Don’t hesitate to take on new challenges! If you get to the place where going to work is a chore or a bore, it’s time to find something that will relight your fire! For the past seventeen years, teaching has been my passion. If you are not challenged and growing in your position, you may become stale and it may be time for the next tip.

8. Tip Eight has two parts – First, It’s never too late to make a career change and second, learning never ends: Graduation is not an end, it is just a beginning of a new phase of your education. I am a living example of multiple careers and life-long learning.

• After graduating from the University of Texas with my accounting degree, I spent two years at the University of Texas Law School (I hated it – it was not what I had expected, nor wanted to become, even though I eventually had to admit that some of what I learned has benefitted my career).

• After leaving school and working four years, I took the Becker CPA Review Course which enabled me to pass and receive my CPA license and a significant promotion. Taking the review course and getting the results I got, I truly felt that Newt Becker (the founder and instructor on the audio tapes) had mentored me into a position which allowed me to get my CPA. Little did I know that twenty years later our paths would cross after I started my academic a career, and Newt would truly become my friend and mentor and even a reference for my position here at Saint Francis.

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• Four years after passing the CPA exam, in 1977 I started in an MBA program in Houston, and by this time had another promotion from the General Accounting and Tax function to the position as a Group Controller.

• Later, when I accepted the transfer to New York City, I had 8 months of class before completion of my MBA program. The corporation paid for me to commute weekly from New York back to Houston so I could go class Thursday evenings and all day Saturday and arranged for an office in Houston so I could work on Fridays. The Director of Acquisitions for Rollins, Inc. in Atlanta lasted but 15 months due to a major recession, I was downsized out of my job and shortly thereafter became an officer of Citicorp Asset Based Lending group which a year later led to my next job as Sr. Vice President and CFO of a company which was to become according to Inc. magazine the fastest growing privately held company in the U.S. for the period 1982 -1986.

• Subsequently I was half owner, President and General Manager of an Office Supply Company in Atlanta that after operating the business for a year had to deal with the first “Office Depot” store outside of it’s home market in Miami.

• Next I bought an existing accounting practice after my partner bought my half of the office supply business.

• It was in the fall of 1993 that I started thinking about “what do I want to do (career wise) before I grow up, and I better get started since I was 49 years old at the time. What I wanted to do was teach in an academic environment, but I wanted to get my doctorate in accounting - so I enrolled in classes in January, 1994.

After being bored and disinterested in classes through high school, I found the older I got, the more interested and passion I showed for learning – it has become a thirst that is difficult to quench. So even if you think you’ll never darken the doors of a classroom after you graduate, don’t dismiss the possibility of this same sort of transformation.

9. Tip Nine, is find your mantra, whether a Bible verse or a poem, to remind you of what you are seeking. Around 1972 our outside auditor now known as Deloitte & Touche, used to send their clients a weekly update that included a “Thought for the Week” on the back-page. One week it included the poem titled “What is Success?” by Ralph Waldo

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Emerson. It made such an impression on me that whatever job or location, I have kept a copy of the poem in or on my desk since that time. It has become an important part of who I am or seek to be.

What is Success?To laugh often and much

To win the respect of intelligent people and

affection of Children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and

endure the betrayal of false friends;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a

healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed

social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because

You have lived

This is to have succeeded.

Remember that what you possess in the world

Will be found on the day of your death

To belong to someone else

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WHAT YOU ARE, WILL BE YOURS FOREVER!

The purpose of life is not to be happy

It is to be useful

To be honorable; to be compassionate

To have it make some difference

That you have lived and have lived well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Even the great industrialist, Henry Ford said “Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.

There is also a story about a man who got up to speak at a funeral of a friend and referred to the dates on her tombstone from beginning to the end, but said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years. That dash represents all the time that we spend alive on the earth. For it matters not how much we own, the cars, the house, the cash – What matters most is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.

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10.And finally tip number 10, if you forget any of the previous nine tips, just look at the eight Franciscan Values incorporated into the goals of Franciscan Higher Education at Saint Francis University:

• A Humble and Generous Attitude Toward Learning

• Reverence for All Life and the Goodness of Humanity

• Respect for the Uniqueness of Individual Persons

• A Global Vision

• Service to the Poor and the Needy

• A Community of Faith and Prayer

• A Simplicity and Joy

• Franciscan Presence – open to the living spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi

And now after nearly 66 years, having begun life at Saint Francis Hospital, I will depart from Saint Francis University, an institution I love and hope to always be a part of and from its’ students, faculty and administration that I am so proud to have served and represented.

God bless you all for allowing me to be part of this, thank you.

DR. LARRY A. RAGER, Last Chance Lecture, delivered March 29, 2010

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