Thoughts and Creative Nuggets that Change People’s Lives
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In 1976, fairly early in my creative career I had the honor of making a presentation at Buffalo University’s Creative Problem Solving Institute on the topic “Humor and Creativity.” My mentor, Herb True, PhD who made over a hundred and fifty professional presentations each year for major corporations while teaching classes at Notre Dame University, shared the platform and the audience was very kind and I was ecstatic. At that time I was still working for Grand Trunk Western Railroad but instead of working at a dead end job as Claim Agent I had discovered a way to use my creative talents and was now serving as “Employee Communications Officer”, reporting directly to the Railroad’s President. At work, my creative mind was soaring and I was in a position to implement one idea after another. I was in seventh heaven and at the same time honing my talents as a writer and a professional speaker.
Some of my friends hear that story and say, “Wow, you just fell into it, didn’t you Art?” And I say, “Yeah. And I was with the railroad doing crappy jobs just twenty three years before I was discovered. (Oh, I forgot. Two of those years I was away from the railroad serving as a private in the U.S. Army, another story.)
Many years before I arrived at Grand Trunk RR there was a young fellow who had been sent home from school because they said he couldn’t learn. In time he became a “News Butcher”, a fellow who rides on passenger trains and sells candy and apples and even newspapers. One day at the Mt. Clemen’s depot the Station Master’s daughter was out playing on the railroad track and Tom grabbed her the instant before an engine arrived and saved her life. The Station Master was so grateful that he taught Tom telegraphy and Tom worked as a telegrapher all over the railroad. He came up with several inventions to improve telegraphy and went on to become a legend. His name was Thomas A. Edison.
A quote, attributed to Roman philosopher Seneca, reminds us that we make our own luck. He said, “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” In my case it took a heck of a lot of preparation.
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