No Yes Man

“You need to know something about me.”

“What’s that?”

“I am not a ‘Yes’ man.”

“Huh?”

“If you ask me to do something and I do not think it is the right thing to do, I will let you know. If you insist, I will let you know in no uncertain terms why I do not think that is a good idea. I can get pretty obstinate.”

He stared at me, leaned back in his chair, turned, picked up his phone, dialed, and when the party on the other end answered, he said, “I need for you to come get Mr. Brady.”

Well, I thought, this interview is over. My boss really wanted us to get this job. He wanted to keep me on the payroll. We were getting low on work and it had not yet been announced that our office was closing.

Mr. Haven continued into the phone, “I want Mr. Brady safety trained and I want him to start working this afternoon.”

As he hung up the phone I said, “Technically, I can’t accept this job, but Yes, I will start working right now.”

Thus, the beginning of a more than ten-year working relationship. The initial project was to be for a three-month study to prove it would work. However, when that one finished, Mr. Haven asked me to stay through the project duration which was scheduled to take more than two years. Then, after each project finished, there was another one waiting. And, even though our Mobile, Alabama office closed shortly after this interview, they transferred me to our Houston, Texas office and kept me working on Alabama projects for four more years. Then, I went to work for another local engineering company and continued doing projects for Mr. Haven.

A couple of years after this incident, Mr. Haven told me, “Yes” people kept him in trouble. He said that he hired me to tell him how to correctly install the new control system. Not the other way around.

This incident reminded me of the importance for always being honest. A personality peculiarity that can get us into trouble, often can be an asset. God gave me this personality, and He knows how to bless me in spite of me.

Thank You, Father for taking care of me for more than seven decades. I Love You.