A trip down memory lane......Life In the Fast Lane....and handicapped parking !
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My work career evolved from a flight line mechanic at General Dynamics, to an electronics technician at Texas Instruments ,and on to a variety of jobs at Geotech, F&M Systems, E-Systems and a CAREER at Digital Equipment Corp(DEC)

Texas Instruments(TI)...long hours low pay

The sixties were the decade of "make it smalller". TI operated a large Central Research Labratory (CRL) where most of the breakthroughs that enabled large-scale intergration of electronic circuits occurred. The CRL facility was crawling with people with PHD's in Physics.

Silicon Valley was a grape vineyard at this time!

With increasing circuit density the race to make everything smaller, faster and cheaper was on. So my days at Texas Instruments allowed me to get a unique leading edge, on the job education, involving technologies that would change the face of electronics forever.

TI touted a "retire at TI" and live off the riches of their profit sharing plan.

This is ok for the two income family, we weren't, and I was a poorly compensated pond-scum associate engineer. So the money in versus money out equation was way out of balance. One could starve at TI but learn a lot.

Adios TI...Geotech is waving a big salary increase at me.

The Geotech years...

Geotech was a small family owned, highly specialized corporation involved in earth sciences related to oil field development. Though my job title was carried as a Physicist I did any number of things at Geotech. It was very small firm and many wore multiple hats. One of mine was to help develop operational manuals for the new digital electronics being installed at various seismolgical observatories throughout the U.S.

This led to an enjoyable period of short trips to various seismic observatories throughout the U.S....and to my dismay, the loss of a set of contact lenses three thousand feet down a small test hole in Utah !

In addition to the basic oil field business Geotech also built very sensitive very low frequency equipment(seismometers) that,could pin point movement in earth structures by measuring travel times of shock waves across an array of strageticaly chosen locations.

Remember Mr. Kruchef, and his underground antics--well not only could we see what he was doing from above, we had significant capability to listen (and pinpoint) his underground activities as well ...nuff said.

A lightbulb awakening moment occurs !

I had always noticed that the concept of "follow the money trail" was useful when evaluating results of clinical trials of MS medications....and it certainly helps understand surprise fndings!
 
This also applies well when building one's career. And so for a few years I chased the almighty dollar "money trail".

From Geotech the money trail led to F&M Systems where a bit of luck and having the right friends in high places landed me a job in the marketing side of engineering. It's called engineering liason to other departments. F&M was a huge firm involved in turnkey contracts to build airports and other municipal efforts such as the California Aqueduct system.

Marketing jobs are overhead,and overhead is not something you want to be when the economy slows down.

It did and I had to get a real job once more. 

I took a job as the local (Dallas based) gentile for a technical publishing firm headquartered in NY, Data Communications. DataCom hired me in Dallas to build a staff of tech writers ,artists and editors to write and furnish manuals for radio communications equipment built by Collins Radio -now known as  Rockwell.

It was one fun high pressure job because Sid Platt and Hal Adler were tough minded Jewish hombres, no offense to anyone of Jewish background. They paid me well and expected a lot. We became very good friends and I learned a lot about the business side of things. Namely, operating a buisness profitably.

Following DataCom I worked for E-Systems a firm involved in secure communications (not for me)...way too much beauracracy and a big brother is watching you feeling.

1972 A long term career growth opportunity begins at DEC.

The minicomputer explosion was about to happen and I was familiar with DEC's line of products and was also very impressed with their corporate mentality...you propose it, write a business plan, do it and take responsibility for the results. Expansion was the order of the day, especially at DEC.

Desperate to get out of the E-Systems goverment contract environment I answered an ad in the paper for sales people with computer experience.  I had no sales experience whatsoever but exposure to a variety of computer applications in industry. I was hired to sell computers to firms in the telecom world. 

Life became a whirlwind from then on, with our mutual friend MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS lurking somewhere in my genetic makeup.

My battle with multiple sclerosis began in 1972 at age 34. I had a 30-day bout with double vision which subsided and never returned. Six months later I lost the use of my right arm for about thirty days.

The first neurologist I saw turned out to be a neurosurgeon and had the bed side manner of a water buffalo. He advised me to go home and get my things in order ,subtly implying ,I was history.

I then contacted a  neurologist recommended by our family doctor. He listened to my history and concluded I had multiple sclerosis.

There were no mri's available in 1972 and he didn't think spinal taps were all that reliable. The weird symptoms seemed to dissipate and I went on with life and my career.

So while the sales greenhorn is learning the sales game, a life changing call comes in from the Xerox corporation requesting a technical overview of DEC's complete computer line.

New to the sales game but I did understand the computer world of "ones and zeros", I was elected to go give an engineerng overview of our latest computer architecture to a team of engineers at Xerox charged with selecting a computer vendor for a new Xerox printer product.

It immediately became clear that this was a huge sales opportunity with a potential for thousands of computers.  I requested a team of product designers, diagnostic programmers and field service engineers to work on the Xerox opportunity.

One year later- the largest sale in the history of DEC.

The project had generated $200,000,000 in revenue when I retired in 1986.

I Have to tell you at this point DEC was a non-commissioned environment...again enuff said.  I did get a huge plaque and some stock.

Plaques don't buy much at the grocery store !

I have often said it's better to be lucky than good...and I have been. In 1984 I elected to have $7/week taken out of my check for an LTD policy. Without a doubt the wisest decision  of my life.

In 1986 our mutual friend (ms) strikes hard and forces me to retire. And for 10 years a check for roughly 75% of my salary arrived in the mail. This is non-taxable money...it's sick leave pay in the eyes of the tax man.

Upon retirement from DEC the professional student side of me surfaced.

Education for FUN !

I took several courses in psychology, one course titled  the "Three Pound Universe"(our brain) two semesters of astronomy and I repeated several higher math courses. I actually took calculus till I understood it !

All in all my life before multiple sclerosis was very rewarding and in retrospect I now realize I entered the work force at an opportune time- the economy was booming and technical innovation was exploding.

Multiple sclerosis has finally confined me to a wheelchair for the most part. But I stay on the go in the neighborhood with my golf cart and on the internet with my antique computer.

Life was good then...life is good now.

"Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That is why it is called the present.
Live and savor every moment.
This is not a dress rehearsal.
You do not get to live your life over again."