PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - What did your father do for a living and how has it affected your job?

dtanesq · #7 03-01-2004, 04:05 PM

My dad was a civil engineer and the design supervisor for a county highway department. I am a lawyer and I do project finance transactions. What he did for a living and how he did it influenced me in the following ways:

1. Management style. He was very popular with co-workers and subordinates, mostly by simply being a human being. He was funny, empathetic and a great listener. The summers that I worked for the department I learned this and it was good for me to see him that way. My dad could be a total arseopening at home.

2. Leaving something tangible behind. My dad designed or supervised the design of some nice projects around Phoenix, and later, when he was town engineer - Scottsdale. Many of them are still standing today. My favorite deals are those I've done to help finance the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Los Angeles Convention Center (I met my wife on the latter financing).

3. Don't bring the job home. This one is a little different for me, because my wife and I are in the same industry (she's an investment banker). We're helpful to each other, though.

There are two other things which affect me, but don't really relate to what he did for a living.

1. Persistence. My dad was an immigrant and his command of English was very poor. He managed to survive in his industry and be well-respected despite his unfortunate ability to lapse into being totally unintelligible. Half the time I didn't even understand him. It took guts, which he had in spades, but he plowed through it. He wasn't a very patient man, but he was persistent.

2. Patriotism. My dad came here from a country where his brothers were imprisoned and abused during WWII for simply being of the wrong ethnic extraction. I suppose it was assumed that they were either actual or potential spies or sabotuers. He came from a culture which wasn't really going to permit him much movement given his place in the family. His new country afforded him both the opportunity and the tools to grow and prosper and enjoy his life in a way he'd only dreamed of as a kid growing up.

He also got to see plenty of baseball.