I ended my 14-plus year career at The Daily Record newspaper on a Friday, and the following Monday I had two meetings with potential clients. The first went well, and then I headed to my second appointment at Wooster Glass Co. When I arrived at Wooster Glass, President Kathy Long and Vice President Pat Neyhart told me Ralph Jones would be proud of me for hitting the pavement on my first day of work. That comment brought a smile to my face.
Ralph Jones, Kathy’s father, founded the Wooster Glass Co. in 1947. I met Ralph when he was in his 90s. He was still going into the office every day. I would sit down on the couch in his office and talk. We’d talk about everything. Ralph’s business acumen was off the charts. He displayed these traits when he was just a boy.
As a youngster growing up in the Old Brooklyn area of Cleveland, he worked at a truck patch garden. At the time, kids were paid a penny an hour for each year of age. So, when he was 9, he made nine cents an hour. Never one afraid of work, Ralph worked harder than boys older than he was. Because he was more productive, he approached the owner and said he should be making as much as the 12 years old he was outworking.
Ralph was told that was not how things worked. Never one afraid to take a chance, Ralph explained the situation to the owner of another truck patch garden. If I remember the story correctly, the new garden was across the street. Ralph made a strong case, and he was paid more money per hour. Not only that, but he served as a recruiter of sorts, enticing some of his friends to leave the first garden and come work with him at the second.
He also had a newspaper route as a boy. He had a pretty large route and then another route opened up. Again, Ralph made a case for how he could handle it. With the additional customers, Ralph made really good money as boy around the time of the Great Depression. He was making more than some grown men who had families to care for. Kathy also said her father gave the customers on his newspaper route really good service, something he continued with Wooster Glass Co. Because of this great customer service, he made good tips.
I had the distinct honor of learning from Ralph. I like to tell people I earned an MBA from Ralph Jones University. So, when Kathy and Pat said Ralph would be proud I was hitting the pavement on my first day, it was nice to hear.
The other day, I stopped in at Wooster Glass to shoot some video and get some photographs for a project I am working on. Kathy and I had a chance to speak for a couple minutes. She shared another story about how a young man decades ago approached Ralph to pick his brain. He was going to start his own insurance agency.
“Ralph told him, ‘If you hit the pavement, you’ll do good,’” Kathy said. But, Ralph followed that up by saying if he sat around in the office waiting for work to come to him, then he would not fare so well.
Good things happen when people hit the pavement. In my former life as a reporter, my pet peeve was watching a television newscast and the news anchor saying, “Reporting live from the newsroom is our own (insert reporter’s name here).”
Reporting live from the newsroom is no way to report. A journalist needs to be hitting the streets, pressing the flesh and building relationships. The same holds true for business owners. When I talked to Kathy about my decision to start my own digital marketing agency, she said, “People in Wooster will do business with you if they trust you and respect you.”
Hitting the pavement helps because you get to meet with people face-to-face. In this age of telemarketers and call centers, the personal touch is the way to go.
Another favorite life lesson from Ralph directly related to hitting the pavement is this: “You get out of life exactly what you put into it. You put nothing, you get nothing out.” Correlates to the universal law: You reap what you sow. Ralph was all about taking care of his customers, his workers, his family members and his community. It was such an honor to call him a friend and mentor.
I could go on, but I have to hit the pavement. No, I really do. I have to meet a client.
Great job Bobby. Ralph would be very proud of you.