GaryOsberg.com

Good morning from Collegeville,

I heard the first cardinal call from afar here on campus this morning. It seems to be right on schedule. No Bishop calls yet.

This week I attended a Waite Park Chamber event hosted by MinnWest Bank. The speaker was Jill with Express Employment Professionals. Her opening statement concluded that, on average, we will have three careers and 27 jobs in our lifetime. At first, it sounded a bit much, but then I started counting.

My first job was working at Ramlo Grocery in Upsala, (my grandparents owed the store) for fifty cents an hour. I worked for my step-grandfather, Francis Johnson, as a house painter in Little Falls the summer after high school graduation. In 1962 I broke into the drafting field thanks to my sisters boy friend, Barry Larson. I worked my way up to being the last General Manager of the very first computerized drafting service bureau in the US. After the founders were let go, the two guys that worked for me in production went on strike until the new President, Ron Crew, agreed to hire me back as the sales rep. One of the two guys was Eckart “Butch” Herter, who took me aside to tell me that my hand shake sucked and that I had to read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. He was right.

I joined General Office Products in 1971 and moved from the Office Furniture Industry to the Energy Management industry in 1979. That lasted 3 years and I lost a small fortune. Back to the Office Furniture Industry in 1982 and then on to the Office Equipment industry with Cyberstar in St. Cloud selling Canon and then Albinson selling Xerox. In 1999 Albinson decided they did not want to be in the small Xerox copier business, so I got laid off. It took me seven interviews and two months to get this job with MPR and they will have to drag me out of here feet first.

In summary, I had four careers and 26 jobs, very close to the national average. Shucks, I always thought I was above average.

The show this week is the last broadcast from The Fitzgerald Theater for this season. Special guests include, flat picker of fiddle tunes and alumnus of the Powdermilk Biscuit Band, Adam Granger and vocalist Heather Masse. Enjoy the show and remember we are still rebroadcasting twice on Sunday on the news network. First from 11 am to 1 pm and then again from 6 pm until 8 pm. Enjoy the show.

Check out the ice fishing contest in Brainerd on www.theoutdoorreport.com

“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient evidence.” Samuel Butler