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A Nonconformist Does Well
Ohanian Comment: Note: This article ran in the Business Section. Funny thing: This executive, admittedly a poor student in high school, someone who still needs someone else to craft an essay for him, doesn't mention that high school algebra provided him with the tools he needed for success. Today, in an increasing number of states, he wouldn't have received a high school diploma and thus wouldn't have been able to get into the Navy and thus. . . .

This is a good example of why requiring kids to write on-demand essays to receive a high school diploma (or to get out of third grade) is stupid as well as abusive. Essay writing is just about as over-rated as algebra. And as useless to the general population. Think about it: how many essays have YOU written in the last 10 years? We need more 'testimonies' like this--from people weren't scholars in high school and still did ok.

If students squeak by in their high school classes, give them the diploma! THEN they have the rest of their lives to figure out what they want to do--and the little piece of paper necessary to get started.

The Boss: A Naval Conformist

I NEVER had an objective to be a chief executive or a big shot. In school, I was a flunky. I wasn't anybody. I got in fights. But I turned out to be good at motivating people. I was motivated as a child, and I knew what I appreciated: I pushed against structure and authority.

My parents were divorced when I was 3, and I grew up with my mom. When I was 13, my father re-emerged. He invited me to visit in the summer. He lived 12 miles from Memphis, and I lived in Austin, Tex., and my brother and I would take the train and spend summers seeing my Dad work as a crop-duster.

I washed airplanes and mixed chemicals. I liked it because the airplanes were glamorous, but crop-dusting is dangerous. One day, I saw my father almost die. He was rolling down a grass strip runway that ended in a ditch and a highway when he should have been lifting off. The engine had quit. He was skidding sideways down the runway and eventually got the plane to stop. It ended with the wing over the fence and the wheel almost in the ditch. He came out cursing. I realized that nothing can be taken for granted. If something doesn't work, it has consequences.

When I was 17, I wanted to leave home because I didn't want to be in a disciplined environment. I didn't want to be in school. Yet I spent years in the Navy and, unfortunately, the Navy put me back in school — long, arduous school. But because of that, I became a good avionics electronics technician. As soon as you fixed one airplane, your supervisor gave you another. I noticed that these supervisors were inside in the air-conditioning, while I was outside working in the dark. I decided education was important. I got my G.E.D., and later went back to get my high school degree.

Eventually, I went to college at night. Now I wanted to learn the stuff. I went from being a poor student to being an A student. Later, I became petty officer second class. I got picked by default — I was the only guy to pass the test. I wasn't the guy who had the ideal profile for the job. I had a resistance to conformity.

In the military, people can have more stripes than you, but it's just a stripe on your sleeve. It doesn't mean everything. One night, I was pointing out the human frailty of our existence to another petty officer who was talking down to me. I said: "In the middle of the North Atlantic at 3 a.m., it's awfully dark and lonely. If you fell over the side, no one would notice you were gone for a while." I told him he ought to think about his vulnerabilities in life. I got 90 days in the mess kitchen for that, working on the serving line from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

I don't have one of those defining moments in life where God talked to me. You learn by experience. It's how your mother treated you, how many fights you got into. There's no one thing to determine who you become. You're the sum of it all.

Gordon M. Bethune is chief executive, Continental Airlines, Houston.

— Gordon M. Bethune, written with Betsy Cummings
The Boss: A Naval Nonconformist
New York Times
June 15, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/business/yourmoney/15BOSS.html?tntemail1

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