Professor Elam

Sunday August 31, 2014

The formula for success is totally known

Training School run by Ross Perot for duPont Glore Forgan, 1972, I was there

I spent six months in the most expensive, extensive training school ever attempted in the brokerage industry. Ross Perot had taken control of an also ran national wire house, duPont Glore Forgan. He intended to show Wall Street how it should be done. One of the recurring comments was the quote above.

And indeed it is true. We will focus on that in our discussions this week. Let me briefly recount my own experiences and then move to some current examples of good to great. Yesterday I mentioned a competitive swimmer and a concert pianist, two different fields but each requires the same dedication for success.

I never played team or competitive sports. But in high school I had drifted into compettitive debate. Back then various high schools staged large speech tournaments with contests in debate, persuasive, extemperanous speaking. My first school, Kermit Tx, was too cheap to fund a program that would put us up over night at a motel. So we only made two trounaments a year, and had to shuttle back and forth at night an the next morning to one of them. That of course was totally inaedequate to attain any real porficiency.  As a result I never did any better than 50% win two lose two in the prelims.

Then our family moved to Andrews, Tx. It was perhaps the best financed school district in the tstate. It paid the highest teacher salaries. The new high school had carpet in the classroom and an indoor swim pool. The debate team the year before had won the state championship in AAA.

The program featured separate classes for debate and the other speech categories, ie there wer two classes a day, I enrolled in both. It was clear in short order what it took to be a winner-dedication. OUt side the two classes I observed that everyone was spending a couple of hours a day reading up on the topic, that year a national right to work law. Excellence and nothing less was expected in our scrimmages in class against one another. I caught on fast, I will say that. And paired with a freshman, yes a ninth grader but a great one, he and I were the only team to win all four rounds at the first tourney of the season. I had moved from good to great. As seniors I don't think any team ever failed to mover from the four prelim rounds to the elimination rounds which sometimes ran to another four rounds. Either Andrews or Midland Lee won every debate tournament that season.

Okay so you are no doubt bored with my high school reminisces.  Such is the curse of growing older. All one generation can do is provide examples to the next.

My point is that in six short weeks the Andrews coaach completely re made me as a contestant. Now I understood what it took to win.YOu can have the same experience. In my next post I examine the experience of UT Austin and UTSA football this weekend. I realize most females are turned off by athletic examples but this is a perfect example of what I am talking about.