Category: Fettig, Art

  • Monday Morning Memo – June 26, 2017

    Art Fettig’s Monday Morning Memo

    June 26, 2017
    800-441-7676 or 919-732-6994
    artfettig@aol.com

    In this Issue
    o  Bosses
    o  Say Something Good
    o  Points To Ponder
    o  A Little Humor
    o  Quote
    o  To Subscribe

    “I told my boss where he could shove it.”

    Bosses

    I was just sitting here thinking of the bosses I have had in my life. I guess you might say that every person I ever worked for was, in a way, a boss.  It was my job to keep them happy.  Then if you wanted to stretch things you might say it was my job to keep audiences happy too if I wanted recommendations and referrals.  With another stretch of the imagination you might say that it was my job during my working career to keep hundreds of thousands of people satisfied.

    I can only recall one really dissatisfied client and darned if they didn’t call and invite me back two years later.  I declined.

    The truth without stretching it is that once I and my family moved in 1961 from Detroit to Battle Creek, Michigan I always considered myself sort of a “free agent.”  My boss was located 112 miles away and I only saw him once or twice a year.  Somehow I managed to keep all of my railroad bosses that same 112 miles away from me  right up until my retirement in 1983.

    When I hear people talking badly about a miserable, inconsiderate, demanding boss they must deal with on a daily basis all I can relate to is a produce manager in the Varsity Market in Detroit who I worked with one summer just before I turned thirteen years of age. In that case after weeks of abuse and being shorted on my actual hours, like the lyrics of that song say, “I told my boss where he could shove it.”

    Before this moment, I never realized how blessed my life has been without having a boss hanging around my elbow.

    Thanks for leaving your comments.  If you have a story about a good boss, you can leave it on my blog by Clicking Here.

    Say Something Good

    Caps:  I was dining alone at a local burger haven and as I sat watching the cars go by a little man came in and sat at the next table. He wore one of those veteran’s caps with a row of ribbons and a combat rifleman’s badge and the cap said “World War II”. The man inside the cap looked to be just about four foot nine inches tall to me. Really a small man and he just didn’t look old enough or tall enough to have been in World War II. I smiled and said “Hey” to him and asked him how old he was.  He smiled back and I swear there was a youthful twinkle in his eye as he said he was 93. His first name was Bryan and he explained to me that he was just five foot tall when he went in the Army in 1944. He smiled and said, “I’ve been shrinking.”  Nice guy. We swapped stories for over an hour.  We traded some old jokes and had a fine ole time.  Sadly, most of the WW ll  Vets I’ve known are gone now.  Happily, this guy being about five years older than I am and talking sharp as a tack and full of life and all really gave me a boost.  I will be just 88 in a few days and this guy is 93.  He’s still driving his pick-up and taking care of himself and he was in pretty good spirits, God bless him.  And may God bless America too and bring us world peace.

    Points To Ponder

    Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers.  – Robin S. Sharma

    A Little Humor

    Cowboy wisdom.  Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.

    Quote

    Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. Marcel Proust

    To Subscribe

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  • Bosses by Art Fettig

    “I told my boss where he could shove it.”

    I was just sitting here thinking of the bosses I have had in my life. I guess you might say that every person I ever worked for was, in a way, a boss. It was my job to keep them happy. Then if you wanted to stretch things you might say it was my job to keep audiences happy too if I wanted recommendations and referrals. With another stretch of the imagination you might say that it was my job during my working career to keep hundreds of thousands of people satisfied.

    I can only recall one really dissatisfied client and darned if they didn’t call and invite me back two years later. I declined.

    The truth without stretching it is that once I and my family moved in 1961 from Detroit to Battle Creek, Michigan I always considered myself sort of a “free agent.” My boss was located 112 miles away and I only saw him once or twice a year. Somehow I managed to keep all of my railroad bosses that same 112 miles away from me right up until my retirement in 1983.

    When I hear people talking badly about a miserable, inconsiderate, demanding boss they must deal with on a daily basis all I can relate to is a produce manager in the Varsity Market in Detroit who I worked with one summer just before I turned thirteen years of age. In that case after weeks of abuse and being shorted on my actual hours, like the lyrics of that song say, “I told my boss where he could shove it.”

    Before this moment, I never realized how blessed my life has been without having a boss hanging around my elbow.

  • Stupid Is As Stupid Does by Art Fettig

    Stupid
    Photo from Pixabay

    Did you ever do anything really stupid?  Things that cost you dearly?  Maybe you lost a friend or a lover or a job or a career because of your stupidity. Maybe you got kicked out of school or were publicly humiliated. Maybe you went to jail.

    Now if you are expecting me to go on and tell you about all of the stupid things I have done you are wrong.  This isn’t about my stupidity, it is about yours.

    I can see a few pompous asses reading my newsletter and saying smugly, “I’ve never done anything stupid in my lifetime.”  Baloney! Just saying that is stupid.

    Forrest Gump, that famous philosopher said, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

    I was just wondering what kind of world this would be if we – you and I – would all say, “OK, sure, I’ve done a lot of stupid, mean and nasty things in my lifetime and I wish I hadn’t and it bothers me.

    Here are 3 of the 12 steps used in Alcoholic Anonymous:

    8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

    9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

    10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

    Ho Ho, I was just thinking, What if everybody worked on those three steps, all of us, not just those in recovery programs. What if everybody in this world, including the people in Washington and Moscow and Beijing and everywhere. What if we all set out to becoming honest, caring, fun loving friends and neighbors? Sure its crazy! Nuts! Ridiculous! Impossible!  But what good is a newsletter if it can’t stir up your blood and your mind and your heart  a little.  OK, we’ll compromise.  Just do something nice for somebody today and see how good it feels.

  • Art Fettig – “How The Years Fly Bye”

    Art and Jean Fettig

    Jean and I will have been married over 90 years as you read this. (Not all of those years to each other.) I was married 39 years previously and she was 35 years. May 19th we will have been married 16 years together. We met online. I lived in Battle Creek, Michigan and she lived in Hillsborough, North Carolina. It was 1998 and I had just given a speech at the National Safety Congress and some fellow asked me if I would like to travel to Australia and give a series of Safety Speeches. He was just checking on fees and availability and such. It was a very tentative thing but it led me to check out the Internet for information on travel in Australia. Jean had just sold her travel agency and was helping the new owner and she knew a lot about Australia and darned if, through the miracle of the Internet, we got together. She asked me a lot of questions and I asked her a lot of questions and in time we stopped talking about travel and started asking about each other.

    Well, we both must a liked the answers we were getting from each other because we soon got together and we’ve been together ever since. That prospect never did hire me to speak in Australia. We went there later as tourists. In fact, it seems like we went almost everywhere together. To the Artic Sea at Norway, To England and Turkey and Greece and New Zeeland and yes, all over the Carribean and Hawaii and many of the New England States and a mess of National Parks and I worked for the Army and Navy and Marines and Air Corps and for so many wonderful organizations. We rendezvoused in Mexico City, honeymooned in Wyoming and Estes Park, Colorado and gol dang, come July our collective age will be 170 and we ain’t done travelin’ yet.

    I figure our sixteen years married is a good start.

  • Art Fettig’s Newsletter – December 14, 2009

    Art Fettig’s Monday Morning Memo

    December 14, 2009

    In This Issue

    o  I Love A Parade
    o Say Something Good
    o Points To Ponder
    o A Little Humor
    o Quote of the Week

    Art Fettig
    Art Fettig laughing while sitting in his “borrowed” Lamborghini – The seat is almost on the floor…

    I Love A Parade

    No, I didn’t ride in that beautiful red Lamborghini.  The seat is almost on the floor of that beautiful car and I figured it would take a crane at least to get me out of it. One strong man managed the job. Instead. I rode in the annual Mt. Airy, NC Christmas parade in a 1938 Chevrolet coupe and it was a real thrill. The sign on our vehicle read, “Almost  Andy…Art Fettig” I couldn’t resist the temptation to get out and walk and I must have walked half way from here to eternity before the parade was over. My new business card reads, “Almost Andy,  Close enough for most.”  No matter how many times I told greeters that I was not Andy Griffith the more they went right on telling me how they loved the TV show and how they had seen every program. Some families told how they taped the program every day and watched it at 5 PM every day as a family. At least a dozen individuals told me how happy they were to finally have an Andy Griffith look-alike that really looked like Andy. I hope I didn’t deceive anyone unintentionally.

    Seeing all of those smiling faces I hope that I brought a little joy into the lives of those hundreds of people watching the parade. Meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus was the most fun of all.  It’s great to be eighty and I sure do love a parade. I do. 

    Say Something Good

    Meetings. Attending the Trade Show of the AENC this week at the fabulous new Raleigh Convention Center, I met with perhaps a couple of hundred people who are involved in creating Association meetings that make a difference in their particular field. It started me thinking about the conferences and conventions I had attended in my earlier career. The first one was in Texas and I had won an Assoc. of American Railroad’s Award for an article I had written. My wife and I were treated almost like celebrities and somehow it made all of that extra work I had done in writing such articles worthwhile. My horizons expanded all the way from Michigan to Texas. I learned more attending sessions at that meeting than I had learned in my entire career as a claim agent for the railroad. It was like being exposed to a big, new, wonderful world.  I know, like me, you have attended far too many disorganized, unprepared meetings than one should endure in one’s lifetime, still, it was exciting to be exposed to all of these wonderful people who are so totally dedicated to make their meetings and conventions really have a positive impact on their attendees and their profession..  May God bless America and keep our troops from harm. 

    Points To Ponder

    The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving. Albert Einstein

    A Little Humor 

    A guy walks into a bar, orders 12 shots and starts drinking them as fast as he can. The bartender asks, “Dang, why are you drinking so fast?” The guy says, “You would be drinking fast, too, if you had what I had.”
    The bartender asks, “What do you have?” The guy says, “75 cents.”

    Quote of the Week

    As soon as we attract enough attention in the world to play a part in it, we are set rolling like a ball which will never again be at rest. Charles Joseph