The Eric Wroolie Blog

What’s so great about history?

October 12, 2004 by wroolie Leave a Comment

What’s so great about history?

My degree is in History with a minor of Psychology. I have a passion for history. I read a lot of history books. I sit in front of a lot of history books. Yet, I can’t say that I love everything associated with history.

First of all, I talk of history like it’s a single subject. Like you could take a single course and know it all. The best scholars will focus on one tiny bit of years of history and learn everything there is to know about it. They devour texts, documents, microfiche, you name it. They may know everything there is to know about, say, the Spanish-American War-but they can’t tell you the exact date of the Rough Riders taking San Juan Hill. These scholars are more concerned with learning than they are with spouting trivial facts and being winners at Jeopardy.

I’m not interested in all of history. Who has the time? Also, I’m not interested in trivial aspects like how butter was made in the agrarian age. I’m sure it was difficult.

History is about decisions. To me, the best history books are about people who made remarkable decisions or remarkable sacrifices to better humanity. People often scoff at history being all about wars. But, why do we focus so much on war? Because war is full of people making tough decisions-abandoning the status quo.

Maybe I prefer a good biography than an essay on the cotton-gin.
An incomplete thought-maybe. Just what is on my mind.

The Benefit of Being Backed into a Corner

September 18, 2004 by wroolie Leave a Comment

Last night I was at a meeting of one of the organisations I belong to. I won’t tell you which one, since I don’t really want you to guess who this guy was. We had all just entered the pub and I sat down at a vacant table.
This guy sat next to me and said, “How is Eric.” I told him I was fine and asked how he was. “I’ve been made redundant. I have until the end of October and then I’m without a job. I haven’t been to an interview in seventeen years.”
I told him how terrible I thought the situation was and tried to help brainstorming with things he could try. He was very negative about it all. He would say things like, “there are a few jobs over here, but they’re really hard to get. Besides, they’ll probably just hire someone out of university.”
I asked if he had a lot of contacts and he told me he was trying to re-establish contact with other people in his industry. I asked if he could become a consultant, work as a salesman for offshore firms in his industry, write articles, etc. All suggestions weren’t met with too much enthusiasm.
He said he may have to move to Cambridge which would be a drag pulling his kids out of school when the only town they knew was the one they grew up in. He was very negative, but I really felt for him. I’m certain he could turn this into an opportunity if he just looked at it right.
Then I said, “Hey maybe you can find something in London. Sure, it’s a commute, but I do it every day and it’s really not that bad. You can probably double your salary, or at least increase it.”
Then, he and everyone else at the table started talking about what a terrible idea that was. “That’s an 90 minute commute each way!” “Who could never work in London, what a dump.” “Only desperate people commute to London.”
I was shocked. I was amazed. A commute I make every day and think nothing of it-and he would rather move several hours away. But more than the illogical decision was the fact that this guy had taken a very viable (probably the most viable) option off the table for his future.
I stopped offering advice. He didn’t want it anyway and I can’t help someone who won’t help himself.
Having your back against the wall is not easy. It can be horrible. I’ve been out of work more times than I’d like to admit. But the greatest benefit of being backed against the wall is that you open up to whole new possibilities about your life. You can change professions, go into business, work a fun job for less pay, determine how much money you “absolutely, positively” need and look for the job in the industry you always wanted to try.
One of the great things about being a contractor is that being out of work is always-always-on the forefront of my mind. Money has to be invested. Skills have to diversify as well as improve.

Ray Kroc: The Under-rated Visionary

September 18, 2004 by wroolie 1 Comment

Originally Posted 18/08/2004 07:36

Yesterday I finished reading Grinding It Out by Ray Kroc. Kroc, if you don’t know, was the milkshake mixer salesman who met the McDonald brothers and their state of the art fast food restaurant in San Bernardino, CA, and turned it into the larges fast-food franchise in the world.

The book was great. It slowed in certain areas-especially when he went into his pre-McD’s past when he was struggling as a piano player. He didn’t meet the McDonald brothers until he was 52. He died a multi-millionaire with 8,000 restaurants.

As someone who worked for McDonalds for three years as a teenager (in San Diego and Springfield, Massachusetts) I found the book especially interesting. All the things you have to learn as a McDonald’s employee and the vocabulary you have to adopt but don’t want your friends to hear you use, are unabashedly used in this book. Kroc would user phrases like “You could have toasted a McMuffin in the smile he gave me” or “I felt like a Shamrock Shake on St. Patrick’s Day.”

It’s refreshing to hear about the monolithic McDonald’s back when it was just an idea. In the large organisation with a legacy that it is today, it’s refreshing to think that it was just an idea 50 years ago.

A great book. A great man. Lots of disappointments. Lots of risks. But he built something that has become a part of all of our lives-regardless of what we think of it.