The 60 in 60 project: Insights into Success #60in60project #60of60 with Garry Miller

#60in60project #60of60 With Garry Miller

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Recap - The objective of this project was to meet with 60 business leaders and professionals in 60 days to gain insights and perspectives into what success means for each of them. I then took that information to see what, if any, are the connections I could make to help further my own understanding of what success really is.

For my final entry in this project, I had planned on posting my interview with Justin Trudeau, but since his office didn’t respond to my email request, that interview never took place.

Plus, it’s hard to say if Justin would have provided the insight I was looking for.

I was however able to speak to someone else who, as it turns out, made for an even better closing interview. That person is Garry Miller.

Who is Garry Miller? (see photo above)

For 30 years, Garry Miller was an employee with the Bank of Montreal. In that time, he had seen more change in the business world than anyone I knew. He’s been retired now since 2008, but I figured that since he started working in the 1960’s, he’d have a pretty interesting perspective on what it means to be successful.

In addition to working for the bank for 30 years, Garry was also married to my mother for 25 of them. Giving me the honor of referring to him by another title; my Dad.

A product of the baby boomer generation, with his father being a veteran of World War 2, Garry was born in 1948, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After moving from there to Sarnia, Ontario, they eventually settled in the Toronto area and that’s where he attended high school. It was during high school, that my Dad told me that it wasn’t until he switched into the business and mathematics courses, when he finally found something that he was good at and could excel in.

Then without any sort of guidance or assistance on where to proceed next, he’s given a diploma and sent on his way.

“There I was, 18 years old, with a high school diploma (which at the time was considered a leg up on many people) and all I could think was, what now?”

I think that’s a pretty common feeling for almost all of us when we graduate high school. Sure, there’s a few of us who feel fairly certain about where they want to go, but even then it’s not a guarantee. Many of us continue on with more education, partly because there’s comfort in structure (and social blankets), but I think more because it’s become the norm and for many jobs today, it’s almost a mandatory prerequisite now. 

In the 1960’s, it was very different, as I’m sure you can imagine.

“I had no idea what to do, so I started out unloading carpets for a while, which wasn’t the best job, but the pay was pretty good as I remember; I think it was around $1.50 per hour. From there I got a job working at Border Brokers, which was a customs brokers at the airport, where the pay was much better and I was doing something a little more interesting.”

Then in 1968, my Dad ended up taking a job with the Toronto Metropolitan Police as a clerical worker in the Records Inquiry Bureau. There, he was responsible for providing information for officers in the field.

“If you got stopped by the police, I was the person they called to find out if there were any warrants out for your arrest.”

As this was long before the advance in technology, my dad explains that the position was very different than what it is today as it was all done manually at that time.

“I did that for four years, by which time I was old enough to become a police officer. However, when had gone into take the eye exam, unbeknownst to me, I was colorblind; I couldn’t read the numbers through the colors in the test book.”

After taking the test a couple times, my Dad tells me that they even offered for him to just take it home (as the answers were in the back) and return it the next day, but given his morals and character, he decided not to pursue that any further. That was the reality back then though, it wasn’t so much about having the qualifications, it was more about the willingness to work.

“I can remember bringing a friend in for a job at the post office and within minutes of being there, they were offering me a job. I just didn’t want to work for the post office at that time.”

It’s a funny how much we've changed in that regard but in other ways, it's still the same process. For instance being colorblind, which most of the time you don’t even know it until you take one of those tests that are pretty much the equivalent of a Magic Eye poster. Personally, I could never figure out why I too was cursed with the inability to conquer those books, until I tried to take that exact same test when I was applying for the military. There he was taking that test in 1968 and I shit you not, I was using the same exact books in 2014. It's also still apparently the one way that can totally prevent you from pursuing that career choice. Even with a criminal record, you can get a job in law enforcement, but if you're colorblind, well then forget about it.

After coming to terms with the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to pursue a career in law enforcement, my dad tells me that he then started to think about alternatives. Not long afterward, an opportunity to work for a financing company came about and he decided to try that for a while.

“I worked there for a few years, during which time I learned how to repossess cars, furniture, and all kinds of stuff that I never dreamed went on with finance companies. I absolutely hated it. Around that time as well, I was getting older and I began to realize that I wanted to have a pension one day.”

For those reasons, and many more, my dad decided to leave the finance company and got a job working for the Bank of Nova Scotia instead. There he worked in the loans department, but after having some disagreements with his manager and not being able to work effectively in that environment, he once again decided to move on to better opportunity.

“By that point, I had quite a bit of experience going for me and decided to leave the Bank of Nova Scotia. As it turned out, another friend of mine, who was working for the Bank of Montreal, thought that given that experience that I know had, I would make for a great fit over there.”

And for those next 30 years, that’s where he stayed.

“They treated me pretty darn good in that time. Then, I hit 60 and figured it was time to retire. Now, here I am 9 years later. It’s a pretty simple story. One of the best parts about it all is that in that time, I met your (my) mother and I got 25 years with her. I also acquired a son along the way too, who’s now about as old as I was when I joined the bank.”

He then points out that here I am now, at 31, around the same age as himself when he started his career. An interesting thing to note, which I’ll get to shortly.

A firm advocate for change being the only thing you can count on in life and given that his life had changed so much over the course of this past year, after losing his wife (my mom) to cancer, it was difficult for me to ask this next question. I’d asked it to 59 other people, but yet, when it came to asking the one person I knew better than anyone, I felt apprehensive.

It’s hard to explain, but I think part of it has to do with coming to terms with the new reality of our lives and how different that is now.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

“Here, hopefully holding my grand-baby in my arms. Seeing my son happily married, which he is and see him working doing something he’s passionate about.”

“That’s the way it goes when you get older. Your goals tend to change.”

What would you say is your biggest accomplishment in life so far?

“It’s very hard to answer that question. I think one of my accomplishments would be that over the years, I was able to help a lot of people purchase their houses, cars, and a variety of other things. My job was helpful to people and I felt good about that; it was pretty satisfying.”

To put things into context - when you go to buy a house through the bank (or make any sort of purchase with them) and they are unable to make a decision from the branch level, my dad was the person who made the final decision on whether someone could get approval for financing. A job that is mostly done through computers now, but you can imagine how much those decisions could weigh in the mind on a personal level, which explains why he felt good when we was able to help people.

“On the personal side - I raised a fine son and was happily married for 25 years, those are the real accomplishments; there’s nothing that outweighs that.”

Instead of asking what my dad’s driving factors/motivation were (given the retirement factor once again), I opted instead to ask him what motivated him to stay with the Bank of Montreal for all those years?

“It’s funny you ask me that, because halfway through my 30 years with the bank, there was this company called Investors Group, who are still around, but they used to do mortgages. I got an offer from them which would have given me over a six figure income and I had to think pretty hard about it because I would have been good at the job as that was an area that I was very familiar with, but I ended up turning them down. I had put in all that time with the bank and I wanted to continue finish the rest of my working years with them.”

(It was about banking hours during banking hours.)

“The fact that I was going to be 60 one day and I wanted to have a pension. I knew that in that time, there would be some very tough years, which there were but by staying with the bank, I was able to have some pretty good years as well and was still able to enjoy my life with a pension at the end.”

“It was during my last 11 years where I found the most happiness, when I was working for the credit department out of a branch in Peterborough.”

What does success mean in your words?

“It’s funny because the day I started back in 1979, my branch manager, took me aside and said “I think one day you’d be better suited in the credit department, which was many grades higher and it took a lot of years and promotions to get there, but eventually that was exactly where I ended up.”

“I hope that answers your question.”

I think my dad was basically just trying to say that success is what you make of it. Had you told him at 18 or 25 or even 31 that he would eventually be making million dollar decisions in the credit department, he would have probably said you were out of your mind, but then life unfolds in ways that you could never imagine and low and behold, he was doing just that.

Insight -

“If there’s one word I can give you, that sums up my whole life up until age 60, that word would be change. I don’t know what your word will be by then, but my word is change.” - Garry Miller

A word that I believe is common for us all.

I think the world in which we live will always change, but the way in which we live in that world will remain fairly consistent.

Our technology, our fashion, our environment, our economy and basically everything about our society will continue to change as we ‘progress’ into the future.

However, we as a people tend to have the same wants, needs and desires, regardless of how much our world changes; we all seek a life worth living and in the end we simply want happiness for ourselves and those around us. That’s the bottom line.

At almost 70, my dad has seen and accomplished a great deal and although he would consider his life boring, I would say the opposite. He’s seen and experienced more than I can imagine. The world has changed so much in his time, just as it has in my 31 years, but during that time, he’s been able to create a life for himself and others - I am proof of that. His collection of experiences is his success and what he’s done in that time is his legacy.

While we’re all so busy trying to define how to be successful as a means to a purpose, we often overlook that perhaps our journey is the purpose. What you learn, who you meet, what you do and how you do it. Finding success in the everyday and knowing that it’s all about the bigger picture; creating value through experience. 

Simplify and focus, don’t over complicate.

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Hartley is a content marketer who has set out to meet 60 people in 60 days in order to find insights into the idea of success. If you would like to be profiled on this project, you can reach Hartley here on LinkedIn or via email: [email protected]. #60in60project