SIX SATURDAYS

For fifty years, I looked forward to retiring. I thought about all the things I would do: sleep late, read exhaustedly, write a book, experience the good times, and most of all, enjoy the freedom to do as I pleased.

During the 18,250 days I worked, I look forward to vacations and days off. Three-day weekends I welcomed.

If you set out to describe a good work career, you’d describe mine. Or I would, anyway. My advertising, sales, and marketing jobs were the jobs that used my creative right side of my brain. The idea that 1 + 1 equaled 2 or 11 fascinated me. In solving problems, it isn’t productive to place blame; the strategy is to determine at what point in time the variance occurred. Then, look for what happened before the problem occurred and what happened just after the problem surfaced.

I had the privilege of associating with many creative people, including Dr. David Schwartz, author of the mega-selling book, “The Magic of Thinking Big”, Charlie Clark Professor Senior education and training consultant at the BFGoodrich Institute for Personnel Development at Kent State University, and Mike Vance, former director of people development for Walt Disney Productions, Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Mike popularizing the phrase "Think Out of the Box.”

If it sounds as if I’m describing a mythical “perfect” career, I am, but it’s my real career of 50-years.

As much as I liked this career, I looked to the day I would retire. The day came, and I quickly discovered what an actual retirement week was, one Sunday and six Saturdays. I should have thought about the Saturdays and worked a couple more years while making retirement plans.