70 Years

Yes, is has been seventy years since I began work with the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. In July of 1983, after 35 years of service to the Grand Trunk, I retired from my position of Corporate Communications Officer. When asked who would fill my vacancy I would jokingly reply, “I didn’t leave any vacancy.” I had completed the work I set out to do. Our employees safety performance was winning top awards, profits were up, employee grievances were way down, we had a good employee assistance program, working and drinking on the job was becoming a rarity instead of a normal happening. The number of deaths at railroad crossings had been reduced significantly and our Santa visited most of our employees and their families every Christmas on our still performing Santa Train. We had improved a whole lot of attitudes working with top management and with the workers directly and it was time for me to move on.

Our decade of change on the GTW had proven successful and I was eager to move on to my own Corporation, Growth Unlimited Inc. and dedicate my time to working with other clients. I had already built a client base which I had been serving with our railroad president’s blessing. I had established my own publishing company and had published 3 children’s books, a book on sales, another on public speaking which we sold the foreign rights to a Spanish Publisher and it was translated and published in Spanish. Already I had a promising list of clients including General Motors, Chrysler Corporation, Kellogg’s Cereals and the National Safety Council. I was also speaking at schools to K-12 audiences plus teacher and parent audiences nationally sharing my positive living concepts.

I was fifty-three years old, had a wife and 4 children. I had co-founded the Michigan Chapter of the National Speakers Association and began making speeches and writing books for a living full time.

I will never forget the new feeling of freedom I experienced as I closed my offices at the Grand Trunk Depot in Battle Creek. It felt as if I had been carrying a heavy yoke on my shoulders and that a heavy load had been lifted. It has been a wonderful adventure.