Can You Get The Job Done?

Among other places that I worked growing up in working class America, were the Krylon Paint Factory, the Alan Wood Steel Company, and the Nice Ball Bearing Plant in Philly. I lied about my age to get in the paint factory and loaded gallon paint cans off an unforgiving conveyer belt on to wooden skids to help the family finances, have some spending money and put away what I could for college. All of these places challenged my physical ability and raised only one question by the employer which was imprinted on my soul and psyche. I was 5’10” tall then weighing 120 pounds. The question was, “Can you get the job done?”

We all have certain mantras that rattle around in the inner most sanctums of our being. The above jobs had one thing in common which was an unforgiving conveyer belt with heavy stuff at the end of it and where quotas had to be met. It didn’t matter if it was galloon paint cans, coal, or ball bearings. You couldn’t fake it or hide. Each job required accountability that was reflected in that question, “Can you get the job done?”

No matter what your vocation is in life, it is going to require you to hear that question loud and clear, “Can you get the job done?”

In a recent conversation with a friend, I was asking him various questions to make a complicated situation simpler. He was stating the accolades of various individuals involved in solving the dilemma such as titles, reputations, and credentials. I had various questions for him to focus on a solution, and he said, “Boy, you are really practical in your approach!” Without thinking even for an instant I responded by saying, I don’t care about their degrees or reputation, I just care about can they get the job done. I was thinking that I have been with so many people with advanced degrees from fancy schools and they didn’t know enough to come in out of the rain and couldn’t get the job done. I am a results kind of guy and have been since I loaded that first gallon paint can onto a skid because if it wasn’t a necessity to do to achieve a goal, I might have quit after the first day when I couldn’t raise my arms at the end of it.

All the above is to discuss an essay that David Brooks wrote, “How the Ivy League Broke America”, about the Ivy League creating classism and widening the gap between the haves and have nots. We do not have a level playing field in America. I sometimes feel survivor’s guilt that I lived a life that included the haves and have nots. I am reminded that John F. Kennedy on a campaign stop through working class Boston, encountered someone who shouted, “Kennedy, you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth.” Another man shouted a retort, “And Kennedy, you didn’t miss a thing.”

Brooks writes, “A successful meritocracy should value people who see their lives as a sacred mission driven by passion and purpose rather than pedigree. It would recognize the energy and creativity that America is best known for and rekindle those qualities in the next generation.” He feels that elite strongholds have disproportionately benefitted a broken meritocracy, with privileged backgrounds which is a caste system of “credentialism” not in individual potential or drive. I couldn’t agree more. I have survivor’s guilt knowing that EA’s challenges are different from the Philly Public School System which keeps have nots in the have nots caste.

I am a product of an Ivy League School and so is one of my sons , but there is truth in what Brooks says, but there is more. Harvard Business School links success in life to a person’s character and work ethic so I looked at the background of a study of CEO(s). Only11 percent of Fortune Five Hundred CEO(s) went to Ivy League Schools. 213 of the CEO(s) in the study went to private schools and 213 of CEO(s) went to public schools.

Your credentials can get you a job, but quickly that question is going to be raised, “Can you get the job done?” Best to learn that young even when you don’t want to, even if you think that you can’t. It is character and work ethic that will be necessary to level the playing field.

But there is more. It is access. It can come in the private and public domain, and it is more likely to come if you attend college, public or private.

There is another mantra that rolls around in my soul to make that playing field more level. It is that who you know is just as important as what you know, but it depends how you use that leverage that counts.

One of the great aspects of being at EA for 38 years is that I have contacts in the have and have not world. I have access that has enabled me to empower the haves and have nots who have come to me like the godfather if you will. People who encounter people who need help, say, “Go see Rev. He knows people.” When they come to see me, I help with their need, but I say two other things. “I can get you in the door, but you must get the job done. “Second, I may call you in the future when someone else needs help, positive paying it forward,

One story may help. There was a medical procedure that was needed in a life-or-death situation for a student. His father called me at ten o’clock at night and said that he was desperate. He had called many people, but people told him to call me because I knew people. I told him to give me an hour. I called a powerful person in the hospital that could do the procedure and told him what I needed. He said, “Give me an hour and I will call you back.” He did and said, “I have arranged for that surgery for tomorrow at 7 with the best people.” When I called the father back, he broke into tears. I asked him not to tell anyone about what I did. He didn’t do as I asked. But students like this still get back to me with no agenda, just a question, “How are you doing, Rev.? “They never forget! That’s character! “The measure of a person is how they act after they get what they want.”

Schools are important, but in the world of haves and have nots, it is what you do with your access and power is what counts. Having conducted diversity workshops, it is true that where you start helps or hurts where you end up. One of my favorite sayings is Coach Bud Wilkinson of Oklahoma who said it best regarding describing a titan of industry. “He was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.” The playing field of life is made more level by that question, “Can you get the job done?” It requires that you that you don’t fake it or hide but do it with a moral mission and purpose.

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