I am a Doctor of Medicine who practices as a General Surgeon.  General Surgery is the oldest specialty field in surgery.  At one time, all surgery done in hospitals was done by a General Surgeon.  As medicine has gotten more complex, the fields of Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, Gynecology, Urology, etc., have developed.

How would you describe what you do?

I practice in a five surgeon group in a rural area that has  a 225 bed hospital   We are a private, fee-for-service group,  and not owned by a hospital. My practice is not typical of most General Surgeons, since the majority of surgeons live in big cities and sub-specialize.

What does your work entail ?

My practice, luckily, encompasses most areas of the original practice of General Surgery.  I enjoy the variety of cases I am able to handle.

I perform thyroid and parathyroid surgery, non-cardiac thoracic (chest) surgery      ( including infections and cancers), benign and malignant disease of the breast, abdominal surgery such as gallbladder, stomach, colon and and appendix cases, in addition to abdominal hernias.  I also do some gynecology surgery such as hysterectomies, although most of these cases are done in most hospitals by gynecologists.  My practice also involves vascular surgery, including abdominal aortic aneurysms.  I also treat skin and soft-tissue tumors, including melanomas.

In our hospital, my partners and I are also the trauma surgeons, taking care of victims of car accidents and other types of trauma.

I am in the office one and a half days a week, in surgery two-three days a week, performing 40-50 cases a month.  I usually get part of a day off each week.  Although I took call every other weekend earlier in my career, I now take call every fifth weekend.

How did you get started as a general surgeon?

In high school, I always enjoyed my science classes.  Our school had career days, and the physicians who would talk were always happy in their careers, and I started to look harder at this profession.

During college, an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) surgeon in my home town took me into surgery to watch him work (probably can’t do this now days) and I was hooked.

I went through medical school, though, thinking I would be an Internal Medicine specialist, but during my internship several of the Surgery residents took an interest in me, and I switched to General Surgery.

What do you like about being a general surgeon?

I like the personal rewards that General Surgery gives me.  I enjoy taking a complex medical problem and figuring out what is wrong  or being able to take a sick patient to the operating room, working hard during the case, and, most of the time, having the patient recover and be better than they were before the surgery.  The majority of my patients appreciate the care they receive by me and my partners, and this in itself is very rewarding.

In my particular practice, I enjoy the variety of diseases I can care for and the cases I can perform.  I would be bonkers if I had to do the same thing every day, like a cataract surgeon (although they are at the bank and golf course hours before me!)

What do you dislike?

I dislike several things:  having to deal with insurance companies and Medicare, both of whom are constantly trying to cheapen my services and talents; getting up at night to take care of folks who are drunk or drugged and are in automobile accidents, hurting themselves or others ; taking care of people who have spent a lifetime not taking care of themselves, and having them expect miracles from my care.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

Since I live in a retirement area, about 60% of my income comes from Medicare (most Surgeon have 35-40% Medicare).  25% is private insurance, 5% Medicaid and a growing percentage, 5-10%, is no insurance.

We write off a significant amount of care, counting the discounts of Medicare and Medicaid, in addition to the charity care.  The IRS does not allow us any deduction for this free or discounted care.

How much money do you make as general surgeon?

I make approximately $325,000 a year.  No one knows what will happen to medical reimbursement with the new health care bill.

What education or skills are needed to be a general surgeon?

A budding Surgeon must be focused.  In college,  I recommend seeking counsel with your college’s pre-med advisor, who can steer you to the courses you will need to get in med school.  Good grades, not making stupid mistakes out of the classroom (yes, med schools usually do background checks) and hard work help get you into medical school.  General Surgery is a five year residency after medical school.  Yes, it is hard work (total of 25 years of school and training).  Yes, I enjoyed my training and yes, I would do it again!

What is most challenging about what you do?

Staying up with the ever changing science of surgery, and keeping focused on my patients when forces like the government and insurance companies try to do something that is not right.

What is most rewarding?

Realizing that something I am able to do with my brains or my hands is important in a patient’s life.  Occasionally it is life saving, but most of the time just personally rewarding.

What advice would you offer someone considering general surgery?

The work to get here is hard, and the number of General Surgeons in the U.S. is dropping each year.  Your talents will be very valuable to hospitals and patients in the future due to supply and demand of your profession.

How much time off do you get/take?

I go to one or two surgical meeting yearly, and take an additional 2-3 weeks off.  I live in a vacation area, and enjoy my time off locally, also.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

They think General Surgery is like general practice, and not a five -year surgical specialty.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

I am working on some business ventures with my family.  I  enjoy traveling, and would like to use my surgical skills in other countries.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

I think it is important for someone entering my profession to take time for their family and become involved in their community.  Both are important parts of a balanced life.

I’m a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department of the United States, and I’m currently the American ambassador to five countries in the Pacific Ocean: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu, and Tonga.

How would you describe what you do?

I’m the U.S. President’s primary representative for all American interests in the part of the world where I’m the ambassador.  That varies from being responsible for taking care of the American citizens and their needs to the issuance of visas, to the discussions about political and economic and trade and commerce issues. We’re also working on the military relationships, dealing with the environment. It’s just the whole range of things.

What does your work entail as an ambassador?

One of the things I like about my job is that every week is going to be different.  I have about 80 or 90 people, local employees and Americans who work for me at the embassy, and each week we have internal meetings to discuss their roles and duties.  I usually have a number of meetings of people from outside the embassy as well, either local folks who have an interest in something economic, political, commercial, or maybe other diplomats or international organization types.  I also do public diplomacy, the last two days I’ve given speeches at different sorts of events trying to make sure that people are well aware that the United States is here, and what our policies are and why we have them.

How did you get started?

I had been doing a variety of things for a number of years into my mid 30s when I realized that I still wanted to be involved in public service, but I didn’t want to continue on with the, kind of, political jobs that I’ve been having, and so I turned to the State Department and it offered a variety of things that I’ve always been interested in such as International Relations.

There are really two ways to get into this.   The way I did it is through the State Department process where you join as a junior officer and you work your way up through the system and about 2/3 of the ambassadors go through that route. For that, you begin by taking a written test that is offered several times a year at a variety of places in the United States and also at embassies all over the world. And then if you pass that test, which is a pretty tough test, then you go on to a day-long assessment that the State Department offers. And if you pass that, you go through medical and security checks. If you pass that, you’ll be put on a list and maybe get employed. It takes about a year to go through the process and there’s no surety to it because there’s a lot of people who start and very few people who get selected in the end. So it’s rigorous. And then you work your way up through the system.

The other way for becoming ambassador is that the White House always chooses a number of ambassadors from its own lists without the State Department connection, and that’s based upon people who have assisted the effort to get the President elected one way or another, or people who are well-known to people in the White House and they figure that they would do a really good job even though they haven’t gone through the State Department system. About a third of the ambassadors are from that side of it as well, so I guess you either go through the bureaucratic process, or you have the good fortune to know somebody who gets elected President.

What do you like about what you do?

I think in part it’s that I do get to move from place to place, learn new skills, gain a new depth of knowledge, test myself in new ways; that keeps me stimulated. And so I enjoy that. There’s a lot of interaction with a variety of peoples around the world. I think that’s good. I think the United States tries to do good works in the world and I’m happy to be part of that.

What do you dislike?

Well, the hardest parts are that you are off somewhere else in the world much of the time. I’ve been with the State Department for 24 and ½ years now, I guess, and probably 17 of those years have been overseas.

And I do have a family. Fortunately, my wife and I really joined as a team, so it’s never been a worry between the two of us. We both like the lifestyle and we both have been satisfied with it. But it’s difficult on kids. When I was growing up, I was from a very small town on Iowa. My grandparents lived next door; my friends from infancy were my friends when I graduated from high school; very stable relationships. My daughter went to four different high schools, and all my kids are going to a series of schools, so they’ve become very strong socially through that.  I think they can deal with practically anything. They’re far more adept at that than I was when I was the same age, but some of the deep-seeded roots are harder to maintain. And also, as parents age, we were a long ways away a lot of the time, and that was very difficult.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

It’s a salary basis, and the salary depends upon what rank you are in the system. It’s a little like the military in a way. It depends on your rank and kind of time and service and how far you’ve proceeded through the system. And then there’s additional compensation. If you are in a very tough place, and even more if you are in a very dangerous place, and more, again, in a very expensive place.

How much money do you make as a US Ambassador?

Well, I won’t say for myself, but I’m now in kind of the senior ranks of the State Department, and I think that it’s publicly listed that the senior salary is ranged from somewhere from $130,000 up to maybe $160,000.

And that’s a lot less than what we would be earning in the private sector, by the way.

Would you say there are any perks to being a US Ambassador?

In addition to the salary, if you are overseas, the State Department provides you housing. And then there’s also a government-subsidized health insurance plan, and you can get government life insurance as well. There is vacation time at about five weeks of vacation a year. If you’re overseas, and if you’re in a tough, difficult place, the State government will pay to fly you to what is called rest and recreation leave occasionally, about once a year. All of those things make life not so bad.

What education or skills are needed to be a US Ambassador?

I don’t think there’s any particular education required for the State Department, but the reality is it’s a highly competitive field, and almost everybody who comes in has at least a college/university degree. Most people have work experience and graduate degrees. It’s great if a person happens to have foreign languages, particularly the tough kind of languages like Arabic or Chinese, Korean, or Japanese. As far as particular educational background, I’m not sure that any particular one is most prominent. A lot of people come in with a political science, economic or history background.   The State Department hires people to do all sorts of things, including management work, councilor, helping American citizens in doing visas, doing public diplomacy, doing political work, doing economic work, so a wide variety of skills and a wide variety of backgrounds.

What is most challenging about what you do?

I guess it’s when things aren’t going so great in your relationship with a country. For instance, right now in Fiji, as you may have noticed when you were visiting, there’s a serious governance problem; so they had a coup about a year ago. The United States has always been unhappy to see coups, and it’s been difficult to work with the post-coup interim government of Fiji, and I think most everyone likes to be at jobs where it’s always a cooperative effort to achieve common goals. It’s much more difficult when you’re dealing with people who don’t share your goals.

Also, the average term for a career State Department person is probably about three years, but we don’t actually have a fixed term. We are at the pleasure of the President, and if the President decided tomorrow that he had enough of me for Fiji and wanted somebody else here, that could happen. And when there’s a Presidential election as will happen next November, a year from now, all of the ambassadors in the world submit their resignations to be accepted if the new President wishes to take them. Usually, the career types are kept on to the end of the three-year tour, but not always, and often the political appointees are turned over because the new President wants to bring in the new people.

What is most rewarding?

Well, one, I’m proud to be an American, and it’s nice to be chosen as the United States senior representative to a foreign country.  It’s a huge honor. But it’s only great if you’re out there trying to do the things that make America proud. And I really like the thought of attempting to encourage democracy and encourage open governance and encourage respect for human rights and encourage the people locally who aspire for those things to keep working for those sorts of thing.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

Well, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the State Department is not for everyone, but if you are inclined to interact with the rest of the world, and if you thrive on moving to new places and doing new things repeatedly, and if you’re okay with government salaries which, given the skill levels, are less than what you could make in the private sector then this could be for you.

How much time off do you get/take?

And a lot of people go overseas for a tour, back to Washington for a tour or two, overseas a tour, back to Washington. It does depend on what kind of work you do; if you’re doing the consular work or the management work there are going to be more opportunities overseas than Washington. In my case, I really love being overseas, so I’ve aimed to be overseas more often, and I probably spend two-thirds of my career overseas.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

Well, particularly here in Fiji, I think the misconception is that I’m sitting on a lovely beach, under a palm tree drinking a pina colada  just partying all the time on diplomatic circuit.  We do real work just like in the States.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

Well, I’m probably moving on toward the latter stages of my career. I think I would probably have one more assignment, and then there is a mandatory retirement age at 65. You can retire after you’ve had 20 years in and have reached at least the age of 50.  I’ve always thought that I will keep taking jobs as long as I keep getting offered interesting jobs, and to my great pleasure, I’ve continually been offered interesting jobs. So I look forward to moving on to another interesting job after this and then we’ll see what happens. But when I finally get to retirement I think I’ll deserve it.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about your job

I think working for the State Department, not just as an ambassador, can be a very rewarding career. You’re in interesting places, and not always glamorous places, but always in places that have fascinating people and lots to offer.  It’s been a very rewarding career.

I’m in equity research for an investment firm, I’m an associate analyst there.

How would you describe what you do?

Currently, as an associate analyst, I help the more senior analysts do research on different stocks that we follow and help try and determine whether they’re stocks that our clients should buy or sell.

What does your work entail?

There are several different things.

Probably the most rewarding is knowing that if you’re doing a good job, you’re helping people build their financial wealth. Most of our clients are people either building towards retirement or are in retirement, and by helping them invest properly then you’re directly helping them live better.

A lot of my job is helping the senior analyst’s keep that up to date and making sure we’re keeping up on the trends and news about what’s happening with the companies we follow. And there’s all kinds of small projects associated with that. The other part of it is trying to develop my own knowledge so that I can follow my own companies here at some point.

How did you get started?

I started as a financial advisor, so I was doing the actual sales side of it and decided I didn’t want to be doing the sales, I’d rather be analyzing the company, so I moved into our home office and started in the research department.

What do you like about what you do?

I just find what I’m doing interesting. I find it interesting and challenging at the same time because you’re trying to make the right decision on whether a stock’s going to go up or whether it’s going to go down. When you’re right it’s rewarding, so that’s probably why I enjoy it.

What do you dislike?

Oh, at times, it can be a little boring in that you’re doing all this reading; you’re doing a lot on Excel, those types of things. So, maybe a lack of interaction with other people sometimes can be a negative part of the job but it’s not as bad as what some people might think it is. You have plenty of interaction with the other analysts and things like that but I would say that would probably be one downside.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated as a stock analyst?

Currently, the way I’m compensated is mainly through salary and then there are bonuses every trimester that are based partly on my performance and partly on the company’s performance.

How much money do you make as a stock analyst?

About $60,000

Would you say there are any perks to this job?

There’s your normal type benefits; 401k, health benefits, and all those types of things. Then also one of the biggest benefits working for Edward Jones is you have the opportunity of becoming a limited partner in the firm. I became a limited partner last year so now I get to share in the profits.

What education or skills are need to be a stock analyst?

A degree in finance or accounting would be ideal. Typically you’ll need high grade point averages too. Then you’re required at my firm, not at all firms but at my firm, to get your CFA which stands for Chartered Financial Analyst before you can start to cover your own company. You don’t have to have it before starting but you have to have it before you start following your own companies. It’s a series of three tests. Typically, you have to pass at least one or two of them before you have much of a chance of getting hired.

So the biggest thing is, an accounting or a finance background and ability to pass the CFA exam. I’d say, you’ve got to have some analytical skills, you’ve got to be good with numbers. You’re dealing with numbers all day long but then at the same time, you’ve got to be able to communicate your message to our financial advisors, so you’ve also got to have some communication skills.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Just trying to figure out what information is most important. There’s news out there every single day on stocks and you have to figure out whether the news items are something that’s really going to matter over the long-term or not. Then you have to take all the information and make the call you think is right. Nobody’s right every time but it’s nice to be able to be right most of the time.

What is most rewarding?

Probably the most rewarding is knowing that if you’re doing a good job, you’re helping people build their financial wealth. Most of our clients are people either building towards retirement or are in retirement, and by helping them invest properly then you’re directly helping them live better.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

First of all, if they’re a young person coming out of college, they would need to do as well as they could, you know, as far as their GPA, but especially in their business courses. For someone not coming out of college I would say to have as much experience and background in finance or accounting would be the best. And then to really stand a good chance of getting, into our firm anyway, to have one or two levels of the CFA exam finished is a big advantage as well.

How much time off do you get/take?

As far as vacation days, I get eleven vacation days; if you have been at the firm for less than five years. If you’ve been there over five years, then it starts to go up to fifteen, and then twenty, but I get eleven vacation days. I can’t remember how many sick days I get it’s more than I would ever use. And then the hours are very flexible, so if I need to take a half day here or there, come in at 9:00 or leave at 4:00, whatever, I can do that. But as far as policy goes, I get eleven vacation days.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

I think probably the biggest misconception would be most people, when they think of an analyst, they think of some nerdy guy sitting there in a cubicle by himself all day looking at numbers and not interacting with anyone, or anything like that, and I think that’s probably the biggest misconception. Even though you are sitting at your desk and doing a lot of research, you’re also involved in a lot of meetings with the other people on your team and trying to find out what other people are seeing out in the economy, and those types of things. And you’re also interacting with financial advisors, brokers, and things like that. So I’d say that would be the biggest misconception.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

It would be to get to a more senior analyst position, which would mean I’m following my own stocks and making my own recommendations, and then to go beyond that would be more like a, you know, department leader or something like that: the head of research or something like that. But in the fairly near future, it would be more of a senior analyst type of role.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

I think we’ve hit on most of it. I just think for someone that enjoys numbers, analyzing things, enjoys the stock market, those types of things, I think it’s a very rewarding career, and there’s a lot of ways that you can go with it. I mean, there’s firms like mine that focus on individual investors and those types of things; there’s mutual fund companies out there, pension funds, so you can kind of pick where you want to go depending on how hard you want to work.

What do you do for a living?

I’m a PGA Golf professional.

How would you describe what you do?

I own and operate a golf shop…golf retail operation. I manage the day-to-day operation of a country club.

What does your work entail as a PGA Golf Pro?

You name it. Everything from conducting tournaments, to teaching, merchandising, public relations, marketing…I mean, we can go on and on.

How did you get started?

I got started because as a kid I was a golfer, and was a pretty good junior player, and just decided at a young age that I was going to be a golf professional – either I was going to play on tour or I was going to be a club professional – and tour didn’t work out so I’m a club professional.

What do you like about what you do?

Well, for one, I’m at the golf course every day; whether I get to play or not, I’m still at the golf course every day. And the ability to interact with people on a daily basis – different people – and be able to share my expertise in something they love. Plus I’m not sitting behind a desk. I’m dealing with people on a social level for a living.

What do you dislike?

I have to deal with people on a social level for a living. The demands as far as time. I work every weekend, I work every holiday. When you’re dealing with the public, you have one policy and it’s there for a reason, and some people aren’t going to agree with it. And it’s the same as everything else, but probably demand on time is the greatest thing I don’t like about it.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

Well, I have a salary from the country club, and then I own the golf shop retail side of it, and then teaching, and club repair.

How much money do you make as a PGA golf pro?

Somewhere about eighty-five to ninety thousand a year. It’s probably right about average for golf pro’s.

Would you say there are any perks to this career?

Tons. We have endorsement contracts just like the touring professionals do. We don’t get paid as much – not near as much – but, we get all the free equipment, and balls, and everything we want. PGA members pretty much play free golf wherever they go, at any club or golf course. And then in the community it’s nice, because you kind of always have people wanting to do you favors. It’s just one of those things.

What education or skills are needed to do be PGA golf pro?

Well, I have a college degree. You need to be a PGA member. You don’t have to be, but the education process through the apprenticeship in the PGA education is a must. And then I’ve got continuing education. I’m a master professional. So the PGA education is definitely required. College education, not necessarily, but most coming into the industry now have a college degree. You have to pass what they call the player’s ability test, you take the course rating for the golf course that’s hosting it, and you multiply it times two, and add fifteen, and that’s what you have to shoot.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Probably just dealing with the variety of personalities, some people are always easygoing, some people are never easygoing. Being able to switch modes and know, “Okay, I have to stroke this guy this way, and I got to stroke this guy this way.” And being able to treat people equally but have different methods to making them, you know, understand, I guess.

What is most rewarding?

The most rewarding thing about being a golf professional is seeing people satisfied at the golf course. I work at a place where people go for leisure. So when somebody has a great day at the golf course, when they’ve played great, or they just had the perfect day, whatever, that’s the most satisfying is…I know they had a good experience at the golf course, and hopefully, it was, in some way, in part to my management skills.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

If you want to play golf, don’t become a golf professional. And we all say that. I only play about once every two weeks. If you just love the game, and you want to play, just play golf as much as you can, don’t become a golf professional. But if you love the game, and you want to be around it, involved in it, in every different facet of it, then you’d probably be a good candidate.

How much time off do you get/take?

Two weeks’ vacation, and then in season one day a week, off season is two days a week. And then a lot of times I’ll go two and three weeks at a time without getting a day off sometimes. January and February, we’re still operating. I’m taking two days off a week – I’m taking Sunday and Monday off – but there is a lot to do, because you’ve got your whole golf season ahead of you that you’re getting prepared for. You’re working schedules out; you’re working out contracts for outings, things like that. You’re ordering merchandise for your shop and that kind of thing. So, you’re not working as many hours. I mean, I’m down to thirty-five, forty hours a week in the wintertime, but you’re still staying busy. But, you know, hey, let’s be honest, wintertime – January and February – I mean, I work for about an hour and a half in the morning, and the rest of the day I’m sitting there, you know, shooting the shit.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

The most common misconception is that golf professionals play golf every day, without a doubt. And another misconception is that we’re PGA Tour players. We’re not.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

You know, I’ve really met a lot of my goals. I’m actually in the process of setting some more. You know, for me, my most immediate goals are really related to the club here, and seeing that membership become full, and seeing that it becomes a smooth-running operation that cash flows, and is a premier club. Long-range for me, probably go work for either the PGA Tour, or the Nationwide Tour as a rules official, but that’s something I’ll do twenty years from now.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

You know, the time commitment is great. The apprenticeship…just to get to the level where I am, just to be a head golf professional, the commitment is huge, and the money is terrible. There’s a three- to five-year gut check that you’re going to make very little money, and you’re going to work a lot of hours, but you’re going to gain a lot of knowledge, and the tough thing is there’s twenty-eight thousand golf professionals, there’s only nine thousand jobs. So a job comes open, there’s a lot of competition for it. So, you’d better do something to set yourself apart.

My title is Animal Services Superintendent.

How would you describe what you do?

Basically, I’m the director or manager of the animal shelter, and/or animal services, which also encompasses animal control. We have a vet clinic also.

What does your work entail?

I work for a municipal shelter animal shelter. I’m responsible for planning the budget; making sure that we’ve got the money, and where to spend it, and where to put it. I buy vet supplies for the veterinarian too and make sure the officers are going to complaints and calls that people have out there on the street. I have to make sure we have animals up on the floor that have been temperament tested and they’re behaviorally sound. I have to make sure the animals are properly cleaned, and properly fed, and if they’re sick they get treatment. I talk to people when they bring in animals.

…that’s the satisfying thing’s when you see the animals find a home, and you saw what they looked like when they came infested with fleas, infested with tics; and we’ve had to shave them down to their skin because of an irresponsible owner. And then you find it a great home, and that just makes it all worthwhile.

A lot of my duties are trying to educate people: publicity-type stuff, press releases, and educational materials and literature and trying to make people aware of what is responsible pet ownership and how can you make pet overpopulation go away. Spay-neuter; we preach spay and neuter, spay and neuter. We try to come up with programs that will help people. When people bring in a stray there is no charge. When they bring in their own animal to surrender, for whatever reason, there’s no charge. That’s kind of a myth that we charge folks. The adoption includes spay and neuter. We instituted micro-chipping about four or five years ago, so it’s helped us to get animals back to their owners. It’s a permanent form of identification, even if pets lose their tags, and collars, and all that.

I belong to a group called S.A.W.A., which is Society of Animal Welfare Administrators. We all try to work together and figure out what we can do to make pet ownership easier for people, but then, also look at, what people are doing wrong, and what crimes are being committed against animals. So, that’s part of my job, too, is to look at animal cruelty and people that are breaking ordinances.

So, a lot of my job is just really meeting with people, talking to the public, talking to aldermen. We work under the police department so I do answer to the Chief of Police.

A lot of the fun parts is really getting out and talking to the public. Like on Saturday, we were at the farmer’s market and did a rabies and micro-chipping clinic right there on the square. Our full-time vet that we have on staff did rabies shots. So getting out and really talking with the public and trying to help people that have concerns and have problems, is really helpful.

We once had a guy come in and say, you know, we’ve got a doghouse so I need a dog. Well, that’s not a reason to adopt. And so, a lot of times, those are the things that make it tough, because people get angry when we don’t approve you for adoption. And that’s unfortunate that people don’t understand, that we’re not adopting out guard dogs, we’re not adopting out dogs to live in your backyard, or to run down your grass or your weeds. We’re adopting out animals to be your companions; to be part of your family.

You see folks out there that have, little money, pets bring enrichment to their lives. Everybody should be able to have a pet, and we want that. And that’s why we provide some low-cost, low-income type things like our spay-neuter program for just $10. And, we do, every month, have a rabies and booster clinic where it’s $7. Come and get your rabies shots, your booster shots for the year; for both dogs and cats. And so those are things that we try to do to be kind of an outreach source for the public. Of course, we also do education. We go to the schools, we go to different organizations to talk about dog bites, and spay and neutering, you know, I’m going to say spay and neuter as many times as I can. And, you know, all of those things.

And pet overpopulation. Why are we even here? You know, what’s the point? And that’s a quandary that we have. We call ourselves an open admission shelter. Some folks call us a kill shelter. There’s just a huge myth and kind of in society of what is a kill and what is a no-kill shelter, and there’s really not a no-kill shelter. Folks like to think they are sometimes, but a lot of times what happens is if an animal get’s sick, they take it to a vet’s clinic and euthanize it. And we basically do the same thing here. We, unfortunately at times, do have to euthanize adoptable animals. Our adoption rate or reclaim rate is about fifty-two, fifty-three percent. So, out of five thousand animals a year, about two thousand of them are euthanized; twenty four hundred are euthanized. And that’s tragic, and it’s part of the job that is probably different than most peoples’ jobs.

You know, I have to play God a lot, and it’s unfortunate. It’s not something that I prefer to do, but it’s something where it gives you a perspective on life. I think it changes you and, you know, most of the staff that work here will tell you, when you participate in euthanasia and it’s not, one dog here, one dog there. Some days it’s ten dogs. Some days it’s twenty cats. When they just come constant, and there’s no room for them.

We, unfortunately at times, do have to euthanize adoptable animals. Our adoption rate or reclaim rate is about fifty-two, fifty-three percent. So, out of five thousand animals a year, about twenty four hundred are euthanized. And that’s tragic, and it’s part of the job that is probably different than most peoples’ jobs…I have to play God a lot, and it’s unfortunate.

And we can’t say, nope, we’re full, you know, we’re going to have to turn you away. We don’t have that option. We have to take in all of the animals and therefore we’re open admission. Whereas somebody else who calls themselves a no-kill, you know, they can turn people away.  No, we’re full, sorry, you’re going to have to dump it on the side of the road down the street.  Whereas that’s what we don’t want you to do, we don’t you want you to dump it somewhere. So, unfortunately, that means, at times, we have to euthanize.

We try really hard to get them to rescue. We have animals on Pet Finder, so that people, you know, across the country can find dogs and cats. We’ve had dogs go to the homes on the East Coast, the West Coast, south. We’ve had them go north to Canada. We find people who can transport; there’s actually people, and this is something you might be interested in doing is a volunteer who transports. There’s people that actually transport animals and that’s their job across the country. And they do like a two-week type of thing, where they run dogs and cats across the country. I mean, we’re going to great lengths to find great homes, so we don’t have to euthanize.

And we work really hard. We’ve got a volunteer who just flew nine Pit Bull puppies up to Massachusetts in the spring, and he just did another flight. He’s a pilot. There’s a Pit Bull rescue out of Massachusetts so, he takes our Pit Bulls in his private plane so we can get them there. And they have the ability to put them in foster homes and then find them a really good home. You know, breed-specific rescues have that ability, whereas a shelter, we don’t have the time; we don’t have the manpower, we don’t have the time. And so it takes people like volunteers to help us out; to help us transport these animals across the country.

My dreams would be that everyone would spay and neuter! Spay and neuter and that we’ll close this shelter soon.

That makes you feel good, with what you do. And that’s the satisfying thing when you see the animals find a home, and you saw what they looked like when they came in, infested with fleas, infested with tics; we’ve had to shave them down to their skin because of an irresponsible owner. And then you find it a great home, and that just makes it all worthwhile.

Whereas, having to euthanize is a terrible thing, and folks have come to us and called us, every name you can think of, and then we say, well gee, we weren’t the ones that bred those dogs or cats, and my dogs are spayed and neutered. So, how is that my responsibility? And so, it’s very difficult; it’s very hard to do. But it’s a part of the job and anybody that gets into this has to know that it will be part of their job. And if they’re a superintendent, or a director, or a manager, they’re going to be the ones that are going to have to pick and choose and select. They may do it by committee, they may have certain people in the shelter setting that do it, but the ultimate end comes to the director’s desk, and they have to be the ones that decide are those the dogs that we have to euthanize, or the cats that we’re going to euthanize?  We do do behavioral testing so that makes it a little bit easier, because you can see that aggression and go, “there’s a liability here, there’s a safety issue, and so we can’t send this dog or this cat, you know, to the adoption floor.  So, at that point we have to euthanize.

How did you get started?

I actually was in college and it was late one night, and you’re like, Oh, God.  And you know, you’re just going through books all of a sudden because you’re so delirious. I’ve always loved animals; we’ve always had animals as a kid. And I kept reading about all this animal experimentation and bad things. And I just went, this is nuts. This is crazy.  And so, you kind of wonder, gee, what can I do to make a difference?  And so I volunteered at some shelters when I was in college, and I did a lot of projects. I was a journalism and a public relations major, and so I did some newsletters and educational material for the local shelters. And it was interesting to see the kind of behind-the-scene stuff while I was writing for the paper.

And I actually rode with an officer one night, and, she showed me euthanasia and how they used to do this was, you know, twenty years ago. And so, it was that vacuum chamber where you stick the animal in and it just basically sucks the air out of them so they can’t breathe. And that was horrid. That was gut-wrenching, yeah. Today, we don’t do it that way. Most states, anyway, don’t do it that way. Most states have it where, you know, it’s an injection of Sodium Pentobarbital, and so the animals just basically go to sleep and they their heart stops beating. And it’s quick; it’s very quick, and very painless. And so, that was appalling to me. That that’s how we were going to, kill basically, the unwanted animals.

And so, I did some more research into that and thought, god, there’s got to be a better way.  Unfortunately, there are some states that still do it that way. Kentucky still does it that way, some folks in Mississippi still. And they have big chambers now, and Tulsa actually still does it that way, although they’re getting away from their gas chamber so.  It’s just a horrifying death, it’s not humane, and people should be appalled by that, really appalled. You want it to be a humane euthanasia, otherwise that’s cruel. And, so anyway, that just really got me into it, and then I went my way.

People think since it’s(adopted pet) had its Front Line, it’s had its booster shots, it’s been spayed or neutered, it’s been micro-chipped, it’s been rabies vaccinated; it’s going to be perfectly healthy for the rest of its life. And then it goes home and it gets sick, and it’s got kennel cough, and you’re going to have to put it on antibiotics. And people are like, What did you give me?  You know, it’s like the perception is still, like, this is property, and this animal is a living, breathing creature, and it’s going to get sick just like your baby does. And that’s why we try to tell people when we do adoption counseling is this is a living creature and we cannot guarantee that it’s not going to get sick; and it’s just like a child. If you were adopting a baby, if it gets sick, are you going to take it back and say, Give me another one?  Are you going to take it to the doctor?

My husband went to work for the city and I saw this job opening and went, you know, I would love that job. That would be a great job. You know, petting the puppies all day long, and oh, that would be so much fun.  Yeah, you know, it wasn’t petting the puppies all day long. But, you know, it was just I just kind of saw it and went, man, that’s, you know, I can do that. I would be so good at that. Really. Give me the job. And, so, you know, luckily they did, and I’ve been fortunate and really pretty grateful ever since.

What do you like about what you do?

It’s the adoption. It’s being able to go out there and see animals rescued, seeing the officers go out there and they look at some horrible situations, you know animals living in filth, starving to death, you know, living on this huge long chain, and she’s got puppies but they give her no food and water, and it’s just devastating when you go out to see that, and you do have those emotions where you just really want to kill these folks. But you have to, you know, try to educate and move on to save the animals and we do have the power to issue citations of course, we do that”and save the animals. And that’s really about getting them out of those situations. And I think that’s really where it makes it all worthwhile; just knowing that you’re helping those animals, getting them out of those situations.

And we work with wildlife a lot, so that’s interesting, too, and it’s interesting to rehabilitate; see a deer, or a hawk, or an owl, you know, recover and let them go, or release them back into the wild so, that’s really cool, too. It’s really ou never know what the day’s going to bring. Never know.

What do you dislike?

It’s the euthanasia. It’s really that and dealing with some folks I guess it’s hard when you come across people who are so closed-minded, and you know you’re not going to get in there. You’re not going to have the opportunity, be it you don’t have the time or they don’t have the time, you’re just in the wrong place to really try to make them understand how this is wrong, how we shouldn’t do it anymore. And dealing with those folks, that just won’t be open-minded to there’s a better way. We don’t have to treat animals like this. We’re not going to adopt them out to you for you to put them on a chain and not feed or water them until you feel like it. We once had a guy come in and say, you know, I’ve got a doghouse so I need a dog.  Well, that’s not a reason to adopt. And so, a lot of times, those are the things that make it tough, and people get angry because there are times when we don’t approve you for adoption. And that’s unfortunate that people don’t understand, that we’re not adopting out guard dogs, we’re not adopting out dogs to live in your backyard, or to run down your grass or your weeds. We’re adopting out animals to be your companions; to be part of your family. And, so, people get angry at that, and it’s unfortunate, you know, and you know, that’s something that we have to look at.

And a lot of times we’ll get the remark, well, you’d just rather kill this dog,or, You’d just rather kill this cat.  I would. I would rather kill a cat than know that you’re going to take it home and let it loose, and not feed it and not water it unless you’re, you know, in the mind to do that, and you possibly might have that money, and then you’re not going to provide vet care if it gets sick, or gets injured; and it’s going to get hit by a car, because it’s not a feral cat, it’s not, you know, it doesn’t know about cars and it’s going to get ran over. Or you’re going to let people, you know, mistreat it, or whatever. So, you know, when folks do say that, you know, nowadays I say, Yeah, I would rather because you’re not going to provide it with the best home or a good home, or even a good life.  But a lot of times that doesn’t happen. A lot of times we find a good home, and I don’t have to kill it. So, you know, that’s the bad one, you know, just knowing that all of this all of the euthanasia could be solved if people would just spay and neuter.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

I work for the city, so I am a city employee. Everybody who works here is a city employee, so we are very lucky. The city pays very well compared to the other surrounding cities. We have good benefits, very good retirement plan, good health insurance, dental insurance, eye insurance, vacations; you know, we get vacation time, we get sick time, we get holidays off, well some of us. People work here year round.

How much money do you make as an Animal Shelter Superintendent?

I started at $35,000 a year, that was six years ago and the city has gone through some changes, and I am now at $69,000 a year. There are some folks just in this area, they’re making $35,000 a year. Some less than that depending on, their shelter size and their staff load. And there are some people in non-profit in different areas that are making over $100,000. So, it really depends on where you are and how many folks and animals you’re responsible for.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

I would say a college degree helps. Some folks have a background in veterinary medicine, animal control, even human medicine, you name it. There’s a lot of different backgrounds, but somewhere along the way the become directors of shelters. And it’s just really you have to be able to deal with numbers; budgets, projections, knowing what you’re going to need, and how much you’re going to need, why you need it. You have to have some, knowledge of animal biology, and animal control, how to work with legislation, ordinances, being able to read some kind of law documents, those type of things.

You also need public relations skills.  I mean, you need to be able to communicate really well with people. You need to be able to write well. You need to be able to manage people well, like I said, if you don’t have a good staff, you’re out of luck.

If you have a passion for animals and you have a passion for animal welfare that’ll get you there. You know, it really will. And a lot of people come up in the ranks, our animal services coordinator, she started as a caregiver and then she was an animal control officer, and then she kind of just worked her way up into admin and, you know, working with the budget, and that type of stuff, and, you know, managing people. Those are just those are skills that you’re going to need.

What is most challenging about what you do?

I think, really, being able to juggle all of the things that occur in a day. And so it’s really hard to try to get all of my processing done of check requests, and bills paid we’re needing a new roof or we’re needing a new ceiling, or the incinerator is broke, or the air conditioner is not working, or the officer’s truck broke down. And so, you’re constantly trying to juggle those priorities. Somebody’s mad at the volunteer coordinator, so the volunteers are going to quit.

So it’s really just juggling everything at once and still finding time to make a difference.

What is most rewarding?

I think just really looking at animals that you’ve seen at their worst. You’ve seen them come in, they’re skin and bones, they have no hair, they’re infested with fleas and tics, and we provide everything that they need for, and they thrive. I mean, you know, it’s sad to say, the shelter is the best that they’ve ever seen it. Being in a shelter setting and they’re thriving, and they’re on the adoption floor, and you’re spending time with them. And just, when you look into that animal’s eyes and you know that they’re grateful, and where they’ve been. I often say,  You know, if they could only tell us. I think anybody who is as sensitive to animals, I think we’d be in an insane asylum because what they would be able to tell us of about their life would be so devastating, and heart-wrenching, that we wouldn’t be able to handle it. But just looking in their eyes and seeing, how grateful they are, and how this is, going to change their life.

And then they go home and we get updates. I love the people who update us. They’ll send us pictures, they’ll e-mail, Hi, I just want you to know, Suzy looks like this now.  Or they’ll come by. And we really make a point at those times to call the staff up and say,  Hey, you know, Bruno’s back. Come and see him.  And the owners are, this is the best dog I’ve ever had. This is the greatest do.  We’ve had a cat that saved somebody’s life that was adopted here, and we had one dog that he was this little mutt-y terrier mix that actually played the dog in Annie at a local theatre just recently. And so she sent us pictures. Those are the type of things that are just throws you over the moon and you’re just like, I’m good, I’m good for another six months. I can handle it.

That’s really it for us, and that’s what drives all of us, is just being able to see those successes and know that we’ve saved that animal and put him in a great home. And they’re loved and cared for and so that’s really what it amounts to, is just, that it’s all about self- satisfaction. I mean, we’re self we’re really selfish people here. It’s like, Give us more. That’s so cool, yeah. And that’s really it.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

A career in animal welfare, is an emotional roller coaster ride. You have to learn to be able to be calm and not take things personally. You cannot put your heart on your sleeve. You just can’t do it. You’ve got to have a thick skin and you have to be determined. You cannot give up. You just do it for your love of the animals. If you don’t have a love for animals and you think it’s just, oh, you know, I can make fifteen bucks an hour as an animal control officer. I’m going to go do that.  That is not the approach, because if you don’t care about animals, you’re not going to make it.

How much time off do you get/take?

Not a lot. Well, you know, you do get it, it’s just a matter of taking it. Right now, I think I’ve got over two hundred and fifty hours of vacation that I haven’t taken. I need to work on that, because it’s important to get away every once in a while.

The city gives us two weeks a year. After, I think, you’ve been here ten years, you get three weeks a year. And so that’s really nice. That’s a good thing. It’s just finding the time to take it and being able to do that.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

It’s hard for people to get a good grip on, why should I adopt from a shelter? Why should I adopt from your shelter?  I mean, there’s a wide range of diversity. Every shelter is different.

Anyone can be called a humane society, anyone can be an animal shelter, and there’s relatively no oversight. So some peoples’ experience with an animal shelter is great, and others would never even think about adopting from one.

So combating people’s pre-conceived opinions is difficult sometimes.

If you looked at our shelter and then you went to the shelter down the street, it’s not the same. Our policies are not the same, our adoption prices are not the same; what we give you is not the same as what they give you. Spay and neuter is included with us; we have a vet on staff. There’s only two other shelters in this state that have a vet on staff. One’s in Little Rock and one’s in Sebastian County. So, you’re not going to get the same experience. And so, trying to, make people understand that, that’s the first problem. And the second problem is they expect that that dog or cat they get from you, that you’ve done everything to it. They think since it’s had its Front Line, it’s had its booster shots, it’s been spayed or neutered, it’s been micro-chipped, it’s been rabies vaccinated; it’s going to be perfectly healthy for the rest of its life. And then it goes home and it gets sick, and it’s got kennel cough, and you’re going to have to put it on antibiotics. And people are like,What did you give me? You know, it’s like the perception is still, like, this is property, and this animal is a living, breathing creature, and it’s going to get sick just like your baby does. And that’s why we try to tell people when we do adoption counseling is this is a living creature and we cannot guarantee that it’s not going to get sick; and it’s just like a child. If you were adopting a baby, if it gets sick, are you going to take it back and say, give me another one?  Are you going to take it to the doctor?

And so, that’s part of trying to get the word out and trying to get vets, kind of on board too, that are out there to say, You know, this is a shelter dog and they didn’t know where it came from, or (da da da da).  And a lot of times you get a vet that says, Oh, my God! You adopted from a shelter? What were you thinking?! This dog is disease-ridden. Get it out of here.  So, nobody’s on the same page, and so you know, if people actually make it to our door, that’s a huge hurdle we’ve just gone over.

And so you have to make sure that the staff is welcoming and they’re friendly, and we’re answering their questions and getting them everything that they need to know, and sometimes it’s just an overload. They go back there and they look at, you know, forty dogs and they’re like, Oh, man, that’s too many for me. You know, I can’t handle this.  Or they look at the cats and they just in the back of their mind, well, if I don’t give them a home, they’re going to be euthanized. So you have to get over all of those hurdles, and it’s a miracle we adopt out any, actually. When it comes right down to it, it’s a friggin miracle. And so, you’ve got to be appreciative to those people. And we try, we try really hard, but there are so many other things that we have going on around us that sometimes they don’t get their proper, you know, everything they need to know.

I have to say there’s a lot of organizations out there that are trying to help. Like Science Diet, they provide us our food for free. The only thing I have to pay for is the shipping and handling. And so, every adopter gets a free bag sent home with them. And that’s to try to get them on that good, nutritional food, so that we know they’re eating well.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

My dreams would be that everyone would spay and neuter! Spay and neuter and that we’ll be able to close this shelter soon.

I treat sick animals and I put up with people.

How would you describe what you do?

In veterinary medicine you’ve got to do two things: you treat the animal, and then you’ve got to use psychology on the owner. Everyday I put up with people like that. And I make the joke that one end of the leash is easy to deal with. The other end of the leash is very difficult to deal with. If a person can’t deal with these individuals that are very demanding, that read the Internet too much, that think they know everything, if you can’t look past those people, and, bite your tongue at times, you won’t get very far.

When you save an animal’s life or some little old lady comes in here and gives you a hug because you have saved her animal’s life. That’s what it’s all about. Some people don’t think it is. Some people think it’s money. The most rewarding thing to me is what I do for the animal.

But, you know, we’re really treating people psychologically, and we’re treating the animal in their health needs; whether it’s cosmetic surgery or whether it’s sick animals’ treatment, routine health care, or disease prevention. It’s a broad spectrum of needs that the animals have. And then you add the mix of the people into it, and that’s what we do here everyday. Everyday. And some days, if the moon is full, we the wackos…You think I’m lying, but they come in that front door one after another. The ones that you just say, “Oh, God,” you know, “they’re coming in again?”

What does your work entail?

I come in at 7:30 and I begin treatment of sick animals, and I have my practice a lot different than others. I believe that the animal is in better care at home than it is sitting back here all night without anybody around it. So, all my sick animals come in between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning, the ones I’m treating on a daily basis. I get through that, answer telephone calls, and then spend two hours doing surgery. Most are routine surgeries: spays and neuters and ear trims and tail docks, de-claws, whatever anybody wants done to their animals. And then you have your emergency surgeries…you’ve got things that are more of a medical need rather than the routine stuff.

And then after lunch, I spend from 1:00 until 5:00 doing routine health care for animals. That’s when I have my clinics. And I used to spend—when I did large animals—from 6:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night, full tilt. Now, I’m here about eight hours a day, and I try to put everything I can do into eight hours, and that’s Monday through Friday, with emergencies at night, and a few Saturdays from eight to twelve doing routine stuff. I try not to do any of my surgeries on weekends. And then Sunday, hopefully, you sit down and you don’t have anything to do.

How did you get started as veterinarian?

I grew up on a farm and I enjoyed working with the animals there. And we had an old time veterinarian there that was pretty rough around the edges. I worked farm animals, I worked for people, I did routine healthcare for sheep and cattle and things, and I just kind of migrated that way.

The animal has very little ability to tell you where it hurts; whether they’re feeling better or whether you’re doing the right thing…Diagnosing sick animals is the most challenging part of it all…

At some point I finally decided that was what I wanted to do for my life’s work. I knew it when I was fourteen or fifteen years old, but it’s something that takes many people a while to figure out. There’s some place along the way that the light finally comes on and says, “This is what I want to do.” It doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s what most people in veterinary medicine do.

What do you like about what you do?

I like the challenge of diagnostics. I like the satisfaction of saving an animal’s life. I like the things that we do to make animals live longer, live more productive lives, spaying and neutering, and all healthcare. Now our cats are living to seventeen or eighteen years of age, and our dogs are fifteen and sixteen, and when I started practice, if you had a fourteen-year old cat, it was old. And then once in a while, it’s rewarding when somebody comes up and thanks you for what you’ve done for (Fifi) or (Foofoo). If money was in it, I wouldn’t have done large animal. Because large animal[care] was rewarding; delivering calves and treating sick animals, and the fire engine calls were lots of fun, but there was no money in it. There never is any money. Now, the equine specialists, they get lots of money. But it takes a person that can really bullshit to be an equine specialist. And it takes a certain person to be any kind of a specialist. You’ve got to kind of bullshit your way through it.

What do you dislike?

Probably the biggest thing I dislike about it is having to put up with the general public. I don’t mind the hours working. Some people do, not me. But, people griping, complaining about a bill or, you know, it just kind of…you can be having a great day, and somebody come in and complain about their bill, and it just ruins your whole day. That’s the thing that I hate about it. I really do.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

Disease prevention, vaccinations, routine healthcare is probably where most of the income is generated. Surgery can be a source of income. The sale of healthcare products: flea products, heartworm preventions, even prescription dog foods is another source of income. Probably the thing that you get least for your time is in diagnostic and treating sick animals, as far as your percentage of time you spend with an animal, compared to what you do with the routine things: the vaccinations and healthcare…But, those are your areas where you make money.

How much money do you make as a veterinarian?

You know, in a single-man practice like mine that’s established, grossing a half a million dollars, is probably going to take home $100,000…..These multi-million dollar practices, multi-practice, some of them are making $250,000. But that takes a long time to get that and you have a lot of people working for you.

Are there any perks to this career?

I enjoy most of the animals and I enjoy a certain part of my clientele. It’s something to come in here and be able to know that you’ve got a group of people that think a lot of you and you think a lot of them, and the friendships that you make over the years. A lot of my large animals clients, I still have a great friendship with.

But I think probably the biggest perk is the true friendships that you develop with the people because what you’ve done for their animals or have done for them…That is probably the biggest thing that I think I can, right off the top of my head. You know, compared with all this other stuff the money is nothing. Hopefully, a few of them will show up at my funeral. That’s the goal. And also the respect. Most of the time, people respect you.

Is there anything you find exciting about this career?

When I was doing large animal; obstetrics, delivering calves, doing that was the most exciting part of the practice. Because every one was different. The exciting part of what I enjoy doing more than anything in this practice is surgery, whether it’s general surgery or whether it’s emergency. I enjoy it because it’s just me and the dog in there, and one other person. I think it’s probably the most rewarding part of this thing is the surgery that you do: the saving the lives, the making lives better. I just enjoy the hell out of surgery.

What education or skills are needed to do be a veterinarian?

Well, of course, you have to have four years of college. With the right classes, the right grade point average, having an advisor that gets you down the right path, being in a state that has a veterinary school has a lot of advantages. This state does not have a veterinary school, so they have to rely on contracts with other surrounding states to take so many veterinarians a year. Some people even if they don’t get into a veterinary school on their first application, they have to continue on with maybe a masters in some field, or just continue on with some more education. And then there is four years of veterinary school. There is no internship unless you want to specialize in something, and go and have an internship with a qualified veterinarian that is a specialist in his field. And that’s it on education. That’s it. You know, really, if you get in and go out and practice, it takes eight years.

A person should like sciences, they should like math, they should like to work hard, have as high a grade point average as you can have, and most of them have to work for a veterinarian, either during summer during their four years before they get into school. You have to have some degree of intelligence. You have to apply yourself and be able to make a four point grade average or as high as you can get to a four point average. Sciences and math are so important, you have to have a desire and ability…And some people just can’t get science. Some people can’t get math. And you’ve got to have skills in both of those areas in order to make your way in college and toward the prerequisites that you have to have for veterinary school.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Diagnostics. The animal has very little ability to tell you where it hurts; whether they’re feeling better or whether you’re doing the right thing. You have to rely on the owner, you have to rely on the sixth sense. Diagnosing sick animals is the most challenging part of it all…Diagnosing and being able to have a working relationship with that animal to know whether it is doing better, and taking history from the fifteen to twenty minutes you spend with a person in there…I can’t have somebody come in with a sick dog, and drop it off and say, “Here, fix it.” Because I’ve got to have a whole lot more information than that. Diagnosing sick animals is probably the most difficult and challenging of all the things that we do.

What is most rewarding about being a veterinarian?

When you save an animal’s life. When you save an animal’s life or some little old lady comes in here and gives you a hug because you have saved her animal’s life. That’s what it’s all about. Some people don’t think it is. Some people think it’s money. The most rewarding thing to me is what I do for the animal.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

Be damn sure this is what you want to do. It’s a long ways through veterinary school. The first year is probably the most grueling part of the whole thing. The gross anatomy where you’ve got all these species of animals to learn about. You have to have dedication, and have patience, and you need to have a work ethic.

It ain’t an 8-5 job, there are many times you have to put in longer hours. I’d say that most veterinary students come away from school with about $150,000 in debt, and that takes a lot out of your income to start with. It’s a difficult road the first five years out of school. You just don’t come out of veterinary school and say, “Here I am. I’m a veterinarian,” you know, “…and you’re going to get this big salary, and life is going to be great. It’s not. The person needs to have patience, and want, and have a desire. There has to be that desire to be a veterinarian. Just because it looks like it might be monetarily rewarding, it won’t be for a while.

How much time off do you get/take?

Personally, all I take off is one week a year. And I’m not the normal. Most veterinarians today that go into a group practice, they will get probably a month off a year. I would say that’s going to be pretty well normal. But not for somebody that’s a single-man practice. You don’t get to take off a week here, a week there, you know. People get tired of you not being around and go someplace else, because it’s very easy for them to just go across the street or down the road. Here in this town we have seven or eight clinics.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

That we make lots of money. That is the most common misconception. We are probably the lowest paid of all the professionals. If you talk about lawyers and dentists and even chiropractors. You could even put chiropractors in there. You know, we’re probably one of the lowest paid professional group that there is. That’s the biggest misconception. That we are filthy rich, and we ain’t. We just…we’re just about like anybody that has a business. Just making it…

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

It’s to be able to slow down in five years and to work part-time. I don’t ever foresee completely retiring unless I am unable to perform. This has been my life work, so I’m not going to give it up that easily. I don’t want to give it up that easily.

I’m the county tax collector.

How would you describe what you do?

My job is to collect ad valorem taxes on real estate and personal property. And ad valorem means a percentage of a value. The value comes from the assessor. She gives me a value, I put the millage rate against it, and I collect that amount on real estate and on personal property and on business.

What does your work entail?

I’m responsible for this office and two satellites offices. My job entails personnel issues, time issues, I also go to associational meetings. Right now, we’re putting in a new computer software system which is taking up a whole lot of our time.

[the misconception is] that we’re a little bit ruthless…we’re not necessarily ruthless, we want to call it consistent. I treat everybody alike: rich, poor, whatever. I’m here to serve the people of this county…I just do my job here. I come to work and go home like everybody else.

My number one job is to make sure that we’re collecting taxes and collecting the right amount, and then we disburse it. I have to make sure the taxes were collected at the correct millage rate for the right schools, and for each school district, and the city and county. Eighty percent of the funds goes to schools, ten percent goes to cities, and about ten percent goes to the counties.

How did you get started?

I began on the quorum court. I was on the quorum court for 8 years when this job kind of opened and I had to make a decision.

The quorum court was taking so much of my time I had to either get in or get out of politics. I enjoyed county government, and this job came open, so I ran for the position and got it 6-1/2 years ago.

What do you like about what you do?

I like working with county government. It is really unique, you meet a lot of statewide officials, we all do the same things because state government is just a collection of what the county government does. It’s really unique. I guess one of my big jobs is you deal with the odd things that come along, and it’s these problems that come along that challenge you most. We deal with bankruptcies and we deal with delinquent people that won’t pay. We also use the county attorney. He will file liens against these people, and we can have personal property sales to get the taxes paid. We can also sell businesses if someone is delinquent, but everyone usually pays so we haven’t had any real sales yet.

What do you dislike about being a tax collector?

Sometimes you find people with hardship cases, like poor little ladies on fixed incomes come in and say, “My taxes have went up. How am I going to pay for it?” . You hate to hear these stories and they’re heart-wrenching a lot of times. You’ll hear, “My husband died and I didn’t know if the land is going to be sold at auction, and they’re trying to come up with money and ask “Can I please just wait?”. And I’m in a position where I have to work by the law. Which I’m glad, I’m kind of glad that I got a law that I have to work with and that’s the final determining factor. So, even though my heart goes out to these people, and it tears you up sometimes, but you have to go ahead and send those to the cases to the State. We do work with businesses who can’t pay and we will set up a payment plan for them. And as they pay off their delinquents and catch up and are current, we will give them their clearance. And they may not be fully paid up, but as long as we’ve set up an agreement, which is a signed notarized agreement and they make these payments, then we’d work with them and then they’d catch up over a period of hopefully around one year. Some of them may have to go beyond that. But we try and work with people to get paid up.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

I’m on a salary.

How much money do you make as a tax collector?

It is now somewhere in the neighborhood of 70,000 a year.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

It doesn’t require necessarily a college education. I don’t have a college education, but I had a background in business when I went into the quorum court. To do it nowadays you really just need some computer skills.

What is most challenging about what you do?

The challenging thing about this job is trying to get information from the assessor and getting all the information the right time of the year. There’s always hold ups, there’s always lawsuits, there’s always things that have be taken care of quickly. Because we get real busy at certain times in the year.

What is most rewarding?

To me it’s very rewarding that we can handle so many people that will pay the last week of the year, and most people are coming in here later and later, closer to the last day to pay October 10th. So the fact that I’m responsible for having a system and personnel that can handle that high volume is very rewarding.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

You need to know Excel, Word, and Access, and just be familiar with your computer in general. You need to really work in some area of bookkeeping or accounting, because that’s what we are, bookkeepers for the county. We keep records. We collect money. It would be good to either work in the office or work in county government. It also helps having experience dealing with personnel issues. I’m constantly having to hire and replace people, so knowing how to hire good people is very important.

How much time off do you get/take?

I’ve seminars and schools that I’m constantly attending, but as far as personal time it’s usually around two weeks per year.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

That we’re a little bit ruthless. But we’re not necessarily ruthless, we want to call it consistent. I treat everybody alike: rich, poor, whatever. I’m here to serve the people of this county. And some people are a little bit, you know, I got to go to see the tax collector. I go to church and he’s the mean old tax collector, whatever. It’s kind of a misconception and I just do my job here. I come to work and go home like everybody else.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

My goal is very simple. I’m right now putting in a new software system. I’m trying to get everything on the computer. My goals would be that you can go online and see the delinquent taxes that’s another way of encouraging people to pay delinquent taxes, be putting their names online. I think I’m looking for being here another six, eight years, and then retire.

I’m a court reporter.

How would you describe what you do?

We go to attorneys’ offices and we write verbatim what’s being said in depositions or in hearings and go to court sometimes as well. If you ever see the person on TV sitting there with the machine writing, that’s what we do.

We are freelance here, meaning that we usually go to attorneys’ offices rather than court, but we do fill-in in court sometimes, too.

What does your work entail?

Some of the reporters are mask reporters, which means they just repeat into another recorder exactly what’s said, and some of us are writers, where we’re typing shorthand what’s said, and then the shorthand get transcribed into English in a computer.

…you learn a lot…You can hear from an accountant talking numbers all the way to an expert in vehicle motion. So you really get to hear from a lot of interesting people.

Then you have to go back and proof it and edit it and be sure that it’s all correct, and after that’s done, then it all has to be printed and copies made along with any exhibits.

I wouldn’t call it a 9 to 5. You may have a deposition all day from 9 to 5, but if they need it the next day or in a couple of days, you’re going to have to be working evenings to get it finished.

How did you get started?

I was living in San Francisco and working as a legal secretary and started talking to the court reporter who came to our office. She had a school for court reporters so I decided to try it out and really loved it.

What do you like about what you do?

You have flexible hours. You’re not always in the office, you’re out. Everyday, it’s something new, and you meet a lot of new people and you have some really interesting cases. It’s very rarely boring.

What do you dislike?

It can be long hours sometimes where it’s not come home at 5 o’clock and you’re off.

If you see the close captioning on TV, those are reporters that are sitting there, taking it down. And you can do that from your home, do it through satellite while watching it and have it feed over. I know people who have done the Olympics just sitting in their living room taking it all down.

Your work has to be scheduled around what has to go out the next day. If you take in something they needed tomorrow, you have to work on it that night. There’s just no way around it.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

It’s by the typed page. So, the more pages you produce, the more you make. And the more they talk, the more you make.

How much money do you make as a court reporter?

As a court reporter, starting out, I would say, starting, you could make $30,000. And then it depends on how busy you are. You could make $80,000 if you’re really busy and really good at what you do.

Are there any perks to this career?

Well, you learn a lot, or a little about a lot of things. You can hear from an accountant talking numbers all the way to an expert in vehicle motion. So you really get to hear from a lot of interesting people.

What education or training is needed to be a court reporter?

You have to have a high school education, and then with the machine reporters, you have to go to school. The average is 2 ½ to 3 years. And you take classes learning the theory of it, but then you also take medical, legal, and English classes. And the mask reporters, I’d say 6 months to a year on theirs and they can learn that on their own. There are correspondence courses for both mask and machine, and there are no schools around here. The closest machine school is in Tulsa.

You have to take medical classes so you know what they’re talking about. If they’ve gone through all these medical terms and you have no idea what they’re talking about. It’s going to make it really tough to be sure that you’ve got the right spelling and know that that’s the word that they meant to say.

What is most challenging about being a court reporter?

The speed sometimes. Sometimes they get to going really fast, and you have to slow them down because you can’t get it, or they’re talking over each other and you have stop and say, “One at a time.” It’s a lot of things that a tape recorder wouldnt get. You really need to have a person there who can know what they’re saying and stop if you need to.

What is most rewarding?

I like to get out and meet all the people. That’s one of the things I like most about it, you get to meet so many interesting people.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

That you have to be a good listener, you have to hang in there through the training. It has to be something you want, not everybody can do it. Some get into it and just think, “This is not what I want to do at all.” Just look into it, you can get online and find information on it.

How much time off do you get/take?

If you’re not working that day, you don’t get paid anything. So in the beginning it was very little. Now I have more.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

That you just go and you write it down during the deposition, then you go home and it’s done, that’s all there is to it. All they see is you sitting there taking it down. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes that goes on.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

Just to keep building up. I started out in my extra bedroom doing it just myself and now I have seven other reporters with me, and we have video conferencing, we have transcription, and so, and that’s a fun part of it, too. Just to keep building it, but keep it small enough that it’s in control.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

Well, you can go on from being a court reporter to being a CART(Communications Access Realtime Translator) reporter. If you see the close captioning on TV, those are reporters that are sitting there, taking it down. And you can do that from your home, do it through satellite while watching it and have it feed over. I know people who have done the Olympics just sitting in their living room taking it all down.

There are also students at universities who are deaf that they have so they have a court reporter who’s sitting there taking down what’s being said in the class and it’s coming up on the computer so that they can keep up with what’s going on.

So there are a lot of different things that you can do with that skill.

What do you do for a living?

I’m the owner and operator of a restaurant and bar.

How would you describe what you do?

I’m the owner and operator of a restaurant and bar which is a very high-volume operation here in Madison, Wisconsin. We’re located just adjacent to the University of Wisconsin campus. We are predominantly, what you would call, a pub-type operation, serving bar food and, of course, alcohol. There are literally thousands of students living directly across the street, and we are a very popular place here in the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison.

What does your work entail as a restaurant owner?

I was an absentee owner for a good share of the time, to the extent that there were managers operating the place when I was doing work and away from here. And then in 1985, I left the television business and have been full-time on the premises doing all of the marketing and promotion and overseeing the operations for the last 22 years.

we’re actually known as Madison’s official birthday place…We have 50 to 60 birthday parties here every day, 7 days a week…Our record is 103 birthdays in one day. Our youngest is one-day old. Our oldest is a lady that’s 108…Virtually everyone in Madison knows the Nitty Gritty as a place to celebrate your birthday. We make kind of a big deal out of it…They are very special people to us.

We have one hundred employees to manage during the height of the school year when there are events at the Kohl Center and the University of Wisconsin is in session.  We have a very high-volume, fast-paced operation, with a capacity of a little over 400. We’re able to serve food to probably 275 seated at one time.

How did you get started?

The business over the course of the 39 years since I’ve been the owner has evolved a great deal. I’ve had, basically, two overlapping careers. I’m a professional broadcaster by trade. I have a degree in radio and television and I was in television here in Madison, Wisconsin for 25 years, from 1961 to 1985. In the early 60’s I did kids’ shows, and then transitioned into becoming sports director from 1975 to 1985. I was the broadcaster for all the Wisconsin football and basketball games on television. And in 1968 I purchased what is now the Nitty Gritty Restaurant and Bar that we have talked about.

What do you like about what you do?

The part that appeals to me is I’m a very outgoing, extroverted type person, and I see this not as a food and bar business, but as a people business, which is a very, very old, worn cliché. I really enjoy the interaction with the people. We have a birthday theme here, we’re actually known as Madison’s official birthday place so many people come on their birthday. We have 50 to 60 birthday parties here everyday, 7 days a week, in addition to our regular clientele that are here for events or just for eating our food. Our record is 103 birthdays in one day. Our youngest is one-day old. Our oldest is a lady that’s 108. We’re a place where the Governor comes, the Mayor is here, the football players are here, the coaches are here. Virtually everyone in Madison knows the Nitty Gritty as a place to celebrate your birthday. We make kind of a big deal out of it. We have birthday balloons, we get their name up on an electric birthday board, we give them a glass mug that they are able to keep, and they get to drink free beer or soda while they’re on our premises. They are very special people to us.

..it’s really very rewarding when people leave our building and say that they’ve had a wonderful experience here and that the food was very good…It’s rewarding knowing people enjoy being here, and that you’ve had an opportunity to make people happy, and they had a wonderful dining experience

It’s the kind of thing where people come up to me and say, “This is the first time I’ve been here for my birthday, but this is one of the most memorable birthdays I’ve ever had, thank you for all your hospitality.” Those are kind of things I enjoy and that we capitalize on and have made the foundation of our business.

What do you dislike?

I dislike that the hours are very difficult in this business. We are pretty much of a seven-day a week operation. And then the second most problematic thing is dealing with employees. It can be difficult managing that. Although, I think we’ve done a very good job in not having the type of turnover that many of the restaurants in our industry have, and that is because we try to take care of our employees to the extent that we make them kind of a part of our family. We work hard, we play hard, and we want people to enjoy their time that they’re here working at the Nitty Gritty.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

We make money in our business by selling food and by selling alcohol, and by setting margins that we hope will be able to pay the bills plus enable us to make a few dollars on the side.

How much money do you make as restaurant owner?

A couple hundred thousands dollars a year is easily attainable in this type of business.

Are there any perks to this career?

The perks are that you just have that gratification of knowing that you’ve done a good job and people are happy and you’ve helped them have a wonderful dining experience.

The restaurant business is the most highly regulated in this country, so you need to be prepared to deal with the health department, fire department, police, neighborhood associations, building ordinances, people coming in and sticking thermometers in your soup at high noon when you’re very busy. If you can’t deal with those kinds of things, you’re not going to be a very happy person and you’re not probably going be very successful in this business.

The rewards are in the compliments that you receive, and the awards that you receive, and the public recognition that you receive. And when you start having those kinds of things happen and prominent people come into your place and people are talking about you, those are all very, very rewarding things.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

I don’t know if there are any special educational qualities that you need to have. I think there are plenty of people in this business that are not really college-educated, although I think it certainly would help if you wanted to take some business courses. I think you would want to take some courses in public relations and you’d probably want to take some courses in improving your speaking. Social skills are also very, very important. And I think that depending on the type of operation that you have, that’s where your emphasis would be on getting those skills. If your skills are in the area of culinary-type things, then you want to look at technical schools that will provide you with those skills. There are many of the top scale-type restaurants where the chefs are the primary owners and operators, and so you could come out of that type of background. Or there’s other types of people who just want to be a management-type leader and just have to have the people skills and the social skills that will enable them to know what they want and effectively communicate that.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Just the day-to-day operations and dealing with all of the things that can happen. Over the course of my 39 years here, I’ve seen just about everything. We’re dealing with clientele that are very demanding at times, you’re dealing with people that want everything perfect. You’re dealing employees that are troublesome sometimes, employees that have a mind of their own and don’t want to do things the way you’d like them to be done, employees that are not present when they are supposed to be or are late. Those are the things that are most troublesome in the industry that you have to deal with on a daily basis. And I can honestly tell you that in 39 years, from a management point of view, that has not changed…those are the things that you deal with on a day-to-day basis. The one thing that comes to my mind right now is we’re dealing with an issue which seems very minuscule to some, but it’s important to us. And that is the fact that there’s a helium shortage right now. We can’t get helium to blow up the balloons that we want to give away to the people that are having birthdays. It’s just not available and there’s a worldwide shortage, and we’re not going to get any helium into our market here in Madison for probably another three or four months, if we get it then.  So this is something that seems a very small thing, but to us it’s very important.

What is most rewarding?

While it certainly can be financially rewarding, it’s really very rewarding when people leave our building and say that they’ve had a wonderful experience here and that the food was very good and our bartenders are the best and all of our servers have wonderful personalities and it was a pleasure to be here and they can’t wait to come back the next time. It’s rewarding knowing people enjoy being here, and that you’ve had an opportunity to make people happy, and they had a wonderful dining experience, which is the reason that they go out in the first place.

What advice would you offer someone considering owning a restaurant?

Anyone that is considering this career or business has love to be around people and has to be a very outgoing type person if they’re going to be the owner/operator. From a management point of view, it’s important that you are able to look at the big picture while also being willing and able to do everything that all of your employees would do. If it means cleaning the toilets, and that happens on occasion when your cleaning people don’t show up or if the cleaners don’t do a good job, then that’s what you have to do. You have to be a jack of all trades. You have to enjoy working mornings, noons, nights, holidays, weekends, because that’s the nature of this business. When everybody is out partying or having a good time on New Year’s Eve, chances are you’re going to be open and working in your establishment till the wee hours in the morning, and then you’re going to get up the next morning, and maybe even have to go clean or to have to go into work because the next day is another day.

How much time off do you get/take?

It depends. In the early days of my operation, I didn’t take off at all. I probably didn’t have a lot of vacations for the first 15 or 20 years. Since that time, I’d maybe take a few days off – never more than two or three at one time – and now later on, in my particular stage of my career, I feel that I can get away for probably a week or two at a time. I have adequate management that I feel comfortable when I’m not in the establishment. But when I return, there are still notes and cards and things like that from people that were here that expected me to be here, that were upset that I was not here. So, when you have that kind of visibility it can be difficult to get away. You’ve just got to take that in stride, and follow up with those people and make sure that you let them know that you’re sorry you missed them, but that you’re looking forward to their next visit.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

I think that the common misconception is that it’s an easy type of business to operate. That anybody can do it and that once you hang out your sign and tell people what you’re doing and what you’re serving, that lines are going to be a block long and that people are going to come in and they’re going to love you no matter what price you charge, they’re going to love paying the prices and they’re going to love the product. And also from the alcohol point of view, people think that opening a bar is very simple and easy and you just sit at the end of the bar and have a drink in front of you, and you just have to wave to everybody and say hello and watch the world go by, and that all you do is just sit there during the day, and at night, you open up the cash register, and take the money to the bank and that’s all there is to it.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

My goal in this career, eventually, is to retire. I’m at a point where I think that that’s probably going to take place pretty soon. I think that some of my upper- management people, if they can put it together, will probably take over my business within the next year or two. It’s been a very wonderful career, so I can’t complain. But it’s very difficult on people that want to get away and have family time because you’re pretty much on the premises working most of the time, and it can be a very, very hard life. I commend everybody in this business that has been able to be successful because there’s a very, very high percentage of failures in the restaurant and bar business. In fact, it’s very difficult for anyone to get money together to set up and operate a bar and a restaurant because the banks are very unwilling to do that because the risk rate is so high. It’s not an easy thing to go to a bank and say, “I got this idea. Here’s what I want to sell. I’m going to sell tacos with bananas on top, and everybody’s going to love them and we’re going to make a million dollars in the first year I’m in business, so give me two hundred fifty thousand dollars to open up this restaurant.” Those things just don’t happen very often. You’ve got be pretty grounded. I think there’s an expression in the banking industry that there’s two things that they want stay away from; restaurants and bars and sporting goods stores. Those are probably two of the things that would be the most difficult sells that you’d have to make to get the bank to give you money to open up those types of operations.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

Well, nothing more than the fact that you have to enjoy what you’re doing. If you don’t get up in the morning and look forward to going to work and have a good attitude and have a positive attitude about what you’re going to do and try to give everyone the best service possible, the best product possible, the best environment possible, then you probably are in the wrong line of work. If you just want to be a 9 to 5 person punching the clock, where you just want to sit at the desk and relax and look at a computer screen all day, this is definitely not the business for you. This is a business where you have to be outgoing, you have to think out of the box, you have to be looking at the big picture. You’ve got to deal with employees, you’ve got to deal with customers, you got to deal with advertising people and salespeople. You’re going to be receiving all kinds of requests or special favors from all of the charitable organizations, we give away thousands and thousands of dollars in gift certificates every year to all of the charitable organizations. You have to have a community involvement in order to get that kind of visibility. You have to be very positive about everything you do. The restaurant business is the most highly regulated in this country, so you need to be prepared to deal with the health department, fire department, police, neighborhood associations, building ordinances, people coming in and sticking thermometers in your soup at high noon when you’re very busy. If you can’t deal with those kinds of things, you’re not going to be a very happy person and you’re not probably going be very successful in this business.

I’m the president of a logistics outsourcing company.

How would you describe what you do?

The company does transportation, warehousing, and all related technology to help people manage the flow of their products from the manufacturers out to retailers. I run the company, which consists of about three hundred and twenty people distributed around the country. Our main office is in California, and now our new office is coming to Fayetteville.

What does your work entail?

There’s not been a normal week in a pretty long time. But, I guess, for the most part I spend time talking to clients on solutions to some of the issues they’ve got.

A lot of people want to do some sort of entrepreneurial thing.  Most people keep thinking about it and thinking about it, but they never actually do anything.  If you’re wanting to do something, just do it already and don’t agonize over it for the rest of your life.

I spend time trying to work with our training partners, which are retailers, warehousing companies—other warehousing companies—trucking companies, recruiting people, managing people, managing issues that come up with people, selling, figuring out our marketing plans, so it’s lots of different pieces.

How did you get started?

I was at Proctor and Gamble, Nabisco, some larger consumer package goods company, and then some large services companies, and saw a piece of the market that was not really being addressed, and that had a high level of dissatisfaction with supply chain management software and supply chain management services and how they interact. So, I decided I could fix that using the Internet and as a tool that would enable people to better manage their businesses. I left my job at the time and just started with absolutely nothing there and slowly built a company. I hired an engineering person first and then other people, and we built a sort of simple technology platform, like a beta. Then we pieced together the services. We got our first small, small client, and then we got a just a small client, and then a slightly less small client. We kept developing systems to make them better for larger clients, and then when they would ask for changes or improvements to things, we would change it and improve it, and it just got better and better over time. And we continued to grow and get larger. And that’s kind of how we got to where we are.

What do you like about what you do?

Well, I like that we are innovative. Innovating new services is fun. Selling is a lot of fun, and helping people develop their careers is a lot of fun too.

What do you dislike?

I don’t like really like the administration type work. I don’t really like to get bogged down in paperwork and accounting-types of things.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

I make money if the company makes money, and the company makes money by charging clients for warehousing, transportation, and technology services.

I think if anyone wants to go down this path, it’s not an easy path, it’s a pretty difficult path…you are taking a big risk, as much as you don’t realize it…I think the risks you know about are one thing, but there’s a whole lot of risks in your life that you’re about to take that you don’t even know exist. But you have to be okay with all of that.

When we manage more of a company’s business, we make more money. I have equity in the company as almost all of our employees do. So, if the company does really well and we have a nice sale, then everybody makes even more than they were thinking they were going to make.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

I had an MBA and that was helpful. And then more importantly, probably, is I had experience with some larger companies that I think did logistics well, and I learned. I think the best experience you probably can get is to spend some time at some larger companies that just do things well, and then you learn how to do them well, and you learn a little bit about corporate culture – and then you can use that and apply it – not even necessarily in the same industry. Sometimes it’s a completely different industry, but it’s analogous in some way, and that, I think is pretty important.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Finding good people and not allowing the company to become too slow moving.  We have to keep it moving, and keep on doing things that are outside of people’s comfort zones. And it’s easy not to do anything about that and just to leave it as it is. We came out of nowhere eight years ago because we sort of pushed it, and most people in the industry thought that it was sort of unnecessary or not a good idea or it wouldn’t work. And clearly, it has worked, and it’s very easy to become one of those companies now that says, “Well, we got a model, and it’s fine, and it’s working, and we just need to tweak it a little, and it will be even better.” And I think that the hardest part is to find a group of people that can continuously do more than just tweak it a little, because if you just keep tweaking it a little bit, you might be successful and you might be around, but you might not be around that long, and that’s the hard part.

What is most rewarding?

I think the most rewarding part is when you have clients that want to use you for more business because there’s something that you’re doing to help their business. When we grow a company’s business or solve a problem for a client that enables them to grow their business, typically that will enable us to grow our business when there’s growth because we’re sort of a part of their business. So that’s the most fun part because it solves somebody’s problem, and it helps their business grow.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

A lot of people want to do some sort of entrepreneurial thing.  Most people keep thinking about it and thinking about it, but they never actually do anything.  If you’re wanting to do something, just do it already and don’t agonize over it for the rest of your life. I think 60% of my MBA class were in the Entrepreneur Association, and out of that group I can’t think of anyone who’s done anything entrepreneurial; out of hundreds of people. Their biggest, most important thing in their life that they wanted to do, they just never did it. So, that’s one thing.

And then the second thing is if you’re going to do something entrepreneurial, and you have time and you’re willing to do it right, it’s worth going to get a job, at another, bigger company, that’s already doing something good and learning at that company. It doesn’t hurt. It seems like three years is a lifetime when you’ve just got out of grad school. But spend three years at Proctor & Gamble or at Wal-Mart or at 3M or at some innovative company that everybody in the world knows does a good job. I’m not saying you should spend twenty years there, but spend three years there, try to stick your nose into everything you can possibly do. Try to help build value at that company, and you’ll end up in all the right places, and then you typically have alternatives. If you decide you want to stay, that’s cool because you’ve done a good job and you can stay and you have a career. Or, you can decide, “You know what? I learned a lot. I’m going to do something else with it.” So that, I think is important. And then, eventually, if you really want to do it, just do it already and stop talking about it.

How much time off do you get/take?

Really none. That’s not by intent. My intention is to take a ten-day vacation every year, and four three-day weekends. In reality, I take none. And it’s been like that for six, seven, eight years. And it’s always just that something comes up and stops me from doing it. And that’s wrong, bad and dumb, but I just can’t ever seem to make it happen. But I still believe that I will next year.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

People always say, “Oh, start your own company, and you control your own destiny. Make your own hours, you can work whenever you want.” I think that’s pretty rare. I think mostly what it means…start your own company, you will be beholden to investors, clients, and employees. You need to constantly do more than other people because you’re making an impression on your employees all the time, so you can’t really spend any money and you can’t really take any time off. Anything you would like your employees to do, you got to do a little bit more of it to show them that you’re willing to do it. You’re a small company, so your clients have these huge expectations, and they’re wary of smaller companies. And then, as you grow, you need investors to come in because you’ll need capital, and then, they’re very involved in your company. So, the misconception is that you’re going to somehow control everything in your life. So if you want to do that, I think you got to do something else, which is maybe a small company – maybe run a really small business, where you really don’t have any employees, you don’t have any investors, and you maybe don’t have any large customers.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

I’d like to continue to do what we’re doing…to continue to build the company up, make it bigger, and then, once this company gets to some plateau where it makes sense for me to step out and do some other things, then I’d start another one or do something that’s more venture capital, private equity-related, or something like that.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

No, that’s about it, I think. I mean, I think if anyone wants to go down this path, it’s not an easy path, it’s a pretty difficult path, and most people that I know that started when I started have failed to continue with it because the market’s hard and difficult, and everything is tougher than you think. And they folded it up, and then had to kind of go back into some kind of corporate environment, and typically have taken a major step backwards in their careers. So, it’s a definite warning. You know, it’s really satisfying, it’s really cool, but you work really hard. But you are taking a big risk, as much as you don’t realize it…I think the risks you know about are one thing, but there’s a whole lot of risks in your life that you’re about to take that you don’t even know exist. But you have to be okay with all of that.