Engineer and cowboy? How can these two
possibly supplement one another? Maybe you can see how engineering
can help a cattle operation, but even this transfer, in my
experience, will probably surprise you.
I suspect that you're sceptical about
what a man riding a horse while trailing a herd of cows could
possibly teach an engineer, especially a chemical engineer. That is
the primary purpose of the posts you will be reading.
As head of our local office, I signed
my own lay-off papers at the end of a project. That was 14 years
ago. Yeah, I was pushed that direction by other factors. I worked
for Stone & Webster. They were headed for an Enron-like failure.
Regulations were multiplying by hundreds of thousands of pages a
year. California alone accounted for 100,000 pages of new
environmental regs per year. I had five offers of other positions
with other organizations. Yet, I chose to leave engineering. For
many, this would be a questionable decision, but it offered the
opportunity to do some real engineering instead of trying to keep
pace with regulatory environment.
You need to understand other aspects
that led me this way. I enjoy challenge. I'm confident taking on
even unknown businesses, and that I can manage the variables. I am
compelled to to acquire new capabilities. I solve problems –
technical or organizational. (Believe me, ranching offers problems
to solve every day.) Even afflicted with these characteristics, I
have enjoyed success, which encourages the confidence.
Before I get to the things that
ranching can teach an engineer, you'll need to find out what I
learned from ranching and what the engineer did as a rancher. Here
we go …..
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