It has now been over 20 years since retiring as senior vice president of the Newton Manufacturing Company. My first day was June 6, 1950, and my last day was Dec. 31, 1990. What a great variety of memories I have of those 40 fabulous years!
Even today I get calls from some of my longtime folks on the Newton sales force and from supplier friends. Much of our conversation now centers around pure nostalgia.
Earlier this year, I was visiting with one of my dear friends — Ida Cooper — who, with her late husband Milton were founders of Island Pen Company in New York City. They were a great pair who built a very substantial business. Milt was a creative individual with a keen sense of humor and a pregnant imagination. But I always felt that Ida was his great stabilizing force.
When Milton would charter a flight for an occasional visit to Iowa, we always looked forward to a unique and unforgettable evening together over dinner. One year with our wives at Strawtown Inn in Pella we discovered that Milt had just given up smoking in earnest. The next morning during our business meeting, it was evident that he was still suffering severe withdrawal pains. Our president, Bill DeJong, sent across the street for his personal remedy — a plug of tobacco. Cutting off a small piece, he told Milt to just put this under his front lip and it would eliminate that nicotine urge. Wow — a formula of which none of us were aware.
The next week, Milt called me from New York wondering what the dickens to tell Bill because he was now chewing and smoking. It was hilarious — one of many great memories.
Straying from the title of this story. Milt Cooper’s simple philosophy of success was: “Business is like a wheel barrow — nothing happens until you pick it up and push it.” This formula for almost any venture has stayed with me over the years. It really says a lot in a few words.
Now, Ida Cooper’s favorite philosophy, whether business or personal, was: “Be brief, be bright, be gone.” During our three-way chat recently, which included my sister Mary Ellen (a good friend of Ida’s), we reminisced about her “be brief” statement, and also about another one of her favorites: “The world is blessed most by people who do things, not merely talk about them.” My son Dave, owner of Maxim Advertising, had T-shirts made up a few years back with this famous saying by philosopher James Oliver and sent one to Ida. She still has it.
One of Ida’s pet peeves over the years has been those who are late for meetings. She again repeated her father’s comments, “You can rob me of my money — I can make more. But if you rob me of my time, it is gone forever.” It brought to mind my friend in Salt Lake City who used to say, “Those who are consistently late consider their time more valuable than yours.” Both these sayings can be like a punch in the solar plexus for those who qualify.
These thoughts today are primarily for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to ponder in the years ahead. But they are good for all of us to remember, and perhaps add to some favorites of our own. Everyone has some succinct philosophical sayings that might have been handed down from their parents or other old-timers. It’s not a bad idea to jot some of them down to be sure they leave an indelible impression for future years.
As my friend Bill DeJong used to say, “My father would tell us this was just part of what he referred to as ‘savvy.’” Webster defines savvy as experienced and well-informed.