You Always Remember Your First

Before joining Fairfield Mfg., now part of Dana Corp., I had never designed anything or worked with off-angle gearing. I was a young engineer, curious, and ready to learn. And it didn’t take long before I successfully designed my first complete gearbox.

My ‘first’ was creating a new gearbox for Jacobs Wind Electric Co. in Minneapolis, Minnesota for one of its upcoming machines. Dating back to 1922, Jacobs was one of the earliest manufacturers of wind turbines.

Mentoring me through it all was my first boss and the one that I’d work for the next 29 years ― Jim Dammon, the longtime manager, and then vice-president of Fairfield’s custom gear and gearbox design engineering group.

Prior to my work at Fairfield, I was chief engineer at Schafer Gear Works, now Shafer Industries in South Bend, Indiana. There, I learned gear manufacturing: mostly parallel axis gearing, as Schafer did not make right angle gearing other than face gears and some fine pitch bevel gears.

The Jacobs design presented a few challenges. It was to have a shaft angle that was nine degrees off vertical, offset horizontally and was a speed increasing drive, rather than the much more common and more easily designed speed reducing drive. So, under Jim’s mentoring, I quickly learned all I could about Hypoid gearing, speed increasing gears, off-angle gearing, and shaft, bearing, seal and housing design.

Rick Miller’s custom-designed gearbox featured in a 1980’s print ad by Fairfield MFG & Jacobs Wind Electric Co.

The result is pictured here. Some of these gearboxes are still in use today. Both Fairfield and Jacobs ended up displaying this gearbox in several of their print advertisements. Since then, Fairfield has used several more gearboxes of my design in their print advertisements. 

When I first designed the Jacobs gearbox, I worked with M.L. Jacobs, the co-founder of the company and a legend and pioneer in the wind power industry. M.L. died a few years after I completed this project. Recently, I caught up with the co-founder’s son Paul, now president of the company his late dad co-founded. We reminisced about those days and how the wind energy business and Jacobs has changed over the years.

From those early days and since, the lessons I’ve learned are that you must start somewhere. Everyone does. It helps immensely to have a great mentor like I did in Jim Dammon. Working for a great company like Fairfield was beneficial as well. I appreciate the many opportunities I was provided there as a design engineer to grow and be creative.

Even though it was only a small machine; 10 KW and then 17 KW, I eventually designed gearboxes for wind turbines up to 300 KW.

My advice to my younger self: Don’t be overwhelmed when a task seems very difficult. Persevere and you can be successful, and it will be very satisfying. Believe in yourself and know that you can usually do more than you think you can.

That Jacobs gearbox was the start of what eventually became over 300 complete gearbox designs I created over a period of 36 years. Every project, including my three patented inventions, was interesting and rewarding. But I am proud of and will always remember my first.

A Rock-Solid Friendship

My best friend from childhood was Rusty (given name Paul). I first met him when we were about six years old. Rusty lived three houses down the street, and we attended the same school through high school. Our fathers worked at the same factory on the other side of town and car-pooled together to work. Rusty’s father was a mechanical engineer like I became.

I have written about Rusty before here. We shared many of the same interests back then and both loved anything mechanical and that moved under its own power. We built a crude go-cart using his grandfather’s lawn mower engine and with parts from his brother Tallie’s soap box derby car. I vacationed with Rusty and his parents on a trip to Wisconsin where his family was from. The black and white picture on the left is from that childhood trip.

My family and I moved away when Rusty and I were 13 years old, and we lost track of each other for the most part.

Fast forward to 2018 when I looked up Rusty and we started communicating again. We agreed to get together with our wives. Due to scheduling conflicts, followed by the Pandemic, our reunion was on hold. Then after many years, my childhood friend and I finally did meet for dinner this summer: Rusty and his lovely wife Trisha; me and my wife Monica.

The color photo on the right was taken at the restaurant. Notice the similarities, none of which we planned; it was totally spontaneous. Rusty is still half a head taller than I; and in both pictures, he is standing on the left of me and there are rocks as a background.

It had been decades since I had last seen Rusty. But by the end of our time together, it was like we just saw each other last week. That is how it is for long-time friends, particularly ones who knew each other as young children and shared a long time together during their formative years. He is the friend that I have known the longest.

We discovered that we both still have a lot in common and share many of the same interests and backgrounds.

I plan on continuing my friendship with Rusty in the coming years and am very grateful that we finally got together after all this time.

True friendship is hard to find and stands the test of time.

Death of a dream. Birth of another.

I have written of the go-cart that I built and drove as a child here.

Many years ago I bought (probably at another garage sale) this 8 horsepower Briggs and Stratton engine (shown below), with the intended purpose of someday building a go-cart powered by this engine with my oldest son, David. He is middle aged now and we never did build that cart. Two more children came, Megan and Will, but neither of them wanted to build a go-cart with me either. Part of my thinking was “what I wouldn’t have done as a kid to have this more powerful engine available to me back then”. This was more than double the horsepower of any of my engines in those days.

So, this engine sat in my garage, collecting dust for more than 20 years. I never found another use for it.

There was a garage sale in my neighborhood recently, and my wife and I put some things out to sell. When going through my garage, I saw this engine, knew it no longer had a place in my life, and decided to put it out to sell.

As the garage sale was coming to an end and the engine remained unsold, one of our neighbors stopped by. Her husband builds and races go-carts with their 14-year-old grandson, who was with her. I asked the young man if he wanted the engine and he said that he did not. But he had a friend that he thought might want it for a go-cart that he was building. After a quick call, it was determined that this friend did indeed want the engine. So, I ended up giving this engine at no charge to this 14-year-old boy to put on his go-cart.

I must admit that I was a little sad to see that engine leave, and the finality of what it represented. But I was happy that it was going to a young mechanically inclined person who would hopefully enjoy it like I would have and could put it to the appropriate use as I had intended. This is as it should be.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of many happy and fun times for this young man and the fulfillment of his dream.

I have had many equally great experiences, equal to or better than building a go-cart, with all my children; but I realize that my go-cart building days with them are in the past now, and that is fine with me. But the possibility of enjoying this with grandchildren is a story yet to be written. I would probably buy a new gas engine, or maybe it would be an electric engine at that time.  I can’t wait!

My Road to Tesla

Key takeaways:

• Always help those just starting their career.

• It’s nice to be able to drive the results of your work.

• You never know where or when you will find another Purdue Boilermaker.

In 2014, I started a powertrain design engineering consulting department within Fairfield Mfg. (now part of Dana Corp.) with me as the only one working on this function out of the 1,100 employees.  My first customer was Tesla Motors through my connection with fellow Purdue grad Ryan Boris. I spent parts of four months in late 2014 and early 2015 working at Tesla, mostly on site at Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

My work there was on the development of the Model S front drive gears and transmission. It was an interesting, challenging and most enjoyable time, although everyone there works extremely hard and expects the same of you. It was truly a great way to finish my long career as chief engineer at Fairfield, as I left Fairfield a few months after completing my work at Tesla. I then started Innovative Drive Solutions, LLC.

The way this came about was interesting. Over many years, I have often helped and served as a mentor to mechanical engineering students at Purdue University, mostly on the Mini Baja or Formula V programs, or on their senior project. Around 2010, I met and helped a senior student at Purdue, Ryan Boris. Years later, I ran into Ryan at a technical conference. He told me that he worked at Tesla and asked me if I wanted to help them. I said that I did, and he asked me if I could be there the following week.

That was my initiation to the world of work at Tesla and the very quick pace of it. Ryan is now the Geartrain Engineering manager at Tesla.  But back then, he was my boss and client, a switch of roles.

I rarely get to personally experience the results of any of the projects and designs that I create. They usually are deeply embedded in another end product. I don’t own a hay baler, forklift, Victory motorcycle, or a piece of construction or mining equipment. But I do drive an automobile and a Tesla Model 3 is my main everyday car.

I get to experience the smoothness, silence, instantaneous response, and power of an electric car; and not just any electric car, but a Tesla — the best on the road. I now know what a significant car and car company it is. I had a wonderful opportunity when the company was younger to experience working there among some of the most intelligent and highly qualified people that I have ever worked with, especially Elon Musk. I cherish every minute of the time I got to spend there and consider myself fortunate.

I now realize every day how great a car it really is.

I take three lessons from my time at Tesla.

• Always help those at a different stage of their career and especially those still in college, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because you never know where they might end up and how you can help them further in the future, or if they can help you.

• It is very satisfying when you get an opportunity to directly experience an end product that you have worked on and had a hand in shaping.

• You never know where or when you will find another Purdue Boilermaker.

Boys to Men: What YMCA Indian Guides Taught Me About Leadership and Life

During my childhood, Indian Guides (now called the more anodyne “Adventure Guides”) was a YMCA program for fathers and sons. My dad and I were part of a “tribe” comprised six fathers and their sons: Dean, Steve, Jim, Bill, Larry and me; Ricky as I was known back then.

Indian Guides’ purpose was to enhance the father/son bond and to facilitate fathers teaching their sons what it means to be a man, to pass along the accumulated wisdom of the ages and good values: morality, honesty and integrity and how to live a good and meaningful life in this world.

It also sought to educate on the American Indian way of life. We learned respect for our environment (air, water and earth), what being in harmony with nature means, and how to live off the land (hunting, fishing). Building a healthy mind, spirit and body were goals.

Me and a plaster Indian head that my dad and I made together.

I have many fond memories of this time of my life. It was the 1960’s, we were eight years old and pals forever. The six of us young boys, my tribe, were elementary and middle school classmates and graduated together from the same high school a decade later.

The medicine men in our tribe were Steve’s father who was a doctor and administrator of the hospital where I, and probably all six of us were born. His signature is on my birth certificate. Bill’s dad was a family practice doctor and my father’s physician from that time until my dad’s death in 1991.

We six boys became men, each successful in his own right. Here’s how we applied what we learned.

As my regular blog readers know, I am a Purdue-educated mechanical engineer. I began my career in the gear company that my grandfather started in South Bend, Indiana back in the ‘30’s. Then, I was the long-time chief engineer at the largest gear and geared products company in North America. It 2018, that company sold for $600 million. After that, I started my own power transmission design engineering consulting company, which is what I do now.

Steve became a doctor and works at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota as a diagnostic radiologist.

Bill, after serving in the Air Force, also became a doctor and works in emergency and urgent care medicine in southern Illinois.

Larry, a graduate of both Notre Dame and Harvard, took over his father’s overhead crane company, expanded it and sold it in 2012. He then became executive director of The Crane Certification Association of America. Today, he is a consultant to the overhead crane industry.

Jim became general manager of the Dodge division of Chrysler Corporation, then vice-president and head of its Motorsports Division. He left Chrysler to become president of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). 

Dean, a perpetual motion machine who loved sports and played almost every sport in high school, formed a sports marketing company and organized hundreds of half-marathons around the country.

Although all of us achieved success in our chosen endeavors, I am amazed that of the six of us in my tribe, four ended up in our father’s, or in my case my grandfather’s and uncle’s business and/or profession. That is two doctors, like their dads; and two in a technical and engineered product field; (one in overhead cranes and one in gears and gearboxes). Jim’s father was an engineer at the same company where my father worked, and Dean’s father owned a construction company, but they both ended up as businessmen.

When I had a son of my own and it became my time to pass along the tradition, my son David and I joined Indian Guides. There were two lawyer fathers in our tribe, and although we were known as the Sioux tribe, it was not the “Sue as in lawsuit” tribe. I’m sure that the name was just a coincidence. I enjoyed sharing the Indian Guide experience with my young son and passing along the traditions and fond memories that I made with my own dad.

The lesson here is that we as people are always setting an example for others, and teaching them; sons, daughters, co-workers, and the next generation, peers and those we formally mentor. This is either by our actions or just by the way we live our lives. Others observe us and pay attention to what we are doing or not doing, and it has an impact — hopefully a positive one.

To paraphrase Apple founder Steve Jobs, we all put our own dent in the universe and add to the flow of life. We are all passing along our accumulated knowledge and experience to others. May we do it well.

I will leave you with this the song we used to sing all those years ago: Pals Forever which is sung to the tune of Clementine.

Pals forever. Pals forever. That’s our slogan. That’s our song.

Boys are stronger. Dad’s feel younger, when they take the boys along.

Dads are for it. Moms adore it. And the boys all think it’s fine.

Pals forever. Pals forever. Y Guides will have good times.

Through the days and through the years, we will wander side by side.

Pals forever. Pals forever. The Great Spirit as our guide.

It’s Not A Mad World Afterall

Recently, MAD Magazine announced it was ceasing the publication of new material; essentially going out of business. This was sad news to me. Like many of my fellow baby boomers, I fondly remember reading Mad magazine during my adolescence and after. I’m sure that this fact and the comic books I also read, bothered my parents, who are now both deceased. But I turned out just fine as an adult despite this.

Photo credit: Norman Mingo, Mad Magazine.

What did MAD magazine teach me about life? That the adult world sometimes doesn’t make sense and is not always logical or easily understandable. Sometimes what we are told by so-called “reputable sources” or “experts” is just plain wrong and false.

I learned to not believe everything you hear and read and to not follow the crowd but do ask questions. Always do your own research, seek out and understand both sides of any important issue and to form your own opinion.

It helps to have a good sense of humor and there are many things in life that are funny, such as MAD Magazine. And humor takes many forms. Sarcasm, satire, parody and irony are just some of the ways the magazine employed to make us laugh and think. There is a time to be serious, but also a time that we can enjoy the humor in life.

Curiously so, MAD’s fictional front man Alfred E. Neuman has a remarkable resemblance to Pete Buttigig, the mayor of my hometown South Bend, Indiana, but with better teeth and more symmetrical facial features. Just the thought of that makes me smile.

Neuman’s motto was “What, me worry?”

Worry not is a great philosophy of life and discovering it early on was foundational in my knowledge and understanding of the concept of mindfulness - to be in and appreciative of the present moment and circumstances.

I’ve learned to not worry about things in life that are unimportant in the overall scheme of things (and there are many of these). I’ve learned to be concerned about, but not worry about the things that are important and deserve my attention, and most importantly, to try to discern the difference.

It is good to have a childlike sense of wonder and awe about the world around us. We all need a spirit of curiosity about all of it and to seek, where possible, to understand it. And in understanding, it’s good to have peace, joy and satisfaction about it all.

So, for 67 consecutive years MAD Magazine has been teaching us to laugh at and find the humor in life and in ourselves; and for that I am glad, not mad.

Don't make resolutions. Be resolute. The example of Charlie Miller.

My father-in-law, Charles Richard Miller (Yes, my wife Monica was born as and now remains, with me, a Miller) provides an example to me of this principle.

Charlie’s example to me: be resolute, consistent and intentional about the things that are important in life. Always stay true to your values. And it helps to have good values. This applies whether the yearly resolutions are made or not.

New Year’s resolutions are fine, and I have nothing against them, but it is more important and it certainly helps you to successfully achieve them if you are a resolute and consistent person to start with. Any resolutions you make will then be aligned with your values and principles and is an extension of and refinement of them thus making them easier to achieve.

Some background. Charlie at 86 years old grew up in a small town in central Indiana called Belleville. At age 18 and just out of high school, he volunteered, instead of being drafted, for and served in the Korean War in the U.S. Navy on the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea.

After the war, he worked for AT&T in a management role. He retired from the “telephone company” in 1989.

CM / Jan 2019

In retirement, he took up sailing and owned a 30-foot C&C sailboat keeled out for speed and raced it successfully for some years; he was around 60 years old at that time. Remember, he was and is a Navy man.

In the boating years, he identified a problem, cleaning the underside of his sailboat. He figured out a unique, unconventional, yet effective solution. He obtained his scuba diving certification for the sole purpose of this task. He was now able to gain access underneath his boat while it was still in the water and clean it much more effectively than before. So, there he was in the St. Johns River in Jacksonville Florida, with weights on his ankles standing in shallow, murky water scuba gear and all cleaning the underside of his boat. He never used this training for anything else. Task accomplished. As an engineer, I admire that kind of problem-solving ability and unconventional thinking.

An athlete by nature, he raced bicycles and later rode them for exercise and enjoyment all his life. He raced competitively in the masters’ category (age 40 and older) and up until about a year ago, he regularly rode 20 miles or more at a time many days. The sport took Charlie and his wife Janice to the big screen as they appeared in the 1979 Hoosier-based movie Breaking Away in true-to-life roles — he as a racer and she as a cycling race referee.

He doesn’t ride his bike as much today but does walk two to three miles per day.

So, instead of simply making a resolution to be healthy and exercise more, he actually did it for decades. And at an unusually vigorous pace.

A self-professed TV man (he was trained in television repair prior to taking his job with AT&T), he has followed and kept up with the technology from the 1950s tube TVs through today. He currently owns five TVs including the latest model OLED display.

Charlie’s example for me and others: Keep up with new technologies, be flexible and always willing to learn and accept new ideas and new things. Be curious about all things. He currently owns the latest Apple watch, iPhone and a recent iPad, and uses them all.

He can and does speak intelligently with me and many others about many topics: both college and pro sports, cars, TVs and anything electronic, politics and current events and other subjects.  

I don’t know if Charlie ever made any New Year’s resolutions. If he sees something that needs to be done, he just does it. At the time it is needed. Period. No resolution needed. He has led a life of purpose and accomplishment nevertheless. And isn’t that the point? Not bad for a boy from Belleville, Indiana.

Where there's a Will, there's a way

According to his high school football coach, my son Will, a senior wide receiver, has ‘made himself into a football player.’ And that didn’t happen overnight, in a vacuum or in a random manner. Achieving hard-earned goals never do.

Eric Schlene for the Journal & Courier

Starting as a youth football player, Will’s commitment to the sport has been obvious, relentless, and fervent.

And during game three of his high school senior season, my son’s dogged determination to not just achieve, but surpass his training and game-day goals were realized.

Will threw for a 41-yard touchdown pass, rare for a wide receiver, and then a few plays later scored on a 61-yard touchdown run contributing to his team’s 45-21 victory. The stadium announcer said, “What’s he going to do next, kick a field goal?”

Conditioning, training, off-season workouts and just plain hard work, both individually and with the team, were his not-so-secret ingredients to transforming himself into a seemingly overnight senior offensive sensation.

When you believe in yourself, anything is possible.

In sport as it is in life, consistent and persistent effort toward the goal of making yourself the best you can be equals success. For anything worth doing, there is no substitute for hard work, practice, and preparation.

Your toughest competitor is almost always going to be you. In your singular quest to achieve your highest potential, believing you can is half the battle.

The beautiful music called life

Many have compared life to an orchestra where everyone’s contribution is essential. To make beautiful music together, it’s important to find out what instrument you are best suited for, play it to the best of your ability, and don’t try play a musical instrument you simply are not good at.

Be true to yourself. If you’re an oboe player, be an oboe player, but be the best one you can be. Don’t try to be a saxophone player as there are others who are better suited for it. Find out what instrument you are and play it – only it. We all were created to play a part and to play only our part.

For me, my contribution to the orchestra of life is to be an engineer, something I’ve known for a very long time.

When I was in junior high school, I loved to build plastic model kit cars. My grandmother recognized my bent for all things mechanical and encouraged my hobby by letting me keep the model cars at her house. My 20-plus model car collection resided safely on display in one of grandmother’s spare bedrooms. Had they been in my own bedroom across town, my older brother probably would have smashed them all with a hammer.

My grandmother saw something within me that I hadn’t yet recognized and she nurtured it. She knew I was not necessarily bound for a different career, but one as an engineer or in a related technical field. Perhaps I reminded her of her late husband, my grandfather, who was a mechanical engineer.

So, a lesson here is that even small acts of kindness, caring, generosity and encouragement can make a tremendous impact in a young person’s life. Fifty years later, I still remember hanging out with my model cars at grandma’s house and the significant impact her mentoring had on me.

Grandma knew I was not born to be an oboe player, but would be a darn good saxophone player, and eventually, an engineer.

Sometimes little things can help us to figure out what instrument we are in the orchestra of life, and it may and probably will take others to help us recognize this.

Once you find our niche - your instrument - resist those who say, you can’t do that, it will never work, or we tried that once before and it didn’t work.  People kill ideas if we let them. Don’t let anyone kill your dreams and ideas, and don’t be a dream or idea killer yourself.

Don’t break someone’s spirit, whether that person is an employee, a child, or anyone else. Everyone is an expert at something and you are good at something. Don’t put people in a box and put artificial limits on them.

So, find your part in the symphony orchestra of life. Find your instrument, what you are best suited for, learn to perform it to the best of your abilities and encourage this in others. Accept what your instrument is and don’t despair that you would rather it be something else. Embrace it whatever it is and know everyone’s contribution to the beautiful music of life is needed. This is what you were created for.

When opportunity knocks, take notice

Most people know Bobby Rahal as the Indianapolis 500 race winner from 1986. Do you remember who finished in second place?

It was Kevin Cogan who today lives in relative obscurity in a suburb of Los Angeles. 

Rahal went from winning the greatest spectacle in racing to become an Indy car team owner winning in 2004 with Buddy Rice driving across the yard of bricks, to a successful career in business and owner of 16 auto dealerships in Pennsylvania.

In the 1986 race, fellow Indy car driver Arie Luyendyk crashed on lap 195 out of 200 and Rahal passed Cogan on the restart with two laps between he and the checkered flag.  He took the lead, won the race and earned his rightful place in racing history.

In an Indy Star article profiling Rahal’s career, Rahal talked about that very day, race, and moment when he saw the opportunity to not settle for second place.  That day, Rahal and Cogan’s lives were changed forever. 

“There are periods in a person’s life when you either go through the door or you never get to knock on it again.”

— Bobbie Rahal

I often wonder how many people never go through that door called opportunity. Perhaps some never even see the door and miss an opening to go in a new direction, to take a step toward achieving their goals.

Events in life sometimes present us with opportunities; doors so to speak, and we can either decide to go through them or leave them closed and forever forgo that choice and opportunity; perhaps never getting that chance again. And we can’t always control this (see, Andretti; Mario. He and Rahal each won the same number of Indy 500 races: 1). Sometimes it is simply luck and fortune, although it is often said that people make their own luck.

Rahal said that in a lot of races (and in life), something happened to put someone in position to win.

The lesson that Rahal teaches us is that when a high percentage opportunity is offered, take it and go through that door. You may have but a brief moment to consider your choices and the potential consequences. The opportunity to choose may not come again.

Be bold. Take the action and take the (slight) risk. That is how great things are achieved and how great and successful people act.

Has opportunity ever knocked on your door, but you failed to open it? Did you miss that one chance in life and it never came around again?  Or, like Rahal, did the decision you made that one day change your life forever?

Advice I Would Give To My 15 Year Old Self

Consider the life of this younger Rick. As a teenager, I loved cars – really loved cars. I owned my first car at age 15 before I even had a driver’s license. I enjoyed anything that moved under its own power and especially if it went fast, hence, the go-cart.  I can still remember the thrill of having some g-forces against my back while driving my go-cart with the wind in my face and a feeling of utter freedom without a care in the world.

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As much as I admired a good ride in its totality, I also enjoyed taking things apart and rebuilding them. One day I decided my go-cart needed to go faster, so I purloined the engine from my father’s lawn mower. The next time my dad went to mow the lawn, I heard “Hey, where’s my lawn mower engine?”

I had three siblings - two brothers and a sister, but he knew the answer to this mystery lied with me. I told him I needed it for something more important and re-purposed it, as we would say today. At the promise of returning said engine to my dad’s lawnmower, which I did, my co-cart and I rode fast that day while the grass grew a bit taller.   

* * *

So my advice to my 15 year old self would be as follows.

Your possibilities in life are endless and limited only by you and your imagination. Be flexible. Be true to yourself and your values and don’t compromise them.

Stay optimistic; don’t get discouraged. Be patient.

Life does not move in a straight line. Be prepared for the unexpected because it will happen often if not daily. Learn to embrace and be comfortable with change because change will be a constant in your life.

Set personal and professional goals and you will achieve them. Do know it may take more time than you thought and not be achieved in the exact way that you thought.

Be prepared to take notice and advantage of opportunities as they arise. Always believe in yourself and know that you are capable of much more than you think. Seek out opportunities that stretch you and where you can learn from others. Never stop learning and growing.

Just like when you were a teen, never stop being curious.

All of us have been given gifts and talents; things that we uniquely can do well. Use these gifts to the best of your ability. Don’t dissipate them or let them go to waste. As for a job, do what you love and are passionate about.

Have some fun in life and be funny. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Set up the processes, work habits and practices, work ethic and environment where success can flourish. Develop and keep a long term time perspective and timeline. Do not fall for the trap of instant gratification. Some choices in jobs and in life can pay off in the short term but not be best in the long run.

When I graduated from Purdue University in the recession year of 1975, I had two job offers; one from a large, multinational corporation, and one from a small 100-employee gear company. Upon my father’s advice and recommendation, and with much personal reflection, I took the job at the small gear company that paid a salary that was 23 percent less than the other offer. While working at the multinational company may have appeared best in the short term, and certainly paid more, the job I chose with the gear company was by far best in the long term. It formed the basis for what I am today and led to my current path.

Be a person of honesty and integrity and have “do the right thing” as your main philosophy.

Find a mentor and listen to and learn from him/her. Much of what you learn will be outside of your job, and many times outside of your chosen profession. Pay attention to these things as they will truly set you up for success. Then, pay it forward when you can by mentoring someone else.

* * *

Both of my grandfathers were mechanical engineers. One grandfather started a gear company in 1934 called Schafer Gear Works/Schafer Industries that is still in business today and is successful, and the other was Chief Engineer for the Stromberg carburetor/Bendix Fuel Control division of Bendix Corporation with responsibilities for hundreds of people.

Early in my career, I set goals for myself that were a combination of both of my grandfathers - to be successful in the gear industry, to rise to Chief Engineer, to be an inventor who obtains patents, and to  continue their legacy by excelling in a career in which they could be proud of me. As it happened, all of this came to fruition but neither grandfather lived to see it. 

Never in my young man’s dreams did I think my 3 HP teenager’s go-cart would be replaced by a 620 HP supercharged Corvette convertible as my favorite mode of transportation. 
 

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I was of course aware of my grandfathers at age 15, but had only a vague sense of their powerful legacy, the examples they set and the depth and breadth of their professional achievements. Even so, the influence and impact that they would ultimately have on me was significant. As the grandson of two great engineers, what I wouldn’t give to be able to talk to either one of them today.

Did I know as a car-loving and go-cart driving 15 year old that I would carry on my grandfathers’ legacy? No, but I do know the engineering profession chose me as it did my grandfathers and for that, I’m thankful.    

Rick Miller is president / sole owner of Innovative Drive Solution LLC, an engineering consulting firm specializing in gears and power transmission devices.

My mentor and me

My mentor and I never discussed entering into a mentoring relationship. I never asked and he never offered. But years ago he saw something in me that he deemed valuable, that I was teachable and worthy of his efforts to impart in me lessons of immense value.

He believed in me and showed it by giving me increasingly difficult design projects. He knew how and when to stretch me.  

From his lead-by-example tutelage of me and by me doing the work, I grew personally and as a professional engineer. I anticipated that my mentor would teach me the technical side of the business and help me to be a better engineer which he did.  What I didn’t know then was how valuable the technical and non-technical intangible lessons learned would be and how often I would use them in the years that followed.  

These are the things I learned from my mentor.

• Create things that are as simple as possible. Anyone can design a complicated device, but it takes skill to reduce a concept to its most simplified and acceptable form.

• Develop an ability to explain complicated technical concepts in a clear and concise manner. This is the mark of an intelligent person who thinks and communicates clearly verbally and in writing.

• Less bureaucracy and red tape is better than more bureaucracy. Excessive bureaucracy enables and encourages incompetence and poor performance.

• Stretch yourself. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Avoid doing things automatically the same way that they have always been done. Don’t copy or have “me-too” designs.

• Be creative; be original.

• Don’t limit yourself. Ultimately, you hold the keys to your own performance and success.

• Find your niche in your organization. People become uniquely valuable, and in a supportive environment, shape their own jobs.

• Look for and find ways to do things better, faster, more efficiently and less expensively.

• The primary rule is “Do the right thing.” Don’t worry about lines of authority, even if it’s not your area of responsibility. In the end, very few additional rules are necessary.

• Never say “That’s not my job.” If someone asks you for help, help them if you can. If you aren’t able to help them, find someone who can.

• Always put the interest of the company first.

• Act with honesty and integrity.

• Try to achieve work/life balance.

• Effort does not equal success; quality and effectiveness does. There are lots of busy failures in life. Don’t be one of them.

• Don’t worry about organizational titles. Instead, pay attention to the informal lines of authority and getting results. Work with and value the people who best enable you to achieve your objectives, not those who are insincere or full of themselves.

• Be reliable. Be a doer, not a talker. Be a person who gets things done and surround yourself with go-to people who also get results.

• Never forget your employer’s ultimate purpose, the goals of the organization you are serving, and who your end customers are.

Have you had a mentor or been a mentor?  If so, what lessons did you learn?  What advice did you offer?  

Rick Miller is president / sole owner of Innovative Drive Solution LLC, an engineering consulting firm specializing in gears and power transmission devices.