JOB WELL DONE, DAD
I have had the great pleasure of meeting and getting to know some charismatic people in my life, but none quite like my Dad. I don’t really know where he learned it, but he had the unique ability of gaining everyone’s trust and getting them to follow him. I don’t exactly know why he always did what he did, but he did everything with a passion, a “fire in the belly” as Ken Fishel would say. My Dad truly believed that when the going got tough, the tough got going. Now one of his mentors once told him that when the going got tough, the smart leave. But my Dad was committed to the challenge, whatever it may be. He would often say, I’m a lover, not a fighter. I think that is very apparent to everyone who knew him.
There are 3 thoughts or more specifically character traits that I wanted to share about my Dad. First and foremost, that my Dad was a leader, committed to the cause. Secondly, my Dad was a coach. He really was a player coach. He loved the game, whatever the game was. It would be an understatement to say that he was competitive. Actually he was incredibly competitive in every aspect of his life. Again, I don’t know exactly where he got this character trait, but I guess it’s something that his Father taught him.
Many people might not know the story when he was in the U.S. Air Force stationed in Greenland as a Lieutenant in charge of supply chain management. Greenland was a much safer place than Vietnam at the time, but I’m told there wasn’t much to do there in the wintertime. It’s dark, cold and well you get the picture. My Dad being the all-around athlete, captain of the high school basketball team in Wyomissing, PA where he grew up, decided that he was going to coach the Greenland U.S. Air Force basketball team. Somehow he put together a team that traveled around the United States playing other U.S. Air Force teams and they ended up winning the championship.
I can hear him saying “luck is when preparation meets opportunity and I’m a pretty lucky Dude”. His other big saying was “we are on the VOG – verge of greatness”. Actually he had a million sayings that he made his own. My favorite is “to copy from one source is plagiarism, to copy from multiple sources is pure genius.” I think he must have learned that one from his younger brother Bob or his college fraternity brother Brent Osborn.
The third character trait that I most admire was his compassion. My Dad had the unique ability to not only speak, but listen with his heart. I cannot tell you how many people have stopped me wherever I was to tell me how great my Dad was. It really is overwhelming and a true testament to his character. He touched everyone’s life in a very personal way. And it all started with his world-famous handshake. When his hand touched yours, a spark or bolt of energy would touch your very core. He loved to shake people’s hand and look them straight in the eye and let them know that “I care about you.”
As many of you know, our Dad is the one who came up with the idea of Team Fishel, because he always wanted to be a professional coach of a sports team. Well, when he became a ditchdigger, he added his own special twist by calling it Team Fishel. He embraced the “team” philosophy and the Fishel culture and called it “Fishelosophy”. Again, he had the vision and the energy to lead the Team to wherever it was that we were going.
I was recently asked about our management team at the company. We have 10 executive Officers, five of which are financial wizards, 4 of which are life-long ditch diggers, and one Superman. As every super-hero knows, there is always one limitation to their superpowers and for our Superman prostate cancer was his kryptonite. Even Superman could not beat kryptonite, but one thing you can count on is that his spirit will live on within us forever.