Lessons Learned is about my reminiscing and musings from the past, 
When I Worked for Edison (WIWFE),
and the invaluable Lessons Learned along the way.
https://captivethoughts.net/lessons-learned-preface/

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Hear, …the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
Proverbs 4:1

I was not a very good student in school. As to why? Well, one contributing factor was my fathers’ death when I was very young, and subsequent lack of disciplines, fatherly guidance and motivation needed to do well in school. Sitting in a classroom and book learning was not my idea of fun.  Lacking the motivation for book learning, I was more inclined toward mechanical things, with a deep curiosity about how things worked. In fact, when I was 14 years old, I talked my mother into letting me buy a 1939 Chevy that my older friends with drivers’ licenses helped me acquire and tow home.  We promptly started to disassemble it to investigate its inner workings, to see how it was put together and functioned. We never did get that car back together again, but eventually sold it for parts to buy another car to fix up for when I was old enough to obtain my driver’s license. Early on in my life I found enjoyment working with my hands, taking apart and rebuilding things.

My mother was a single parent. She was also a businesswoman who started a daycare in our home to pay the bills, keep food on the table and keep a roof over head for me and my three older sisters. That daycare, eventually became a rather large and successful preschool that is still in operation today, some 75 years later. In all this, if there was one thing I did learn in my early years, it was the insight and appreciation for a strong work ethic observed in my mother’s hard work, dedication, and perseverance. Her dedication and commitment were quite apparent in keeping our family together by diligently taking responsibility and loving care of many energetic and exhausting young preschool children. So even though I was a blessed recipient of a strong work ethic, my lack of academic proficiency was a real deficit, duly noted when I actually made my first attempt at seeking employment with the Southern California Edison Company.

Barely graduating from high school (itself another story for another time), I determined to apply myself to the only acquired skill I did enjoy, auto mechanics. I eventually married and started a family, but my career choice faced several challenges. One being a self-taught “shade tree” mechanic, I lacked the formal training that I needed to advance. That fact coupled with the poor business decisions made by many of my employers became a limiting factor for career stability and success.  As providence would have it, my mother remarried a man who would have a profound impact upon my life—not the least of which was my eventual employment with Southern California Edison.

My stepfather was retired after a long, successful, and influential career with Southern California Edison. He persuaded me that I needed more stable employment that Edison could provide. But upon application, I failed the entrance test, primarily the physics exam. “How is that possible?” my stepfather questioned, “You work on cars and understand mechanical things. You should have been able to pass that test quite easily.” But I didn’t. Again, I really hadn’t paid much attention to the technical side of such things when the learning opportunities were there. So, now what was I to do?

Determined to correct the matter, my stepfather took me to a local library, checked out a book on basic physics, had me read it, and then patiently grilled me on its contents. You know what? He was right. I should have passed that test. I had the practical experience, but just didn’t know the vocabulary and technical terms for what I did know.  Reading that book with the guidance of a learned man, my stepfather, proved to be an invaluable lesson.

The end of the story is that I re-applied for employment with Edison, and “aced” the physics exam the second time around, gaining employment in what would prove to be one of the best decision choices of my life. However, that is really not the end of the story.

“If you can read, you can cook.” – Julia Childs

No, this is really where the story begins.  If I have one regret of my youth, it was my lack of appreciation for books, and the value of learning and wisdom that can be gleaned from the “printed page” that spells out the vast proficiency of knowledge to be discovered, recorded and passed on by others.  I’ll never forget my stepfather handing me that basic physics book, and his commanding words, “Take this and read it!” That was the actual beginning of a long and on-going story of lessons learned over time; the first and most important which I have learned and practice every day, and that is – I never leave the house without a book (of some kind) in my hand, to take and read when the opportunitiesavail in those in-between moments of routine responsibilities and daily activties.

“Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to know understanding;”
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom.  And in all your getting, get understanding.”
Proverb 4:1&7