Chapter 15: Character Trumps Talent, Sooner or Later

(This is chapter 15 of "Up and Out," a book condensing my long experience about how to best help poor people.  I pledged earlier to get it up online as soon as possible, so it would be available for free to everyone trying to cope with helping the Katrina evacuees.)

(These are not things that need to be done during the first part of this emergency.  Rather, this is for the time after that, when Katrina evacuees will be moving from getting immediate emergency assistance to trying to normalize their lives.  That is when good programs to help them "up and out" of their situation need to kick in.  The following is for that time.)

(For other chapters, look under "Categories" at the left, and click on the chapter you want.)

"UP AND OUT: A GUIDE TO TRUE COMPASSION FOR THE POOR"

PART II: MOVING UP AND BREAKING OUT OF POVERTY

Chapter 15: Character Trumps Talent, Sooner or Later

What we call "Work Habits" is one kind of shorthand for character.  As good work habits are built, better character grows right along with them.   Self-discipline, fairness to fellow workers, employers and the public, and many other virtues are nurtured and strengthened as better work habits are developed and improved.  Better character grows as these become built-in, an habitual way of working, thinking and living.

Job skills, on the other hand, reflect both effort and inborn ability or even giftedness or talent.  By hard effort, even those less able can get and continue to improve their job skills.  If these less able ones are also sterling employees in every other way, they will usually do well.  More able people who are also sterling employees will probably do even better.  But more able people who are not sterling employees often do worse than less able people who have better work habits. 

For that reason, experienced employers often hire or promote people who have good work habits over those better trained or skilled, but with weaker work habits.  Their understanding is that they can train most people in job skills more easily than in good work habits.  So it pays off better if they hire people with good work habits, and train them in job skills, than to hire people with good skills and try to train them to have good work habits.

It is almost an article of faith with Americans, however, that if a person's talent is great enough, they can behave as poorly as they want and still be a great success.  This is true  for many, many people.  But the news is also full of stories of the downfall of people of great talent because they lacked simple good work habits, often accompanied by a lack of strength of character.  Now character includes more things than good work habits.  But good character also usually includes the things we call "good work habits."

Sometimes true-life stories are the best illustration of a point.  So here are two such stories: Thelma and Darryl.

Thelma Andrade came to us as a volunteer.  We had just opened a commercial thrift store.  It was an attempt to turn some of the tons of used clothing donated to us - far more than we could ever possibly use - into funds to keep the San Jose Family Shelter going.  I started the store, running the shelter from the store until the store was going well enough to turn it over to someone else. 

Thelma was a Honduran who spoke excellent English.  Though young, she had grown children.  She had also recently had a double mastectomy and was still on disability pay.  She was a brand new Christian, and wanted some place to serve God while she healed.  So she came to us as a way to serve the poor.

We had about 50 volunteers staffing the store in shifts of about 2 hours.  They were mostly retired people.  Many had been too fearful of homeless people to volunteer at the shelter.  But the store was in a safer part of town, and they felt more secure there.  Each worked only a few hours a week.

Thelma, however, worked 8 hours a day, 6 days a week.  She arrived promptly, riding the bus, and if needed, stayed late.  She worked as if she were a well-paid employee, not a volunteer, and as if this were her dream job.  She was enthusiastic, hard working, and learned quickly.  Soon she learned just about everything there was to know about running the store.

Thelma was totally honest.  I soon learned that I could trust her with any amount of cash.  If she had a car I would have been completely comfortable with sending her to make the bank deposits, but the bank was too far away without a car.

She also looked out for me, fussing when I looked tired or worked over-long hours.

Most impressive of all, she treated the store as if it belonged to her.  She looked out for its interests in every way.  She thought of promotions to bring in more customers.  She continually changed the displays. 

She was also good at spotting shop-lifters.  She would follow them into the dressing rooms, retrieve our merchandise, escort them to the door and order them never to come back! 

Thelma was superb with our volunteers, encouraging them, listening to them, joking and companionable with them.  Eventually she took over all their training, including on the high-tech cash register I never really mastered.  The volunteers adored her.

When the time came to choose a store manager so that I could get back to the shelter, I never for a moment considered anyone but Thelma.  Some of the Board members wondered if we should not get someone formally trained in merchandising instead.  I explained why Thelma would be far better.  Her work habits were excellent and her character outstanding.  Besides, she had already learned what she needed to know.  Actually, she was already running the store anyhow, and doing it well. 

The Board agreed with my choice, with one exception.  That one member objected because Thelma, in her opinion, did not dress stylishly enough.  In fact, she wanted me to fire Thelma!

It was fortunate that the rest of the Board agreed with me about Thelma.  Fortunate, because for that reason, I never had to tell them that before I would fire Thelma - especially for such a nit-picking reason - I would have quit myself.  But I would have. 

Not only that, every volunteer we had would have quit too, instantly.  Her firing would have closed down the store within hours.  I would have had to start the store all over again, working against the bad will created by angry ex-volunteers in their churches that supported us.  And the loss of more of my time to re-start the store was not worth the corresponding loss of more of my time at the shelter.  And since I would have quit too and since the shelter was still in the shaky "start-up" mode, the shelter might not have survived the loss of its founder at that point in time. 

In short, it was ridiculous even to consider firing her.  It would never have happened.

A little over a year later, after 7 months notice, I left the shelter and went back to Texas.  I wanted to be a part of my grandson's life as he grew up.  The shelter had finally turned the corner and was no longer in "start-up" mode, but had moved into a "normal" mode, when it would be safe for the founder to leave.  After much prayer, I finally felt free to leave. 

There was no job waiting for me in Texas.  But if there had been, and if I ever had an opportunity to hire anyone, Thelma would have been my very first choice.  I would have done my utmost to hire her, simply because she was absolutely the best employee I ever had or ever saw. (Although there were some very close runners-up!)

Thelma was a sterling example of a practice of many earnest Christians.  That is  "working as if to the Lord," as the Bible says, which means working as if you were working for God.  That is widely believed to help make work more satisfying and fulfilling.  It clearly did for her.

Unfortunately, Thelma died very suddenly and unexpectedly (it was not cancer) just a few years after I left.  But she left quite an impression.  And left a very big hole in many lives.  If only there were many, many more like her!  For anyone who wonders how to get ahead, she is the best example I can offer from my personal experience.

Some people may not be impressed by someone like Thelma as a role model.  Her life might seem too plodding, too lacking in glamour.  Many may feel they are blessed with talents that will open up doors of riches and fame.  So they may accept only the rich and famous as role models for their careers, however much of a long shot, however unrealistic that may be.

For many young men growing up in poverty especially, no goal less than being a big star of sports or entertainment is acceptable.  They may go to the extreme of rejecting all other work and spend all their time practicing and dreaming.  And no one wants to take people's dreams from them.  Dreams are good!  Probably even necessary.

But if lightning should strike, and someone's dreams of sudden wealth and fame come true, and they make it all the way to stardom, they will still need good work habits!  If they want to stay there, that is.  (And they will need good work habits for the day jobs they will need to take along the way to stardom.)

Sadly, it is all too easy to find examples of big stars of sports or entertainment whose career crashed and burned, often for lack of some simple work habits, like not showing up for work a few too many times.

Even Marilyn Monroe, an icon of her time, was eventually, and regrefully, fired for not showing up to work far too many times.  It was generally agreed she probably had become unemployable because of her bad work habits, even before her tragic and untimely death.  Hiring her had become too risky.  Her star power would draw crowds to a movie.  But hiring her to make that movie had come to mean that the movie might never reach the theatres, and that everything invested in it would be lost.  At that point, even a huge talent could no longer get her a job.

Then there was Darryl.  Darryl Strawberry was one of the most talented baseball players ever.  Even after days and nights of drinking, drugs and carousing, he could show up and do incredible feats on the field, with seemingly effortless ease. 

His talent was astonishing.  So good that as he became less and less reliable, his increasingly desperate managers moved heaven and earth to find ways to keep him playing.  But as no-show followed no-show, as he blew second and third and fourth chances, as he found ways to take drugs even while in rehab, even after being diagnosed with cancer, eventually his career was ended. 

It was not for lack of talent.  Talent like Darryl's is rarely seen.  It was for simple lack of good work habits. 

Fortunately there is an upbeat turn in the story of Darryl Strawberry.  He makes talks to young people about not doing what he did.  Because of his previous stardom, they listen.  Surely, many are helped by his story to do better.  After many slips, Darryl Strawberry has found a way to have a better life by helping kids, many much like him, to make better choices.

Stardom is not a bad dream.  But even there, it takes good work habits to stay there.  And usually to get there too.  They are a key part of reaching any dream.

Job skills are very important.  In fact, they are essential.  Talent is needed to reach many goals and dreams.  But good work habits, together with the good character they help build, are one of the most important foundations for every life goal and every dream.