Quit and Go Home

“In the past decade alone, we’ve used innovation and technology to transform the U.S. energy story from one of scarcity to one of abundance.” - John S. Watson

Quit and Go Home

1973 was a long time ago.  Yet, I remember it vividly.  It seemed as if our world was being turned upside down.  OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, imposed an oil embargo against the United States.  As a fifteen-year-old boy I was perhaps most concerned about being able to have enough gas to drive a car when I obtained my drivers license in the coming year.  I was afraid.

Then, after driving for five years there was another oil shock in 1978 and 1979 and it seemed as if the wheels had completely stopped rolling in Southern California.  There were times when we couldn’t purchase gas for our cars and frustration ruled the day.  One close friend, who commuted from Santa Ana to Los Angeles daily, would have his daughter do her studying while she waited in line for up to four hours at a time to purchase fuel.  There were times when we couldn’t even purchase fuel.

Perhaps that’s why I was so attentive as John S. Watson, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Chevron, recently said, “In the past decade alone, we’ve used innovation and technology to transform the U.S. energy story from one of scarcity to one of abundance.”  And, his comments brought to my mind Thomas Edison and the way he approached creating abundance.

When Mr. Edison was sixty-seven years old he came home after ending his day at his laboratory.  He had dinner with his family and not long after they a man came rushing into his house.  The man bore urgent news.

A fire had broken out at Edison’s research and production facility!  Mr. Edison went to the scene, which was fueled by the many chemicals being used in the buildings.  Because of these chemicals, the flames were an intriguing green and yellow and were shooting six or seven stories in the sky.  This, along with the tremendous size of the fire, fought by men and engines from eight surrounding towns, caused a large crowd to gather.

As Edison made his way calmly through the crowd of hundreds of onlookers and frightened employees he looked for his son.  Once he found his son he said, “Go get your mother and all her friends.  They’ll never see a fire like this again!”

“What?!” His son replied.

Edison responded calmly with, “Don’t worry.  It’s all right.  We’ve just got rid of a lot of rubbish.”

That’s a telling reaction from a man who had just lost his life’s work!  Most would have gotten angry, quit and gone home!  But, Edison knew that such behavior would have accomplished nothing! Rather than let this destruction break his heart and ruin his life he said to a reporter the next day that he wasn’t too old to start over again.  “I’ve been through a lot of things like this.  It prevents a man from being afflicted with ennui.”

John Watson is not and Thomas Edison was not a man filled with weariness or discontent.  At a time when others were harboring feelings of scarcity, they focused on creating abundance for themselves and others.

Watson and his company Chevron, along with others, have succeeded in transforming perceived energy crisis into tangible energy abundance.  Such a feat can’t be accomplished without a scrupulous outlook and people, people who combine innovation with talent while remaining focused when others are transfixed by a “falling sky.”

Though Edison watched his hopes and dreams be incinerated against the sky and lost the equivalent of an estimated twenty-three million dollars, of today’s dollars, he elicited enough energy to make the equivalent of two-hundred-million dollars that same year while putting his employees back to work and producing new products that the world had never seen before.  He suffered a breath-taking disaster and replied to it by creating breath-taking abundance.

Will you and I respond in the same way?  Will we put our energies, emotions and exertions where they will have a real impact?  Will we say, “Well, this is what has happened and there is nothing I can do about it.” Will you and I adopt the same scrupulous approach in our lives?

Yes!  Let’s say, “I’m not going to quit and go home! I will combine my talent with innovation, work hard and focus on creating abundance when everyone else is cowering in fear!”