WHAT WAS YOUR GRADES IN SCHOOL

WHAT WAS YOUR GRADES IN SCHOOL

I first started working with co-ops from the University of Cincinnati in 1988. Here the engineering and the construction management students are required to work six quarters in their field. I learned early that this is how the smart construction companies and design firms in Cincinnati grow their company's by using co-ops and retaining the best of the best after they graduate.
In all my years I've only had three stars, I've had several that made very good estimators and project managers, and I even had one that couldn't make it in construction but made it in design.
I wrote this several years ago to prove a point, that the real world is not like academia. Since I wrote this I have required all my co-ops to read it and explain it to me. By doing so I can usually find out who is serious about the job they are going to do or if they are here for just a satisfactory grade.
I hope it helps you.

When I was in school we were graded by achievement. If you took a test and got between 95 and 100 percent you received an “A”, 85 to 94 percent you received a “B”, between 75 to 84 percent you received a “C”, between 70 and 74 percent you received a “D”, and if you got below 70 percent you failed.
Today we work in the “real” world. We have to do very “A” work everyday or we will fail. Look at estimating for an example; we do our work in front of computers with software that speed up our calculations. Every time you come in you see several people banging away at computers. So how are we graded in the work we perform?
Well, we bid work from a few thousand dollars to several million dollars. In these bids are your wages, your vacations, your medical, your Christmas bonus, profit sharing as well as equipment and material for the project. We are graded on how well the company does after the job is finished. This, by the way, is how everyone is graded.
Now, if we bid a million dollar job and did “A” work you would think this was pretty good. It isn’t. Think about it and use the numbers. “A” work is from 95 to 100 percent, so if I was at 95 percent I got an “A”. Remember the job was bid at $1,000,000.00, if I did 95 percent work the job would be built for $1,052,631.57, the company lost $52,631.57. If I did low “B” work, the company would loose $176,470.58. Low “C” work the company would loose $333,333.33. Lord help us if we did failing work.
In the real world, we have to strive to do near perfect work, not only in estimating but in the field to. If estimating does 100 percent work and the field does 80 percent work, we are back to a “B” grade. This affects us all.
None of us are perfect. We will have bad days. But keep in mind; if we don’t do the best work we can, every day, then we will fail which affects us all.

Bill Minnielli part 1

Bill Minnielli
A true character

Over the course of the next year I will tell several stories about Bill Minnielli. He was really a remarkable man and a character larger than life. At the end of the movie “The man who shot Liberty Valance”, the publisher tell the reporter “when the fact becomes legend you print the legend.” This is Bill Minnielli. The people who worked for him all have a favorite story and love telling them.
He started his business career after a getting large settlement from an accident he was in. The business was started in the late fifties or early sixties, and he died in 2002. When he died he was buried with his cell phone because his wife and kids figured he might want to call from the grave. I've learned that you either liked Bill or you didn't, I happen to be on the liking side but I still know plenty who didn't.
I first heard of Bill Minnielli when I was detailing rebar for Delta Steel while still in high school and this was the first of many stories I would hear about the man. This particular time Minnelli Construction had a job in Oxford, Ohio to lay a water line. Oxford was very environmentally conscience even back then. There was a grove of small pine trees that the city was paying Minnielli Construction extra to go around, and they did. The following Monday, the inspector went out to the project and every tree was missing. What was going though the inspectors mind at that time? He knew it was Bill but no proof.
Over the weekend some one dug up and removed every tree in this grove. Trees had mysteriously appeared in a subdivision that Bill owned. Of course Bill denied any involvement, he claimed the trees in his subdivision were there all along. The city still had to pay him for going around the trees, because they disappeared after he went around them. Now imagine being sixteen or seventeen and hearing this story from the inspector on the site, I never thought I would even like let alone trust a man like this. Over the years I did both.
Another time he was feuding with the city of Fairfield over the water bill to a trailer park he owned. The head of the water and sewer department thought he would play hard ball and threated to shut off the water. Bill had his mechanics to move a D-8 Caterpillar dozer to the meter pit and remove the tracks so no one could move it. If they tried to drag it off, it would damage the meter pit. When the mayor saw that it was going to cost the city more than then the water was worth to move the dozer, he had the head of the sewer and water department to negotiated with Bill and came to an amicable settlement. He found that it was easier dealing with Bill to ask instead of demanding.
In future blogs I'll talk about Bill and Fairfield School Superintendent, how Bill kept the city of Fairfield in court for several years, about his giving side, about Bill's son going to court, and about Fairfield's great explosion. There is so much to say about Bill Minnielli.

Construction 101 "The Beginning"

Construction 101
(My Life and How Construction shaped it )

I wanted to start this blog in order to collect my thoughts for a book and as a means to regain my sanity. After 40 years I’ve decided to retire from construction and want to talk about the men of character and the true characters I’ve met in this business, and I’ve met a few. I expect some to get upset when I classify them as characters instead of men/women of character but this is solely my opinion and my perception.
When I started in construction million dollar deals made by handshake. Today, you need a good lawyer to make sure all tees are crossed and all i’s dotted. The business is ran by lawyers and bean counters, not construction people (I do miss construction people). I had planned to work another nine years, but decided that my health and well being are more important.
Over the next year, I’ll talk about jobs that I have worked on and the people I have met. This will be in no particular order, I'll write about what ever comes to mind on that day. Some of the items I plan on writing about are:

• The blizzard of 1978
  The snakes and tarantulasin Mexico
  The girls of Borneo
  Exploding flyash
  The most interesting project I’ve ever worked on
  The hardest project I’ve ever worked on
  Several characters that I won’t change any details and you’ll be asking me if I’m making it up
  Several men and women of character and integrity that I truly admire
  Problems in France
  Tepee Rings
  Doing business with Disney
  Splash Mountain
  True characters of the TVA
  Laughing at difficult owners and/or construction managers

My hope is, this blog will inspire managers to laugh at the lighter things in life, to respect the men and women who succeed, and give few tips that help you be a better person.