Playing at Work to Invent

WEBVTT

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortes. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five. It's working

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on purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortes. I'm your host,

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Elise Cortes, joining you live from
the road this week in Portland,

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Oregon, when I'm here visiting dear
friends and family. This program is all

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about helping people more meaningfully and productively
connect with their work and equipping leaders to

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cultivate meaning in their particular organizations and
among their teams. As a management consultant

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and social scientist, I draw on
the meaning work research I've been doing over

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the last fifteen years, as well
as my own experience consulting, speaking,

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and developing workforces across the globe.
Get to my program in just a moment,

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but let me thank my sponsor,
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enjoy a fifty percent discount by using
the code WOP fifty short for Working on

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Purpose fifty percent off. Last week, if you missed the live show,

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you can always catch a bee record
a podcast. We were on the air

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with Kimberly Davis, who is the
founder of on Stage Leadership and recently published

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the book called Brave Leadership. We
talked about her book and how the courage

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to be truly authentically ourselves can make
all the difference in the results we get

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as a leader. Huge fan of
her work with us this week is Roland

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Hardle. He is a lifetime entrepreneur
and founder of Abida, working on various

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patents and products. Today, we're
here to talk about its most recent invention,

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which is called the Interlude Folding Travel
Chair. Roland, Welcome to Working

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on Purpose. Glad to be on. This is so amazing to get to

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share your story with listeners around the
globe. I want to start this conversation

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out Roland by sharing something that a
few of my listeners have heard heard me

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narrate, and that's the story of
a certain thing that happened I guess about

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thirty five years ago, and that's
when you fired me. Okay, So

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I want to start with that first. Let me just share the story really

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quick, and then I want to
hear what that experience was like for you

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and share what it meant to me. So here's how it went down.

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Was. I'd been working for you
for I think eighteen months, having a

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great time as your administrative assistant in
your commercial real estate development company. Enjoyed

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every moment working with you, and
one day, on the way out to

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lunch, you threw the door open
and over your shoulder, you said,

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you have to get out of here. You have to go see the world,

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do something yourself, gett an education. But before you go, hire

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your replacement. And the door shut
and I sat there the whole time you

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were gone, and I wondered,
did he just fire me? So when

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you came back, and you merrily
came back in and said, hey you

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Lisy went back towards your office.
I said, well, before you go,

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before you go, I have just
one question for you. Did you

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just fire me? And you said
absolutely, You'll be a crime to keep

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you here. That's pretty close.
Okay, so pretty close. But that's

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background to that story. Okay,
so tell the background, and I want

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to tell you that what that was
for me. The background is that I

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first ran into you three or four
years before when you were working at your

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parents' restaurant and you did a great
job, and you were fifteen or sixteen

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at the time, and I said
that if you ever come to Portland for

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a job, see me. And
you showed up one day and that put

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you to work, and I noticed
that you were competent, you were a

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hard work and the only thing you
were lacking were two things. One was

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a high level education and the little
wider range of horizon. So that's why

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I said, you've got to get
out of here. Well, first,

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you know that I always call you
my life savior. You're the one who

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saved my life because one I needed
to get out of that small town that

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I was in and you were my
ticket out. And I totally knew that

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and took you up on it.
But you have to understand Roland, that

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before you told me those things,
it never occurred to me that I could

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go to college. It never occurred
to me that I could go and visit

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other countries and tell you presence that
for me, well, that's good.

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It is good. And the reason
I wanted to open this episode with that

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story is the import the impact that
leaders and managers can have on their employees'

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lives. You made such a profound
difference in my life. You saved my

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life. And I've told you that
many times. So let's start with that,

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shall we. And I've told the
story a few times. Was so

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glad your success. I'm so glad. Well, another reason that we're here.

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I mean, obviously I created this
particular visit around having you on the

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program here and then visiting other family
and friends. But the part of the

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reason I wanted to showcase you as
my guest role is that you are going

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strong. You're a lifetime entrepreneur.
You've done many mini deals and adventures over

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the years, and you're supposed to
be in retirement theoretically, and you should

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be pushing around a golf cart and
maybe some clubs and having a good time.

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But what do you do when you're
out inventing new things? So what

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I think is fun about that is
you have a way of going through life

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that includes some strange angle on work. So why are you still out here?

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Slogan at it? I'm not slugging. I've never worked, You've played.

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You've only played, haven't you.
I want to tell story. I

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was in a birthday luncheon meeting and
everybody was talking about the years, and

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somebody was saying how great he was
and founded this large company, and he's

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been there and took it from a
stock valley of thirty three down to three

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because if the last two years were
lousing. And they asked me what my

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career was, and I said,
well, I quit my job, my

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last job in nineteen sixty six,
and I've been unemployed ever since. Unemployable

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probably too. Yeah. Well,
and that's isn't that great? Though?

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So the listeners a little little bit
of background for him. The man is

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eighty two years old. I'm sitting
here with him. He's always been this

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way, spry and running through life
and enjoying the world and the planet,

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causing all kinds of mischief and making
people happy along the way. That's how

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I describe you and think of you. Thank you, And that's how you.

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I think, that's how you live
and do this thing called work too

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well. I think I'm, at
least my wife says, I'm the eternal

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optimist. Eternal optimist. I've never
met anyone more optimistic than you. This

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is true. So anyway, I
mean, you can always find something good

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and something positive about anything, and
there if it's bad, then there's an

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opportunity for something to change it.
So anyway, that's my attitude. And

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the only problem I have is I'm
running out of time. I got that

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well. And to that end,
you and I have known each other for

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thirty five years, if you can
possibly believe that, And I know that

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you and your wife spend a lot
of time traveling the globe, and I'm

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wondering if that's if any of those
experiences contributed to where this idea of the

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inter folding travel chair came from.
Well, that was clearly definable. We're

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walking the streets in Barcelona three years
ago and all of a sudden, my

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read right leg went nune and I
had to sit down. Every forty fifty

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yards. So with that, I
decided I needed to find a tool to

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let me sustain traveling and moving.
So looking at was on the market,

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didn't quite meet my image of what
I would like to have, and which

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was had to be light, it
had to be easily carible, manageable,

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and I wanted it to fit into
a carry on airline bag or a backpack.

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And I actually had one mistake in
my perception, which means I wanted

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it to be a chair and a
cane Fulda vocane at the same time,

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which turned out was a mistake and
we lost about two years of design on

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that because we just couldn't implement it. But with that, their first versions

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we're okay, but they were too
heavy, and we now got it down

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to fit into an airline bag.
Weigh two and a half pounds, carry

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an excess of two hundred and fifty
pounds capacity, and we have two seating

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heights adjustable, and that's where we
are at this point. We have two

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patents. So what do you what
do you want this product to be for

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people? What's your vision for what
this product could be for people? Well,

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the initial thought was to basically regain
a certain strength when people get tired

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walking. That was the intent,
and it also turned out that while you

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then regain that strength, you sit
down and you look around and enjoy what's

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around you. And there were all
kinds of inputs from people. For example,

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when I took it to my insurance
agent to say, I'm going to

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need liability insurance coverage for the product, and he said, you know,

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I'm a hiker. I would buy
this thing because when I'm out in the

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woods or in the mountains, I
typically don't find the right rock that fits

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me to sit down. So that
was one market that I hadn't even thought

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of. One of my designers came
to me the other day and said,

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oh, I went to these antiqued
card shows and all these old timers and

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they were even younger than you were
walking around, and not one of them

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had a way to sit down.
So it's a it's a very flexible thing.

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Another one of the designers took it
to the beach and he said,

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I used to the chair and I
used together as a table in the sand.

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But anyway, the market is wide. It's just a matter of what

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you want to do birdwatchers. But
the original emphasis was basically extend the range

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of motion and mobility for people like
me, And that's still, in my

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opinion, the main one. So
when you first told me about this product

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and I thought about you and how
I know you to walk through life,

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I got that I could have imagined
I should say. I shouldn't say I

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got because I didn't know, But
I surmised the part of it was you

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saying to the universe, You're not
going to stop me. I'm still going

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to travel, I'm going to do
my thing. Am I little little thing

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called my leg going dumb or my
leg's getting tired to stop me? And

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you have this irrepressible spirit about you, and it seems to me that part

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of what you're doing is you're helping
to enable other people to live life more

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fully and completely with this product.
Absolutely, I hope that's not a bad

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way to contribute to the planet Royland, oh well, or to myself or

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to yourself. Right. So one
of the things that people ask me is

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because they know that I work around
purpose and meaning, people are desperate to

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find meaning for themselves, to discover
their purpose. And one of the things

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that I say is, if you
start to look for the things in your

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life that you need to solve for
yourself, that you need to learn and

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know for yourself. Oftentimes that can
be a great place. So if you've

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created this chair for yourself, now
you're going to share it with the world.

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That's that's a pretty good purpose to
work from. That's one of them.

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What's the others? Well, the
other one is just having fun?

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Of course, absolutely right it should
be. I always say work should be

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a playground. That's exactly what it
should be. And that is what I

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stand for a role, and that's
I want more people across the planet to

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have fun working like you do.
Good enough, do you know? Are

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you aware of these stats that the
Gallop Organization says that only fifteen one five

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percent of the global workforce is fully
engaged in their work. And then you

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consider that we spend about forty percent
of our lives at work in some capacity.

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So if we're dragging ourselves through Monday
through Friday, I think that's pretty

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pathetic and a crime and a way
to waste a precious life. So what

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I'm up to is trying to help
more people play at work like you do.

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Absolutely as you should, you know, And the only problem is the

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only seven days in the week.
You get that entirely. Entirely get that.

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I know if I can invent more
days than the week and a few

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more hours of the day, I'd
be haupy you too. So back on

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your product. Here a couple more
questions about that. I wanted to paint

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it for the for our listeners as
they get the idea of what this could

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be. And one of the other
things I love about the fact is that

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you have started from a place of
just raw possibility, right, and you're

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just taking it from there. I
was thinking of other people that could use

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your product. And I know all
the years when my daughter Gabby was younger

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and we would go to her soccer
games or anything else and there was no

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place to sit. Correct, So
all those parents that have the need to

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be mobile following their children to some
event, I see that as another place

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for yours. It is it is
who else? Uh? One of the

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obviously the reasons for me, it
was for me to rest. But when

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you stand in airline check in lines, when do you go to museums?

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And that's really good. One of
the stories how we arrived at the size

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of the seat is kind of funny. Tell me tell us. Well,

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then one of the prototypes of to
the Art Museum, and there was a

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grandmother daughter, granddaughter team and they
said what's this And I said, well,

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this is the prototype and if I
don't try it, the daughter sat

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on the chair, The granddaughter sat
on the chair and said that's good.

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That don't work. The mother,
the middle range of the three, just

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said, I'd like it a little
larder, and the grandmother said the d

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said the seat is way too small. Perfect little input goes a long way.

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Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh. Well, let's talk a little

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bit about the process that you've been
involved in to get this idea into a

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product into the market. So you
said the idea started three years ago,

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okay, so yes, laid out
for us. Well, I started three

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years ago and I looked at products
on the market, bought probably nine ten

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different products that are out there.
Some of them lost it three days and

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some of them lost it two three
months, but they didn't quite fit my

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requirements of convenience. And for example, when you travel, you typically carry

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one bag airline bag or whatever in
a backpack or a purse and a camera

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yep, and then you have only
you only have two hands. You have

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three articles, maybe now I needed
a chair. I had four. So

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the first version, which failed was
the one that had a cane handle so

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I could hang it on my arm. So when we started with that,

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the first one of the first criteria
was what shape is the handle? Whose

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hands should it fit or should it
fit a forearm with a muscle so it

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can hang on it? Does it? Kenny questions? Can it hang off

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a hotel checkout desk that you just
hang it off there and it doesn't fall

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and clouter or clatter to the floor
when you put it in an overhead binner

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an airplane, does it prohibit other
bags to go in or not? So

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with that, we did a prototype
and we basically machined it out of some

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nylon and some tubing and wanted to
provide different height for different people. So

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that was the first prototype. Then
I hold on what you please, Roland.

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I want to get this story full
and paint it for our listeners,

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but I want to take a quick
break and then we'll cover the real details

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of that after the break. Cortes, your host. We've been on the

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air with Rolandhardle, a Heartle development
company and Avida. He is the inventor

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of the inter folding travel chair.
We're having this conversation from his office in

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Portland, organ We're in visiting treasured
family and friends present company included. Join

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us for a more conversation about how
we actually developed more prototypes of this chair.

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We'll be right back after the break. Alise Cortes is a speaker and

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engagement and development catalyst. She designs
and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement

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00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:33.519
workshops and can bring her expertise to
your organization. She will help ignite meaningful

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00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:37.960
development within your workforce that will increase
employee engagement, performance and retention. To

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00:18:38.039 --> 00:18:41.920
learn more or to invite Elise to
speak to your organization, please visit her

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00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:48.480
at www dot Elise Coortes dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help

234
00:18:48.519 --> 00:18:59.480
get your employees working on purpose.
This is working on Purpose with a lease

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00:18:59.559 --> 00:19:04.119
coartet. To reach our program today, send an email to a lease Alise

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00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:11.359
at a lease Coortes dot com.
Now back to working on purpose. If

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you're just joining us, My guest
is Roland Heartle. He is the inventor

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of the inter folding travel chair,
and we've been talking a little bit about

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where the idea came from now.
Next, we want to showcase more of

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the overall process that has taken for
him to get where he is today.

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And I especially want to showcase this
for the listeners who are perhaps contemplating creating

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something of their own and bringing it
into the real world. So pay attention.

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Okay, So that first prototype and
then what Well? Then I looked

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around for the expertise that I would
need to get involved with me to implement

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the ideas, and luckily I found
first one what I call jack of all

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trades, who was recommended to me, who has an incredibly wide range of

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skills both practical and theoretical and mathematical
and the mechanical engineer. And the second

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one was I contacted an acquaintance of
Pattern Attourney and I said, I really

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need an industrial and design firm,
and he recommended one to me, one

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of the top launch ones. And
when I met with the one of the

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partners, he said, you cannot
afford me for us, but I have

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three of our designers that just left
us and you should contact them. So

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I became acquainted with the evolved collaborative
three relatively young, certainly from my viewpoint,

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design partners and I think I was
there first, if not their first

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client, and restarted the conceptual thinking
of what would projects want to achieve and

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they came up with some basic ideas
themes, potential images and markets for different

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image building traditional, sporting, really
modern, contemporary, which we then used

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to focus on the final broad type. That took us about a year,

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and then we went out to price
it and could not find the rising level.

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This product is a combination of of
infused nylon and aluminum tubing and some

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rubber pieces and could not find it
here. And then I I was looking

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for overseas clients and I had an
old friend who was a supplier to some

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of the larger importers of miscellaneous wares
out of China, and I called him

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and he and I go back about
thirty five years, and he said,

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interesting, call me in ten minutes, I'll be I'll be back in my

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office and I did, and he
said I'm leaving again for Asian tomorrow,

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but call this guy at this number, which I did, and I got

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connected with a firm called EBI,
which is an international design and supply firm.

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George Wang was the principal, absolutely
wonderful, big market, big firm,

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and I said, so and SO
says I should meet with whom we

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did, and I took along my
one of my other third designer. So

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I have three design groups. One
is the hands on original evolved group and

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the strict mechanical other engineer that is
more quality control. And I took him

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along to the meeting, walked in
there and they showed us. I said,

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we want to show you what we
have and broduct. And he looked

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looked into the show which had all
kinds of things and shelves, and he

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went to one piece and said,
huh is this so and sauce and they

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said yeah. He said, I
designed this, bingo eyes broken. Well,

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it just incredible. So from there
on we we basically evolved the product

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they designed, We designed, we
tested, and we are now to the

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point, as a matter of fact, we have one more meeting this week

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where we review the last fine tuning
of certain parts, and then we are

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ready to roll out in August with
the final first large order. Oh my

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gosh, ladies and gentlemen, this
is how it's done. Okay. So

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I heard a couple of things there, rongd. I heard that one you

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don't do this alone. Just because
you have a great idea doesn't mean you

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can pull it off by yourself.
You had to go out there and source

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people who could help you bring this
great idea to full fruition. Correct.

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Okay, that's important for listeners because
a lot of us present company, myself

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included, tend to go about things
the hard way and try to go things

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alone. So that's the first lesson
I heard out of that. The other

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thing that I heard you say is
that you leverage other past relationships and connections

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to be able to absolutely okay,
beautiful and more than one, I mean

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three to four different relationships, and
there's one element that's missing. How do

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you fund it? Yes, what's
well, that was one of the Yeah,

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I was going to ask you about
some of the vaccine challenges that you've

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navigated through, So let's talk about
that's got to be one of them.

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Funding. Talk about that. Well, the two are three ways you can

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funded. Number one, you can
funded through kickstarter campaigns well equivalent. Number

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two you can funded with other OPM
other people's money, okay, and and

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the third one is you funded yourself. So I decided to fund it myself

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because I didn't know where it was
going to go and uh it it eats

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up a lot, but it can, especially when you go a refine product

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and you know, have have patent
attorneys, you have called the sacks that

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you hit with some fat manufacturers that
can't perform or say they can and that

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they can't and etc. But so
we're still probably going to do a kickstarter

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campaign as a market test. But
that's a decision we're making. Three we

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Okay, it's an interestry time to
talk with you then, Okay, so

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what other vaccine challenges have you had
to deal with and navigate through? Patent

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application and trademark process okay, customs
and import issues okay, Trump terriffs okay,

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which are coming up not implemented yet, and just time. Yeah,

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it's amazing how much time it takes
to jet to actually birth a product,

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isn't it. Well, it is
multifaceted. It takes a team, and

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unless you are the perfect genius in
the aspects of design, management, implementation,

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00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:07.920
and money, you can't do it
myself. Yeah. I totally get

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that, really get that. Well, what have you most enjoyed along the

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way creating this idea and engineering this
product? Well, just having fun with

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it. I mean seriously, I
mean I do other things at the same

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time because I have one or two
other clients on either of my old activities

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was in engineering and real estate and
construction consulting from time to time, but

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plus all the new ideas that pop
up when you're out in the trade,

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so to speak. Endless. I
think it's fun too, I think,

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but that to me is what makes
you you. That's how you dance through

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life as long as I've known you, and I think dancing through life is

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the exact right term. I do
too. I do too. That so

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00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:07.079
describes you and is the epitome of
you. Thank you, And wouldn't it

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00:28:07.079 --> 00:28:10.359
be fun if more people across the
planet did that? Now they get too

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00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:14.359
uptight? Yeah, is that what
it is? I think? So what

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00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:15.119
is it? Because if you think
about it, you know, you know

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that I stand for helping more people
live like you do and play like you

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do, certainly in the workspace.
So what do you think it's in the

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00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:26.400
way of that for them? I
really think what gets in the way They

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00:28:26.440 --> 00:28:33.039
are thinking too narrowly, yes,
and they do not have developed their skill

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levels that are wide enough to see
the whole spectrum of what's out there.

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00:28:40.440 --> 00:28:44.480
That makes a lot of sense.
So that's actionable. And I look back

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00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:52.880
on my career and I regret,
for example, that I didn't get a

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00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:59.880
law degree or venturing. I always
did it by acquiring myself, even after

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00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:06.920
out of my degrees. But it
takes time, especially while you had to

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00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:12.160
make so to speak, stay alive
right while having fun. Yeah, I

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00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:17.039
keep that in mind. I mean
I did go under you know, right,

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I understand that. Yeah. So, and that's so that's an important

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00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:25.400
thing to showcase. Right when you
play large like you played, there are

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00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:29.000
risks in that absolutely, and you
are a person who is willing to accept

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00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:34.039
those risks reluctantly, right right,
Well, I want to showcase a bit

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00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:37.279
more about your background, and let's
take our last break here. I'm Alice

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00:29:37.319 --> 00:29:41.599
Cortez, your host. We've been
on there with Roland Hardle of Heartle Development

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00:29:41.599 --> 00:29:45.920
Company and also Abida. He is
the inventor of the inter folding travel chair.

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00:29:45.119 --> 00:29:49.039
We've been talking a bit about the
various processes that he's gone through to

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00:29:49.079 --> 00:29:52.680
get the product to where it is
today. After the break, we're going

350
00:29:52.759 --> 00:29:56.880
to hear a bit more about his
earlier career in his entrepreneurial adventures. Stay

351
00:29:56.880 --> 00:30:00.039
with us, We'll be right back. I'll leave Fort as a speaker and

352
00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:07.200
engagement and development catalyst. She designs
and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement

353
00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:11.039
workshops and can bring her expertise to
your organization. She will help ignite meaningful

354
00:30:11.079 --> 00:30:17.440
development within your workforce that will increase
employee engagement, performance and retention. To

355
00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:21.480
learn more or to invite Elise to
speak to your organization, please visit her

356
00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:26.200
at www dot elisecortes dot com.
She would welcome the opportunity to help get

357
00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:37.720
your employees working on purpose. This
is working on Purpose with Elise Cortes.

358
00:30:38.119 --> 00:30:45.240
To reach our program today, send
an email to a lease Alise at elisecortes

359
00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:51.519
dot com. Now back to working
on purpose. If you're just tuning in,

360
00:30:51.559 --> 00:30:55.359
My guest is Rolandhartle. He is
the inventor of the in folding travel

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00:30:55.400 --> 00:30:57.680
chair. We've been talking about how
much fun he's had developing that chair and

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00:30:57.720 --> 00:31:03.039
bringing it to market, taking an
idea and making it into something tangible and

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00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:06.079
bringing it to people to enjoy.
It's been amazing to get to hear about

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00:31:06.119 --> 00:31:08.000
that. Next, what I want
to do rolland if we can is I

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00:31:08.039 --> 00:31:11.359
want to take us back in a
little bit of time and talk a bit

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about your earlier career before you did
this, because you have had so much

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00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:18.880
fun as an entrepreneur. You and
I were talking earlier and you said,

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00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:21.640
part of the reason that you are
an entrepreneur is because you get bored every

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00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:26.559
five years. So what I think
about how life began for you? I

370
00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:30.839
mean, you were born in Czechoslovakia
before World War Two, when you escaped

371
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:34.400
ethnic cleansing of the German minority and
deportation to a concentration camp, which is

372
00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:37.720
extraordinary in and of itself. You
came to the United States on a Fulbright

373
00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:41.319
scholarship at age twenty, educated as
a civil engineer. And I met you

374
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:45.279
when you were running your commercial real
estate development company, which is where I

375
00:31:45.319 --> 00:31:49.039
worked for you. So, of
all the adventures you've had professionally, which

376
00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:57.920
ones are you most proud of?
One is the design of the Framework bridge?

377
00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:00.319
Oh? Yes, please tell that
story. So we're in Portland.

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00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:02.920
I are going to Fremont Bridges.
Is there a big deal? There are

379
00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:12.839
four or five bridges, a few
more. But in nineteen sixty three I

380
00:32:12.920 --> 00:32:16.920
put on a bridge exhibit of European
bridges because one of the bridges at that

381
00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:22.039
time that the Highway Department put up
was just nineteen twenty state of the art

382
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:27.920
instead of nineteen sixties. And I
put on a bridge European bridge exhibit at

383
00:32:28.640 --> 00:32:37.599
Read College and when the Fremont Bridge
came up for design, two members of

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00:32:37.640 --> 00:32:43.279
the Arts Commissioner remembered the bridge exhibit
and called me and said, we'd like

385
00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:46.079
you to look at the designs that
have been submitted so far. There were

386
00:32:46.119 --> 00:32:52.839
six, and why don't you come
in and pick up the schemes. And

387
00:32:52.920 --> 00:32:55.640
they asked my opinion, and I
said, well, if you want to

388
00:32:55.720 --> 00:33:02.359
have a bridge designed to the technology
the nineteen twenties, pig any of them,

389
00:33:04.599 --> 00:33:08.880
you'll be fine. Yeah. And
they said, well what could you

390
00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:13.000
do when I said, well,
I could take the data and the criteria

391
00:33:13.079 --> 00:33:22.279
and come up with a schematic design
you might like. I was working for

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00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:28.799
an engineering firm at the time with
a very despotic owner and boss, and

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00:33:28.839 --> 00:33:30.079
I said this is what I want
to do, and he said okay.

394
00:33:31.920 --> 00:33:39.200
So I did some calculations for about
a week and then threw a sketch and

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00:33:39.319 --> 00:33:49.759
had it drawn up by one of
our firms architectural members and presented to the

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00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:53.920
Arts Commission, and there were two
other designs submitted after that, and they

397
00:33:53.960 --> 00:34:00.480
decided to pick my schematic, which
was as a matter of fact, became

398
00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:08.960
then implemented exactly to the proportions done
by another engineering firm because the engineering firm

399
00:34:09.360 --> 00:34:16.440
which I worked was too small.
Plus however, he's he's claimed to quote

400
00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:22.480
whatever fame they me and quote since
then. But that's all right, no

401
00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:27.039
problem. So anyway, that's I
counted that in the major achievement. Just

402
00:34:27.039 --> 00:34:30.000
a second before you go to the
next one. What I love about that

403
00:34:30.079 --> 00:34:32.719
one? If the Fremont Bridge is
a big deal in Portland, and certainly

404
00:34:32.760 --> 00:34:37.280
when you think about what can we
do in a life, what what what

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00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:40.199
makes for our life? To be
able to give that as a legacy is

406
00:34:42.119 --> 00:34:45.280
incredible. It's become a symbol of
the city. Yes, it has,

407
00:34:45.679 --> 00:34:50.159
which is which is very nice.
I mean, it's it's worth stood those

408
00:34:51.280 --> 00:34:54.360
challenges. They're one or two newer
and better designs of the of the newer

409
00:34:54.400 --> 00:34:59.119
bridges, at least one of them, and and that's great, you know,

410
00:34:59.480 --> 00:35:04.079
but this one that stands out,
Yeah, it's gorgeous. So okay,

411
00:35:04.119 --> 00:35:07.400
so that's one that you're proud of. What else are you proud of

412
00:35:07.400 --> 00:35:10.920
when you think about that long history
of things you've spent toiling at and enjoying.

413
00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:21.039
Well, we started a construction company
in nineteen seventy one after I sold

414
00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:30.119
the engineering firm. And in nineteen
seventy five one of my employees said,

415
00:35:30.159 --> 00:35:36.199
you know, JR. Simplest Company
is going to build a French fry plant

416
00:35:36.280 --> 00:35:39.880
in Oregon. And they've never done
a project in Oregon. They don't know

417
00:35:39.880 --> 00:35:45.159
what they're getting into. I want
to go over and sell us to them.

418
00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:52.000
I said, okay. So they
invited us to a submittle based on

419
00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:57.199
one sheet of drawing for one of
the early receiving buildings. We submitted it

420
00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:00.559
and they called it and said,
to you the low purpose. Come on

421
00:36:00.639 --> 00:36:07.920
over, we want to sign contract. Long story short. They handed us

422
00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:12.559
the contract and I looked at the
contract and I said, I'm ready to

423
00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:15.840
sign the contract. But if I
were you, I wouldn't sign that contract.

424
00:36:19.159 --> 00:36:23.119
Why not? And they said what
do you mean? I said,

425
00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:25.679
well, I know how you do
work. I said to your contract is

426
00:36:25.679 --> 00:36:30.239
a license to steal for me,
and I don't think you should do that.

427
00:36:30.880 --> 00:36:34.599
Oh, what a great way to
say it. And I said,

428
00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:38.400
I've looked at how you do work, and you do a base contract which

429
00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:43.400
is a half a million dollars,
it's close to it, and then you

430
00:36:43.559 --> 00:36:47.039
change order it and this is a
thirty five million dollar project, no control,

431
00:36:49.679 --> 00:36:52.119
what do you propose? Well,
long story short, we made a

432
00:36:52.119 --> 00:36:55.000
proposal of them which outlined how we
would do it, how we would competitively

433
00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:01.719
bid the subsections and sub pieces,
and then we had a deadline of the

434
00:37:01.719 --> 00:37:09.559
growing season and the key was to
design and build the first McDonald's French fireplanned

435
00:37:10.480 --> 00:37:20.400
in fourteen months. Wow and uh, which when two competitors of Simpler try

436
00:37:20.440 --> 00:37:22.599
that and then following two years,
it took them three years to do the

437
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:30.599
same. But it was a weekly
stand up design meeting with everybody flying into

438
00:37:30.639 --> 00:37:37.760
the site, stand up sessions for
four or five hours, lunch, standing

439
00:37:37.840 --> 00:37:40.519
up, and then everyone dispersed.
I mean, it was an incredible achievement

440
00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:45.199
to do it, and different engineers, different engineering firms, not a single

441
00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:52.679
one, mechanic, collectible, structural
fights with the unions and for the unions,

442
00:37:52.280 --> 00:37:57.199
et cetera. So that was an
achievement absolutely, and then we had

443
00:37:57.440 --> 00:38:00.679
just to sec one more thing on
that one for all those you all those

444
00:38:00.679 --> 00:38:02.880
you across the globe who love McDonald's
French Wise, you can also thank Roland

445
00:38:02.880 --> 00:38:12.840
Harble for helping to make that happen. And we also did four community projects

446
00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:16.840
in the region. Well that that's
another funny story. But that's another one.

447
00:38:16.840 --> 00:38:20.320
Well we have time, go for
it. We have time for Well,

448
00:38:20.599 --> 00:38:24.400
typically when they do construction project in
the community, large ones, the

449
00:38:24.440 --> 00:38:30.719
local paper says, now you need
to run an AD and as a contract

450
00:38:30.760 --> 00:38:35.760
were on a full bridge add and
your subs are on ADS and the then

451
00:38:35.840 --> 00:38:38.400
vice president of simple Ets that are
owned, we're going to do this different.

452
00:38:39.519 --> 00:38:43.280
I said, what give me the
idea? And I said, great

453
00:38:43.320 --> 00:38:47.280
idea. So I said, we
identify community projects that the community needs,

454
00:38:47.719 --> 00:38:55.039
childcare center, recreation equipment for the
senior center, a parkery model, and

455
00:38:55.280 --> 00:39:01.679
a playground, and said we're going
to raise the money from our subs.

456
00:39:01.840 --> 00:39:06.480
From our contractors, you're going to
give five thousand dollars? Are you going

457
00:39:06.480 --> 00:39:09.480
to give five thousand dollars? And
then we're going to assess our contractors.

458
00:39:09.519 --> 00:39:14.119
If somebody has a two thousand dollars, virtues ordered to be asking for a

459
00:39:14.159 --> 00:39:20.239
buck. And we raised almost fifty
thousand dollars. By the way, from

460
00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:28.000
our subs. And then we walked
into the newspaper and we said, Jerry,

461
00:39:28.800 --> 00:39:34.039
we want to do this like you
proposed, but you're going to run

462
00:39:34.039 --> 00:39:39.400
the ads for nothing nice because we're
going to spend this money on these four

463
00:39:39.440 --> 00:39:46.559
community projects. And he set back
and all he said us these sons and

464
00:39:46.639 --> 00:39:54.000
pitches. It's brilliant, it's so
clever. It was wonderful. So we

465
00:39:54.360 --> 00:40:00.920
ended up building the only childcare center
in Hermiston and and any other things,

466
00:40:00.920 --> 00:40:08.079
and it's it was wonderful. It's
stunning Roland about making a difference exactly,

467
00:40:08.199 --> 00:40:10.920
and it was fun. And the
other thing is, at the end of

468
00:40:10.960 --> 00:40:15.480
the job, because of the contract
that negotiated, we handed our client back

469
00:40:15.559 --> 00:40:20.960
a check FO one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars for job underrun. Wow,

470
00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:29.480
you know, because of the wavy
administered the job that was part of the

471
00:40:29.519 --> 00:40:34.239
contract. And that's amazing. Who
when does that ever happen? Today?

472
00:40:34.679 --> 00:40:37.679
It does happen? Does it?
Oh? Yes? Okay? Oh yes,

473
00:40:37.400 --> 00:40:40.760
we did similar thing with the Red
Cross building. Okay, yeah,

474
00:40:42.440 --> 00:40:46.039
all right. Are there any other
things in that background that rolodex of experiences

475
00:40:46.079 --> 00:40:52.840
of yours that you're particularly proud of? I made Emmanuel Hospital sell three acres

476
00:40:52.840 --> 00:40:58.440
of land after they had vowed to
never sell a piece of land to anybody.

477
00:41:00.559 --> 00:41:07.599
But I convinced them with their own
logic. And this was interesting because

478
00:41:09.239 --> 00:41:14.960
American Red Cross Trail Tracker is a
blood supplier for what that time was for

479
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:21.920
seventy two hospitals in the Northwest,
and we needed a new site and I

480
00:41:21.960 --> 00:41:27.119
was on the board and the side
we picked was next to the emmanual hospital

481
00:41:28.679 --> 00:41:35.000
and it was a large brighter and
a man who didn't want to sell,

482
00:41:35.840 --> 00:41:38.639
And I said why not? And
they said, well, because we don't

483
00:41:38.679 --> 00:41:43.079
know if you're going to be around, you might go broke. And I

484
00:41:43.119 --> 00:41:46.239
said, wouldn't that be wonderful for
you all of a sudden you would own

485
00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:52.400
us and you'd control the blood supply
as a manual hospital for seventy two other

486
00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:58.280
hospitals. They said, oh,
we'll sell it, does it matter?

487
00:41:58.320 --> 00:42:02.599
Giving them a different perspectively, opening
the horizons you talked earlier about how people

488
00:42:02.639 --> 00:42:07.199
can be a bit narrow. You
just that's a great example of completely blowing

489
00:42:07.239 --> 00:42:09.480
that wide open. Yeah, And
it worked, and it was it was

490
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:17.800
fun to negotiate with them, including
their attorneys and our attorneys and then the

491
00:42:17.920 --> 00:42:25.280
labor unions, and this was the
financing was tricky, all of that,

492
00:42:25.760 --> 00:42:30.000
and what was the net result of
that project. It's a blood laboratory over

493
00:42:30.039 --> 00:42:37.840
the Emmanuel campus which has been in
operation since nineteen eighty seven and still is

494
00:42:38.280 --> 00:42:46.960
and still operating. Not too shabby, Not too shabby. Okay, So

495
00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:51.400
a couple more things, a couple
more. I probably have two more questions

496
00:42:51.400 --> 00:42:52.960
for you, but before I do
that, I want to make sure if

497
00:42:52.960 --> 00:42:55.519
there's anything else in there that you
stands out as something you're really proud of

498
00:42:55.559 --> 00:42:59.119
that you want to share. Oh, all this is live, all,

499
00:42:59.119 --> 00:43:00.800
this is life perfect. Yeah,
sorry, listeners, this is all just

500
00:43:00.840 --> 00:43:06.280
a big joke, just kidding.
What other things? What do you mean?

501
00:43:06.360 --> 00:43:07.920
Well, so I wasn't tre if
there's any any other experiences that you

502
00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:10.639
wanted to share, because there's two
other questions I want to ask you before

503
00:43:10.679 --> 00:43:13.960
we go off air in just a
few minutes. Well, you know,

504
00:43:14.440 --> 00:43:17.679
when you have sixty years of professional
life as a lot of stuff. I

505
00:43:17.719 --> 00:43:21.840
know, I know, it's unfortunately
this is just less than an hour show.

506
00:43:22.199 --> 00:43:24.320
Well it's fun, okay, So
I'm going to ask you this next

507
00:43:24.400 --> 00:43:29.800
question. And I didn't give you
any chance to think about this, So

508
00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:34.519
I want to if you could share, what do you think makes for living

509
00:43:34.599 --> 00:43:42.199
a great life? Uh, that's
a good question. Great life means to

510
00:43:42.320 --> 00:43:50.119
me that you number one, treat
people the way you'd like to be treated

511
00:43:52.360 --> 00:44:02.920
and encourage them to grow and to
develop to their best abilities. If you

512
00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:14.760
see them, you support it and
sometimes they don't see it. And couple

513
00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:21.760
it with education. And keep in
mind that when you are twenty today,

514
00:44:21.880 --> 00:44:28.880
you're going to be around for another
most likely sixty to seventy years. You're

515
00:44:28.880 --> 00:44:38.199
going to change occupation and at least
three to four times over that period.

516
00:44:39.360 --> 00:44:47.239
So you need to stay flexible and
widen your capabilities and broaden and deepen your

517
00:44:47.320 --> 00:44:58.840
capabilities all along, but enjoy the
challenges. So I completely ru I think

518
00:44:58.880 --> 00:45:04.000
for you, where others may have
been worn down by the challenges that you

519
00:45:04.039 --> 00:45:07.320
got presented with, for you,
I think it just tightened to fun.

520
00:45:08.360 --> 00:45:13.480
It does, it does. So
that goes back to mindset. So the

521
00:45:13.519 --> 00:45:15.360
thing about mindset is it can be
learned. You're not just stuck with whatever

522
00:45:15.360 --> 00:45:17.880
you've got. It can be learned. You can learn to embrace that kind

523
00:45:17.880 --> 00:45:24.320
of a mindset. Absolutely, okay, absolutely So so if I had known

524
00:45:24.599 --> 00:45:29.840
sixty years ago, I know now
it would be a lot more success.

525
00:45:30.599 --> 00:45:34.840
I totally understand that. Trust me. And then just quickly on leadership,

526
00:45:35.639 --> 00:45:37.360
you clearly have learned a lot about
leading people. And I think it is

527
00:45:37.400 --> 00:45:39.920
a lot to do with just what
you said about how you treat people.

528
00:45:39.960 --> 00:45:44.039
And it was for me working for
you, you did grow me. You

529
00:45:44.079 --> 00:45:46.400
made me a lot of who I
am because of your counsel. Can you

530
00:45:46.440 --> 00:45:51.840
say a little bit about your perspective
on your approach to leadership. Well,

531
00:45:52.320 --> 00:45:58.760
I think there are various elements.
Number one is you have to trust the

532
00:45:58.800 --> 00:46:02.719
people you work with. Yeah,
and and I mean you have to express

533
00:46:02.760 --> 00:46:10.800
that trust. And one of my
axioms has always been the people that work

534
00:46:12.039 --> 00:46:15.440
for me or with me on a
team will not do the things the way

535
00:46:15.519 --> 00:46:22.480
I would like to do them.
They'll do them better. That's so great.

536
00:46:22.920 --> 00:46:29.880
And they do they will if you
trust them. M that's beautiful.

537
00:46:30.159 --> 00:46:37.639
And I think really that's the leadership
that you should have. And when somebody

538
00:46:37.639 --> 00:46:40.760
come up on your team of your
employment, comes to you and says,

539
00:46:40.800 --> 00:46:45.000
yeah, i'd like to do this, I think you should say, how

540
00:46:45.039 --> 00:46:45.800
do you want to do it?
And how can I help you with it.

541
00:46:46.199 --> 00:46:51.719
That sounds fantastic to me, you
know. Okay, so we're getting

542
00:46:51.760 --> 00:46:54.239
close to running out of time,
so I always like to give my guests,

543
00:46:54.280 --> 00:46:58.320
if you will, the last word. So you know, the show

544
00:46:58.320 --> 00:47:00.960
is about helping people across the globe
more meaningfully and productively connect with their work

545
00:47:00.960 --> 00:47:07.039
in a way that gives them a
sense of purpose about their work. What

546
00:47:07.079 --> 00:47:12.039
would you like to leave listeners with
today? Think of helping other people a

547
00:47:12.199 --> 00:47:16.800
chief their dreams. I don't have
to be big, yeah, just a

548
00:47:16.920 --> 00:47:22.679
nudge here, encouragement there. That
is beautiful. Now, certainly what this

549
00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:27.119
show is about is standing from a
place of encouraging and shouting from the rifftops

550
00:47:27.119 --> 00:47:30.599
for people to go for their dreams. For sure. So I completely agree

551
00:47:30.599 --> 00:47:32.239
with that, and it's a beautiful
way to finish. Roland, thank you

552
00:47:32.239 --> 00:47:36.039
so much for joining me on Working
on Purpose. It's been amazing to have

553
00:47:36.079 --> 00:47:38.320
you here. My pleasure. Thank
you very much. You're welcome. If

554
00:47:38.320 --> 00:47:42.880
listeners want to find you, how
can they reach you? Well, they

555
00:47:42.880 --> 00:47:47.800
can reach me by email at Roland
H one nine three six at gmail dot

556
00:47:47.800 --> 00:47:55.159
com or at Roland at interludechair dot
com. Excellent, wonderful, join us

557
00:47:55.159 --> 00:47:59.119
next week when we talk with Debbie
Maserk. She will be talking about what

558
00:47:59.199 --> 00:48:01.000
makes for great say people and if
you don't think you're in sales in some

559
00:48:01.039 --> 00:48:05.199
capacity, think again. See you're
there. I remember that workers at least

560
00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:08.280
forty percent of our life. So
let's work on purpose. Well. I

561
00:48:08.360 --> 00:48:13.320
hope you've enjoyed this week's program.
Be sure to tune in to Working on

562
00:48:13.440 --> 00:48:19.119
Purpose, featuring your host Alis Cortes, each week on the Voice America Empowerment

563
00:48:19.199 --> 00:48:22.239
Channel. This week, find your
life's purpose at work