E X P E R I E N C E S T H AT S H A P E C H A R A C T E R 23 in Chicago and I was sent to one of our factories on the South Side. I'd gone through the customary interview process. Everyone had seen my resume so they knew about me, my education, and my career goals. I showed up, as I thought appropriate, in my suit. The factory manager welcomed me very warmly and asked if I wanted to hang my jacket up. Of course, I said, Yes. I thought he was being very friendly and wanted me to feel comfortable. No sooner had he hung up my jacket behind the door than he handed me a broom. My first job as an MBA was to sweep the warehouse. Was I shocked? You bet. But I learned pretty quickly that, if I was to be respected, there couldn't be any job that I wouldn't do if it needed to get done. And someone had to sweep the warehouse floor. Why shouldn't it be me? To this day, that Chicago experience and the relationships that developed have been sources of great pride to me. By demonstrating his work ethic in a task as basic as sweeping the floors, I am sure that Steve's boss in Chicago saw he had a winner on his hands. And when his new coworkers witnessed him earnestly and cheer- fully accomplishing the task--despite the MBA and the suit--their regard for him was positive from the start. His reputation was off to a good start, and that pivotal task of readily sweeping the floor on his first day set his career on the fast track. If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Doing Well Most of us remember being told at least once, "If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well." The most vivid time I heard that adage, the time that froze it in my memory forever, was when I was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. I had just enlisted in the Army and was assigned KP duty, more formally known in those days as kitchen patrol. I sat on an old steel chair peeling potatoes at four o'clock in the morning on a dark, damp, and cold October day. The drill sergeant hollered the saying at me with, as you'd expect, a few expletives and verbal exclamation points. Was his admonition critical to achieving better roasted potatoes for the recruits' breakfast? Not quite. But American Management Association / www.amanet.org