Jim Howitt was a mentor of mine in life. When I was in my early 20’s working at a marketing company, he was in his late 60’s having returned from retirement to work in our office. For the first year or so, I didn’t know much about Jim, but each time I worked with him he was genuinely interested in talking me as a person before the task I was asking him to help with. It wasn’t his job, he implicitly taught me that skill that I attribute to my own success in the classroom and workplace: care for the person and their service to you and others will benefit.
In one of our conversations, I learned that Jim had started modestly as an immigrant to Canada from England. He worked his way through the auto industry in Detroit and became a high-ranking executive at Chrysler during the Iacocca era when Chrysler was booming. This post-retirement job was simply a way for him to keep active and social. I asked how Jim felt he had become so successful. Jim revealed to me without hesitation, “I never said that’s not my job.” At the dawn of my professional life, these words imprinted upon my heart.
I think of Jim all the time, like a wise grandfather I enjoyed for a glimpse of time. This week as I shoveled the walks before staff and students arrived in a snow storm, I had no fewer than three adults and children ask, “Why are you shoveling, that’s not your job?” I had to smile and wonder if Jim is still alive, then I responded to each of them, “What does that mean, not my job? It needs to be done. This is how you succeed.”