DCS - the good 'ole days

I was hired by DCS back in 1990 as a drafter (on the table) not because I was good. I was cheap and I lived in Huntington Beach. I resigned right after Brockway, a decade later. I write this thread in the hopes that others will understand what they taught me. A company does not make people, people make a company. Surjit Kalsi would not give you food. He would show you how to grow a crop. He would not fix anything I broke, he only provided the tools. He once actually told me, as time was precious, to guess the weight of a product for costing (literally guess). I forget how many years later we actually costed it out within a few bucks. He was angry but fair when I was caught designing for competitors (greedy me). Surjit actually told me he respected my ambition...he could have fired me on the spot.  Randy would let you fail, sometimes dangerously and at great expense, as an investment in you. He once told me "never apologize for sucess". I still use his advice with my own staff now. "Your only as good as the people you hire". An obvious one but rang true then as now. He once sent me out to a restaurant to fix my very first designs (a stock pot). To get a first hand feel for what our service techs would face, with drill in hand. He had me camp out under BBQs at AGA until we were certified. He was never too busy to listen to my bitching. He was like a father to me. He invited me to his house. I knew his kids. I regret that I lost his trust because I was immature, looking a gift horse in the mouth. Randy, I still have the watch, the tools, the books you gave me as a boss and friend. Thank you.  Roberto was a straight-up genious and no one seemed to see it. He and I were friends. He obliterated my stereotypes of Mexicans.  He and I went to his home town in Tijuana and I was treated as he was, royalty. Roberto once told me he could design every product on the back of my paycheck. It took me years to really know what he was saying. "Hey whitey, don't think for one second your better than the guys building your products" Engineers at DCS did not get inside boxes just to think outside. We did not want a free lunch (stolen drawings). We would look at our competitors as if we needed them (we did) and with and respect (we did). What I learned at DCS was far more that designing metal boxes. I learned many life lessons from 3 guys that let me help raise their child company made up of people. Although I can not move back to HB, if the guys buy back DCS, I promise to return my Koh-I-Noor.