July 2008 Edition

straight talk

A word to the wise

Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet

By Stan Modic

Meet Roger J. Sustar. We met years ago, but mostly I know him through the e-mails he sends. Sustar owns Fredon Corp. in Mentor, OH. It’s a 65-person metalworking manufacturing shop. His claim to fame is machining complex castings to high tolerances for several markets, including aerospace, aircraft, defense, medical, and off-highway equipment.

He’s obviously been a busy man. Sustar started the firm with a partner in 1969 on a shoestring budget with a few old machines. He eventually bought out the partner and built it into a successful, respected operation. At 65, he is taking it a little easier, grooming a son and daughter to take over.

Sustar is a patriotic kind of a guy. He’s proud to be an American and proud to be a manufacturer. He gets involved in his industry. He wears his patriotism on his sleeve.

The metalworking industry continues to lament the shortage of skilled machinists. What makes Sustar unique in this business is that he is doing something about it. Sixteen years ago he instituted what he calls his "Canons of Freedom" program. He recruits eight high school students each year who come in on Saturdays to learn the trade. Upon graduation his goal is to offer one of them a job.

A type of insurance

"That’s how we insure our supply of new skilled employees," he tells me. Some 300 students have gone through the program. An employee who went through the first year of the program is currently the instructor.

Sustar is also working with 17 area companies to institute a degreed program in manufacturing at Lakeland Community College.

"Manufacturing in this country will not survive if we don’t do this," he says.

Sustar is proud to be a manufacturer. He feels it is the key to our economy, "and I want other people to know what we do." To that end, he looks for articles that promote manufacturing and e-mails them to some 100 colleagues in the industry and the media. I’m on his list.

Occasionally, he throws us a curve — a missile that is not self-serving to manufacturers but nonetheless carries a life message. Sometimes it backfires. The latest one picked up a speech attributed to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. He supposedly gave it a while back to a group of high schoolers. In fact, if you Google "Bill Gates Speeches" you’ll find it among the many speeches Gates has given.

Wrong! Gates didn’t give it. The list of "things kids won’t learn in school" has also been attributed to Kurt Vonnegut. Wrong again! In checking further, I found the web site of Snopes.com reports that the list was authored by Charles J. Sykes, who wrote the book "Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write or Add."

Don’t believe it

I didn’t read the book, so I can’t confirm if Snopes.com is right. The one thing Sustar and I both learned was don’t believe everything you see on the Internet. Even so, no matter who wrote it or how old it is, the thoughts are worth repeating. I agree with Sustar’s suggestion that "this should be published in every newspaper, magazine and publication in America." So here it is.

Words of wisdom for your kids:
 Life is not fair; get used to it … If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss … Learn from your mistakes… Few employers are interested in helping you find yourself.

Whoever he or she is, the author talked about "how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality" that has set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair; get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will not make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with a company car until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is rough, wait until you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping — they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it is not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes; learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents were not as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades, and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is not real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Rule 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you’re out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That’s what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "Expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule 13: You are not immortal (See Rule No. 12). If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven’t seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

If you are having a hard time getting a conversation going with your kids you might find a talking point here.

What do you think?
Will the information in this article increase efficiency or save time, money, or effort? Let us know by e-mail from our website at www.ToolingandProduction.com or e-mail the editor at dseeds@nelsonpub.com.