Dear business and industry friends, thanks for joining us for our June/July issue of BIC Magazine — your Business & Industry Connection. Since our last issue of BIC Magazine many of us have crossed paths at our 30th anniversary and industry appreciation days in Texas or Louisiana; the AFPM Reliability & Maintenance Conference in San Antonio; the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston; the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Conference in Austin, Texas; the Region VI VPPPA Annual Safety & Health Conference in Little Rock, Ark.; the Tickfaw 200 in Springfield, La., or even the Keels & Wheels show in Seabrook, Texas.
I’m mentioning these events because trade shows and conferences, networking and community service are as much a part of our daily activities in the energy and industrial sector as the time we spend on a drilling rig or in a refinery or chemical plant. By now, most of you who read BIC regularly or have attended our Alligator Management, Marketing & Sales seminar know we define networking as getting together to get ahead. Because our mission at BIC Alliance is to connect who’s who in business and industry with each other and our BIC Alliance marketing partners for the betterment of all, we not only publish BIC Magazine, we also host and/or attend more than 40 trade shows, conferences and events annually. We also try to regularly provide information in BIC Magazine and make personal introductions that can help our friends, marketing partners and readers both at home and in the workplace. In fact, many of the life lessons or “Earl’s Pearls” we share in BIC apply at work, at home and in your community.
One of the greatest life lessons I have ever learned is the importance of recognizing others. One of my favorite books is “How To Be People Smart,” written by Les Giblin in 1979. The principles taught in this book are so basic anyone can master them, and by doing so we can drastically improve our career, personal life and our social life. Better yet, the “People Secret” can make life more enjoyable for everyone we meet and for ourselves.
Notice I mentioned making life more enjoyable for others can and will make life more enjoyable for us. It is important to remember our success and well-being are not based upon our intelligence, our education or our physical or material assets but “how effective we are with people.” Recently, in a marketing and sales training session, one of our marketing partners asked me what was the most important “Earl’s Pearl” I had ever learned and this was my answer — make God, family and others No. 1!
In short, the People Secret is to make others No. 1 and they will tend to respond in kind. But how do we practice the People Secret so it becomes part of our DNA? Well, that is very simple. I recommend three tips — listening, make three referrals a day and say at least one nice thing to three different people you know and don’t know every day!
First, we need to learn how to listen. We wrote a book titled “Michael Learns To Listen” that explains the process like this:
Looking at the person.
Interpreting what they are saying.
Staying alert by asking questions.
Thinking before responding.
Encouraging them to tell you more.
NEVER interrupt.
Once you begin practicing listening at home and at work, making referrals every day and saying nice things to loved ones and others who aren’t expecting it, amazing things will happen. Among the things that will happen are more friends, better friends, more recognition, more income, more prestige, more promotions, more job security and more satisfaction just to name a few. Also, on the less side, you will have less fear, less worry and a lot less to complain about.
Now let’s take a look at some of the exciting and interesting articles we can learn from in this issue. We feature interviews with Melinda Whitney, president, International Liquid Terminals Association; Todd Monette, refinery manager, Houston Refining LP, LyondellBasell; Daniel Van Wyk, CEO, Quadro Solutions Inc.; Kevin Taylor, senior vice president of Engineering & Construction, NAES Corp.; and Frank Maupay, Houston director of operations, Linde Engineering North America Inc.
We also bring you the latest on topics important to you including crane certification, U.S. shale plays, rail developments, turnaround scheduling, continuous improvement and more. You will also find in this and every issue of BIC at least 200 recognizable faces in photos as we endeavor in each issue to both recognize our friends in industry and promote networking. Also, we salute Express Energy Services for making their H2S safety film “Left Undone” available to industry (see pg. 142 for more information).
Before closing, I want to be sure to recognize a few folks among the tens of thousands who helped make BIC Alliance a success over the years. Recently, in Texas and Louisiana, we held BIC Alliance 30th anniversary and industry appreciation events to thank our staff, marketing partners, readers and suppliers who help make BIC Alliance a success. Among our 800-plus guests in Texas and 300-plus in Louisiana were Herb Olson (and his wife Hildred) who I worked for at Ethyl Corp. from 1965 to 1980. Herb, his counterpart Quinton Hall and our plant manager Merlin Keonecke were among the management team that promoted and taught me the People Secret decades ago.
Also at the event were R.L. Sonny Anderson, Bobby Davis, Big Ernie Hernandez and David Starkey who helped us survive in the early days with their financial support and encouragement. In addition to these folks and hundreds of others, we were also joined by my wife Bodi and daughter Dane and my son-in-law and partners Thomas Brinsko and our managers who have been with us 10 years or more.
Have a great summer, be safe, enjoy time with your family and remember to practice the People Secret.
earlheard@bicalliance.com
