My job search had taught me several things—never tell anyone that you wrote a book that has no policy recommendations, don’t be destroyed by rejections, and most of all this: Understand that that you need to develop a skill set that someone will pay you money to put to use. I had a lot of education, true. Davidson was–and is even more so now–an excellent school with a great reputation. But a liberal arts degree in history (my major) or English (my minor) maybe will count for something if you want to be college professor, for which a PhD is also essential, and which I had absolutely no interest in; but in the workaday world, having a liberal arts degree in history does not get you very far. Plus, the MDiv I got from Union was clearly a liability. Many people were highly suspect, thinking I might be one of those Jesus freaks, holier than thou types, or even worse, a bleeding heart, or a goody-goody. A master’s degree in city planning you would think might help my job search, but few people really knew what city planners did, and most of the jobs were in city planning agencies. Having worked for the New York Department of City Planning, I knew a public agency job was not for me. In other words, I was doomed.
Now it is not true that a college degree is totally useless. You must have one if you want a law or medical or business school graduate degree. You can use it to get an entry level position in many businesses, large corporations, and government agencies with their own training and career tracks. However, I had no desire to work for a business, or a large corporation. My father’s and grandfather’s career of banking was definitely out, after I had talked with the guy who at that time was president of the bank where my father worked. What counted most to him were passion for banking, drive, and ambition—traits sadly lacking in me. And I had already ruled out law and medicine. So, I was in desperate need of a way out of the mess that I found myself in. Help!
Then along came the Gladstone Associates job, which probably I would not have gotten were in not for the fact that Bob Gladstone, the firm’s founder, was a Carolina planning school grad. And why do I call it hitting the jackpot? Because the firm did stuff that people were willing to pay for. Finally, if I realized that if I could just learn what that stuff was and learn how to do it, I might have a shot at a decent career. I am talking about doing mundane stuff like market studies, financial feasibility studies, the mechanics of real estate development and real estate financing. Market research and feasibility work are not the same as nuclear physics or rocket science or for that matter, systematic theology. These skills that Gladstone Associates offered clients were not all that hard to learn. And surprisingly, I found that I was pretty good at it and that I loved doing the work. Developers with site control of a property would come to Gladstone and we would tell them what to build, how much it would cost, the seed money they would need to pull it off, assess the risk, and–what they all were really looking for—give them an idea of how much money they would make– in other words the “keys to the kingdom!” And at Gladstone Associates, you could get help if you were a single family developer, a multi-family developer, or wanted to build a shopping center, an office building, industrial park, convention center, arena, or a senior living community. In fact, just about anything. It turns out people pay big bucks to help them get going on these projects, and many lenders require the studies before they will lend money. Bingo! I had hit jackpot. At last, a foothold and chance to make something of myself! A much needed break for a poor soul for whom making “definitive policy recommendations” was a heavy lift.
And the other surprise was that I really liked the people who were my fellow workers. The firm probably had between 40 and 50 employees, many of whom had city planning degrees or MBAs, and while there are always a few jerks, I found that I respected and genuinely liked most of the people I worked with. In those days most of the higher ups were men, but women were beginning to make inroads. One guy became a lifelong best friend.
Two other very important things happened when I was working at Gladstone Associates. The first was that along with a couple of my coworkers I began the discipline of long distance running, which became an important part of my routine and my self worth for over 30 years until my knees wore out in my late 50s. Along with two or three officemates at Gladstone I would run between three and four miles, three or four times a week, mostly during our lunch period, changing and showering in the nearby YMCA. I would run longer distances on weekends. As a polio victim, while there was not a lot that I could do physically, running was something I could do, and it contributed to my sense of self-worth and my self-identity.
The second important thing was my introduction to sailing, which also became a life-long passion. For $600 another Gladstone friend and I bought from our Gladstone running partner an old, beat-up, 16-foot racing dinghy called a 505, the first of seven sailboats that Embry and I would own over the next 40 years until we sold our last boat a few years ago when I turned 80. The 505 sadly sunk in the Potomac River on the Fourth of July 1974, and I was in the polluted water for over three hours before I was rescued by the DC marine police an hour before the fireworks were to start. But that is a story to be told later.
While I attribute my experience at Gladstone Associates as a major turning point in my life, I was a short timer. In just a little over two and a half years, another opportunity turned up, which also fits into the category of a life changer. My guardian angel stepped in again. That will be the subject of the next post.