A lesson in management

I used to work for a man who was a self made millionaire. He was an immigrant from Iraq who came to the US in the seventies. He started life off living like a college student, sharing a house with a dozen other immigrants who pooled their money together to afford a decent life.

I met him 40 years after that, after he had made his first million, after he had "achieved the American dream." But he was never too proud to tell me how HE struggled, and how HE overcame obstacles. Not only was he poor, but he was a foreigner, and Arab at that (his words, not mine), he didn't know the language, and he had no friends or family to fall back on. But he still achieved success in a relatively short time.

He taught me many things, but there is one thing he said above all else that stands out in my mind. I worked for him as a manager of a gas station. It was owned, designed and financed by him, with his own money. He was so proud of it, and who wouldn't be?

He used to take me on "walks" around the store, where he would share his knowledge of business along with life lessons he's learned along the way. He would start by having casual conversation, asking about me, my family, etc. And as we talked, he would point out mistakes inside the store, "opportunities," he called them, to do better. 

One day he took me to the farthest corner of the store and he asked me "What is a manager's role?" 

That question was so hard to answer. I really didn't know, so I started guessing. I threw out answer after answer and he kept shaking his head and smiling, suggesting I try again. Finally, I gave up, and I asked him, "what is a manager's role?"

He asked if I had ever heard a piece of classical music, or if I had seen an orchestra perform live. Of course I have, everyone has heard a classical composition, and I've seen an orchestra play both in real life and on YouTube. 

Then he asked me if the orchestra played in sync, to which I said yes.

"And how do you suppose 100 people, playing 100 instruments, can all be on the same note at the same time?"

I didn't know. 

"The conductor," he said. "The conductor doesn't play an instrument at all, but the performance of the entire orchestra is dependent on the direction given by the conductor. No matter how talented the musicians. They follow the direction of the conductor. "

That was his answer.