What do you call the person that graduated from medical school at the bottom of his class?

You call him 'Doctor'.

Same holds true for the guy that barely passed his captain's license test. You call him 'Captain'.

I actually did quite well on my tests. I had to take a whole battery of tests and passed all of them with flying colors but because I never took a wheelhouse job and seldom used the license I am probably not particularly ready to run a tug. A ship is positively out of the question.

I would be comfortable running a 30 foot sailboat, though.

Still, the grades one gets on tests are no guarantee on how a person will produce. General U.S.Grant was a middle of the road student at West Point. He did quite well in the Civil War.

The only thing when all is said and done is how someone produces on the job. 

I work in an odd industry. I have seen King's Point Merchant Marine Academy grads replaced by high school dropouts and vice versa. It's all about the ability to do the job.

I mentioned this at a gathering of some sort and some woman (it's generally women that are astonished to hear things like this) said that replacing a college grad with a high school dropout was a foolish thing for a company to do.

"Not if the college grad's nickname is 'Captain Crunch'," I shot back. "The man has done over a million dollars in damages to several docks."

Of course she didn't understand but some people fail to understand much of life to begin with.

Of course in certain segments of the business world a degree is required as sort of an entry fee. That's a given. But when you think about it if a person with or without a degree gets in the door somehow and produces they will likely be promoted. 

Success gets a lot of other things overlooked.




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY