Welcome to this week's Intangible Balance Sheet! Today Sam Smolik joins us and shares his life stories growing up in Texas and a successful career with companies such as Dow and Shell. Find out more about how he is investing some of his Intangible Balance Sheet through writing about his leadership experiences in his book entitled "The Daily Pursuit of Excellence." Listen in and enjoy!
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JOSH KLOOZ, CFP®, MBA
WEALTH ADVISOR
Phone 281.719.0036
Text 281.699.8691
Fax 281.719.0156
jklooz@carsonwealth.com
1780 Hughes Landing | Suite 570
The Woodlands, TX 77380
Music by bensound.com
Welcome to this week's Intangible Balance Sheet! Today Sam Smolik joins us and shares his life stories growing up in Texas and a successful career with companies such as Dow and Shell. Find out more about how he is investing some of his Intangible Balance Sheet through writing about his leadership experiences in his book entitled "The Daily Pursuit of Excellence." Listen in and enjoy!
Music by bensound.com
Please check out and subscribe to my Youtube Channel and Newsletter!
JOSH KLOOZ, CFP®, MBA
WEALTH ADVISOR
Phone 281.719.0036
Text 281.699.8691
Fax 281.719.0156
jklooz@carsonwealth.com
1780 Hughes Landing | Suite 570
The Woodlands, TX 77380
Music by bensound.com
Joshua Klooz 0:01
most people are aware of their own financial balance sheet. As soon as we buy our first car or house, we become aware of it. If you're of a certain personality type, you may track it quite a bit. But I'd submit to you that we're also unconsciously aware of another balance sheet. And this one is sometimes tricky to measure and even harder to manage. Sometimes we often find it hard to put into words, but it's real nonetheless. I call this our intangible balance sheet. What I mean by this are those life principles, experiences, memories and stories that given any amount of money, we wouldn't drain. They're the memories that bring tears of joy to our faces, because we simply can't imagine life without them. We feel fortunate to have had them. It could be our first jobs, proposals, wedding days, burrs, struggles, anxieties, or fears, and maybe even some hindsight. It's all those things that melt into a memory that bring a distance stare to our face, and maybe even a smile. We feel lucky to have had them because they're what has made us us. So that's what I'm talking about when I talk about the intangible balance sheet. It's those moments in life that may be financially irrational, but which are indispensable parts of who we are. So, these episodes are focused on the stories that bring us joy, happiness, fulfillment, and ultimately may hold unnecessary keys that will direct the future for our family, friends, and maybe even neighbors. So listen in with us as we discover some of those stories that are meaningful to our guests. And maybe you'll even uncover hidden value on your own intangible balance sheet.
Welcome to the wisdom and wealth podcast. This is Josh Klooz, your host and the senior wealth planner for Carson wealth here in The Woodlands, Texas. This is an intangible balance sheet episode for our weekend edition. And I'm joined today by Sam small ik, and he is going to share more about his story. But without further to do. Sam, welcome to the podcast. And thank you so much for joining us.
Sam Smolik 2:09
Hey, Josh, thanks, thanks a lot, it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Joshua Klooz 2:13
Indeed. So Sam, you know, for those listeners that need to, you know, just kind of a level setting introduction. These podcasts are designed to revolve around those principles that we want to pass on to the next generation that that will outlive us far longer than anything else on our tangible balance sheet, you know, ie the the intangible balance sheet name. So, you know, before we dive in, would you mind giving us a better idea of your upbringing and where you started in life and, you know, what your, your upbringing community was, was all about.
Sam Smolik 2:52
Also, you want to go back to the very beginning, but the stone age's. Yeah, well, I I grew up in a very small town called New Gulf, Texas. It's, if you head south of Houston, Southwest on highway 59, there was a company called Texas Gulf sulfur. It was the largest sulfur mine in the world. And my father worked for that company. And I grew up there with my five sisters. And it was a great little town. The company shut down in the mid 90s. And so the the town essentially went away. But that was a great place to live. And then I went on to the University of Texas, where I got a chemical engineering degree, and then started my career working for Dow Chemical down in Freeport, Texas.
Joshua Klooz 3:44
So, smaller community, I too, grew up in a very rural area. What was the what did the population sign read on the way into town?
Sam Smolik 3:54
We had about, I'd say 800 to 1000 people. It was a private town. It was the last last company town in Texas, where the company owned all the houses. And so you rent the houses from from the company. You know, the sheriff and the local police didn't come in the the company patrolling police the town, you know, so we were kind of secluded, and as teenagers it was pretty good. We enjoyed ourselves.
Joshua Klooz 4:31
My next question I gotta ask is Did you have a stoplight or a stop sign or a four way stop in town with your
Sam Smolik 4:38
stoplights? no stoplights. And you know, I don't even think we had Well, I think we had one stop sign. Everyone knew the right of way when you went through town. And it just seemed to work. Yep. And you know, the company was a great time. opened, it took care of the people, it sponsored Little League and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and, and all the activities. So we had everything we needed to really, it was a great place to grow up.
Joshua Klooz 5:13
As you look back at that area, do you remember? What were the overarching beliefs of your parents that that you think shaped you from even an early age? Do you remember anything in particular?
Sam Smolik 5:25
Well, I tell you that we had a great group of parents. My dad coached Little League, oh, the whole time, he did a lot with scouts. And I was in Boy Scouts and was fortunate to get my Eagle. So the company, once again, was very supportive and funded. All of these activities, I think we had a culture of giving and participation. Everybody knew everybody. You know, we had a nine hole golf course. And there was a man by the name of Harry Norrell who loved working with kids. And so we had a youth golf organization called the divet. Diggers. And, you know, he would bring in pros and teach us and we would work and raise money to pay for this. And, you know, we probably had 30 or 40. Kids that at all times that were learning and playing golf. And then our high school, the A and B team won district about 30 years in a row that he was, he was teaching these kids. So I mean, it was just great that that was kind of the atmosphere that we grew up in one of parents really getting involved in their children's activities and knowing your neighbors. And, you know, most parents would say, Look, if my, if my son or daughter gets in trouble at your house, you go ahead and do whatever you need to do. And then I'm going to do more on when you get back.
Joshua Klooz 6:55
So it did take a village, unfortunately, if you were in trouble, right, so. So when you think back to those those, your community growing up, what was your first memory of work, if you don't want to ask and like when you finally it clicked in your head, like, hey, you know, I'm gonna go work for somebody and earn money and or someone depends on me. Well,
Sam Smolik 7:25
I think that was part of the value of where we grew up, because everybody was kind of in the same economic situation. I mean, we weren't dirt poor, but we didn't have extra money either. So everybody, all the kids had to raise their own money. So my earliest memory is picking cones. We had giant pecan trees around the whole town. And we'd pick pecans, and you'd pick a sack of pecans and take it to the store and sell them. You might get $8.57 I mean, that was cash money. It's such a great feeling of satisfaction. And the local store, put out circulars on all the houses of daily weekly specials. And we would battle to get a street. You know, so I had one or two streets and I think you got like five cents a day, a circular, you know, so there might be 50 houses on the street, you know, so you're not making a lot of money. And as we got older, we hauled hay. Every summer, we hauled 1000s of bales of hay. So yeah, we screw up with the work ethic. And I think that really paid off and it taught us the value of money. And, you know, to appreciate what you have.
Joshua Klooz 8:44
Yeah. When you thought about going off to college and thought about your career. Were there. Were there any shaping influences in that regard? That steered you a certain direction?
Sam Smolik 8:57
Yeah, I think my father probably shaped me the most. He he grew up in hallettsville, Texas, and he was he was really fast. They won state championship and hurdles. And he was a halfback on the football team. And so he went to got a scholarship to the junior college in Wharton. And then he played it. North Texas, University of North Texas. And so he was the first to go to college, and his family. And you know, so he had a decent job. When he graduated, he, he said, If he hadn't been blessed with speed, he would still be pumping gas back and hallettsville. And, and so I was I was really good at math and science. I mean, it just came natural to me. And so, counselors would say, well, you need to be an engineer, you know, and he saw the engineers in his company. And he encouraged me to be an engineer, and I didn't really know much about it. And, you know, so I went off to be a chemical engineer. So I think, maybe a downside of growing up For such a small communities, you don't see the bigger picture. I know people that grew up in big cities like Houston, and they, they were just so much more worldly than we were, you know, somebody said, You need to be an engineer, it's okay. I'll be an engineer. And, you know, worked out. Okay.
Joshua Klooz 10:20
Yeah. Now, when you thought about college, what what was your, you know, I look back on even some of the decisions I made when I chose a college and they were fairly simple, right? But what were some of the deciding factors that played into your decision?
Sam Smolik 10:37
Well, I, I, 's, as I think about it, here, when I start to do something up, I usually look at all my options. If I'm buying something, or whatever, and then then you narrow it down, and, and choose what you want, where you're going. So I looked at a lot of colleges and universities and, you know, send off applications and, and, but I got a scholarship to the University of Texas and actually had one to Texas a&m. But I think always liked the University of Texas, I just like the way that sound, it's the University of Texas. And, and it just felt right for me. And so that's why that's how I chose chose UT. To go. And I'm still active with University. I'm on the the Dean's engineering Advisory Council at the university. So I've stayed involved, ever since I graduated.
Joshua Klooz 11:39
Was there ever a time during your college career that you doubted? Your decision? To lean towards engineering at all? Was there ever a time where you like, I don't know if this is for me? Or was there was that just a natural progression? On through college?
Sam Smolik 11:53
I think everybody thinks about that. You know, I never seriously considered changing, although, you know, I think business would have been good. I've always thought that if I was an engineer, I might like to be a doctor.
There's a whole lot of things that, that you know, I like a lot of things, that's just the way I am. I'm a master of many and her you know, wavegirl Jack of all trades and master of none. And so, I you know, and it was going well, for me, I made great grades, graduate honors. So you know, once as long as it's going, okay, you know what change, and, and even later on in my career working out work for large companies, I guess you'll get into that later, but many times, I thought, wow, it sure like to run my own company, you know, start a company or something. But things were always going so well that, you know, what, though, out of everything that you've got, and and start over. So I've never really had the burning need need to make a change like that. So I guess to answer your question, you know, I went to university stayed with engineering, I had summer jobs, to complement my engineering work for Atlantic Richfield, or work for Exxon, you know, so it was a just a continuing continuum as continued through school.
Joshua Klooz 13:23
And, you know, you then left left college and what came next, like what were some of the, what was next on the path that
Sam Smolik 13:32
well gee, okay, so then then I went through the same process. So I graduated from college and in 1975, and the economy was booming at that time. So everybody was hiring. And, you know, in my natural state, I think I've interviewed with 32 companies a while on campus, okay. Engineering Construction companies, Procter and Gamble, you know, food companies, chemical companies, oil companies. And, and I had in what they would do back then they would offer you a plant trip to come to the plant for more interviews, and then then you would choose your job. So I think out of my 32 interviews, I had 31 plant drop offers. And out of that, I went on 11 plant trips to different kinds of companies up you know, Procter and Gamble, they made Crisco and, and Ivory soap, you know, so that's the products I would have been making. And I'd worked for Exxon, Exxon really wanted me to go to work. They were probably the best recruiter best in class recruiter. And, but at that time, there was an oil shortage. And, you know, there was a lot of discussion about you know, most of the oil Oil will end up going in Downstream Products and Chemicals. And so that's why I chose Dow Chemical to go to work for plus, it was about an hour away from where I grew up. And we have a very close family. And that was appealing to me because I interviewed out in California and I interviewed in Florida. But I guess a combination of location from a family point of view, and and then the business that I thought was going to be around for a long time. And that's why I chose chose Dow Chemical.
Joshua Klooz 15:36
As you look back on those those first years, like what are there any any mistakes that you remember making that were gifts in disguise? For lack of a better analogy?
Sam Smolik 15:48
Well, I, you know, one thing we didn't say Josh has written a book, let me talk about this book is called The Daily pursuit of excellence. Yep, the daily daily pursuit of excellence. And I just published it a couple of months ago. And, and what it is, is, I looked back over my career, so you know, about 45 years, 47 years since I graduated, and I made many, many mistakes along the way, a lot of lessons learned. And so after I retired, and when COVID came along, I had a little extra time on my hands. And so I said, I'm gonna write a book, I'm gonna capture my learnings, and pass it on to two people, so they can benefit from it, and not have to repeat all the same mistakes that I made, and the trial and error. And so that's what I've done, I wrote this book, so everybody listening to this needs to go order it on Amazon, the daily pursuit of excellence. So just to an end, I kind of go through talking about, you know, your own self about integrity and credibility, and then on about leadership, and, and creating a culture of excellence. But to answer your question. Probably one of the first mistakes I started off in, in research and development. Okay, so we were developing and improving process technology in the chemical industry. And so we would build small pilot plants to run tests, to test our theories, and then prove technology, which then we would transfer into manufacturing. And a lot of times these, these units were very small, they were made tubing. And so I had a contractor that was assigned to me, and this one unit that that I designed. And he built it, and then we operated, it was very successful. And we were inside one time talking about various projects. And I started talking about the pilot plant that I built. And he was in there. And he said, Sam, I don't remember you having any wrenches in your hand and building that thing. I built it, you know, and, and he was right. And so I thought about it, and I said, you know, we, we built it, you know, in fact, I didn't design it by myself, I had help from my supervisors, because I was a one or two year guy. And so there's very few things in life that you do by yourself. And so I learned early on, you know, say we, this is what we did, you know, now if it's a problem and something went wrong, then take ownership, you know, I was wrong, I could have done better, but if there's credit you know, pass it around. So that's one lesson I talked about in the book and you know, you just learn these things as you go along. And and I've seen a lot of younger people graduate and come to work and you know, I did this and this is my plant and what counseling say Don't say it like that, you know, give other people credit it's very important.
Joshua Klooz 19:13
Absolutely. So it's funny I very similar but I had received some some feedback similar to that along the way as well and it is changing to just the way you view almost everything from that point forward and it's it's awesome that you that just the way that you frame that I love it as you think through are there are there any people that you had the privilege of working with during those those years that you look back on and in you still you know think of a well that's who I learned that from or who that's who I learned that principle from are there is there anybody in your your principal call it your principal tree or daily life? Lesson three,
Sam Smolik 20:01
you know, I had so many great supervisors and people that I worked with my, my first supervisors were Dexter, white, and outs and Martin, in research. I mean, they were great. They taught me a lot. And then as I moved on, I moved out of research into manufacturing. And I had great bosses along the way. And, and, you know, one thing I talk about, and in my book is, is, we were always taught to do things the right way, you know, follow the law. You know, be safe, safety was always a top top priority in our company. And at one point along in my career, I became the the environmental manager at the Texas operations down in Freeport, and we had about 5000 employees there, and about 90 production units, and it's the largest in the country. So I was the environmental manager. And very quickly, I found out that we had an a very old plant to produce magnesium, which is a very light metal in the plant was built during World War Two, in about six months, they built it in order to get metal for aircraft in the war effort. And so BPA came along in the 70s. And initially, they came out some very stringent rules that most companies couldn't comply with. And so it was a growing experience for companies and the agencies to get in compliance. But this was the, I guess, the early 90s. And by then, for legal compliance was expected. Well, I found out very quickly that the magnesium plant was out of compliance in a lot of things. I mean, it just was impossible, it was so old, that there's no way you could you could meet it with with the today's standards. And so as a first time in my career, and I'd been working already, for 20 years, first time in my career that we were operating out of compliance with the law. And so my predecessor in the jobs told me, you have to manage risk, you have to determine which things to do and which things to let slide. Well, I wasn't comfortable with that. And so I went to, there was a group of four individuals called the Texas operating board. And, and I didn't want to get them in trouble or, you know, pull them in to any thing that they shouldn't be in. So I just said, Look, you just put me on this job. What if I come across some major areas of legal non compliance? You know, should I manage the risk? And kind of look the other way? And use common sense or? Or how do you guys want to approach it? And every one of them said, we expect full legal compliance. They didn't. I mean, that was so gratifying to me. It did reaffirm my belief in the company,
Joshua Klooz 23:17
Gee, I wonder what you would have done if they would have said that the opposite.
Sam Smolik 23:22
I would have quit. Yeah, I would have bought somewhere else, because it just was so so against ethics, and integrity. So but they didn't waver a bit. So we went out and, and, and started identifying what was wrong with the magnesium plant, what it was going to cost to get in legal compliance. And we actually shut down that that plant within the next year and a half, you know, because it, it was the right thing to do. But my predecessor thought he was doing the right thing. Yeah, thought he was managing risk. And many, many times I found out that people down in an organization, there's a disconnect between what they think is right, and what top leadership really wants in a company. And so, you know, I was never in my entire career asked to do anything illegal, unethical. I'm very proud of that. And, you know, so that, that was a lesson learned is that you have to you have to be true to your values. And, and don't be afraid to speak up.
Joshua Klooz 24:29
Absolutely. So, you know, there's that experience of of having to step in and make it a tough call. Was there ever a time that you remember being given a challenge that you just, hey, this is a monumental rock that we've got got to move and I'm not sure whether we can we can get it done in the in the time allowed. Any other like, I guess a successful story, but but a challenge baked in as well, especially in those early years.
Sam Smolik 25:01
Well, everything was a challenge, but I'm eternally optimistic and persistent. Okay, I don't give up. And, and so everything I was ever given to do you know, instead of trying to figure out what's wrong, and why can't you do it, I would try to work with people to say, you know, how are we going to make this happen? And I guess the biggest challenge was in the year 2000. So after I've been working for 25 years, now, management contacted me. And I was running plants, I was in manufacturing. And they contacted me said, We would like you to be the global vice president for environment, health, safety and sustainable development for the company, globally. And first, I said, Who did I make my management job? And they said, Oh, no, no, do that. And, you know, and then maybe come back into manufacturing and you know, a bit, eventually run manufacturing or who knows what. So I took the job. And instead of having responsibility to make a product, which I had been doing, now, my job was to drive safety improvement, environmental performance improvement, at 400 locations around the world. Okay, so you look at that and say, Hmm, that's a challenge.
Joshua Klooz 26:33
And was that your first time being remote from your entire team? Or had you had multiple, multiple locations where you could? remotely,
Sam Smolik 26:42
manager of Dell, process engineering and Europe? For a few years, we lived in the Netherlands. And so I had people remote there, but this was truly the most remote. Yeah. And, you know, when it comes to safety, performance, and reliability and quality, there's such a strong human behavior aspect of it. Okay, so at the end of the day, most of the job is about influencing behavior, and how do you get people to perform to the expectations that you've set? And so that was a huge challenge. And, you know, I'm glad to say we were very successful. And, again, I take all the things that we learned, and I put them in the book for people that they can take it and run with it.
Joshua Klooz 27:37
Absolutely. So I imagine you're governed by total incident reports and things of that nature. What were some of the other lead indicators that you all use to help? You know, kind of show yourself leading indicators of hey, we're influencing behavior? Because that's so difficult.
Sam Smolik 27:56
Well, of course, you had your your lagging indicators of injury rate, OSHA recordable rate, environmental would be a waste generation emissions, process safety incidents, you know, if you have a fire or gas release, or whatever, it's so there's plenty of lagging indicators. On the leading side, you have certain things have you been trained properly? Do you have are the requirements, very clear that clear expectations? We had, of course, near misses, people report near misses, but what we, what I think was even more effective was high potential incidents. So if, if you think about, say, human nature or not human, just the world we were, it's a small chance we get hurt if something happens. So for example, if you're standing beside a building, and somebody dropped something off the building, there's a lot of space around you. So you're most likely not going to get hit by that item. But there's a small chance you might, okay, so we developed something called a high potential incident. So that if there was something that happened and incident, and no harm was done, but it could have been very serious, then we tackled it as if the worst thing happened. And that was very proactive, to help us identify what's happening, and then what corrective actions do we need to take? And of course, auditing, you know, auditing your facilities and what's going on is proactive. self assessments. You know, we'd like to divide and conquer, put different people in charge of different requirements and processes and have a continual check to make sure things are being done the right way. And so there's just a whole lot of tips and techniques that we found to work along the way.
Joshua Klooz 30:00
Were there any difficulties that you uncovered within that, that challenge that you hadn't anticipated or, or any things particular to that particular phase of life that that was formative?
Sam Smolik 30:17
Well, you know, culture, culture is so important. Peter, come drawn a blank on the name. But you might have heard before that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Peter Drucker said, Thanks, he, you know, people don't understand what that means. What it means is that you can have a strategy, it doesn't matter what you have, you can be running a restaurant, you can have a hotel, a small business, you know, your wealth management organization, you can say, look, here's what we expect, from our employees, here's how we want to treat our customers. Right, clear expectations, but then that's not worth anything, if you don't have a culture, where people really live limit, and meet those expectations. And I talk a lot about that in my book is that you have to have a management system to make expectations very clear. And then you have to develop a culture where the culture matches your expectations. So if you've got the culture, right, then it's then you have a real chance to be successful. And so in a global organization, I mean, we have plants in China and Thailand, and Africa, and, you know, South America, Europe, everywhere around the world. And so you have different cultures, but you're trying to get a, a consistent company culture that blends in well with the local culture. And so it was very gratifying to, to figure out how to do that, you know, to keep it simple enough, where it's understandable. And then when I would visit plants around the world to see them living the culture was terrific. And especially once they got so engrained, they would tell me, here's how we do things. That's the whole this is good.
Joshua Klooz 32:24
And, again, like it's those principles that drive that culture, are trends, so transformational that they should cross cross cultures very, very readily, right. But it's, you're always nervous, I would imagine in how they'll be applied, or rather, they'll be understood and then lived out. In different scenario, what
Sam Smolik 32:47
you have to do, you have to, you know, it's a continuous improvement process, Plan, Do Check Act, right? You might communicate something, but then you have to check for understanding, you have to go out and get out in the workplace. And is it working or not? You know, sometimes you didn't explain it well, or you didn't design it properly. You know, that always tell a story about restaurants. Okay, so, Josh, you probably have restaurants that that you've been to before. They're good. You know, and you might go back, but you might go somewhere else, right? I bet you've been to a bad restaurant where you say, I'm never going there again. Right. And that's the kind of restaurant people tell others about, you know, don't go there. This is no good. And then there's the great restaurant, to where you go on there. And the food is perfect. Every time the service is perfect. It's, you know, the place is clean, it's attract, everything is right. And you have to make reservations way ahead of time you have to maybe the price is higher, but you stand in line to go there and you tell others about that. Okay, so if you're running a business, you have a choice, you know, do we want to be good? No one wants to be bad. But do you want to be good? Or do you want to be great? Yeah, you know, and to be great, then that's what I wrote the book about the daily pursuit of excellence. If you really want to be great. There's a lot of things. It's not simple. And there's a lot of details that you have to do right every day. But it's doable. And it takes leadership and it takes good people. And it takes a good management system. And then most important, you have to have the right culture. And if you have those four things, you have a chance to be great.
Joshua Klooz 34:43
Absolutely. As we is you think about you know, the one of the one of the themes that we pursue in the, in this podcast for the course of it is is the idea of happiness. Right. And one of one of the the parts of that happiness comes from personal excellence or having meaningful work. The idea that what you're doing matters that you're part of a team that depends on you. And the idea comes from from a guy by the name of Arthur Brooks, and he turns at the happiness portfolio, I don't know if he came up with that on his own, or whether someone else gifted that to him. But he talks about how you know, part of our happiness in, in our human experience comes from our genetics, some of it comes from big life events. But to your point, some of it comes from our habits, a smaller portion, but the part that we can influence comes from our daily habits. And then, within those habits, he has four facets of that portfolio. So the first would be our faith. The second would be our family. The third would be our community, or our neighbors, friends, friends, neighbors, things within that kind of friendship, context. And then meaningful work. As you move you move quite a bit. I'm imagining you transitioned from several different teams. Yep. How were you able to keep that portfolio in balance? Anything you'd be willing to share in regard to that?
Sam Smolik 36:17
Well, I thought you were going to give away my seven F.
Joshua Klooz 36:21
No, no, absolutely not.
Sam Smolik 36:24
Talk about, you know, people talk about work life balance. And I don't like to talk about it that way. Because work is a part of your life. You know, I just talked about life balance, you need to maintain balance in your life. And so I go by the seven F's, I taught everybody who worked for me for many, many years. And it's faith, family, friends, okay, faith, family, friends, finance, fitness, future focus, and fun. Okay, both family friends, finance, fitness, future focus, and fun. And the theory is, if you, you know, at any given time, you're going to shortchange some of them. Okay, so let's say, work is very demanding, and you're there was taken away from your family, and your friends and whatever, you know, that's going to happen, but you don't want it to go on very long. If you neglect any of those seven, for very long, then you're headed for trouble. You know, so, you know, faith, and we all know how important that is. Family. That's that's important fitness, you know, what you eat? And are you getting enough sleep? It's, it's extremely critical. Are you staying in shape? Do you exercise? Future Focus? You know, where are you headed? What are you planning, if you just drift day to day, you'll end up somewhere, you know, but everybody needs to set their goals and objectives. You know, so they don't look back and say, My wish I had done things differently. You know, I've never wished that and always, always know what it is I'm trying to achieve. And go in that direction. And fun. You know, work is don't take work too serious. You know, you can have fun in the workplace. We did. We did a lot of thing. One time I was dealing with I'd moved to a new site. And there were union problems. Okay, the relationships had been really bad. And so I knew that we needed to build those relationships. And so we're meeting with the union, and the safety record had had suffered, or prior to the time I got there. And so I was talking to him about you know, eliminating injuries and incidents. And so then I said, and this was the this was the maintenance unions. And so I said, I'll tell you what do you thought guys thank you can work all summer, June, July and August without getting hurt? And they said, Oh, that's that'd be impossible. You know, there's gonna be some injuries because you know, might have been 1000 workers or so. And so finally, we talked about a back and forth I said, Tell you what, let's have a contest. Each month. If you work injury free, then the site management team will wash the union leaders vehicles. Go to the fire barn and wash your trucks and and they say, Oh, this is great. I said but if you have an injury, you wash our cars. Okay, you're madly. We have a talent out there. Okay. So they looked at each other and said, Okay, we'll take it on. And so in our in June, I remember that they went out there and they were talking about safety and you Nobody better get hurt. And we, and I was thinking this is great, it's accomplishing what I want. And, and in June that they didn't have an injury. And so we showed up over there, and they had lawn chairs out and I made cameras. And we washed their cart. Oh, they were so proud that management was washing their, their trucks, they all had trucks. Okay, so then July rolled around. And right near the end of the month, one of the pipe fitters cut his finger had some stitches, that's an OSHA recordable injury. So we showed up over there, they had to wash ours, well, they pulled out these paper sacks with eyes cut out and put that over their heads, they said, There's no way we want anybody to see washing your vehicles. You know, and then all gets there wasn't injury, so we wash their hands again, but in in the relationships got better, had good safety performance. We had fun. You know, it's just the, you know, fun is one of the seven F's and and it's very important, you got to have fun in your life.
Joshua Klooz 41:08
Absolutely. How have you found? Or what creative ways have you found to keep community and friendship alive? Even within our own practice here locally, we'll find that it's it's just difficult, you know, even research shows that we as men are predisposition to not be able to do that as well, maybe? Have you found any creative ways to stay in touch either with old friends or to cultivate your existing community and sense of community?
Sam Smolik 41:40
You're exactly right about that, I watch my wife and her friends. And I mean, they're talking on the phone every day, and they're, you know, they just naturally are that way. And my sisters, you know, I never claimed to understand women, but I've been around a long time with my five sisters, you know, and I've seen him and I just know, that they, they are more, communicate a lot more, and whatever. So my friends, I have a lot of really good friends. But you know, we don't call each other all the time. And, and I enjoy hunting and fishing and playing golf and doing activities. And so generally, you know, we'll get together for things like that. And, you know, so we try to, to do things with the closest friends, and we do a fairly good job of it, but never as much as I would like, you know, but I keep going back to the seven F so make sure that I take time for my family now that my sisters, they all have children and getting grandchildren. And so you know, as as people get their own families, it becomes more and more difficult. But we make a special point to get together and, and do things. So yeah, you hit on it's it's, you know, you hate to say men and women are different. But I think the women beat us a lot in that category. They're a lot better at it. Yeah.
Joshua Klooz 43:07
And it's the recurring themes that I've come across, in in different folks that we've had these conversations with is, and I think you touched on is that you have to be proactive. And then there's the activity pieces is key. And I even I probably use this too much. But even with my own dad, if I want to have a good conversation with my dad, we go work for a while. Right? But there's there has to be some type of an activity of some type, you know, otherwise, it's not like we're just going to sit down with let's have a great conversation. Yes, he'd look at me like, that's weird. But it's just the way it is.
Sam Smolik 43:43
Josh, you're exactly right. activities have have some kind of activity. That's the main main focus, and then you visit and associate along the way. That's, that's that's the key. Yeah.
Joshua Klooz 43:54
So you had mentioned the seven F's. Are there specific principles as you think of, you know, those principles that will outlive you? You know, what, what are some of those that you're just like, hey, if nothing else, these are the things that I really hope, you know, are exemplified in my own life and that those that gum come after me carry on.
Sam Smolik 44:22
You may in in, in helping a company or myself or Yes, both. Okay. Well, so. So one one principle is simplicity. The power of simplicity, it's so important. When I talk about a management system, so every company I don't care a large you're small, if you have five employees, you have to have clear expectations for what what you want done. So there might be some procedures on how to do certain tasks or some some simple processes for how you do it because every time you do something you don't want to reinvent the wheel. You know, and especially as you get larger, and it's either a large location or multiple locations, you want to standardize on the critical few activities. Well, most technical people put in too much detail. You know, so in large companies, a lot of times you'll have safety standards for different activities, and they might be 50 pages long. Okay, when nobody is going to read that, they don't have time to read it. You know. And so I learned, go back to experience shell, when I went to shell, we had 20,000 trucks on the road globally, every day, delivering gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, whatever, think about 20,000 trucks. And so you can imagine the risk on the roads that we had just from that exposure. And so we had a number of accidents, and, you know, serious accidents, fatalities when I got there. And so I knew that, hey, we need to really change our behavior in this area. And so I wanted a safe driving safety standard, that every driver that we had, would read and understand. So I assigned it to the some of those safety professionals and the transportation professionals. And they brought back this 56 page document talked about your tires have to have this specification in your windshield wipers have to have this and all this detail. And I said, this is not going to change behavior. You know, so I'll send it back. And they came back and it was like 20 page or 25, I said, this is still too long. And then finally, one of the guys said, Sam, I think I have it, you want the 10 commandments, not the Bible. I want the 10 commandments, I want something that they will remember, you have to have a driver's license, you have to have a plan of where you're going. So you're not looking at a map halfway, you know, while you're driving, and get distracted. And so they finally came back with a very simple standard that says, Look, every driver must do these few things. And, and then we communicate it, you know, you have to then get the word out, and you have to reinforce it and hold people accountable. And our safety performance dramatically improved. So that was my learning point that all of our requirements and procedures in Shell and if I look back at Dow were too complicated. And when I got to LyondellBasell, my last company, they were too complicated, and we rewrote every standard. And we greatly reduced the requirements. And so I think that's a lesson that's very important for everybody is the power of simplicity. It's there's a good book by oh, gosh, came up sorry, I can't remember the name of the books called simplicity. It's a good book, after you read my book, The Daily pursuit of excellence, then read simplicity. So that that that was a good lesson, and then also writing style. So we taught people how to write in clear manners. And there's something called the flesh factor. So have you ever read a, you buy a television or some type of electronic device and you get the manual, and you just can't understand it, you read that thing, you have to underline words, and you have to make some notes and just to try to figure out, what are they trying to say, you know, some engineer wrote that. And, you know, but they're not getting the message across. So we taught people how to write in super clear understandability. And, and you can use as a flesh measurement that's actually on Microsoft Word. And most software programs have it where you can grade a document, and it'll give you the complexity, you know, is it is it Wall Street Journal complexity, or is it USA Today? Or is it comic book? You know, or is it a IRS publication? There's a wide range. And most people if you write something about an eighth or ninth grade level, that will become a lot more clear, and people are more likely to understand it and follow it. You know, so there's just some principles like that, that I think are very important if people want to be effective at at influencing people in the road, getting the right kind of behaviors. Oh, people.
Joshua Klooz 49:51
Absolutely. was Sam, thank you so much for your time today. This has been so informative in such a treat. And again, for those that are interested in purchasing your book, it is available in on Amazon on Amazon. Okay.
Sam Smolik 50:09
Amazon, we have hard hardback paperback and Kindle version, and I've been encouraged to use my Texas accent and, and do an audio but I haven't made that step yet.
Joshua Klooz 50:22
You have an excellent speaking voice. So I can imagine that that would be the something that you should probably consider. But again, it is. It is weird, it is weird sensation having to edit your own voice. I'll let you know. So is that that's always something that I look back and I'm like, I don't know if I can do it. So I'm with you in that part. But thank you again for your time in sharing with us. It's been a pleasure, and we look forward to speaking with you again, hopefully at some point in the future.
Sam Smolik 50:55
Okay, Josh, thank you very much the daily pursuit of excellence available on Amazon. Thank you.
Joshua Klooz 51:03
Thank you again for joining us for this week's conversation. We trust that your time has left you both enriched and inspired to better invest your own intangible balance sheet. As always, we wish you and your family continued truth, beauty and goodness on the road ahead. The opinions voiced in the wisdom and wealth podcast for Josh clips are for general information purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. investing involves risk including possible loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. Guests are not affiliated with Carson Wealth Management LLC. To determine what may be appropriate for you. Please consult with your attorney, accountant, financial or tax advisor prior to investing. Investment Advisory services are offered through CWM LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. All right dress locally is 7080 US landing Boulevard Suite five Saturday for Woodlands, Texas 77380
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