Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (2-f) : サンノゼのシェアハウスの仲間たち（１）

In San Jose, I lived in the cheapest place I could find, the Roger Williams (R & W) House which was right on the campus of San Jose State and was owned by Grace Baptist Church. In that house I started out by sharing a room with another student on campus and gradually got my own room when one became available. The house was so old that it literally swayed in the wind. I think shortly after I moved out, the house was condemned and torn down. I met people in that house that impacted on me very greatly.

First there was David Koppel. He was from Mountain View, just up the San Francisco Peninsula heading north. He has a Jewish guy that loved to cook. He was one of the “Head Chefs” at R & W House. He specialized obviously in all the Jewish seasonal foods. He majored in environmental health, graduated, got a job in Ukiah, CA as a sanitation inspector for the county up there. He married a Christian girl from Grace Baptist Church who later converted to Judaism. They bought some land up there, and in the early years, they lived in a trailer that was parked on the property. Slowly, board-by-board, piece-by-piece, they built their own home, just the way they wanted it. After building the house, they started having children. I have visited them in Ukiah many times over the years with my family. Ukiah is in the California wine country. The famous county is Napa, but there are others as well. Theirs is Mendocino County which also has wine as a major industry in the area.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (2-e) : 学費、生活費・・・お金の問題を解決する。

またまた蒲田で飲み会。飲み会が目的か、セミナー開催に向けた打ち合わせが目的か、多分、両方。



さて、RonさんのLiife Storyの続き。

まずはお金の問題の解決から。学費ローンは、現在の米国の学生の問題の一つでもあります。

So, I decided to go out and get some kind of part-time job, which would keep me active and stabilize my finances. I got a job as a security guard at a refrigeration plant. You can’t get a more boring job than that! For insurance reasons and safety, this refrigeration facility needed security guards around the clock as a person from the local bar may wonder over to a freezer (which is the size of whole warehouses in which fork lifts can drive in and out of) walk in and freeze him to death. I had to walk around the facility once an hour and had to clock-in at various locations. It took about 15 minutes per hour. There was also a weigh scale there for truck to weigh their produce, as they brought produce into the storage areas. So, I weighed trucks the rest of the time. I worked from four o'clock in the afternoon to midnight, and really had nothing to do about 45 minutes of every hour.

私も学生時代にビル管理の夜勤のバイトをしました。結構、いい収入になりましたし、勉強の時間も作れた。一方で、親から十分な仕送りをもらっている人が羨ましかった。

The average person who took a job like that was about 60-65 years old. It was a mindless job, but for me, it was ideal, as I could study and get paid at the same time! I did that for about two years and came out of college with not only a degree, but also a bank account that was relatively healthy.
I did have student loans, but I was able to pay for them off within one year after I started working full-time. During that period, the government was offering very favorable student loans. My mother needed some extra money, so I got some loans just for her also. She was giving our home in Sacramento to my sister and moving into her own apartment, so she required some cash. She paid me back within a year as well.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (2-d) : サンノゼ（San Jose）に移る

シリコンバレーの中心地サンノゼに移ったロンさん。当時の若者同様、ベトナム戦争の影におびえていたようです。

After three years at American River Junior College in Sacramento, I transferred my credits to a big 4-year school, San Jose State College. My confidence was still quite low as to my surviving in a 4-year school, so I decided to go down to San Jose from Sacramento and take a few summer school classes to reduce the shock.

From the age of 16 years old starting with a newspaper route, I always had part-time jobs here and there. But, to insure my survival at San Jose State, I decided to use up savings and do nothing but study that summer as well as my first semester there.

Well, not only did I survive, I learned that the worst was behind me, as I was starting to love the subjects, and my discipline to study started to come as second nature.

The only problem was physical inactivity. Got fat, had headaches nightly, had difficulties sleeping, and my bank account funds continued to shrink. Furthermore, I was still very worried about the Vietnam War.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (2-ｃ) : 勉強とバイトから将来の方向性を探る

高校やカレッジのときもバイトをしていたロンさん。その体験も将来の方向性を探る助けになったようです。

Along the way, I learned that I had a lot of interests and having a simple non-thinking, repetitive job in Sacramento would probably not satisfy me.

As my reading, studying skills and discipline improved, I generated a strong interest in business subjects, particularly dealing with the management and motivation of people. Years later when I think about it, I got very good instruction at that school and in spite of it taking me three years to finish a 2-year Associate of Art Degree, it was well worth it and laid the groundwork for a solid academic direction. That same explorative nature I had as a small child was now redirected in a wealth of business subjects.

Through high school and right through attending that junior college I had a lot of part-time jobs. As a matter of fact, at my 35-year-high school reunion I found Barbara Brennan. Together, in a Chinese restaurant we worked at in high school, she was the waitress, and I was the bus boy and dishwasher. I also was a forklift operator, a wood and lumber salesman and a telegrapher for the local railroad. The typing skills I picked up in high school got me the railroad job, and I’ve been using it ever since. Looking over my education, I recalled that I had classes on many subjects, and it turned out only one out of 10 would be helpful and the others useless, but the ones that were helpful were so useful and beneficial that I can’t complain. It did take work though to find the valuable subjects for me.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (2-ｂ) : コミュニティ・カレッジに入ったが！

コミュニティ・カレッジに入学したが、成績はどん底。

During the first year at that community college, I went on “probation”. That meant my grades were not satisfactory. You must maintain a 2.0 grade point average. In the United States, the grading system is “A” (excellent, worth 4 points/class), “B” (above average, worth 3 points/class), “C” (average, worth 2 points/class), “D” (below average, with 1 point/class), “F” (failing worth zero points/class) and “I” (incomplete worth zero points/class). All the class grades are averaged out to get the grade point average or GPA. I had below 2 with all “Cs” and one “D” my first semester. If that happened twice, I would be removed from the school.

ここからがRonさんの頑張り。

That was very scary for me, and my confidence was very low. I thought to myself that I can not rely on the teachers for everything. I had to put in extra effort to succeed because of my poor learning skills. I promised myself I would not quit. They would have to kick me out of the school first. I also decided to try to sit in the first row of every class, so I could hear the teacher well. Furthermore, if I didn’t understand something, I had to start waving my hand and asking questions. It might be embarrassing, but I had to do it. Interestingly, after many classes, I would ask other students if they understood what the teacher said before I asked, and many didn’t understand either. I learned something else. If you ask a lot of questions, or for that matter ask for help on anything, most of the time you will find someone not only willing, but very happy to help you. As time went on, I was able to find supporters and mentors from the strangest places. All I had to do is show interest and effort. Then, things would happen somehow.

That made me feel good and built my confidence. Those three strategies (1-don’t quit, 2-set in front row in the classroom, 3-ask questions) I kept right through graduate school.

Well, from that very low point, my grades improved. I started getting all “Cs” and “Bs” and then latter on all “Bs” and “As”.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。