MEL #003 | Building Relationships for Career Success with Buddy Heins

✨Note: This transcript is AI-generated and may contain minor inaccuracies; refer to the audio for complete details.

---

HEINS: When you start with a company, you’re going to be the lowest person on the Totem Pole, but volunteer for the meanest, nastiest, ugliest, most difficult jobs. When you do it, do the best you can. There’s nothing more important than that is to be somebody that people in your organization can depend on that you’re gonna get your job done.

ADAMS: Hi buddy, welcome to Mastering Engineering Leadership. Hey, good morning. Thanks for having me. Can you start by telling us how you got into engineering as a career path? 

HEINS: You know, I started at UT with a lot of ambition. I thought I wanted to be a doctor and all that. It didn’t take me very long to figure out. Didn’t have the academic rigor. I was involved in a lot of different things. I joined a fraternity. I was working, and I just, It didn’t pan out and I kind of floundered around for a little while and, you know, was working at a hospital, and they were always building, always under construction. And I just kept watching that and I thought, you know, that’s a kind of a neat deal. And, after my second year in school, we, went on spring break with some kids that I was taking a scuba class with at the aquatic center. I room with these two guys that were engineers they were studying engineering. I thought they were just the coolest guys. Said, Man, if they can do it, I can do it. And for really no research, no understanding of what the rigors were, the requirements for calculus and chemistry, I just said, man, I’m going to do it. And I went to see Dr. Greco, who was the He wasn’t the dean of the school, but he was the department chair. And he looked at my resume and my transcripts. He yeah, you’re in, and you can use this, this, for electives. All this other stuff won’t count. You got to take required classes for the rest of your career. And for some reason, I didn’t up and leave. I just said, okay, no, not a problem. You know, I jumped right in and started taking statics and dynamics, mostly with freshmen.

I didn’t think much about it and somehow survived. I was not a very good student. I never had a great aptitude for engineering. I kind of knew how I like to watch things go together. I kind of like to figure out things, you know, if there were problems, but yeah, there’s never really what I would call an engineering mind,

And really, my thought was to get into construction. I wanted to build, you know, and I guess I realized that that didn’t require a lot of design. You didn’t have to specify beam thicknesses and slab thicknesses and rebar content and that sort of thing. At that time, most construction professionals had civil engineering or structural engineering backgrounds. And I just thought that’s, I’m going to get a degree. And I didn’t think, you know, here’s my career path, but I thought, you know, that’s, got to get a degree in something. I’m here. My parents are paying. I’m going to get out here in four or five years. It did take me about six because losing all those credits up front was costly, to say the least, but yeah, I was joined the school, and I thought, man, you why would I, you know,

What’s the problem? I’m going to, you know, eventually, get out of here. I did get kind of excited about getting out after all my friends were gone for a year or so. Go, where are they? You know, I got his time, but you know, that’s 21, 22 years old and wasn’t worried about kids or a career. And so, some friends and some acquaintances had a neighbor that was in a construction company, and,

I was drawn to construction and that was the path that took me to engineering.

ADAMS: Okay. And so you, in fact, did go into construction. Can you talk with us a little bit about your transition from the university into your chosen career field?

HEINS:  Well, a young project manager, and your job basically is to estimate projects and to build them, you know.

There’s not much engineering in that. Honestly, there’s an organization, there’s people skills. You’ve got to get a lot of help from suppliers, from people that are going to help execute the project, from subcontractors, partners in the business. Being a general contractor is a real learning experience just because you’ve got to have a broad skill set. You you’ve got to talk to the CEO of a company you’re working for one day, then walk right out the back door and talk to a carpenter that’s, you know, trying to make some decisions on how something’s going together. And he may not be clear on it. But he probably knows more than you do. And he’s trying to make it work. You’re trying to make it work. And you’ve got to, somehow, solve a problem and make something work. 

So, the projects I was working on were not very glamorous. They weren’t on the front of your brochure. Were, but, you know, the guy I worked for was a real entrepreneur and he was in the money-making business, and he just happened to use construction as his vehicle to do it. And so, being in the industry is a real, how do you say a real entrepreneurial environment? I mean, that’s, you’ve got to have a little bit of savvy. Got to have a little bit of greed, you’ve got to be really very competitive because there’s a handful of people across town or, know, across the country, chasing the same projects you are; they don’t care anything about you. They want to, they want the job. They want to serve that client. Want to build that relationship with that client. So, yeah, it’s kind of like football, you know, it’s, it’s not easy to get better because there’s 10 other teams in your league that are trying to keep you down, and they’re trying just as hard, and they’re just as smart and they’re just as aggressive as you are. And somehow, you’ve got to win your share of gains, or you’re going to be doing something else for a living. So, yeah, being in that environment was really a jumping-off tool. It was a, you know, really neat learning experience. And yeah, one of the big things for me was it was out of town. 

You know, I grew up in Knoxville. I was a local guy. I went to UT because I was zoned there. Thought, you know, I just thought, it’s what you do. And, you know, I left town and, all of a sudden, all my friends were gone and I grew up professionally in a different town. And when I say professionally, you know, bank contacts, supplier contacts, business contacts were all new to me. Some of my people I knew, but, of course, when you’re right out of school, your friends, the people, you know, were not decisions.

They’re not the influential people. So, you got a bunch of buddies that you went to school with, they can’t help you much. Maybe their bosses can, but you know, you’ve got to grow up in an environment where you’re learning and you’re meeting and you’ve got to make the most of those relationships. So, looking back, that was a really great learning opportunity. I was green and ready to learn and, you know, made a lot of mistakes.

Let’s face it: that job didn’t work out for me. I had made some mistakes and they let me go.

I learned a tremendous amount. Sometimes, your failures are your best learning tools. They’re painful, very painful. I’m pretty happy where I am right now. And if I hadn’t gone through some of those trials and tribulations, I might not be here right now. So I wouldn’t change a thing. So

Not sure I’m in total agreement with that. There were a couple of things I would have done differently, but yeah, they were valuable lessons. A lot of them, good and bad. And I’m happy for how everything has turned out.

ADAMS: One of the things you talked about in your industry, and it sounds like you got experience with this really early on, is this idea about really needing to be able to communicate with people across levels. So you mentioned CEO versus carpenter, being able to communicate with people all across, across different hierarchies, but also building relationships with these different contacts in order to get business done with different contacts that you didn’t know because you’re in a different town. Can you talk a little bit about how you learned these relationship-building and communication skills? Because my guess is that engineering is still pretty much the same in that it’s not something that we typically spend a lot of time focusing on in your typical ABET-accredited engineering programs. 

HEINS: Yeah, I don’t know how much that I’d really realized how much it was important at that time, but you know, yeah. Maybe not the best thing to say, but I wasn’t a great student and I needed help back then. And pretty quickly I learned how to ask for help. I learned how that there were smarter guys than me in the room. And still today, I look around; there’s smarter guys than me in the room, and I need them. Hopefully, they need me, and I need them. So even back then, you know, there was a guy that, we were on different planets, socially, intellectually, but he was my best friend in engineering. And I remember going over to his house or his apartment lots of afternoons, man, Trey helped me out, stuck. You know, what the heck are they talking about here? And he’d already done it. And he, you know, was second nature to him. Probably wasn’t the way I’d recommend you going through school, but you know, things like that developed a little bit of a skill, a little bit of a knack for asking for help. I wasn’t afraid to; I wasn’t shy about it. We’ve got to talk to people. We’ve got to tell them sometimes how we feel. If we don’t like something,

We need something. We can use their help. Would you help me? You know, and it seemed like I found out pretty quickly that most everybody will help you if you ask. I mean, sometimes maybe you don’t deserve help if you’re behind and you haven’t done your share of the work, you know, maybe you don’t, but most people will help you if you need help. Now, I was always ready to reciprocate.

And I’ll, you know, today, if I end a phone call or I talk to a client or a prospect, a lot of times when I hang up, say, hey man, let me know if I can ever do anything for you. Just let me know. That’s an open-ended promise that probably, I don’t know if I could ever fulfill, but I leave that guy with a pretty good feeling, And sometimes they do call. And if I can help them, by golly, I will because I know that,

I’m building an emotional bank account, if you will, that is invaluable in business. Everybody needs help. Most everything you ever work on is a team project. It’s a team game. It’s a team sport. Together, you can make things happen. So, I learned that early. Was there any training for that?

Some of it was out of desperation. You know, gosh, I a test this Friday, and man, I ain’t getting it. Just, you know, I’m not ready. I admit it. Maybe I’ve never really caught on to this, and you know, I’m a little behind, and help me out. So, being willing to ask for help, being willing to work with others.

You know, one thing we didn’t do a lot of back in school was a lot of projects, a lot of collaborative group efforts. Probably wish that would have been different, to set you up for life. I do a lot of group projects now, whether it’s in your neighborhood or your volunteer efforts, and you’ll figure out that some things don’t change. That, you know, 20 % of the people do 80 % of the work, whether it’s at your church or the ball field that you’re volunteering at or the Boy Scouts or something. And it’s not any different there than it is later in life. And, you gotta find ways to collaborate and to build consensus and to,get people on board and get people; I need help pulling this rope, and, two more guys on the other end will help me a lot,

So that’s something that’s developed over a long period with a lot of different organizations, but in engineering and in the workplace, you need help. You need help and asking for help is essential, I think, to a successful career.

ADAMS: Yeah, I think that’s great advice. I mean, you learned it early on. It sounds partially out of necessity because you needed help, so you had to ask for it. It is something that I think some people struggle with. Some people feel like they need to be perfect. They need to do everything on their own. The sooner that they can recognize that asking for help not only helps you but it also helps you build relationships with the people that you’re asking, particularly when you’re willing to reciprocate.

HEINS: It helps you solve a current problem. Right. And it sets the stage for bigger the longer term, organizational success. Just, it’s a foundation. So you’ve stated it perfectly.

ADAMS: So you mentioned these great learning experiences early on in your career .You made a couple of mistakes; you’ve been with Merit Construction for for well over 25 years. And I’m curious if you can just tell us a little bit about your career trajectory within the current company that you’re in? Know Merit Construction was a vendor.

I moved to town ,and I was building cellular towers. We were developing a network for Sprint, and many of your listeners may not be able to comprehend that at one time, nobody had cell phones or the only people that did were the bank presidents or the CEOs and

But it was just not available. So, I was kind of floundering down in the real estate business ,and I had a little listing of,a commercial piece of property that was just a dog. It was worthless. And, but, a guy came and say, Hey, I’ll buy it full price. No questions asked. And, know, going to get some approvals and we’ll close, you know, before we did, we bought another piece from you.

What’s this all about?” And goes, well, we’re building these towers, and these little phones you carry around. We think it’s going to be kind of a big deal. And I said, really? And I said, do you need any help? And he says, well, yeah, I need help. And so he signed me up and I was driving all over the south of the southeast acquiring property to build these towers on. we would

Design the sites, get utilities, build roads, or at least have the engineering done. It was just a great, great, great learning opportunity. And it was a job that I never knew existed. Well, it didn’t exist when I was in school in the early 80s. But we did that for several years, then Sprint, a huge national publicly traded company.

You know, I bought a bunch of licenses. They moved to town and, you know, guy heard about me and he’s, Hey, know, buddy’s been doing this. And so I got hired in Nashville, Tennessee, the do that in the middle Tennessee area. And he came to me one day and says, you know, we’re opening it in a Knoxville office. Do you want to go? You know, I always thought, you know, eventually get back to town. My parents were here.

East Tennessee was home. Thought, maybe someday I’d go back there, but here it was on a platter. Just say, you you’re, you know, you’re the guy you go up there and you find office space. You hire your staff, you do this and you got to build these 80 or 90 sites in the next two or three years. I just, wow, that sounds like a heck of a deal. And so I did that. And when I was, it wasn’t here very long. I was playing golf with them, an individual that was doing the same thing I was doing for another company goes, hey, you ought to, you know, talk to Merritt about building them. They’re building for us. And so we, you know, talked to Merritt, my company now, and they built a lot of towers and, but it wasn’t very long, a huge national organization, they sure don’t have any problem regionalizing or decentralizing or, you so we’re closing your office after a year and a half. And I was just

Holy smoke, what am I going to do? And they offered me positions in Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, I think New York. And I just got married. I wasn’t interested in moving, but Merritt came to me and said, Hey, what are you going to do? I I don’t know. And they said, we would like somebody to help us with business development. I go, what’s that? And I said, what do do?

I said, you know, it sounds pretty cool. I could join you guys and lunch and golf and all that all the time. that was a delusion. You know, the owner of the company says, man, I’d like to have you. I said, okay. So we signed on we were growing. The economy was good in Knoxville, Tennessee. We were a small company, know, 25.

million dollars a year and we’ve grown, to five or six times that now. But it’s been a great time to be here doing business development because there was work here. So, you know, it’s like hunting. If you go where there’s, you know, game, you can do it. But, you know, and so there was game here. And, but I learned, I had no idea what I was doing. I just, there’s absolutely no clue, you know, how to write proposals, how to ask for work, how to,

prospect for work, how to learn about projects before other people did, how to prepare presentations for clients, prospective clients. I’m still not sure I know exactly what I’m doing. Things have gone pretty well and I’m about the end of the line with my career path here, but we’ve done very well and been very, very fortunate.

And of course I tell a lot of my partners and all that, you know, we’re only as good as you are. We can bring these projects to the table. And if we execute, you probably don’t need me anymore. You don’t need a business development guy to go out and smooth and sell and call them CEOs because the work will continue to come. But if we falter, if we trip, it don’t matter what I do. It doesn’t matter how much they like me. It doesn’t matter how much golf we play or lunch we do.

we’re not going to get to come back to the party. So been real fortunate that we’ve been able to do good work for some really good clients. And they’ve a lot of them have come back time after time. Again, most of our work now is for repeat customers who we’ve worked for before. that’s a tribute to the guys in the field, the guys and the gals that are project managers that manage the work every day.

It’s been a good run. I’m on our board here. I’m a shareholder and things have worked out very, well for me here.

ADAMS: Buddy, what leadership situation are we going to be talking about today? 

HEINS: Well, you know, I found myself in a lot of leadership situations from nonprofits to work. You know, part of my job is. Volunteering on boards, you know, being involved in community and industry organizations. We mentioned the East Tennessee Economic Council. which is a, you know, a group in Oak Ridge that’s focused on developing business and the federal program out there. I’m involved in the builders exchange here in Knoxville that, you know, is a plan room for municipalities, architects, developers to place their plans for contractors, subcontractors to use. I’ve been very involved in the University of Tennessee National Alumni Association. I was on the

Well, I was president of the board in Davidson County and eventually president of the board in Knox County after I moved back. Then I was on the board of governors and, you know, those are leadership positions that I cherished and, know, they were a lot of fun. You know, the contacts you made, the people you met that you wouldn’t normally get the, engaged with, have been unbelievable. You can’t buy that. You can’t get that any other way other than, you know, getting in.

You know, knee deep and just, you know, let’s get involved. Let’s do our part. And, you know, they didn’t start that way. I wasn’t the president the day I joined, you know, I was worker bee, we had events and all those organizations, and some of them delivered goods, I was on the board of the second harvest food bank, tremendous charitable organization in East Tennessee. I’m on the board of the Boy Scouts, know, serving young boys and girls now, know, at Scouts USA now. all those organizations that I’ve been involved with had tremendous needs. So there’s great leadership opportunities there to get the age to lead. So that’s, you know, let’s do something. more times than not, I’ve sat in the back when I was a worker being said, Hey, we got to be doing that.

Why don’t we do it this way? We could do better. I could do better. I know, you know, we can try harder. We can make a bigger difference. And I think in virtually every organization I’ve been involved with, I’ve felt that way. just wanted to, I wanted to make a difference. You know, sometimes I pushed too hard. I probably made a ruffle feathers. You know, sometimes you gotta do it, and sometimes you, just say,

I’m pushing this ball down the field. You’re either with me or you’re not. if you’re on board, great. If you’re not still love you, but let’s do something else. So I’ve been in a lot of leadership organizations, and they’ve helped me here. I’m a vice president. I don’t have anybody really reporting to me. but I am seen as a leader here. And I guess a lot of times I provide that leadership by just doing. I don’t delegate much here. If somebody’s got a mail of package, I do it. If somebody’s got to go pick up plans, I do it. If somebody’s got a spread salt on the sidewalk in the morning because it’s ice, I do it. Sometimes it’s easier just to, man says, man, let me get out of the way. I’m going to take care of this. I’ve done that from the time I was, I guess, a Boy Scout to the time I was, you know, last week here at the company or today, I’m got to go pick up the deliveries for Christmas that were taken to clients. So I’m going myself. I’m going to do it myself. you know, leadership’s not hard, but, you know, it takes some initiative and, you know, it takes a little backbone and, yeah, sometimes it takes, you know, just, just a willing to do it. not doing it, it’s easy, going home at five is easy, you know.

Getting up early is not easy. Working a little late is not easy. But it ain’t that hard, is what I’m saying. And I’ve always been willing to do that for some reason.

Yeah, and I really like what you said about, well, this idea of taking action. So whether you’re been given the title of a leader or not, I think what you’re talking about is when you see something that needs to get done,

get it done yourself or try to rally people around you to get it done if it takes more than one person and that that is both the action of what a leader does, but also oftentimes that can signal to the people around you that you’re like leadership material, right? And sometimes you can then grow and get tapped to take on a leadership role, whether you really want to or not, just by.

being one that shows up and takes action. And I really appreciate that because I do think that a lot of our students maybe would feel like, I’m not a leader yet because I haven’t been given this title. And I think what you’re saying is no, that’s it. Maybe it goes the other way around. Maybe you need to start taking action and behaving to try to make positive change. And that might get you into being seen as a leader and into more formal leadership roles. You know, I think everybody’s a leader.

Sometimes it’s buried deep down inside and it’s got to be brought out. they want to be annoyed and are charged or delegated to something. you know, I’ve always thought, man, I just get out of my way. I see something that needs to be done and you know, I’m going to do it.

Probably overstepped my bounds a time or two and, you know, and maybe done something somebody else didn’t want to do, but, you know, I just, I think leading by example is the best way to lead. just, you know, if you’re in an organization, you know, somebody once told me, says all organizations move at the speed of their leader, you know? And so if you’re not leading the charge, if you’re not the front man, if you’re not setting an example for others, it just, you can’t lead. just.

It’s just not effective. I’m sorry.

The other thing you talked about that really resonated with me personally was the nonprofit board work that you do. And I do a lot of nonprofit board work myself. And it has really been, I started kind of in my mid 30s, a mid-level manager. And that has been both fulfilling

personally, but also really great leadership opportunities for me, allowed me to use my skills and of course make connections with people that I otherwise would never have access to because they’re in the community and outside of business. talk a little bit more about your board service and what that has meant to you, why you choose to do board service and how that has helped you both either in your personal life or at work. Well, you make some great points.

you know, most of the boards I’ve served on, and all of them, I guess, is, you know, they’ve got a mission that I believe in. I want to make a difference in that mission, whether it’s Second Harvest Food Bank, it’s the United Way, it’s my college fraternity, it’s the American Institute of Architects, and so they’re doing something I believe in. So it’s easy to get engaged.

really, you’re going to be on the board with like-minded individuals that are on board with that board. They think the way you do. And many times you’ll meet people that you never would have had an opportunity to meet. And if you’re meeting them in that situation, there’s a community commonality that, if you’re on the board with a CEO of a hospital somewhere,

He’ll blame, he’ll take your call if you’ve got to call him. If you need something from him, he’ll help you. If he, you need information, you know, you can call him. You might probably have a cell phone. You probably, you’ve got access to, you know, that’s certainly not why I’ve ever done that. But, you know, you’ve got access. know, guys, when I was on the board of, you know, the board of governors at university, you know, I had this president cell phone.

I could walk into his office and I did that a few times. I was probably an idiot, but I, you know, I would, I’d walk into his office sometimes with a high school senior and say, Hey, I want you to meet somebody. And, know, he was delighted to see me. just never would have happened if I hadn’t, you know, been willing to serve and been willing to do my piece on that. And, it’s probably happened over and over and over again where it’s allowed me.

you know, access and interaction with people I never would have been able to do. And I sincerely believe that every board that I’ve ever served on, I’ve made some difference. I was a part of the act. was part of the team. That’s where the action was. big projects, small projects, you know, maybe some that were very visible in the community, some that were not so visible. I always felt like we were, making positive change, making progress with

any of these organizations I’ve been involved with. So yeah, I, I know you’re going to ask me for advice to the, but I’d say get involved, get, get the heck out there, do anything, just find something you love,

there’s something out there for you. There’s something out there for everybody that’s listening to this podcast. There’s everybody that’s, you know, looking at a career that wants to grow. There’s a place for them, and there’s probably an organization that they were involved with growing up or they’re passionate about in the community that needs their help. And by golly, it’s a two-way street. They’ll get a lot out of you and you’ll get a lot out of them. I promise you.

ADAMS: I completely agree. Get out there, get involved. Now, some of our audience, a lot of our audience are students. So maybe being on a board is not the first step, but volunteering.

Helping to coordinate, just trying to make a difference in the community in areas that you care about is a great way to build a network of like-minded people and also be seen as a leader. And you never know where that can lead in your personal life and in your career. 

HEINS: I will tell you this. Being around that university now, there are more opportunities to get involved in something than there ever was.

ever was. And it can be something as simple as the hiking club or, you know, of course there’s lots of volunteer opportunities with, you know, touring new students around or prospective students. You know, there’s, you know, your school, your department has chapters. You know, I spoke with the Engineering Honor Society, you know, their initiation last week. You know, they do service projects. They greet, you know, high school students. just,

There are many, many opportunities to get involved in something on that campus. you know, you’re not going to be great at it. You’re not supposed to be. Nobody expects you to be. You’re not a great engineer now. You’re not supposed to be, but you will be. So you’re not a, you know, great community volunteer community lays on right now. You’re not supposed to be, but you will be. And it’s, it’s such a fertile ground, to, to meet people you don’t know, to.

work on a common cause. So those opportunities are there now. And if you’re going through school, going to class, making your grades and going home at night and not participating, it’s unbelievable opportunity that you’re missing out on. I just encourage everybody that’s listening to get involved in something, anything. And you can tell them to call me. If they can’t find one, I’ll help them. We’ll go.

We’ll go find something that they can do and they can serve on. Yeah, this is interesting. One of my boards is Builders Exchange of Tennessee and we have a high school skills competition for kids in high school taking construction trades. know, they may be in the plumbing, electrical, carbonary and that sort of thing. And the day before last year we were setting up and there were these kids there. They were all UT students and

They were helping us set up and this one girl was there and I started talking to her and she was, you know, kind of shy. You know, I had to kind of, you know, initiate the conversation. What are you doing next summer? Where are you working? She’s, well, I don’t know. I hadn’t thought much about it. And I said, send me your resume. You know, you need to intern somewhere, and she did and it looked pretty good. And we talked and she came over and got a, got a job and she was fantastic.

But she got that job because she was out. She was interviewing and she was willing to speak. She was willing to pick up an apron and do some dirty work and help that day. I just think about that often. I how valuable an opportunity was that because you got out and volunteered with your school club. It was a construction science club and she volunteered with it. And I just…

right place at the right time. if you don’t do things like that, you’re going to miss something. You’re going to miss out on something. So my advice today is get out. Get out there. Do something.

ADAMS: All right, buddy, what advice would you give to engineers who want to move into leadership roles?

HEINS: Well, as we said earlier, just get out and participate. we’re Tennessee volunteers and there’s nothing like volunteering. When you start with a company, you’re going to be the low person on the Totem Pole, but volunteer for the meanest, nastiest, ugliest, most difficult jobs. I’ll do it. When you do it, do the best you can. Get help if you need it.

Simple things like, I’ve written this, a little proposal. Can you read it for me? Even if it’s, you know, even if it’s the janitor that’s cleaning up that night, you know, just say, make sure I’m not out in left field. Just do it. as a Boy Scout, our motto is be prepared. You know, there’s nothing more important in business, I don’t think, than be prepared. You know, when you go to a meeting, you be prepared.

More so than you need to be, know, Roger Goodall is a commissioner in NFL. And he says, when I go to a meeting, I’m the most prepared guy in the room. Well, wonder how he got to be commissioner of the NFL. You know, he was ready, you know, especially when you’re younger, you know, when you’re the boss, you know, sometimes you can, but you know, you’re the new guy or gal. You need to be the most prepared. You need to have your work done and have it done early. You know, if it’s due on Friday, man, I’d give it there, give it to.

Whoever you’re giving it to, Friday morning or Thursday night, five o’clock on Fridays, not gonna get you any farther down the road. And get prepared. When you have an assignment, start early. The worst thing I can do in my job is to wait till the last minute. I used to do it in school and it didn’t work too well. If you got a lab due tomorrow, by golly, if you’re not half done today.

You know, shame on you. You knew it for two weeks and why did you wait? You know, get started early. So be prepared, be punctual. I like to use the P’s, know, you need to be persistent, you know, you’re going to get knocked down when you go to work, you’re going to fail, you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to get discouraged, but you know, you got to be persistent

the survivors, that’s how I got out of engineering. I was persistent. I mean, there were a lot of times where I didn’t do very well and I thought, I’m done. I didn’t know I was done. I was persistent and, and got through it. another thing, the young folks don’t really think about, but you got to be patient. You know, you’re not going to be the, senior vice president of production, day one or the senior engineer day one, you’re going to be.

assistant quality control something, you know, work your way up. You your career is a crockpot. It’s not a microwave. It takes time. of course you’ll look up one day and you go, Holy smoke, where did that time go? So, my advice for the day is be prepared, be persistent, be punctual, be patient. that’ll allow you to be professional.

You know, you’ll build a reputation fast as a dependable, reliable person. there’s nothing more important than that is to be somebody that people in your organization.

can to depend on that you’re gonna get your job done. When you say it was gonna be done as it was supposed to be done to the best of your ability, and it will be recognized really quickly. those traits will follow you until you’re gone. It’ll stay with you. So those are my advices for today. 

ADAMS: Well, Buddy, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us.

HEINS: Well, guys, I appreciate it.