What I Learned: Bill Sproull

“My father was an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and we would go to its club. I was about 15. There was a guy there, and he was the club business manager. I talked about being a lifeguard and he said, ‘Well, we don’t have an opening there, but we do have a janitorial position.’ He said, ‘Here are the expectations, and here’s how to get the job done,’ and I followed his advice. One of the things that occurred to me is that if my family was going to this club, I wanted to ensure that it was clean. I cleaned the restrooms, I cleaned the bar, I mopped floors and had to take out trash.  I learned that it’s always important to be thorough, to be there and be on time, and do a quality job. I never ran into a problem. It also taught me to appreciate people who do manual labor, how important it is and, some of the time, how difficult it really is.”