2012 Issue

32 I was asked to write this article a while back. I did not know how to approach it. I am not really an expert on anything that would be meaningful to a broad audience. Besides that I think it would be downright boring. So I think I’ll tell you three stories and hopefully along the way you will be entertained and maybe come to some profound thought that will stay with you for a while. STORY ONE In the dark autumn days of 2001 there was a definite lack of spirit amongst us all. It was mid October when I found myself with nothing in the job pending file. That fact motivated me to do something I avoided like the plague: Marketing! So I dressed in casual slacks and a jacket, went through my client list and targeted the most likely candidates to have projects that needed a bright and ambitious engineer, such as me. I tookmy list andwent out the door. The first visit I made was a client who was not on the list. I was not intending to go there. I just passed by his office and I said to myself, I ought to go in and say hi. So I did. I walked into the lobby and asked to see my contact. This is what is called a cold call. Very seldom does it work. My contact came out to the lobby and said, “John, I was picking up the phone to call you. Come on up.” That meeting started the process of getting the 2002 Olympic Cityscape ban- ners on to eleven buildings downtown and at the University of Utah. I didn’t make it back to my list. In the process of design and getting the banners on the buildings we had a lot of meetings dealing with production of the hardware needed and how to deploy the banners. We had one such meeting on the southeast corner of Main Street and South Temple. At the time the Hockey Goalie was being deployed across the street on the Old Kennecott Building. I was looking west when a fellow came out of the UtahWoolen Mills Building. He was walking towards us when the banner caught his eye. I watched his forehead go up and his jaw go down. He nearly took out some pedestrians who were walking the opposite direction. He even pulled some folks to the side to show them what was going on. The look on the guy’s face was worth every bit of the fee I was getting for the project. That entire project was fun. STORY TWO Two years ago I was helping a neighbor clean out his yard. I looked behind the fence and spotted some old car parts. I said, “Hey, what are you doing with these ‘65 Corvair parts?”He responded, “Oh, those are spare parts for the Corvair I have in my hanger. You can have it.” I said, “How much?” He said, “You can have it.” That started a year’s negotiation at the end of which a ’65 Corvair convertible gained possession of me. The car had two flat tires and a reasonable amount of dents and scrapes. There was some rust that needed conquering and an engine that leaked oil like a sieve. The first task was to deliver it to a mechanic to get it running. I wanted to make a statement to all who were going to work on the car. That state- ment had to be made without my having The Creative Engineer By John Goebel, PE, ASME