Jeffrey J. Fox - How to Get to the Top: Business Lessons Learned at the Dinner Table

Copyright 2007 Jeffrey J. Fox

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information address Hyperion, 77 West 66th Street, New York, New York 10023-6298.

ISBN: 9781401388089
1. Success in business. 2. Business etiquette. 3. Customer relations. 4. Career development. I. Title. II. Title: Business lessons learned at the dinner table.

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First eBook Edition: MAY 2007

How to Land Your Dream Job

Secrets of Great Rainmakers

How to Make Big Money in Your Own Small Business

How to Become a Marketing Superstar

How to Become a Great Boss

How to Become a Rainmaker

How to Become CEO

This book is dedicated to the Fabulous, Fantastic Fox Family: Marlene, Erin, Damian, Brenna Rose, Luca Modesto, Ella, Heather, Chris, and more on the way. All the other Foxes and Flahertys can also consider themselves dedicatees. Given!

CONTENTS

When Thomas Jefferson Dined Alone

Hire a Helicopter

Juggle Like Mom

Be Both Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside

What I Would Do in the First 100 Days

See That Shack Over There...

Dont Put General Patton in Charge of the Mess Hall

Pick Up the Check for Clergy, Teachers, and Soldiers

Unlearn the Bad ABCs

Always Compliment the Chef...Especially at Home

Speak Sweetly: You May Have to Eat Your Words

Dont Mope

No One Cares About Technology

Quality Is Not Job 1

Tip As If You Were the Tippee

The Most Important Question in Business

No Bad ROT

See Your Company Through the Salespersons Eyes

Child Labor Is Good

Teach Your Girls to Whistle

No They, He, She, Her, Him

Buzzsaw the Buzzwords

Ask Mikey

The S.W. Rule

No Slow No

Miss These Shots and We Lose the Game

Customers Dont Like Your Politics

Dont Park in Front of Your Store

Dont Put Anything on Your Store Windows

Stop Eating So Much!

Always Cut Your Meat into Dime-Sized Pieces

Never Overserve Yourself

The What, Why, and How Rule

Dont Be Phony

Dont Shirk

How to Make a Decision

How to Listen...for the Sounds of Money

Dont Teach the Quarterback to Catch

Never Give the Coach a Reason to Bench You

Only Hire People You Would Invite Home to Dinner

Treat Customers as Important Guests to Your Home

Youre Not at School to Eat Your Lunch

Whisper: Will You Marry Me?

Only Bet on Yourself

Sign All the Checks

Get Your Point Across, but Never Be Rude

Dont Immediately Take the First Offer

Muddy Boots Are Money Boots

No Unintended Consequences

Never Be Late

Act Like You Own the Place

Spend the Companys Money as You Would Your Own

Dont Give the Jewish Guy a Pork Roast

You Cant Unsour the Milk

Get Your Product Banned in Boston

Thanks to

Each of the superstar contributors (see pages 173204) and, with reverence, to the contributors parents, grandparents, teachers, and mentors. The readers and students of management and entrepreneurship owe you.

Brenda Copeland, executive editor at Hyperion, who made some big-league improvements to this book. And thanks to the classy Hyperion team who makes these books possible.

Doris Michaels of the DSM Literary Agency in New York City, who is literally a world-class literary agent. And to DSM agent Delia Berrigan Fakis, who will make this book available around the world.

Those friends who get an early look and better the book.

T he kitchen table is the iconic American center of the family household. It is where boys and girls learn, get ambition, get confidence, get ready, get the spunk to make it to the top. The kitchen table, or its equivalent, has been the center of families of all cultures in all places since the cavemen discovered fire.

Dinner at home is spring training for dinners of importance conducted elsewhere. It is at dinner where blessings are offered, toasts made, manners learned, issues discussed. It is at the dinner table where business and life lessons are learned by millions of boys and girls that will get them to the top in all possible careers. It is at the dinner table where business is learned, conducted, completed. It is during dinner that wisdom, experience, and the history of elders is passed.

This book is based on the life-forming remembrances of people who made it to the top.

Now raise a glass to parents, grandparents, dinner partners everywhere: To your health and happiness... and thank you.

When Thomas Jefferson Dined Alone

T here are two times when you must have perfect table manners: when you dine with others and when you dine alone. Be it a family meal, a business meeting, a campfire roast, dining with others is a linchpin of civilization. The table is where partnerships begin, plans are laid, decisions made, information exchanged, deals struck. A persons natural conduct at the table is often a window into the persona. Is he or she well-taught, polite, attentive, funny, observant, disciplined? Or indulgent, sloppy, avaricious, uncouth, rude, inappropriate?

Poor table manners are a sign of self-absorption and an insensitivity to others. There is nothing gained by poor table manners. Thus, it is always a social sin to eat like a hog. The same is true when dining alone. Show yourself the same respect and dignity you show others. During World War II, while in prisoner-of-war camps, British army officers insisted that soldiers of all rank, despite deplorable conditions, maintain acceptable table manners. Such rigor reminded the men of their humanity and superiority of spirit.

Dining alone reminds everyone of President John F. Kennedys 1962 speech honoring Americas Nobel Prize winners. Kennedy welcomed the Nobel winners, members of Congress, and esteemed guests noting, This is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

Be assured that when the great Thomas Jefferson dined alone, civility was not in peril.

Hire a Helicopter

I t was Saturday. The offices were closed for the weekend. The only person in the building was Guiseppe Italo, whose job was sorting and delivering the company mail. Guiseppe did not have to be in the building that Saturday afternoon and he had little in his life but the mailroom job. But he loved his company and just liked being in the offices. He had worked for his company for over thirty years in such jobs as driver, gofer, landscaping, office cleaning, maintenance. The only employee who wore a company work shirt, which he proudly wore with his name stenciled on a pocket, Joe was full of company lore and stories. He had heard a lot, seen a lot, and he never spoke a disloyal word. Joe had seen people come and go, and hed seen young, eager, hardworking people progress from trainee to president. In fact, he now worked a few layers of management below one of those eager hotshots. Joe liked this hotshot, who always addressed him by name, always sincerely asked how he was doing, and had arranged a surprise $500 bonus with a note that read, Joe: You dont have to, but thanks for always putting your companys interests before yours.