Notebook
October 25th, 2019 by Gary Osberg

Next Monday, October 28th,  I will reach a milestone.  Twenty years representing Minnesota Public Radio in central, western and southwestern Minnesota as well as Sioux Falls and Sun Valley, Idaho.

After spending 23 years selling office furniture and 6 years in the office equipment industry I was laid off by the agency that represented Xerox. They simply decided that they didn’t want to be a Xerox agency anymore.  The owners didn’t like the new contract that Xerox had presented.  So they didn’t need a sales manager.  The night before I got laid off, I had supper with my son at Byerly’s near the place where I was rooming with my cousin and I told Erik that I would keep the old house in Upsala, but I was planning on moving to Minneapolis, since I had my dream job as a sales manager with a great product and I would be making a very good living.

Instead, I ended up spending the summer of 1999 painting old buildings in the Upsala area. I drove to Randall and went to the back room at Bermels Shoes & Boots, the local Red Wing boot dealer. I picked out a good pair of sturdy work boots and started climbing ladders. My first job was the Post Office in Upsala and then I did an out building on my cousin Dave’s farm. Per my brother Bill’s instructions, I used oil based primer and latex paint. He let me use his power washer. The two buildings that I did the summer of 1999 still look good. The boots are in pretty good shape too.

In August I read an ad in the St. Cloud Times for a “Development Officer” for Minnesota Public Radio. I didn’t know what a “Development Officer” was, but it turned out to be sales. A perfect fit. It took two months and seven interviews to get this job, but it worked out well. Compared to “slamming boxes for Xerox”, this is more fun than it is work. I may shoot for 25.

Live from Here this week is a live show from the Town Hall in New York City.  Special guests include Paul Simon, Mavis Staples, Rachael Price, Janeane Garofalo, and Brian Platzer. Enjoy the show.

“It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul” From the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley.

Bonus quote:  “Toddler’s Creed:  If I want it, it’s mine. If I give it to you and change my mind later, it’s mine. If I can take it away from you, it’s mine. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine. If it’s mine, it will never belong to anyone else , no matter what. If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine. If it looks like mine, it is mine.”

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