Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 100
Although I still think the idea had merit, IH turned us down explaining that we should
have contacted them before we started and that they didn’t work with free-lancers.
Those were lessons to learn for the future, indicating first that the contacts should have
included IH’s Madison Ave. marketing advisor at conception and, second, that we
probably didn’t reach the right person at the IH company. Years later, when all the
complexities involved in value creation dawned on me, this was an example I often
recalled in my own mind and appropriately applied to the quests at hand.
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PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE.
Upon reporting to work in Cochabamba in December 1963, I soon found out that the
company I had taken a job with was paying me less than one fourth of what I was
making at Brown & Root. Worse, it put me under the supervision of a stateside
expatriate who did not even have an engineering degree but made six times what I was
paid. Needless to say I was not only unhappy with the compensation but it also hurt my
professional pride.
Properly angry, I sent a letter of resignation to the company’s manager and distributed it
not only among my co-workers but to the local newspaper as well. It was published and
caused a small furor in the community. I was immediately accused of communist
tendencies by my former managers and by their Bolivian government supervisors. What
I didn’t realize at the time is that the salaries were set by the Bolivian government, which
must be recalled, at the time was anchored on socialist principles. The government
leaders classified wage earners, not part of the inner circles, in broad groups ensconced
in narrowly defined salary brackets. It was important to their system that all people
comply with these strictures. Not only did I not comply but I actually challenged them
publicly. I became a marked man, but, as will soon be seen, a lucky one.
Having lost my source of income, the problem of feeding my family became paramount.
I was blessed that my parents were providing an apartment next to their home for my
family and me. Thus, our monetary needs were greatly alleviated. Kirsten, who had
received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of St.
Thomas in Houston, cheerfully took a job as a teacher at the American School for a
salary of $50 a month, the going rate for local hires. With these funds and a few
savings, she courageously carried our household expenses until I was able to start my
own professional practice. Then she continued working as the bookkeeper for our new
company.
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