Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 98
My department at Brown & Root was, in my judgment, the best “graduate engineering
business” school I could have attended. The beauty was that instead of me paying for
my education, I was getting paid. My two immediate bosses, John Mackin and Delbert
Johnson, were about as smart as any one I had ever met, and they often talked about
establishing their own consulting firm. That talk interested me and I offered my support.
As time went on and their plans never materialized, I began to dream about creating my
own engineering firm. All this time my parents, but my mother more vocally, kept
expressing their wish that I go back to Cochabamba, where they had recently returned
from their Peruvian sojourn.
Although I was well paid as an engineer, recently married and now expecting my first
child, I felt that I still had some evenings free when I could generate extra income. In
college I had been a member of the gymnastics team and now missed the sport. Always
seeking the highest efficiency, I was looking for an opportunity that would allow me to
practice gymnastics and at the same time generate some revenue. After some
searching, I found a job at the Downtown Houston YMCA to run its gymnastics program.
In a short time I built up a team of wonderful teenagers with whom I developed great
friendships and for whom I became a role model. I felt that the value I was creating with
them surpassed the monetary compensation I was receiving, but since I was already
fulfilling my material needs, their respect and thankfulness were a significant added
satisfaction to me.
By the time I left to seek my new venture in South America, those kids had become an
integral part of my life. My wife and brand new son would go to workouts with me and
my team members would help us baby-sit. I experienced a non-monetary form of
compensation for value created that, in my circumstances, became more important than
money itself. I believe that seeing other human beings improve under our personal
influence is an irreplaceable reward. It is the reward good teachers crave and the fuel
that drives their superior achievements.
While at Texas A&M, I made friendships with a range of school buddies that destiny
threw my way. Two of them impacted my life for the rest of my years because it was
with them that I would later combine forces to launch some of my value-creation efforts.
One, Joseph A. Elliott, had a double major - electrical engineering and English. He was
on the fencing team and I was, depending on the season, either on the diving or
gymnastics team. As a way to help students that competed in varsity sports, the college
provided us with the last meal of the day for free. Eating at “late tables,” many of us
became good friends. Within a dozen years after graduation, Joe had become the
national epee champion and was traveling all over the world representing the United
States, including tournaments in Moscow and Havana during the height of the cold war.
But, ignorant of the future at those late tables of 1960, we talked of adventure, travel
and exploration. From the time I met him, I was inspired by Joe’s natural self-reliance, a
quality that later would become supremely important to both our destinies.
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