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University students who aspire to a career in international business often ask me, "How did you get into international banking?" My career path, I assume, took a route as different as anyone else's. As I look back at important happenings in my life, I can often identify three turning points that influenced the final results. Those turning points resulted from circumstances, fate or whatever you want to call it and were not of my own doing. I'd like to think of it as divine intervention. Who would have ever thought a shy, naive teenager who grew up on a farm in the upper Midwest would ever have had a career in international banking?
The first turning point remains very clear in my memory. As a teenager, I worked on the family farm as a duty. I neither received, nor expected, any pay for working on the farm. If I wanted some spending money, however, I would work for other farmers who needed help, usually during the harvest seasons. When harvesting a crop, a billowing cloud of crop dust would continually surround us. Unfortunately, I became allergic to the dust. I would sneeze, wheeze and cough all day, then go home and try to sleep. Sleep didn't come easily since I would continue the sneezing, wheezing and coughing through the night. But if I wanted the spending money, I had to get up the next morning and do it all over again.
I remember one hot summer day when I helped a farmer put up his hay on a flatbed. The misery of the heat, the dust and the humidity all got to me. I looked to the western horizon longing to see a single cloud that could eventually drift our way to provide some shade and relief from the sun and heat. I even dared to hope the cloud might have some rain, which would cause us to quit work early that day. However, no cloud appeared. At that moment I determined to have a job some day in an air-conditioned office. It was a major turning point that remains firm and clear in my mind.
Turning point number two occurred in the big city of Minneapolis and eventually led me into a banking career. As a teen, I tinkered with radios and TVs trying to figure out why they worked and trying to fix them if they didn't. I thought it would develop into an interesting career. I took my new bride to Minneapolis and enrolled in an electronics trade school. It didn't work out for me. In an effort to find work, I approached an employment agency that sent me on several interviews, including one at a bank. I decided to accept the job as a teller in the cash vault until something better came along. Nothing did and this first job started me on a 30-year career path in banking.
There was a position available in the international department. When I interviewed for that position my manager told me that after two years he and I would go to the Human Resources department to look for a job transfer. This seemed like a strange comment on the day I accepted the job, so I asked him to elaborate. He said this work would grow boring after about two years, and if it didn't, I shouldn't consider doing it in the first place.
True to his word, after two years, we went to human resources to inquire about open positions in the bank and turning point number three surfaced. One available position existed in the international department. The head of the international department told me the position involved working with letters of credit. I asked, "What is a letter of credit?"
He answered, "I'll show you." He took me to the eighth floor of the bank and we entered a room containing about 15 desks with no partitions. Phones were ringing constantly and people were yelling to each other across the room. He exclaimed, "This is it!"
I viewed the chaos and replied, "I still don't know what a letter of credit is, and I don't think this looks like a very attractive place to work." We went back to Human Resources to look into the other openings. Three weeks later when no other jobs materialized, the international manager called me again and told me he would like me to reconsider. He told me all the positive reasons why the international department seemed like a good place to work and why he thought I was the right person for the job. After sufficient stroking of my ego, I accepted.
I questioned his sincerity three weeks later when he resigned and left banking altogether. However, turning point number three placed me into international banking, and only after completing a frustrating training period (detailed in my next article) did I realize I wanted to continue my banking career in the international department.
Perhaps no typical pathway exists to any career and certainly not in international business. I relate this lesson to show what can happen when you follow your nose and take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| 430328XU NTN | 140 | 300 | 145 |
| 432228XU NTN | 140 | 250 | 153 |