Born in 1921 my Dad was 'old school' and he never went to college. But he did graduate from The School of Hard Knocks. No computers, just ledger books, pens and pencils.

He had a famous saying: "Selling is like Shaving. You need to do it every day or you're a bum." No offense to all those well groomed gents out there.

But Dad also had old jelly jars on the shelf in his office. Each jar was for an employee. The business was construction, back in the days when having a steam license was still a thing. See Steam Shovel.

Anyway, every time Dad had to tell someone to do something twice, he would put a penny in their jar. Forget to do something? A penny goes into your jar. Late for work? Penny into the jar. Make excuses? Penny into the jar.

Anyone walking into Dad's office would see the rows of jars with pennies. Only Dad would know which jar was THEIRS.  Some jars had several pennies. Some jars were practically empty. Once a year Dad would do a review with an employee, and it was so obvious to see their jar compared to the rest. Immediate visual feedback.

Now Dad would take that jar (their jar) off the shelf and pour out the pennies into the person's hand. These are yours. These are your lessons learned. You jar is now empty. Let's keep it that way. Here is your Christmas Bonus. (Usually several $100 bills). The fewer the pennies, the bigger the bonus. 

Sometimes that jar would never get another penny. And sometimes that jar would not remain empty. Sometimes that jar would just fill up again, fast. But Dad knew the history, and so did that employee. 

Every so often that jar went missing from the shelf. It's purpose has ended, it was no longer needed. And sometimes that person moved on (on their own). And that was just fine.

Anyway, I was thinking about Dad today and how he ran a massive construction company with just paper, pens, pencils and jelly jars. And pennies. Lots and lots of pennies. 

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