Reflect on how you got to where you are...

Like most, whenever I move to something new (school, job, city), I hang back to get a ‘lay of the land’. And to see who’s already there and knows some of the local history. When I started in the gaming business, I broke in in Atlantic City – a new job, in a new industry, in a different part of the country from where I grew up, and I naturally gravitated to Golden Nugget colleagues to learn how things worked. In addition to spending time with my boss Boone Wayson (who grew up in Steve Wynn’s father’s bingo business), I spent a lot of time with the company’s Security and Surveillance directors who had been New Jersey State Police Captains; their stories lent color to my new surroundings and work. By the time I moved to Las Vegas, I knew a lot about the business but not how things worked in Sin City. I was sent to meet long time Nevada gaming execs and their stories added much needed background about the work here. They were gracious with their time and advice and one, an old-time HR guy who’d worked for the Dunes when it was run by reputed mobsters, told me not to drive home the same way twice (now that was scary). But the people I worked with – Steve and Elaine Wynn, Bobby Baldwin, Marc Schorr, Billy Weinberger, and Charlie Meyerson (a one-time bookie and World War II hero who was a longtime casino host at the Mirage), and countless others, told me much about how the business operated here. While I’ll save their stories for another time, suffice it to say I was given the benefit of being able to stand on the shoulders of giants. And that’s the best way to learn how to be good at what you do. Never pass up an opportunity to learn from others, to put things into context, to learn about the other players, and to gain insights into how and why things are the way they are. With that, you can become a more competent, confident, and effective teammate today.

 

Sir Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727): English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed.