tldr (too long didn't read)
The ‘Mastermind’
A couple years ago Renae (my beautiful bride) stumbled upon one of those personality tests I despise as I feel they simply reword one’s responses to preset questions into paragraph form and in the end not really tell you anything. None-the-less, to spend some quality time with Renae, I completed the Keirsey Temperament Sorter.
Much to my approval, I was evaluated as a Mastermind. What I found even better was the description of a Mastermind’s traits:
“Masterminds are rare, comprising no more than one to two percent of the population, and they are rarely encountered outside their office, factory, school, or laboratory. Although they are highly capable leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead.
Great example:
Opening scene of House M.D. - Season 2 Deception (episode 9) where a woman becomes unresponsive in a bar House is watching a horse race at. Upon collapsing House asks: "Is anyone here a doctor!?" Upon no one responding he takes action. I was unable to find a video clip of the opening scene, please let me know if you find a video of this, thanks! Amazon Instant Video
Once they take charge, however, they are thoroughgoing pragmatists. Masterminds are certain that efficiency is indispensable in a well-run organization, and if they encounter inefficiency -- any waste of human and material resources -- they are quick to realign operations and reassign personnel. Masterminds do not feel bound by established rules and procedures, and traditional authority does not impress them, nor do slogans or catchwords. Only ideas that make sense to them are adopted; those that don't, aren't, no matter who thought of them. Remember, their aim is always maximum efficiency.
In their careers, Masterminds usually rise to positions of responsibility, for they work long and hard and are dedicated in their pursuit of goals, sparing neither their own time and effort nor that of their colleagues and employees. Problem-solving is highly stimulating to Masterminds, who love responding to tangled systems that require careful sorting out. Ordinarily, they verbalize the positive and avoid comments of a negative nature; they are more interested in moving an organization forward than dwelling on mistakes of the past.
Masterminds tend to be much more definite and self-confident than other Rationals, having usually developed a very strong will. Decisions come easily to them; in fact, they can hardly rest until they have things settled and decided. But before they decide anything, they must do the research. Masterminds are highly theoretical, but they insist on looking at all available data before they embrace an idea, and they are suspicious of any statement that is based on shoddy research, or that is not checked against reality.”
For better or worse the qualities listed above are those I have come to embrace and will shape many of my viewpoints. The text below is my best attempt at summarizing the different stages of my life. I have decided to forgo making an extremely detailed biography of myself and instead opted to publish it in an incomplete and broken form with the intention of adding to it in the future. There still remains quite a bit of text below, but I feel as if it’s dry. I will try to make it more enjoyable later. I’ll add some pictures, maybe read it like children do picture books, scan and look at the pictures without reading the text. Might be much more entertaining this way :).
Chapter 1 Childhood –
I was born and raised by two amazing parents. Both of my parents would be considered middle class workers with my dad employed as an electrician at a local coal power plant and my mom as head of the printing shop for the Iowa Veterans Home.As I grow older, I have learned to appreciate the stability and unconditional love my parents poured into me. With a growing number of broken marriages and chaotic home life children are experiencing, I have a high respect and admiration for my parent’s dedication to one another and to me. Rearing children requires immense sacrifices and a conscious willingness to lay down one’s own desires, dreams, and often needs for the sake of attending to the child. My parents never wavered in their dedication to me and I find that amazing.
I have no brothers or sisters. Renae has given me the title of “The Golden Child” as she believes I was all my parents ever wanted wrapped up into one perfect child. She however has only known me since I turned 21 years old. I am under the impression I was all my parents could handle :).
Chapter 2 High School –
I spent the first 18 years of my life in a small farming community in central Iowa.
Le Grand has a population of roughly 800 and is the biggest town in one of those school districts that came directly from a can of alphabet soup.
LDF – Le Grand, Dunbar, and Fergeson
SEMCO – South-Eastern Marshall County
BCLUW – Beman, Conrad, Liscomb, Union, Whitten
AGWSR – Ackley, Geneva, Wellsburg, Steamboat Rock
CMB – Collins, Maxwell, Baxter
DNH – Dike, New Hartford
ENP – Eldora, New Province
GMG – Green Mountain, Garwin
LDF and SEMCO, being neighbors of course were huge rivals. Then in 1990, someone (I’m sure in the pursuit of money) decided to merge two rival school districts into LDF-SEMCO. After three years of chaos, it was renamed East Marshall, presumably in an attempt to help peacefully assimilate rivals. Personally, I think they just wanted to get out from under the cloud of alphabet soupiness enveloping the majority of central Iowa.
Le Grand boasts major businesses including (but not limited to) a gas station, laundry mat, bank, and of course the small town bar.
My high school graduating class was 55. In retrospect, I believe my physical location and middle class living conditions instilled in me a very humble attitude. If you think about it, there really isn’t anything you can be too prideful of coming from an area like this.
During high school I was involved in golf and basketball. I still thoroughly enjoy playing both of these sports today. However, as I am sure is no surprise, I do not have the time to commit to either of these two hobbies as I did in high school. I’ve decided that life is much more complicated and expensive immediately following high school and college.
Another favorite hobby was and continues to be playing cards. My favorite card game is Spades as I feel out of the games I know, it is the one that gives the better team the best chance to win. Other games I enjoy playing include Hearts, 500, Pinochle, Pepper, Gin/Rummy, poker, and I think I would really like Canasta, but I really don’t understand it at this point. Maybe in the distant future I will try and organize some online card tournaments.
Chapter 3 College –
After graduating high school I was off to the University of Iowa to complete the undergraduate requirements needed to apply to the University of Iowa’s College of Pharmacy. I decided to pursue pharmacy primarily from my experience at working as a utility worker at the Iowa Veteran’s Home pharmacy the two summers prior to college, and secondarily to my interest in mathematics and the sciences. Backup options were teaching and pilot. Pilot being ironic since I had never flown…
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| Professor Khurana |
Being an only child and coming from a middle class family where neither of my parents completed college, I really didn’t know what to expect other than the stereotypes the media plays up. As I’ve found more often than not however, stereotypes actually exist for a reason. My very first class in college was Calculus I. Since I had already completed Calculus in high school (was not for college credit though, remember: small town high school, no college credit courses offered), and math was the subjected that came most naturally to me, I wasn’t worried. Stepping into class that first day, there stood my first college professor: Professor Khurana.
I thought, “this is amazing, a Middle-Eastern man that wears a turban was going to be my professor.” Then it got better, there was no way anyone in that class could understand him other than his favorite line of: “It’s so easy!” as he simultaneously slammed the chalk into the board followed by wiping off the board with his hands and then wiping off his hands on his turban. Could there be any better stereotype?
There are numerous other stories from college, but I will save those for my actual blog posts. I applied and was accepted into the College of Pharmacy after two years of undergraduate coursework.
In the fall of my junior year I met my future wife Renae. We persevered through watching James Bond on our first date (fortunately preceded by walking downtown together to get ice cream, a walk and talk by the riverside, and an evening bike ride), a miscommunication where I thought we were breaking up, an actual breakup, and 4 intense months of long distance wedding planning to get married on August 1st, 2009.
After three years of classroom work, my 4th and final year of pharmacy school (2009-2010) was spent planning our wedding and traveling to nine different practice sites completing on the job training.
Perhaps the most influential message from my college experience was understanding the vast majority of all decisions and organizations are based on money. Honestly, I am very thankful I recognized money being the main driving force of this world at an early age. As my ‘Mastermind’ personality so eloquently states, I am opposed to anything that wastes resources. I believe in most scenarios, free markets with for-profit businesses provide the optimal conditions for eliminating waste. Stemming from this philosophy, I believe I am more receptive to the America’s capitalist structure and pursuit of financial gain than most everyone I know.
Even though I see this principle play out every day, I do not want to give you the false impression that I am a lover of money. To the contrary, I will tell you (my friends even more so) I am an extremely simple person - they use the word cheap, but I prefer simple :). I would much rather spend and have less in order to work less as compared to spending more only to work more. If I need to raise some capital, I am much more likely to cut down on my expenses than look to pick up an extra work shift.
In my final year of pharmacy school a career fair targeted for our graduating class was held. After speaking with the typical pharmacy reps I saw a booth advertising the United States Public Health Service (USPHS). At this moment the thought crossed my mind: “Renae is getting her Masters of Public Health (MPH). Someone with a MPH would surely be able to work for the USPHS.”
I’m not sure why I was so surprised a recruiting officer at a pharmacist career fair was more interested in talking about opportunities for pharmacists rather than MPHs, but thankfully he was. The USPHS is the perfect fit for me, I could not be happier with where I have been able to begin my career.
Owning our own property has enabled me to take up the fascinating hobby of gardening (picture of Russ’s Garden Sign). In addition, I spend my time with my beautiful bride Renae, reading, and attempting to gain small business knowledge and experience.
Check out Renae’s blog: Devotedly Red for more info on our lives in Bemidji. She does a great job of posting pictures and the whole creative writing thing. This will allow me to begin writing on actual issues quicker which greatly excites me.
Chapter 4 Post-College –
Wow, this has turned into quite the long biography. Thankfully I only graduated 7 months ago so not much more. Since graduating, I have moved to Bemidji, MN to work at Cass Lake Indian Health Service Hospital as a LT in the USPHS. Renae found a month by month rental on a beautiful Lake where we stayed until we bought a house and moved yet again, the 4th time in 2 years.Check out Renae’s blog: Devotedly Red for more info on our lives in Bemidji. She does a great job of posting pictures and the whole creative writing thing. This will allow me to begin writing on actual issues quicker which greatly excites me.
Chapter 5 – Future Aspirations
While nostalgia has its place, consistent with my Mastermind temperament, I am typically more interested in the future. I am looking forward, and positioning myself for the following future endeavors:- Marriage and parenting
- I look forward to spending decades together with my wonderful wife and beautiful bride and the sanctifying process of parenting
- Small business owner
- Currently in brainstorming and learning stage
- Traveling abroad
- Europe first, then the more the better
- Lifelong learning
- I love learning. It is a great joy of mine. Through reading (Russ' Recommended Reading List), TED talks, and additional college courses, I hope to be continuing learning throughout my lifetime
Future aspirations also include improving my writing. Especially transitions, introductions, and conclusions. Unsurprisingly, I am really struggling to wrap up my own biography. I have a difficult time talking about myself. This combined with my ineptitude at writing is giving me writers block. (picture)
While I try to not allow my upbringing and previous experiences to significantly influence my judgment and beliefs, I believe it is futile and foolish to try and dissociate these from my perspectives. Instead, it is my aim to be as transparent as possible by disclosing any potential sources of bias. I encourage you to review my self-disclosed disclaimers section to better understand possible bias and confounding factors.
- Mastermind per Keirsey Temperament Sorter
- Transitioned from small town Iowa, to Big 10 University with turban wearing professors, to lumberjacks and flannel in Bemidji Minnesota
- Renae (wonderful wife), reading, gardening, small business owner are where I primarily invest my time, talent, and treasure
- Can’t write conclusions. Check out Disclaimers for additional disclosures and transparencies
