~ * ~
Back at home on routine days, he would get up at four in the morning, jog around town, tidy up, and savor a coffee or tea just a block away at the Thanks a Latte, while poring over the local newspaper. At the end of the day, he would change out of his professional attire and into his workout gear, use his home gym, and then go kayaking or canoeing along the nearby AuSable River. He had an agreement with Borcher’s Bed and Breakfast near the river just off of Maple Street. Many of his visitors from out of town would stay there and he was a respected local employer, so, they gave him his own key to their storage bay. He would pull out his canoe or kayak and then paddle up or down the river and back. Sometimes he would bring a coworker or two. He tipped the B&B handsomely and often, so their arrangement was ideal for both of them.
Moments of solitude to reflect on his day were something he treasured greatly, and this was how he would ponder on the people who worked for him or on any upcoming projects.
As a Contracted Project Manager for YY Corp, an architectural corporation established in the 1920’s out of Bay City, Michigan, James managed large infrastructural projects that were contracted out to him and his crew, and he parsed the different aspects of the project to mature completion between the crewmembers. He could do all of this while working out of his office in Grayling. On many occasions and quite regularly, he traveled the globe with his crew for projects everywhere, but this was his home base. No matter where he was, he would greet each of his employees as he passed them with a genuine smile and a “thank you” for something of honor he had noticed as they worked together, coordinated the various aspects of a project effectively, or if he saw their community involvement in the local news. He cared about those he supervised, so, whenever he could, he would send them home once their daily training, planning, checklists, and tasks were complete with a full day's pay, so he could finish all of the paperwork.
Despite being part of a construction firm, James Cooper understood the political aspects of corporate and he cleaned up and wore business professional attire for his corporate meetings in Bay City. To James it was essential he looked the part, so he could help his crew out, win the fight, and come home. When he was back at his office in Grayling and working with his crew he would wear his construction gear and roll up his sleeves to coordinate the projects and work with them.
James was fair, and despite being in a construction environment which was typically and overwhelmingly populated by men, his crew was divided equally between women and men. He hired based on character and a desire to work. If he was hiring, he hired people who came in to request to do the job or be a part of his team, since he could motivate and train them to do anything they put their minds to do, so long as they were willing to make the basic effort of reliability. After he put his crew together in 1995, four retired within those thirteen years, and four more were likewise trained and integrated into his crew.
Five of his eight construction teams were led by women; most of them were actually quite striking, and so much so, they were often told they ought to pursue modeling. A couple of the women leaders had personalities others found a little easier to chat with without all the tension seemingly existent with women that were jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but they were still fit and attractive. The men there were typically clean-cut, worked out often too, and had been encouraged by James to be studious and artistic, and the women swooned over them as well. One of James’ appointed leaders was as tough as iron, yet she was still somewhat attractive despite her larger than average and muscular stature. James had a soft spot for genuine people, and all of those who worked with him were real, unique, and kind. His team leads were all great workers yet were of a demeanor that was of a great source of morale for each person in his crew, and as such their character translated into shared motivation, instruction, mentorship, and leadership.
James treated each person in his crew in a professional manner, yet in many ways as if they were siblings, or best of friends, and honorably personal confidants. As a result, to him, his crew was like a family. No matter their background or their past, with James, they became highly capable and hardworking. They had each other’s backs, loved their world, considered the well-being of all who were in the crew and their families, and they would never violate shared trust or personal integrity by throwing a fellow coworker, or anyone else for that matter, no matter the issue, under the theoretical or real-life bus. James had his own deeply-entrenched set of values, was consistent, and had his crew’s back at all times; likewise, they had his back and loved his management style.
He wasn’t materialistic, despite his belief in self-marketing, he didn’t do things for status or popularity, and rather instead he did what was necessary and smart. He would often go to the St Francis Thrift Shop for most of his belongings and even his clothes. He typically did an amazing job of looking around and selecting items; so, no one could tell, unless they’d seen him in the store. No matter what he had, he looked good and made humility a popular thing despite simply being himself. On occasion and as needed for the respect necessary to win the political charades at corporate, he would go to the North Country Corner wardrobe store to purchase his professional attire.
Often, he would try out recipes to test his chef skills, and if the results were delicious, he would treat his coworkers to his chef-like talents. The Save-A-Lot and Family Fare grocery stores were on the east part of town, so he’d shop around between the two stores online, and then drive his silver 2002 Hyundai Elantra around for sundry needs, to include healthy, organic, and nutrient-dense food and ingredients.
While he appreciated the flashy vehicles, James did his part to get only what he needed along with what would suffice to get any job done. He kept his car clean, washed, and waxed. From his point of view, he had a frequent drive to Bay City anyway, this car had great gas mileage, and he’d get a rental truck if he ever needed one for personal purposes.
James and his crew were dubbed “The 97,” and it was written that way on a sign above his office building in Grayling. Even though The 97 was a subsidiary of YY Corp, and they had permitted him to do what he wished, so long as he finished the projects he agreed to complete, corporate was full of examples of lives destroyed, people fired, and subcontractors who had been sued to decimation. Nevertheless, he would go to Bay City, into the YY Corp Offices, and then return to Grayling to get his crew briefed on the latest projects and the nuances of the highest technologies. He and his crew would hone their skills, train each other up in every way, and then use their new skills to benefit more than corporate or consumer, but everyone walking by any building they built, and they would build the type of infrastructure that would help to make tomorrow a better future. The infrastructure built by The 97 came with free private parks, more than enough underground parking, wide sidewalks with accommodations for families with pets, separate lanes for those jogging or walking, and a couple of lanes in both directions for those on bicycles. Within reasonable distance from any point around a building, there were recycling and trash receptacles with conveyances for contracted service. The areas around the buildings they built were crafted into beautiful and peaceful environments loaded with flora and fauna, as well as eateries that were of the highest quality, but less expensive. Together with his crew, he would ensure the details, the plans, and what was needed to bring a shared vision into reality were clear, communicated eloquently, and delegated effectively.
Even though James was a single man, he didn’t go to work to date, he simply believed that everything we do and everything we say is marketing ourselves, so it is our responsibility to be at our best, or to simply be humble and kind, to appreciate this world and its beauty, and to stay motivated toward the quality and efficiency of the services we render. Even though he, himself, was single with no children, he was good with his crew’s children, and many had grown up and gone to college during his thirteen years as their boss. Beyond his crewmember’s phenomenal parenting, much success was due to James’ mentorshi
p, his coaching, his one-on-one monthly interviews, his training, and because of the battles he won before his corporate bosses, for and in behalf of his crew. The ladies appreciated him for his sterling nature around the children, yet he rarely noticed, since his heart was in devotion to their safety, their well-being, as well as the sanctity of life and of purpose, and he seldom thought of himself, other than his overall health and fitness. Many felt he deserved to have a life-mate, a unique companion of his own, but they never pressed the issue too much, beyond some encouragement, knowing that in time he would find a life partner, and all would be well.
Just as it was with his work, when it came to companionship, he wanted to spend his life with someone who shared larger goals beyond themselves, like he and his crew. He wanted her, whoever she might be, to be capable of loving and taking care of her home and herself through thick or thin. Just as he would expect from himself, he would expect honor, trust, love, and dignity from her, no matter where either would travel, from the furthest reaches of known life, to home itself, taking charge of her own dreams and goals freely, and enjoying her life throughout each of her pursuits, and all for a greater purpose. Ultimately, no matter how busy things were, one day, things would slow down, they would settle down, and then, yes then, they would consider relaxing, taking a break, and analyzing what else they could do to make the future better still, and not just for themselves, but for others around them as well.
Many would never have guessed that he had ever considered dating. He looked great to all of the women he probably would have found interest in, but he was interested in more than looks. His biggest goal with regard to dating, despite all, was to find someone with a fired-up vision of what could be done to improve the world. He imagined in his own way that he would be able to work with her and his existing crew someday to do something amazing. Beauty to him was something that was a full-package deal. If he were to date, it would be without drama, and loaded with dreams, hopes, and goals, as well as plans to help each other realize them.
~ * ~
Born on July 9, 1973, at the Stanford University Hospital, he opened his eyes for the first time to a mother and father who were both in college, but they were deeply entrenched within the hippy and drug era. While some hippies were such for moralistic reasons, others were there for the reckless form of hedonism and drugs. His biological parents were part of that movement purely to numb their minds from the abuses they’d suffered courtesy of the puritanical platitudes of their own parents growing up. Due to their drug abuse, his biological mother and father had neglected his crucial care at an early age, and so much so, that he was eventually taken from them by the California State Social Services when he was eighteen-months-old and placed into a variety of foster homes enduring various forms of abuse until he was six years old.
His “real” parents, or the two wonderful couple who took him in when he was six years old and they were fifty-years-old, battled the court system for three years while fostering him until they could adopt him under their terms while living in San Jose.
When he was ten, they moved north of the Bay Area just outside a small town within Lake County, California, to give him a chance to start fresh. The school systems there were of a humble yet high quality, the teachers had a wonderful reputation for being excellent mentors and educators, and it was a chance for a new network of peers who knew him only as a Cooper.
It was on a ten-acre area of land at the top of a hill just five miles from the main part of town, overlooking where Highways 29 and 75 intersected, near the base of an ancient and dormant volcano, that he lived. It was here that his father taught him his work ethic and both of his parents taught him to love and to trust again. They were both very affectionate with each other despite their age, laughed with one another, and they even managed to bring out James’ humor and wit on many occasions throughout his childhood. They also owned a vast home library of historical, cultural, scientific, political, management, and positive thinking literature books, and his parents openly shared their literature with him. Among his favorites to read in his own small library within his room were the full Tom Swift, Tom Corbett, and Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators collections, and each was his favorite of the science fiction and mystery genres. On occasion, his mother or father would read from marked selections of books from their own larger library, and provide mentorship using theoretical environmental examples or day-to-day experiences.
His father had been a baker since childhood and had become a real estate agent, as well as a handyman born and raised in the late 1920s and throughout the ‘30s, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His mother had been a homemaker who eventually went to college when she was fifty-eight when James was in Junior High School and became an activities coordinator at senior citizen’s centers around the area. His parents were both born in 1929 and had been together ever since they eloped in the forties. Regardless of their humble background, they were studious, thoughtful, and caring and they taught him to be thoughtful, honorable, and considerate of others as well. They taught him to be well-balanced through their example and mentorship and reminded him often how unique and loved he was as a human being. “Many are born into their families with little choice on who will come along, and you were chosen to be a part of our family. You are wonderfully unique.” His parents would say. They were structured, disciplined, frugal, and no matter his past or his background, they loved him as their own.
In this small town, from the age of ten through graduation from high school, he studied well, placed well in academic testing, and when he wasn’t doing homework he was working hard on the family acreage, clearing the area of fire-hazardous dry weeds, star thistle, dead shrubs and trees, and all while building rock terraces from the cinder rocks and obsidian that lie scattered about the property to make way for gardens and walkways, as well as fruit orchards of many kinds for canning and fresh enjoyment. He searched for fallen trees along the perimeter or anywhere around the property to prevent forest fires and to break them down into their various sizes, from kindling to long-burning oak and madrone, and he placed the resultant firewood into their refurbished greenhouse allowing it to dry enough throughout the summer for use during the blustery and cold winter. He was a hard worker who aimed to please his parents—in his heart of hearts, he reciprocated their love through his diligence, and by honoring his father’s name.
It was during his high school years that he started to feel a connection toward architecture and upon graduation, he coordinated with his parents to allow for a small funding of assistance to travel the vast region of the United States in order to find himself. Once everything was planned and ready, he went on a trip across the country stopping at various locations to get to know it well. From California to Maine he visited many beautiful hot spots, yet he recalled his moments most fondly with his time spent in Michigan and returned after his long trip with the intentions of living and working there. His parents financed his training, wherein school he earned a large variety of certifications in construction professions. He took his qualifications and then applied to work for a well-established high-technology architectural firm, based out of Bay City.
In those days, as long as you walked in and filled out the hiring forms, you could be hired on a trial basis and with on-the-job training. If you met the company’s goals and they met your goals, you could stay on with opportunities for advancement. He did just that and dedicated his life to helping develop, build, and improve upon all manner of architectural buildings, laboratories, offices, and industrial complexes throughout the country, in a manner benefiting the consumer and the company the best way he knew. He believed that if he built something, it ought to be made to last and with high quality. Every building where he and his crew were involved did just that unless as time went by they weren’t properly maintained. In some cases, they endured the test of time anyway.
Five years in, by the age of twenty-two, he had demonstrated an uncanny knack for leadership and craftsmanship, he ha
d also completed his Bachelor of Applied Science in Management during his free time, and the corporation he worked for promoted him and assigned him to an office in Grayling, where he could manage all projects sent his way or to that office and he would take on tasks or delegate them as a Regional Architectural and Construction Manager. Within his first year, working with all who were already employed at his new office he had developed a fully-trained and closely-knit crew of ninety-seven personnel, including himself. He had worked with his crew and designed an iron-clad management and integrated worker-leadership cycling system to ensure maximum worker participation, capacity, and process flow.
Indeed, James’ highly-rated and high-valued crew of ninety-seven was appreciated, recognized for its phenomenal results, awarded, and rewarded regularly. James’ influence on his crew extended even further, to include their families and his community in Grayling. He was loved, but it never went to his head. He knew that increasing the health of the work environment reduced unhealthy forms of stress, which affected everything in a cyclical manner, overall increasing camaraderie, innovation, and loyalty. He safeguarded his crewmembers’ employment, he listened to them, he gave them proper and due acknowledgments, he made sure that safety briefs were genuinely homing in on the well-being aspect of all involved, he instructed them with clarity on the details of each mission, he protected their benefits, and he ensured they had two months of vacation every single year, even after retirement, all expenses paid.
Before each weekend he held briefs giving accolades to those who shined in production. He delivered small pep-talks to the whole crew about how each of their efforts each week had impacted the mission of the company in a good way. He kept things real, yet he was kind and compassionate. He gave key points, statistics, and an early release with a full day's wages to his whole crew when daily and weekly shared goals were met.
Further than Before- Pathway to the Stars Page 23