Former Chairman & President of Armstrong International, a $2B NY Stock Exchange Co. discusses his view of life after work. Bill hates the word retirement. Instead, he sees a wonderful period of time to do "what you want." You can follow what fascinates and motivate you until it no longer does so. And then you can follow what fascinates and motivates you now. Bill believes that you need to stay engaged and follow your passion. He has 25 years of experience in doing this.
Transcription:
Intro 00:04
Welcome to Changing the Rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best lives and advice on how you can achieve that too. Join us with your lively host, Ray Lowe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Bill Adams00:15
Welcome, everybody. We're sitting here this afternoon, actually, it is afternoon, but you're not supposed to know that. And we're in our brand new studios here in Willow Street, Pennsylvania. And we have a great engineer here, Luke Cagno, who's running our soundboard and who's going to make us sound great. And I have a really exciting, intriguing guest today. And his name is Bill Adams, and we're going to come back to him in a second. I want to remind everybody that the luckiest people in the world are people who create their own lives, design them personally, step into them and live them under their own terms. And unfortunately, we have rules that are given to us by people all throughout our lives. Our parents gave us rules. The church gives us rules. The schools give us rules, our jobs give us rules. And the problem with rules is that rules either have to be followed, or they're things that we can't do. And I think it was Steve Jobs, the president of Apple that came in and said, you know, if you're living your life under other people's rules, you're not living your life. And we have a really great guest today, who I think is pretty good at breaking the rules, or at least changing them and making them do what he wants to do, Bill Adams. And before I let Bill Adams talk, let me give you a couple of key points about his life. And Bill, you can correct me if I'm wrong on these. So, Bill Adams guided Armstrong World Industries through some of the stormiest years in its 134-year history. He's a native of Dubuque, Iowa, he joined Armstrong in 1956, as an advertising copywriter. He became chairman and president in March of 1988, just as the booming economy of the 1980s was about to stagnate, and he found himself coping with a harsh business climate that shoved Armstrong into unprofitability. He led the firm's successful defense against takeovers and brought them back to profitability before he actually retired in 1996, I believe. So, for those of you who don't know Armstrong, it was a public company, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and it was a $2 billion company with 10,000 employees. And so we have a gentleman here who managed a good-sized company and Bill Armstrong, welcome to Changing the Rules. Thanks. Good to be here. Okay. Now, I described you originally as a hard-charging business executive, and you corrected me on that. So take a minute and tell us about your management style because I think it's important in the way you think, Well, I didn't object to, I want to modify the idea of hard-charging, there is this image, the CEOs are almost like commanders on a bridge, who are saying do this and do that. Your role really I leading an organization. First of all, I think is to have the longest planning view of anybody there. Where are we going, essentially the key choosing and trying to shape the organization to compete in the right markets against the right competition with the right offer. And then you got to think about the structure. Do you have the, you know, the financial structure, the employees structure, the ethical structure all the way through? So it's not so much hard charging is it is, I think, essentially finding out where you can make a difference. I'll say this, the decisions that are brought to you which you often share with the board are not the easy ones they've been taken care of. They're the tougher ones, the toughest one of all have to do with people. So I'd like to look at that job has being a lucky one for me. I got there because of good luck, which I won't get into now. Turns of events which worked out in my favor, but I like to look at it as being one who serves the company to get where it wants to go.
Ray Loewe04:29
Okay, so now let's get into what we really want to talk about. We've established your credentials over here and what you've been able to do. But you're also an expert, I'm going to use a bad word, at retirement, because you've been retired for how long now?
Bill Adams04:47
Little over a quarter of a century.
Ray Loewe04:49
Okay. So you hate the word retirement as much as I do. So what's the substitute word?
Bill Adams04:56
Well rewirement, I think you're rewired. Let me point out when you're in any part of the organization, you could be a plant manager, you could manage an accounts payable department, you have to use your time well, that's the thing where you're showing your stuff. In a company like Armstrong, you have all the financial resources, you want the human resources, the thing you got to do is decide how best to spend your time, where you're gonna make a difference. So you're very careful how you're using that time. And then all of a sudden, you're no longer employed. And you can put that time to any use you want to. People who study this say one of the very first things that people retired realize is: I'm on vacation, and I'm on vacation next week and next month, which means I really can choose what to do with my time. Other times it was chosen by others. So the question is, what are you going to do it and Ray, I think there's so much written about preparing for the financial side of retirement, I think maybe it would be of service to people approaching retirement if more were written about what are you going to do with the last third of your life Adult life. And do the math. Let's say you retire at age 62, you live to age 85, go do the arithmetic. And let's suppose that you become an adult at 18, rather than the arithmetic, you're going to find the 1/3 of your life in this non-employed period. Now there are some who retire from their main vocation and go into something else, small or large. But essentially, I think that's the feeling in the planning probably is, what am I going to do with this time? What am I going to pursue here? And right alongside of it, what am I going to do to help others do what they want to do?
Ray Loewe06:51
Okay, I should ask, I shouldn't ask you the question, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. I made an observation about you a long time ago. And we've known each other for a little while, but not an extended period of time. But I think Bill is a person who really follows what fascinates and motivates him. And I think that that's one of the things that has driven him during this period of rewirement. So talk a little bit about some of the things that you've done. And how long do you continue to do them?
Bill Adams07:26
Well, a lot of it is just personal pursuit rather selfish. That sounds neat, I'd like to be part of that. I played golf ever since I was 12. And I played a lot of tournaments. And I've always been fascinated by the role of the golf rules official. Many people don't realize that the golf rules officials, they're not to exact penalties on people but to prevent them. to help the golfer not make mistakes, you know, and you know, you help the guy who hit a ball into the creek, determine where he places the next shot. So I went to this PGA rules school and qualified at a very difficult three-hour exam, and then went out of the course, working with other rules officials, and I could use the grand term giving back to the game. But no, I give it to me, I've been fascinated with how this works and how much there is to learn about golf rules officials. Now for how long? I did it for seven years until I didn't want to do it anymore. There was no more fire in the belly. You know, you drive into the sun towards the greater Philadelphia area seven in the morning, and you drive back into the sun coming back to Lancaster. And that's when you stop. And I don't know if that's a principle, but it's one that I think might help as people think about this. I don't think I want to start this because I don't want to do it for a long, long time. You don't have to. You're not drawing a paycheck, you know, to be in a particular job, you can simply say, I want to do this until I don't want to do it anymore. If I could use another example of, in the early period, I went down to the University of Tennessee and taught if you will I call it that in the MBA graduate school. Actually, I went down there and I found myself learning more than teaching. Never mind how I got connected with that. But what I found with that was what I really wanted to was pursue an engagement with younger people, college-age people with a faculty, it was a brand new experience for me. And then there came a time when I just ran out of steam and said thank you very much, I won't be doing this anymore. That by the way were short stints, two to three weeks at a time twice a year. But it was just a great experience. And as I said I learned so much In doing that,
Ray Loewe10:01
You know, let's back up a bit, your family has always been important to you. So describe your family, and then talk a little bit about the time you allocated your family during your work experience.
Bill Adams10:15
Well, we have four children. And they have spawned 10 grandchildren right at this point. I married Susan Cole, who I met on a blind date in 1954. And we've been married for 65 years. And when I talk about my family I've got to start there, because when I was in our international operations, I was going away for three weeks at a time. And here's Susan home with four kids and all the things that have to do with it and she ran the household, she kept the family together. As far as my own time, I tried to put in a rule, if you will, changing the rules, okay? From midnight Friday, until four o'clock Sunday, I'm doing no business. I'm not opening the briefcase, and I'm not sure I could do that in today's role or social media, here, but I could then. And it may be a matter of going back on the office phone Friday night and finishing up some things. But it enabled me to really set aside that time and do lots of things with our kids and for our kids. Everything from going to rock concerts to going to baseball games with my son. And yeah, family was important. I have to say if St. Peter taps me at the pearly gates and says, what did you accomplish down there on earth? I want to mention the family first. Armstrong. yeah, that's in there, rewirement is in there.
Ray Loewe11:42
Okay, and that's still part of your life, right? You know, so what do you do with your family right now, as part of your requirement concept over here?
Bill Adams11:51
Stay in touch with them, it's so easy to do it now. I just looked today on WhatsApp at a posting from our granddaughter who two weeks ago went to Botswana with the Peace Corps. Now, there was a time years ago you wouldn't hear from him for two years. So we're staying in touch. We gathered 30 of them to play a lake at the Adirondacks in July. And that was 30 out of 34 of our extended family. So you know, we're working going with them. And you know, often you'll hear someone say they retired and spend time with her grandchildren. While I want to spend time with all the kids and watch them develop. You know, last week, our only son or third of the birth order turned 59. Now I thought woah, I can't have kids in their 60s. But I do and they're fascinating people. I will mention this too. I spent a lot of time in our international operations and got to go to a lot of neat places on somebody else's money. But one of the things we pursued in this requirements, Susan I did, was to go to cities and places with an entirely different view. I probably went to London, I think I counted one time, 50 times in my business career. But then Susan I would go back to London and rent a flat, or apartment or furnished villa for two weeks. And just decide every day, what do you want to do, it's raining, let's stay in, you know, sit by the coal stove and if you know, let's choose this, let's go to Stratford upon Avon and see a Shakespearean play. And that was a neat way to kind of indulge your interest and pursue what interests you. And so we've been traveling to South America, Italy, you know, all around the world, in fact, went two months ago to Iceland, which was on our bucket list. And that's part of being one of the luckiest guys in the world, to be able to have the financial flexibility to do that and to have the good health at age 88 to be able to do that.
Ray Loewe14:00
You know, you're still a young guy, though. Long as you think young, you're still a young guy.
Bill Adams14:05
Well, yes, but age has a limit.
Ray Loewe14:06
It does and so let's talk about that briefly, not so much from a negative standpoint, but one of the things I think we have to know is age does create problems. And I think the luckiest people in the world get around them pretty fast. So I think you've built that into your picture to a large extent. Talk to me about aging. Well, when you when you're an octogenarian things go wrong, and they do when you're in your 60s. I never thought I'd be, you know, wearing hearing aids and they're very helpful. I've had three operations on my right eye. Thank goodness, I have cornea specialists at Hopkins that know just what to do, very lucky on that. But it hasn't slowed you down.
Bill Adams14:58
Yeah, of course, it's slowed me down. But it hasn't propped me down thank God in a wheelchair, you know, I may hit that sometime. But things you know you just accommodate to it. This is the first year since I was 12 years old that I have not played a full round of golf. I played some nine-hole golf. And part of that's a physical limitation and a part of it was because of an injury from a fall. And that's one thing I developed now is the ability to fall down. I'm very good at it. And you'll see when I came into the studio, I came in today with a cane, this is not a good day for my balance.
Ray Loewe15:41
So okay, so let's go back to these people now that are entering the best third of their life or the last third of their life or how you want to put it there. You've had an interesting viewpoint in the way you've looked at this. So what is it that you would tell people to do? I mean, forget the basics of you know, stay healthy and get financially secure. Get into the stuff that makes life rich and enlightened.
Bill Adams16:13
Well, I loath to give a general prescription. But I can comment on a few things from my own personal experience and some of the things I've watched. But people are so different in their outlook on life, their interests, their financial situation, their health, their family relationships. So to say now, here are the three principles for happy retirement. No. I do say from my own experience, I've learned to be a little selfish maybe. As you come out of this vacation period, hey, I'm no longer working, I'm on vacation this week, and next week, and next month. Pick out the things that really interest you and I think you should get the greatest satisfaction out of things that interest you that help other people. Or you can go in and serve and literally, I'll mention for example, Susan, I for a couple of years, helped serve breakfast five days a week to the people of food insecurity, who were coming to First Methodist Church. I really took an interest in the bright side Opportunity Center down southwest Lancaster helping raise money for that. To provide a place where kids and adults in the southwest sector of Lancaster could come for everything from after-school classes to physical fitness and things like that. I think the greatest satisfaction comes where you'll be able to help others. Well, you know, I think this is a good place to stop, though I think what I got out of this is that you have to keep an open mind, you have to follow what fascinates and motivates you, you have to do what you want to do until you don't want to do it anymore. But you always have to do something. Yeah, let me add if you could a capstone to this. And that's my faith. I really believe the universe is unfolding as it should. And I'm a basic, incurable optimist. I think that helps a lot here. And part of it is God's in charge, it may not seem like it sometimes. But I am aware of that. And I realized my weakness and the strength I can gain from my faith through all this. So when things go wrong, that's okay. You were not guaranteed about a bed of roses. And you've got some higher power to look after you and to aspire to. And I think that's awfully important.
Ray Loewe18:51
Well, you know, thanks so much for sharing your thinking, your wisdom, your experience with us. And we've been talking with Bill Adams, and I think we're done. I think we've reached a good spot in how to think about this world of the last third of your life or however you want to look at it and Luke, why don't you sign us off and we'll be back next week with another guest.
Outro 19:18
Thank you for listening to Changing the Rules. Join us next week for more conversation, our special guest, and to hear more from the luckiest guy in the world.