NEW BREMEN — A joke played on a Minster businessman nearly overshadowed the guest speaker Tuesday at the Southwest Auglaize County Chamber of Commerce annual meeting and awards luncheon.
Bill Woehrmyer, owner of Mel’s Decorating, was given a note in his office to go to Faith Alliance Church and measure the bathroom. When he arrived at the church however, he learned that his staff had nominated him to receive the chamber’s Businessperson of the Year award.
Also receiving accolades were PX Games for the Special Achievement Award and NKTelco for the Community and Business Pride Award. All three awardees seemed to ascribe to the guidelines of “What to Chase,” the title of Keith Daniel’s address to the luncheon gathering of chamber members and guests.
Daniel, a retired business executive who grew up in the nearby village of Russia, said he first found out “what not to chase” in pursuit of success in the business world, from the small end to the billion-dollar level. Two catchphrases about his non-success are “Don’t chase short-term money” and “You can’t chase happiness — it’s fickle.”
He told of his experience toward what he first thought was his route to a success — landing a summer internship with Goldman Sachs, the largest trader on Wall Street. He thought he was prepared, holding an engineering degree from the University of Dayton and being in the process of earning a master of business administration from Duke University.
After three days at Goldman Sachs, however, “I hated it there!” Daniel exclaimed. “I didn’t fit there.” Toward his plan to become a Wall Street millionaire, “I was chasing short-term money.“
Another wrong road has led Daniel to say, “I’ve given up on chasing happiness.” He said that vast numbers of research projects and employee surveys have tried to find what makes people happy. About all that’s been found is that happy people are motivated to do good work and be very productive.
Daniel recalled when he was hired as an intern at Goldman Sachs.
“It was the best day of my life. I thought it would make me happy,” he said, “but it didn’t.” And as his career developed through the years, he’s come to conclude, “I can’t tell in advance if a future outcome is going to make me happy … happiness is just too fickle.”
So, given what not to chase, what should you chase? Daniel narrowed the pursuit to growth and motivation.
“Profits grow when people grow. So what works for a lot of people is chasing growth,” he said. He cited the 1950s findings of American psychologist Frederick Hertzberg, Daniel paraphrased, “We have an intrinsic need to do work where we feel we’re growing — or at least have the potential for growth.”
If growth is a reality or a possibility, Hertzberg found that workers are motivated. Daniel said that with growth and motivation, “You can stay jacked up for a long time and get a lot of work done.”
He told of those two chases coming together for a period of 10 years in his career. Daniel was a senior manager of two start-up computer software companies — Powersoft and SilverStream — that grew to be worth nearly $3 billion. “I was just excited to get out of bed and go to work. I was working with a great group of people … we were marketing in people and business and technology. So our growth gave us maximum motivation.”
Woehrmyer, in accepting being named Businessman of the Year, said he could relate to Daniel’s themes. In 40 years of the decorating business, he said he’s learned to “surround yourself with good people and pay them well. You’ll find your niche, and that’s how you grow.”
He added, “You’ve got to keep growing,” such as moving Mel’s Decorating last year from downtown Minster to a larger building on state Route 66 between Minster and New Bremen.
The nomination of Woehrmyer included highlights of his service to the Boy Scouts, Crescent Players community theater group, Auglaize County Fair and New Bremen Rod & Gun Club.
PX Games, winner of the Special Achievement Award, is a high school religious retreat that was created in 2011 by Chris and Becky Niekamp. Some 100 teenagers attend the retreat to hear motivational speakers and take part in games based on the “Survivor” reality TV series.
NKTelco earned the Community and Business Pride Award, according to its nomination, for “looking outside of he box” to partner with local schools by taping and broadcasting sporting events, offering internships and assisting in academic programs. Its operating radius provides telephone and internet services to the communities of New Knoxville, Sidney, Botkins, New Bremen, Minster, Fort Loramie, Anna and Maria Stein.
The Southwest Auglaize chamber is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Logan O’Neill, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said the organization has grown from 30 members in 1998 to its current 276 members.
