During the next few weeks, Nick Jacobs, our beloved hospital CEO blogger will be sharing his unconventional journey to becoming a hospital CEO. I doubt you'll find a hospital CEO out there today with a more colorful, varied, and interesting path as Nick.

Part I: Life Falling Apart.
Part II: Carpet Pieces
Part III: Please, anything but hospitals!

by Nick Jacobs

It was after ten years of loving kids, but hating the former football coach principals who controlled the schools that it became obvious to everyone around me that a career change was needed. It was not being able to afford winter tires or even a trip to New York City to see a Broadway show that reinforced my decision.

After a six-month job search, the only company willing to embrace my skills was a fund raising organization made up of 123 sales representatives, 122 of who had been successful band directors. The owner of this particular company, a former bible salesman, had come to realize that anyone who was willing to stay inside and practice an instrument while his friends were hanging out at the corner store had self discipline to do whatever life warranted in order to achieve both personal and company goals.

The training offered by this company was exceptional. We had the time management expert from IBM. He successfully moved my scheduling capabilities into a new era of total and complete anal retentiveness. Dr. Denis Waitley, the U.S. Olympic and Miami Dolphins positive mental attitude psychologist taught us about taking control of our own life and making things happen by being positive. It was an amazing education.

The company assigned me to cover fourteen school districts, eleven of them had teacher strikes. Then the first gasoline crisis hit, and gasoline was not something that anyone could buy. We also discovered an insufficient beam held up by building jacks in our new home in suburban Pittsburgh. Needless to say, our life almost fell apart.

In spite of all of these setbacks, my customer visitation statistics were the highest in the United States. We worked harder and longer than anyone in the company. Unfortunately, because of the strikes, there were not enough sales to earn even one fourth of the salary expected by my family.

My wife cried nearly every day. She missed our friends and neighbors. Nine months into the only major life failure that had ever touched my world, we made a decision to move back to Johnstown. It cost us our life savings, and after ten years of marriage, placed a great deal of strain on everyone involved.

What would I do now?