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24 The PCB Magazine • October 2016 Second Chances Although Dad was a savvy and disciplined businessman he was also capable of great empa- thy when it came to his employees. "Treat them like family," he told me. "Because that is what Saturn is: a family." Though he demanded ex- ceptional performance from his employees he was never one to turn his back on them. When I was younger, one employee was battling al- coholism. One Saturday morning, Dad and I pulled up to work and saw him in the backseat of a police car. There had been a huge argument between the employee and my dad's two part- ners. It was so bad that the police needed to be involved. After being briefed on what had oc- curred, Dad sat down at his desk and the phone began ringing. It was the recently-apprehended employee. He needed someone to bail him out. Dad told him no and hung up the phone. As I watched him over the next half-hour I saw his incredulous face melt and become pensive. He got up and with nothing more than "I need to take care of something," he walked out the front door. Dad had bailed the troubled em- ployee out of jail and given him his job back. When I asked him why he bailed the man out, Dad told me that this employee had no one else that he could call and that he was a good man suffering from a disease. However, this compassion was not only extended to Saturn employees; in fact, it was also evident when a rival, as impertinent as the troubled employee, turned to him for help. I say impertinent because they had also previ- ously wronged us yet had no shame when they needed a favor. And this goes beyond helping a troubled employee. This was a competitor who, when we asked them for help, allowed a Saturn employee to wait in their lobby all day like Bud Fox waiting for Gordon Gekko before finally telling him that they did not want to help us. So when they called us, Dad was sure to give them all the help they needed and then some. For three weeks they used our facility at night to make their boards. When their facility was finally running the rival owner thanked my father and asked what the total charges would be. Dad said no charge. Shocked, the owner asked why. Dad then asked him to remember how they mistreated us years back and said that the reason he wouldn't charge was because he wanted to embarrass the owner of the rival company. Anyone can get upset and yell. But calling them out on their hypocrisy through ac- tion when they failed is far more memorable. Second Chances Respect Your Employees • Treat them like family—at the end of the day this is what your company is Being boss does not mean you aren't human • Second chances: It's okay to make a mistake as long as you only do it once True Root Cause • Put in controls to avoid repetition Feuding with Competition • Forgive but never forget There must be hundreds of lessons I've learned from Dad over the past 25+ years work- ing with him at Saturn. However, these seem to ring the loudest when I sit back and think about it. It has been a fortunate privilege to have had the opportunity to work with someone like my dad for so long and I can only hope to do my best to make him proud as we soldier on with- out him. Hopefully these lessons can help you out as they continue to help me. Thanks for reading this. PCB LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP FROM MY FATHER Figure 6: Yash, Nagji and family at DBusiness' 2013 Champions of the Economy reception where Yash received an award.