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“Heroes Alongside Us, One Man’s Tale of Unlikely Success and The Men Who Made It Possible”

Manhasset Public Library Meet The Author Series

Location: Manhasset Public Library, 30 Onderdonk Avenue Manhasset, LI, 11030
Date: Wed. July 15, 2015 6:45 PM

Meet The Author Presentation
Coach Richie Moran, Nationally known NCAA, Div1, Cornell Varsity Lacrosse Coach and past Manhasset High Varsity Lacrosse Coach

Book Author Eric Rieseberg, past Manhasset resident and Manhasset High School Varsity Lacrosse Player and Member of the MHS 1967 Manhasset Booster Club Hall of Fame State Champion Lacrosse Team

Moderator Bobby Anastasia

The Key to Success – Listen!

The Key to Success
As discussed in the book “Heroes Alongside Us” February 15, 2015

When it came to academics, I was certainly not an academic success—not by most definitions. I’d had had a poor foundation: By the time I reached high school, being the son of a Naval Captain, I’d attended seven different schools. My parents rarely saw an A on my report card. I simply wasn’t an academic kid and didn’t apply myself. I was never book-smart, and didn’t particularly enjoy my textbooks or studying, even when I opened them. I loved to read, but not text books. In my early years, academic mediocrity, failure and I became very well acquainted. This experience is one that is shared by many in today’s society, children of our military, others that are left out of the template and standards of academic protocols and performance in our current school systems. And then, of course…. In order to know what is in the book… you have to read it first!
Manhasset, where I grew up during late junior high and high school, is a hamlet on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. Appropriately nicknamed “the Gold Coast,” the North Shore is well-known for its affluence and elegance, the Nelson DE Mille novels that take place there, and the many rich and famous who have called it home.
Wealth isn’t the only thing Manhasset was—and is—known for: Manhasset High School has always consistently ranked in the top one hundred high schools in the country, and the year I entered Manhasset High, it was ranked in the top ten. And there I was: a non-academic child who was suddenly injected into one of the best high schools in America. Manhasset is also legendary for “cultivating really good lacrosse players ! I knew and played with many All Americans to be lacrosse sportsmen !
Toward the end of my junior year, my parents received a call from Mrs. Crane, one of the guidance counselors, who requested that my parents come to the school to meet with her and Mr. Single, her boss. Mr. Single was the head of the guidance department and he knew me well—I was never really in trouble or a trouble maker, but often on the periphery of it. Similar to “where there’s smoke there’s fire “. Call me smoke!
“Your son Eric isn’t living up to his potential. He’s not going to make it,” Mrs. Crane authoritatively told Mom and Dad.
“I suggest Eric apply to a vocational school and become a welder or an air conditioning repairman,” she continued.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with a vocational career, but I wonder if Mrs. Crane realized she was talking to a Harvard MBA, ex-military guy who undoubtedly had high aspirations for his eldest child.
Flash forward nearly forty years: My best friend from high school and I visited Manhasset High. It was during the Christmas holiday break, so school wasn’t in session, but the front doors were open. As we walked down the main corridor, that familiar “school smell” permeated my nostrils. I searched for my locker, found it, and just stared at it. I was nudged back to the present by the faint sound of someone typing. We walked around the corner toward the administrative offices where a woman was feverishly tapping her fingers on her computer keyboard. I glanced at the name plate on the door. It read “Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Single.” The administrative assistant looked up from her work.
“Happy holidays. May I help you?” she inquired.
“Is Mr. Single around?” I asked.
“No, I’m sorry. He’s away on holiday,” she replied.
We turned to leave when the administrative assistant asked, “I’ll let Mr. Single know you were here. Who should I say stopped by?”
I answered, “Tell Mr. Single that Eric Rieseberg stopped by.”
“Is there a message?” she asked.
I paused for a moment and then chuckled, “Tell him things worked out much better than he would have thought.”
Yes, things certainly did turn out much better: at age twenty-six, I became the youngest CEO in a company that managed fifty hospitals. By the age of thirty-two, I’d enjoyed not one, but three CEO-ships. At the age of thirty-four, I was in charge of twenty hospitals. I achieved my goal of retiring at age fifty. (Huge mistake.) I’d say that by anyone’s standards, I’ve been quite successful in my life.
And by the way, my mom and dad never told me about the meeting with Mrs. Crane. In fact, it wasn’t until I was around forty years old that my dad divulged the secret meeting with my high school guidance counselor. He told me the story in his usual way, completely devoid of any emotion. Though when he finished, I detected a glimmer in his eye as he said, “It’s a good thing we didn’t listen to her.”
So, how did I, a chubby, never-got-picked-for-any-team, sub-par student from a dysfunctional family end up having things work out much better than Mr. Single—or anyone for that matter—would have thought?
One word: HEROES. I couldn’t have done it without them. My heroes were the key to my success, and a big part of the reason I’m writing in this Blog. We have started to discuss my heroes and perhaps yours already in earlier writings and in the book. We will speak of them in depth as we move along this year, but first, let’s talk and define what success really means.
What is Success?
Success looks different for each of us. However, I believe if you were to query one hundred people as to their definition of success, you would get one hundred definitions that are all quite similar. Further, if you were to ask those same people to name the top ten characteristics of success, I believe everyone would have similar components on their lists. The bottom line is that success is very similar in the views of most people.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines success as “the fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame.” In my view, it’s not enough to say someone is successful because of the amount of money in their bank account. We live in a very materialistic society: For many, financial achievement equals success. I think (particularly in America) we are bringing up our kids with the idea that they need to make a big hit financially, and that’s their ticket to success. That is absolutely wrong. I live it. I’ve been there.
Likewise, it’s not enough to say the achievement of fame equals success. Hitler was famous—and I suppose he was also successful: He achieved his goals, as horrific as they were. Hitler’s achievements do not equate to success in my mind.
My definition of success is a simple one, yet it takes the concept of success to a higher level:

Success is the achievement of a pre-determined, noble goal.
I’m not talking kings and queens, or blue-blooded aristocrats here. Noble goals are generous, good-hearted and well-meant. A noble action is something you do to help others rather than yourself. Those who accomplish noble goals typically have ideals and patterns of behavior that lead to a successful life and help their fellow man. Those of you who have focused yourselves on only the attainment of money or have taught your children that success must only be the attainment of significant amounts of money, have, unfortunately destined your kids to a long life of dissatisfaction. Do what you love, do it well and work hard to be the best. Show up to work early, work harder than the rest, stay late, do more than your peers and get up the next morning and do it all over again… there is no other way !
My mom—and probably yours, too—always used to tell me, “Choose your friends carefully.” I didn’t pay any attention to her warnings as a kid, but I know now that she was absolutely right: If you want to be successful, hook your wagon to someone who has established a pattern of achieving pre-determined, noble goals.
Learn and be influenced by the best: Hook your wagon to a hero.
Join me on my next writing in late February for our discussion on getting the good and bad. Richard Rohr an internationally known writer and Christian teacher suggest that one cannot have happiness without sadness, or perhaps, clearly success without failure. It is the context of things …that really make the difference!