My life was forever changed when I met Tom Cochill. Tom was the CEO of The Lehigh Press, which was a large commercial printing company. My mother, who raised me as a single parent, worked for him as his secretary for many years. When I was fifteen years old, she went to Tom and said, "I have a kid who is full of potential and highly motivated but I have no idea how to guide him. Would you be willing to meet him?" Tom graciously agreed, and the next weekend our forty-year mentorship would begin. That Saturday, he took me to a house he had recently purchased that could only be described as a mansion. My entire childhood home could have probably fit in his kitchen alone. It was located on Rose Lane in Haverford, Pennsylvania. I started by doing demo work, removing lathe and plaster from the ancient walls. While we worked, he and I would converse and I got to do my favorite thing, ask questions. I asked about a hundred questions that day, and he patiently and thoughtfully answered every one.

Tom was a very meticulous and well-executed man, and in my mind he represented success. He was everything I could see myself becoming, and throughout the years he became a father figure to me. He was the only father I ever had as my own was not around. He taught me about everything there is to know, from business to life experience and pushed me to be the best man I could be, both personally and professionally. The reason Tom and I's relationship lasted for so many years and continued to be so great was that we both genuinely liked each other. He would fill my bucket with such advanced knowledge but never made me feel inferior to him.
Every relationship can be looked at as though it's a bucket with water in it. Good relationships are maintained only when one takes water from the bucket but always replenishes it as equally as it is taken. If one half of the relationship is constantly taking from the bucket and never giving, it will eventually be left empty and the relationship will become exhausting and undesirable. People will naturally maintain relationships with people they like. The bucket will never be empty with someone like Tom.

The mentorship that started over forty years ago continues to this day. Tom is now in his eighties and we live fifteen minutes from each other in Scottsdale, Arizona, a long way from Haverford where we first met. I chose this story for my first blog post because an enormous amount of the knowledge I have acquired has come from that forty-year alliance. One reason why Tom was so profound to me was that we talked about things I hadn't talked about with anyone because no one in my life understood who I wanted to become up until that point. Over time, he taught me that there are a myriad of ways to improve your position in life. He showed me that there are good people that will help you for nothing more than the pleasure of doing so. There have been countless mentors for me in my thirty-year career, but none have been as powerfully influential on my life as Tom Cochill.
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