Katie Couric has interviewed fascinating people in her career, including the famous folks she contacted for her New York Times best-seller, The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives (Random House, 2012). Maya Angelou, Jimmy Carter, Ken Burns and others shared advice about life, happiness and success. It inspired a reader named Jacqueline so much that she wrote this review on Amazon.com: “Very nicely done and well worth reading. I am 77 and still learning. Makes you stop and think what you might have written if Katie had asked you.”
Well, I’ve been asking some folks in the pool/spa industry the “best advice” question for the View. My most recent victim – I mean, interviewee – was Bob Foutz Jr., a veteran service professional and owner of Purity Pool Service in Huntington Beach, Calif. He didn’t have to think long to come up with an answer. Here’s his response:
“I was little – 10 or 12 – and my family was going to a popular restaurant. The owner was a local legend in Long Beach (Calif.), and he was out with a crew with shovels. I wondered why he wasn’t in the kitchen cooking, or out shaking hands [with diners] like he usually did, and asking them ‘How are you doing?’ Instead, he was helping these guys. My dad said, ‘Never trust a man who is afraid of getting his fingernails dirty.’ … In my own life, I’ve found that they’re not team players.”
