By the skin of my teeth. A personal story.

I had majored in history in college and decided I wanted to go to graduate school and then teach. The first step was to get a Master’s degree at San Jose State, where I was finishing my undergraduate work and then on to Cal at UC Berkeley for a PhD.

But to get into graduate school at San Jose I had to have a grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Mine was 2.83. Bummer.

I talked to the head of the history department. He said I could take the graduate history entrance exam and if I passed, I could get into the Master’s program even with my “thin” GPA.

The exam was the toughest I had ever taken. For one, it covered all world history: Greece, Rome. European, Russian, American (17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century U.S. history). And it was right minus wrong.

Typically, if you take an exam that has 100 questions. You get 80 correct, your score? 80. But in a “right minus wrong” exam, there is a point deducted for every wrong answer. So not only are the wrong answers not counted, but a point is deducted. So, the score in this example is 60. Tough!

If it had been a “normal” exam, I would have passed easily. But as this was right minus wrong, I came in 2 points short of the requirement to be admitted to graduate school. I was called to the office of the head of the history department to go over my test results. He explained that I had come up a couple of points short of the required score.

But the head of the department, Charles Burdick, liked me. Not sure why other than I had taken his class on World War II, a subject on which Burdick was a nationally acknowledged expert. I remember one class in which he had a former admiral from the Third Reich come and talk to us about Germany’s World War II naval strategy (this was in ’63. the war ended in ’45, so maybe this guy had done some time. Whatever, Burdick knew him and this was history from the “horse’s mouth.”)

In fact, San Jose State University recognized Burdick as the most accomplished faculty member in its history.

Well, the most accomplished faculty member in the University’s history, let me in to the graduate program and told me if my grades dropped below 3.0, I was out.

I changed my schedule: I would close myself in my infant daughter’s closet at 6 pm, turn on the hanging light bulb and study until 6 am and then, go to bed. I was up in time for my afternoon seminars. I studied seven days a week. I had straight As in my graduate work – 4.0 GPA for my Master’s degree?

Not only did I have the “incentive” from Professor Burdick, But as I studied the storied history of our country my appreciation for its development – it’s creation – soared. I was enthralled.

Oh yes, America has its warts. But study the Westward movement of America during the 19th century: the frontiersmen of the Application valley, the Davy Crocketts of Tennessee and Kentucky, the cattle drives, the cowboys and the Indian wars of the Great Plains, to the Rockies and on to California gold.

So, as my knowledge of America’s history grew, so too did my appreciation of our country’s place on the world stage.

Now, I grew up and studied during the Cold War. Communism was the evil empire, the enemy. But fast forward about 30 years – and along comes an interesting journey when, in 1991, a friend asked me to join him in Moscow to help open up a business college…That’s right in Moscow!

The trip to Russia, just a few months after the historic collapse of the Soviet Union and the banning of the Communist party in Russia, was eye opening in the extreme. I found the individual Russians that I met were not walking around with nuclear missiles in their back pockets. No, they were among the nicest people I had ever met.

And those relationships destroyed the fixed ideas I had about the Russian people. Ideas that had been pounded into my mind over the years by the government-controlled media here. A subservient press is a repugnant blight on our culture. It needs to be brought back to some semblance of honesty and respect (The New York Times has long been a mouthpiece for the CIA). But that’s another story.

And, truth be told, these were ideas that I had accepted without much challenge.

In Russia, (I travelled to Russia 5 times in the early 90s) my love of country never changed, but my view of the Russian people certainly did.

At any rate, by the time I spoke at the opening of the business college, I had a successful survey company. And when it came time for my talk (about 6 of us had come to Moscow for this opening) I gave a talk on the values of surveys. There were about 200 attendees at the opening of the college (probably most of the “entrepreneurs” in Moscow at the time:)

You have to understand the mind of the Russian businessman at that time. In talking to these folks, one came to understand their viewpoint, which had been conditioned by the fact that for 70 years, the State owned everything.

The idea that one could create a product or service without government approval, and sell it for more than it cost them and pocket the profit, instead of turning it over to the government, was unheard of.

When I explained that one could survey the public one was trying to sell their product to and find out what promotion was likely to increase their sales and income…well… Revolutionary.

Of course, we know this in free market America. Indeed, virtually every major brand in the world uses surveys to boost sales. So do small to medium sized businesses.

How do I know this?

My company has been helping companies increase their sales and income for over a quarter of a century with the use of surveys.

“When we implemented On Target’s research survey findings, our profits increased and marketing costs decreased. From a financial analysis of our company, we discovered that over a two year period, On Target Research saved our firm over $300,000 a month or a ball park total of $7.2 million dollars so far.”

R C
President

This story, from my years as a graduate student to helping Russian entrepreneurs, with a dash of political philosophy thrown in, is told with an eye to helping you increase your sales and income. With an eye to helping you flourish and prosper.

Can we be of service?

If so, contact me via phone or email using the links below.

Best,
Bruce

Bruce Wiseman
President & CEO
On Target Research
www.ontargetresearch.com
Br***@**********an.net
1-818-397-1401