(00:00:11) Good afternoon, and welcome back to midday in Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary eichten glad you could join us American history is replete with stories of immigrants who have come to this country with little or nothing and made it here. It's really the essence of the American dream and today on. Midday. We're going to hear one of those stories. We're going to hear Elaine Chows story when Elaine Chao first came to America from Taiwan. She couldn't speak English and her family had little or no money, but she and her family persevered and today Elaine Chao is one of the most influential women in America Elaine Chao became a top official in the u.s. Transportation department director of the Peace Corps president and CEO of the United Way of America. She's currently a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington recently during a speech at the College of st. Catherine's Forum on women and Leadership. She talked about her life and the lessons that she's learned. Here's Elaine Chao. (00:01:09) I'm here to talk about women and Leadership and I cannot think of a more app and a more exciting topic than that in today's Times, you know, 20 years ago when I first started out. See when I used to say 20 years ago people would laugh and say 20 years ago. She looks so young. Now. It's like yep 20 years ago for hers. Okay. Twenty years ago when I started as a young Banker was citicorp in New York City. I was among the very very few women officers who were going through the management training program and at that time the people in charge were basically men and I don't say this with any kind of sexist attitude, but they were primarily men white men men in their seemingly older ages probably 40 years old at that time, but at that time they see much older. (00:02:06) But our (00:02:06) whole concept of leadership and our whole concept about Authority and about structure were so very very different. I remember how how it seemed when I was just a young Banker starting out life sitting very structured and life seemed very simple. There were the bosses. They have the corner offices the beautiful views the nice spacious surroundings the nice furniture and then they were (00:02:36) us the young ones (00:02:39) over there. You know, what the young pups fresh and ready and excited and we'd have a little desks and they were the ones that told us what to do. They knew all the strategy (00:02:51) and we just did it. (00:02:53) So it's a very structured world and at that time a lot of talk was being bandied about about management. What is that? What is a proper, you know style from management and it was always assumed that you had to what you know, you had to get gas and it was like you were you know, you had to be a effective manager the way to do that was you know, what you were just mean as a dog at least that was how it seemed that my age and and what's that phrase and I and I talked about my immigrant upbringing but if there's a phrase that I'm probably going to butcher it because I can never get into idioms right take notes and Kick-Ass that the expression you know, that was how I like you thought that you had to be and so many women at that time if you remember started out in these very severe blue or black (00:03:39) suits (00:03:42) And they had these bowties, you know, it would trying to be feminine but trying to fit into the male world. And so they had these little nice bow ties. Well, I dress for success as well II (00:03:54) emitted (00:03:57) and all this talk about, you know about promoting women sometimes sometimes hinged upon whether this woman was really this woman managed up for promotion was really tough enough, you know to take on this job of authority and some of the criticisms at that time was in fact, (00:04:19) well, (00:04:21) she's a little too easy with her people, you know, she's kind of into this participatory management thing she and she's you know, she's always asking people for opinions. She's too inclusive, you know, she should just tell them what to do and take notes and could guess. Well, we now know of course that in fact the decade of the 80s have shown But what is most valuable to the American economy today is in fact an empowered Workforce in which people can think for themselves and in which managers leaders can do the best by including others into the decision-making process so that people are empowered at all levels of the organization so that the organization as a whole can respond on a quickly on a dime to external market conditions. And now when we talk about the ideal manager or the ideal leader, what do we talk about? We talk about inclusiveness. We talk about participatory management. We talk about building consensus. We talk about empowering individuals with information so that they can act for the benefit. of the whole the organization so for women We've come a long long way but I same but I st. Kate's brochure mentions. There's still a long way to go. I'm not one of those negative more militant people I have to say that believes that there's nothing that that believes that women can't do everything. I really do believe that we can do everything within reason. That we set our minds to but along the way they're going to be trade-offs and sacrifices. And these trade-offs and sacrifices are not gender-specific. They in fact applied to every single human being that wants to advance toward a goal in a particular direction and the most important thing that anyone can do as they plot their course for the future is to understand the trade-offs that will ultimately and in avoidable e Happen and so as we talk about women and I want to share with you some of my experiences about leadership and the challenges that women face. I thought I share with you a little bit about my background president Lee and I talked about her son who had just come from Haiti at the age of 11 and he didn't speak a word of English imagine that and he didn't even speak French because and he spoke a combination. It's a creole and how difficult that must have been and yet president said that you know his if there are tons of kids like that all over our country all over the world and it's true and you're looking at one of them. I'm actually an immigrant as I mentioned to this country. My parents were born in China. There are American citizens now, but they were born in China and their early lives were we just march with Strife China in the 1940s was marked by Civil War. They will alternatively running from either the Japanese who were invading China or the Communists or the Nationalist and so their early life was in constant turmoil and they were on the refugee Trail and it was only because they were on the refugee trail that they were able to meet people from very very different backgrounds. My mother was from a landowning family. My father was from a peasant Village and had it not been for the turmoil of War. They would have never met because their class differences in that particular time would have never allowed them to meet And so out of that turmoil out of that change came something good and that was the erasing of the old and the dynamic of the new and so my parents met. And they were separated on the refugee Trail they met but they were separated again and my mother went with her family to Taiwan. They had the resources to do so and so they left for Taiwan. But in the process they lost everything because my father my grandfather entrusted his fortune to someone and this person absconded and was never found again and when they landed in Taiwan, they had nothing. My father was a young man of great dreams. He actually would have been of the great peasant class that mounts a tongue at that time was was was trying to promote so had he, you know been around he actually would have benefited because he had pure peasant blood running through him, which was then the New Order of society, but he was an inventor has young man and he wanted to see the world. He came from a little village outside of Shanghai and he wanted to see the world and so his father. His father my grandfather did a wonderful thing in that time when when people stay close to home and when they didn't go very far he gave his son blessing the blessing to go and join the Merchant Marine. So my father went on a three-month Apprentice ship to go on this Merchant Marine. And would you believe it during the three months the Communists took over? They blockaded the port of Shanghai and he was never able to go back. So he set sail from China from Shanghai with the rest of his crew mates and they went to Taiwan in that one act of love my grandfather in granting his only son the opportunity to see a new world understanding that the world is so much bigger than this little village never got to see his son again and his wife my grandmother never saw their (00:10:55) son again. (00:10:57) What on Taiwan where they both landed they eventually met and it's a wonderful love story and it shows the Triumph of the human Spirit. Once again, my father knew that this woman Ruth. That's her name was it was around Taiwan so he took him two years, but he went to visit every single school because he knew that she was around High School age. And so he traveled all around Taiwan found her. And during the process he pretended he was her long-lost like cousin. And in those times was kind of you know, it was kind of believable because the world was so chaotic, you know people were trying to find their lost relatives all the time. So he finally found her they got married had me in that order. You have to say that these days and when I was 5 years old my father and my mother made the very momentous decision that they wanted to come to America. He was a young man without connections Taiwan was still suffering from the aftermath of a war and he wanted to find opportunity and so he came to America and it took him three long years before he was able to bring the rest of us and that that time with my sister and myself and my mother to America. And when I think about that now I think about a young couple and their 20s leaving behind everything that was near and dear to them to come to America, but they were convinced that America was a wonderful country full of opportunities and that it's people were generous and kind and decent and that they would have a fair start here. And so my father came when I was five we came when I was eight and I didn't speak English at all either. And my parents, you know, my father worked a lot and he held three jobs because we were so we were so strapped for more cash and for a resources and we couldn't go back home. There was no one back home. And so my mother I think at that time was just so overwhelmed with trying to deal with at that time two kids a new life in America not speaking the language at all. She did something that was pretty surprising and the president I talked about she plopped us down in front of the television all the time in effect just to kind of help us, you know, just to learn English to babysit for us, you know, and interestingly enough it was not until literally two years ago think of how many years have passed that I learned what her feelings were at that time. She said, you know, I never told anyone because I was so afraid to but she said when your father Left that little apartment every morning when we first arrived in America and left me with the two kids. I just prayed I was horrified. I was terrified that he would never re enter those doors again at the end of the day every day. She said I was terrified that he would not come back home. She didn't speak English. She didn't know any of the social service agencies. She didn't know anything about America. So but anyway, so we would plopped in front of the television and we had wonderful experiences as a little children. For example, when you watch television and you're trying to learn English and someone tells you about, you know, some things and and you start to think you wonder about lots of little things like why is relief spelled rol a IDs (00:14:47) couldn't (00:14:48) couldn't figure that one out. And then also we were going to school so we would learn about we would learn about aunts and uncles and learn English and then we would be someone very nice or take us out to a picnic and they would say, you know, they will show us what a picnic was like what a barbecue was like and we were so confused because we're our culture culture is we spoke with the greatest of respect for our relatives and here were these people talking about their aunts like you would not believe. Well, of course they were talking about a NTS and we were thinking a unts and then also barbecues, you know, Darkness things barbecues. We had just come from Taiwan a third world country. It was a real big deal to cook indoors to have like kitchens. And here we're Americans they had their own kitchen and gosh darn it. They cooked (00:15:46) Outdoors (00:15:48) couldn't understand that. But I learned English Slowly by total immersion. Basically, I went to class not understanding a word of English. It was his third grade and I would copy whatever was on the board right onto my book my little notebook and every night when my dad came home around probably 10:30 or 11 or 12. He would wake me up in my little nap and we will go over that day's lesson and sometimes in my child your scroll. I would flip the D's and the bees and the peas and the queues so he had a very very difficult time understanding what the day's lesson was. But during those those days those years of hardship when I came and we had so little and my father sacrificed so much to get his family to America. I learned a great deal about life. I learned a great deal about America. I learned a great deal about the basic generosity and goodness and kindness of people in this country and that's an important lesson with which to fortify one's life. I had the tremendous benefit of a loving caring home and I had the benefit of extremely optimistic and inspiring parents who believed that regardless what the present adversity was going to be that we were never never. Going to be stuck in this position forever. And when you have hope as strong as that the present adversity that then-current adversity Fade Away in importance when you're started toward the goal, you know where you want to go and you know that there's a better world out there. Every day that you live becomes a joy and a tremendous positive challenge. (00:17:53) So when I (00:17:54) came out of my home and went to Mount Holyoke College and went to Harvard Business School, my world is very different. I mean when I went to Mount Holyoke, I didn't know how to use silverware. Because I always went home for lunch. No one ever taught me. And gracious living on Wednesday nights, Aman Holyoke College. Well forever ranked as the bane of my existence. Looking literally at that vast array of silverware was truly to an Asian America like an operating table. Where do you start? Which one do you pick up? You're trying to be cool and you try not to embarrass yourself. And then I think about one of my other teachers who is a wonderful teacher in Virginia Galbraith my economics professor. She was truly an independent woman at a time when there were not very many Independent Women she was divorced. Can you imagine She had a house that she built in the south of France that she would go to every summer and she had a house in South Hadley, Massachusetts that was designed by Philip Johnson and she has mies Van Der rohe chairs. It was like unbelievable. This is sophisticated really woman and she taught us so much about what it meant to be independent and how you can make it in this world by being careful with your own financial future by planning ahead. And by having faith and confidence in yourself. And so when I enter Mount Holyoke when I entered Harvard at that time, it was still incredibly different world. When I applied for Harvard Business School. I never even met anyone who went to Harvard. I mean that's to tell you how how different my world was and my dear Dad. He's so great. He used every connection. He can possibly get to try to meet a Harvard Business School graduate so we can ask someone for advice on how to fill the application out. Will the happy end of that story is now I have four sisters who went to Harvard Business School. So we're ready to give anybody here who's got kids or anything any of us and how to fill out the (00:20:15) application. (00:20:19) But my parents also viewed within me a tremendous sense of service. And in their gratefulness to this great country, I now have I now have Five Sisters of their six girls now, but in their gratefulness to this country, they've always in kind of an Asian tradition have designated their first born to be in public service. And so I'm the firstborn and I've always been involved in public service in the nonprofit sector and I've been very very fortunate when I talk about leadership today and I think about all the women in this room, I think about how each and every one of you have the potential to be leaders and that each one of us have a sphere of our own that we have an influence on and have a capacity for leading. When I think about my experiences, for example, is it as the deputy secretary of Transportation? It was a number two position in the Department of Transportation Department with a budget of 30 billion several things happen on my watch which I had the responsibility to lead one was Pan Am 103 a very painful chapter in our country's aviation history that was in December of 1989 and I was a representative that represented the American government apart from the American ambassador the time to work with the police of Lockerbie in Scotland. Yard tried to retrieve the personal effects of the victims to their families. I was also involved with San Francisco earthquake and try and have him been in San Francisco recently. Any one of you the Embarcadero freeway is gone. We were involved in redoing the whole landscape there. I was also involved in the Exxon Valdez the oil spill we were involved in the cleanup and Tracy. All Moline is here. She's a wonderful Communications person for st. Kate's and a Communications person is worth their weight in gold because we live in a world of instant information and we have a responsibility as people in the public sector to get the information out and in working with the Exxon Valdez people. I think Tracy could have helped them a great deal. We don't have time to go into specific stories. But Exxon spent four billion dollars in the first year alone. Do you think they got any credit for it? Very little and I think partly it's because they did not communicate effectively. And then Hurricane Hugo I was involved with with the working with the of the island Caribbean islands on Hurricane Hugo less. You think that I somehow triggered all of those tragedies. It's not the case but in a case like that where there's so much going on. I think the role of a leader in sending a message of calm and a message that someone is indeed on top of the situation is very important, but more important than that is with everything. It's important to build a team and in every single one of those crises situations, the team has to come together in the federal government. That means people from all different agencies, but active and clear communication as to what the goal is is absolutely essential to make sure that everyone knew what their role and responsibilities were because you could never sit on someone and You've got to say this you've got to say this you have to describe the circumstance let everyone know what their roles are and let them anticipate what will happen so that they can fulfill their roles and responsibilities. And when I was a Peace Corps director, I am once again reminded of how special the charitable spirit is in America when I was overseas visiting volunteers and there were about seven seven thousand of them in 94 different countries. One of the most often asked questions by people in those countries were one. Why are you here when you don't have to be And two, why are you here when we want to be over there meeting America? And when we think about Peace Corps volunteers and what they do on a daily basis, my heart is warmed extremely grateful and warmed by what they do. I just give you a few samples. I visited a volunteer Susan row has since left she was a nurse practitioner in Kathmandu in Nepal and she worked in the clinic and on the day that I visited her. She brought forth. She was tending to a young woman a young girl. It's unfortunate. It's one of the unfortunate and tragic happenings in third world countries and developing countries. You're not supposed to call them through a wall anymore at developing countries that Open Hearth fires are very omnipresent. They're used for heating. They're used for warmth or used for cooking but there always Always unguarded and so lots of accidents occur and on the day that I was visiting Susan role. She was tending to a young girl who have fell face-first into an Open Hearth fire while her mother turned away for one second. It seemed the scroll was horribly disfigured and she knew that she looks so terrible the doctors are trying to help her so they took and her scalp and tried to attach it to her to her nose because her nose had melted away and was trying to regrow the skin on her nose and rebuild her nose and she knew that she looked awful because it was scalp hair and there was hair on the scalp that was growing on her nose. She knew that she looked elephantine. But I will never forget the sparkle that came into her eyes the hope that jumped into her eyes when Susan roll looked at her in the face and said this is Elaine Chao. She's a director of the Peace Corps and she's here just to see you and you know what you're beautiful inside and you're going to be beautiful after you go through all of this and you're a beautiful person and you have lost to give what those simple words in that simple introduction Susan role has resurrected this young girls image of herself and given her hope as to what she can become and that will give her the courage and the strength and the stamina to go through this period that she's going to have to go through this very painful period Of recovery, I mentioned another volunteer and that is Ruth and I she's a 72 years old. She was whittled. Her kids have grown up. She had nothing else to do it seemed so she says well what am I going to do to make myself useful so two-sided to go and work for the Peace Corps? When I visited her in Sri Lanka and Columba, she led me to her school room. She's at home economics teacher and she said that these are the young Ward. These are the young women that I'm working with and teaching them how to Seoul I'm teaching them a marketable skill and so was I went from the outside to the inside to the classroom and was a very humble little hot and my eyes was trying to adjust to the darkness of the inside. I noticed one thing and that is of a 16 young woman seated in the semicircle on the dirt floor cutting patterns. The one thing that immediately came to mind was that they're all very attractive to all very pretty and there is when Ruth told me the awful story about these young women that because of their very Beauty physical Beauty. They were sold into slavery by those nearest and dearest to them by their brothers by their fathers by the Goals, whatever in these very very poor villages. and after three or four years after their used up, they basically can't go back home, even though they were betrayed and so they filter into the capital city where they try to learn a marketable skill and that's where Ruth is giving but Ruth is also telling them about the world outside in which they can work and what possibilities exist outside of their narrow little experience that have so far been so painful so when I think about Susan and when I think about Ruth's volunteers, I think about the hope that's given to people that they Minister and when I think about United Way of America, I think also about how hope is introduced to a person's life every single day and that's what's really important about leadership about making a change about having impact and that's to bestow (00:29:43) hope to people (00:29:46) who perhaps would not have it otherwise and when we talk about leadership these days, you know, every single one of us has leadership potential and every single one of us can lead in our particular sphere America is a wonderful country in which nothing holds you back. And I think this is a theme that same Kate brochures and students and faculty Eccles all the time that the future is really up to you and that you can make it happen. And the most important thing in life is to find your own voice so that you can join in the Beautiful song of life that all of us can participate that you have to find a voice that you love that you are passionate about something that you really care about and you have to find your own voice and what you like to do and what suited for you and in this country in America. That is all possible. We don't live in a perfect world. We all know that Injustice and unfairness do exist. And we also know that things don't come easily. But you know what that's part of life also and that's to find your own voice to know what you want to do. What you don't want to do to know that there are trade-offs involved to know that life is sometimes not fair. And so it's very important to help others and to try to right the wrongs and then also to know that our country is indeed a great country in which opportunity Opportunity is within the grasp of every single one of us and it's up to us to find our voice to find our own songs to join in the great Melody that is indeed the promise of America. Thank you very much. I hope that you all have a wonderful day today that you'll go out of here strengthened empowered and just ready to kick butt, you know. (00:32:05) Thank you very much. (00:32:09) Elaine Chao speaking recently in Minneapolis at the College of st. Catharines Forum on women in leadership now following her speech Elaine Chao took some questions from the audience and international student from China asked her to elaborate on some of the special leadership challenging challenges rather facing immigrant women, (00:32:28) you know, I think it's false. We talk about leadership a lot. I'm still very Asian in my Outlook in that I try to combine. What's the best of east and west and we didn't talk about cultural differences, but there are lots of cultural differences. I think Asian Americans are not taught to boast about themselves to talk too much about themselves. In fact, if you'll notice take an experiment next time when you take a take a little survey of what happens during dinner conversations, will you notice that people interrupt each other all the time this person talks this person talks and that person talks anymore. It's very common in our Society to interrupt now go to another culture like Asian culture, for example. You'll notice that one person speaks they finish then another person speaks and they finish and it's much more polite that way to allow each other to finish what they're saying, but they're every person is kind of cognizant that they'd shouldn't hog too much of air time either and so there are instances, you know where a person just goes on speaking forever and and and the Asian American audience is thought to be impassive or thought to be not very aggressive because they're not interrupting whereas they from their point of view are thinking why is this person just droning on and on and on and don't they know it's not impolite to do so, you know, it's impolite to do so, so there's a there's a cultural thing. I think the most important I'm delighted to see that you're here. I think the most important thing for immigrants for new people to come who come to our show to come to America is to realize that everyone is an American And that there's no difference some people think well, I'm not really an American because I'm I've only been here for a short time. Well in America everyone is equal everyone is at the at the starting gate at the same time and there really is no difference and if there's one thing that I can leave is that America is a wonderful country and nothing can hold you back. If you truly believe in what you're doing if you set goals you help people along the way. Your dreams will come true. So in America, it's important to dream have dreams and number two. It's important to help other (00:34:49) people. Thank you very much. I have read a lot more about your story. So if you want to buy hope one day you go and check them to see your grandparents your parents house. (00:35:02) She said that she hopes that I'll be able to go back to China one time and see my grandparents as health. In fact, I have my father you have heard about our history. I'm very glad to say that my father has been very successful and I say that not with any sort of immodesty but to attest once again to the great great country that we live in my father came with nothing and he is now very much respect is a very successful entrepreneur. He in fact went back to Malu calm you which is where he came and Maloo call me was a type model calm you outside of Shanghai. If you ever go to China and go to Shanghai you might be showing this commune because it's it is supposedly very Advanced and the model calm you my father's from that calm you and He has starred and he has built a elementary school for the people of Malu communist named after my grandfather and just to let you know about the number of people there you think about a little kindergarten it's a thousand people like just for the like the first three grades and it's it's a huge country. So thank you very much. I wish you well in your studies here, too. You're off to a great start. Anybody back here? (00:36:20) Hi, my name is Sarah. I'm a student at the College of st. Catherine and my question (00:36:24) is kind of a housekeeping question. I guess I'm interested in international health care and I'm wondering how did you get your jobs? How did you get the jobs at (00:36:33) the Peace Corps? How did you get your job with United (00:36:36) Way? You know if if I had a master plan when I started out I would not be where I am today. As I mentioned obvious an American of Asian descent when I was growing up, especially in the family of all girls people took pity upon my parents. They would say, (00:36:56) oh (00:36:57) these girls they're so smart. Too bad, they're not boys. And when I was growing up in a community of asian-americans, we were very isolated. That's just how it was. I mean was very seemingly now it seems so strange, but we were we didn't know anybody. I mean, how do you go out and meet different people you would just were part of your community, so we were very insular and The biggest goal actually for a young girl, you know, when I was growing up an Asian American Girl was if you can marry a PhD (00:37:35) that was (00:37:35) like a real big thing and God forbid you marry your daughter. I mean good Lord, so if I had huge to my community and Thought about you know, and just made my grand plan according to what I knew at that time. I don't think I would be here today. So I'm a great proponent for yes for having goals for planning the looking ahead but also being able to being a adventurous enough. I guess it's a better word being adventurous and risk-taking enough to try to push the boundaries of Your World whatever it is and you will find that lots and lots of opportunities exist that you would have never thought of I don't know whether some of you know, my husband Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He's a United Senator and I was married very late. I got married at the age of 39 my parents never complained about it never said a word to me, but occasionally on family holidays, my mother would say Well, sweetheart, we love you very much. And we love it that you spend all the holidays with us and everything. But you know your shelf life is kind of decreasing and when you're in public office, your age is forever being bandied about us like Elaine Chao 35 Elaine Chao 36 Elaine Chao 37 still single. So I got to the point where it's at. What I kind of said well at the age of 39 I said, I'm going to get married because I'm not going to have Elaine child married forty married, you know, and so I so I did get married, but that's another story but ideal. I just want to let you guys to about I know that there are certain there are some guys here too. My husband Cooks he does the laundry as he says hey, he's a great deal, you know. But I do want to say something serious about that all and that's the issue of trade-offs. We I did talk about trade-offs and I did talk about sacrifices and I think it's important for us to understand that as well. There's a lot of talk these days about women and how you can have it all and frankly. I just don't believe that I came, you know women in my age came at a time when the women ahead of us were real pioneers and they blazed the trail for those of us who came here at this point and we are blazing Trails for others who will follow I don't think we could have it all and I think it's a mistake for us to do so, I just went back for my 20th Harvard Business School reunions, and I've our classmate we had 29 we had 19 percent women. It was a wonderful class. We had great women in there. I still keep in touch with them very close to them and it's interesting to note that a majority of us who have been through our careers who think now, you know our Lives are in order. We're at a time when we have the time and the resources and perhaps the energy now to think about something else outside of our careers. We find that we can't have children. So this is fact and infertility was in fact a tremendous topic of discussion in our you know in the group's reunions topics. I mean informal discussions and here are women who have made wonderful progress in their careers, and the resume is great, but it ain't that great. And so this is a period of learning and of adjustment for a lot of women as well. I think for some of us we realized we didn't realize we were making those choices at the time that we were proceeding. So I think is very important whatever gender you are that we understand that there are trade-offs in life and that we make the decisions that we want to with an eye towards understanding that there will be trade-offs and while we're making decisions less not not understand the trade-off decisions that we are subliminally or inadvertently (00:41:42) making (00:41:44) Oh, I didn't answer your question. Sorry about that how I got my job, so (00:41:53) It came by (00:41:54) accident. I mean, that's the wonderful thing about this world. Also, I I've always wanted I've had one philosophy in life and that has helped me I think a lot and that is I've always wanted to do the best job I could and whatever it was. I was always so grateful to have a job and so grateful that someone trusted me enough to give me that responsibility. It's very naive these days somehow the, you know, somehow I think you know, I should be more aggressive more sort of but I've always had that feeling so when I was asked when I was with citicorp, and when I was the director of the Peace Corps deputy secretary of Transportation, these were I was kind of always asked That doesn't mean that you don't lay the foundation. You don't lay the environment for greater opportunities to arise but I think you have to kind of open yourself up to what the possibilities are. Don't pigeonhole yourself in any one particular little role, but just open yourself Network a lot. Enjoy what you're doing do the best you can and whatever you do and opportunities will come your way the Peace Corps job when the second deputy secretary job was up there are political appointee jobs. So I was in the bush and Reagan and Bush Administration. And then for the United Way of America job. I was approached by heidrick & struggles who was at that time hired by the United Way of America board. And so they interview they approached about so 600 people and conducted a nationwide search and that's how they found me and they found I came in very at the very end because I was Have Lee Jung and they wanted someone who was older. But sometimes you know things happen, I wouldn't I was busy in the midst of sending Peace Corps volunteers to Russia. So I was not very receptive to these phone calls from hydrogen struggle and life was very funny. And so they gave me a call the first round. I didn't pay any attention because I was busy trying to send Peace Corps volunteers into Russia before the onset of winter. You can understand what that means. We had to have everything ready for winter because starting December 15th. It was no way you can send any supplies in or anything like that. So we were very careful. And so when when the when the United Way of America called the first call I didn't have time and then they came back a second time. I went to visit them had a great meeting. It was good chemistry. I felt these were people that I can work with I also felt that United Way was a was a venerable American institution and if I didn't step up And help who would and I felt that it was very important that I not look back in years to come and think that I could have made a contribution could have helped an institution that was so near and dear to the heart of Americans, and I didn't and I don't want to and the president's coming up. So, (00:45:01) thank you. (00:45:04) That was Elaine Chao speaking recently at the College of st. Catharines Forum on women and Leadership Elaine Chao is a former director of the Peace Corps and former president and CEO of the United Way of America. She's currently a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Well that does it for our midday program today Gary eichten here. Thanks so much for joining us invitation to join us at 9:00 tonight. If you missed our conversation with Governor, Jesse, Ventura will be re broadcasting that program at 9:00 this evening here on Minnesota public radio right now a little later than usual the writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor and here is the writers. Almanach for Monday. It's the 13th of March 2000. It's the best day of l.ron Hubbard born in Tilden NE, Nebraska 1911 the author of science fiction books and Western stories and author of the book Dianetics the modern science of mental health, which came out in 1950 and served as the Bible for what he called The Church of Scientology in which Auditors conduct one-on-one counseling sessions using machines that look like lie detectors. It's the birthday of journalists Janet flanner born in Indianapolis 1892 in 1921. She deserted her husband and went to Europe with her lover selita's Solano and four years later began writing her letter from Paris for the New Yorker magazine, which she did until 1975 signed with the name Janae Janet flaneur who wrote about World War II the war which destroyed so much. Everything was also constructive in a way it established clearly the cold and finally on hypocritical fact that the most important thing on earth to men today is money. It was on this day in 1891 Henrik ibsen's play ghosts opened in London. It was strong stuff for 1891 with the theme of venereal disease as a metaphor for hypocrisy there was incest and euthanasia and the critical reaction to it was almost universally negative. It's the birthday of the star outfielder William Keeler Wee Willie Keeler born in Brooklyn 1872, five feet four inches tall. He waved a twenty nine ounce bat was one of the best hitters in the history of baseball. His motto was keep your eye on the ball and hit them where they ain't. It's the best day of astronomer Percival Lowell in Boston 1855 in his late 30s. He went out to Flagstaff Arizona to found the Lowell Observatory mainly so he could study Mars with a 24-inch refracting telescope. He believed that the canals across the face of Mars proved that the planet was inhabited by rational beings and it's the birthday of the clergyman and scientist Joseph Priestley in Yorkshire in the village of field hand born 1733. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin who encouraged him to write the history of electricity came out in 1767. He's best remembered for his discovery of oxygen in 1775, which he called deflagration instigated are he also discovered nitrogen ammonia and sulfur Oxide he was in favor of the French Revolution and that got him into trouble in England. And he also was a leading Unitarian which drew the fire of anglicans a mob destroyed his home and his laboratory whereupon he fled with his wife to the United States where he lived the rest of his life. Here's a poem for today by Leonard Nathan entitled boys at the edge. Boys at the edge leaned far over it and dare each other to jump One Drops a stone instead and waits for it to strike bottom time passes years. It seems years. It is husband father grandfather dozing by the fire listening at the edge (00:50:03) the (00:50:03) poor by Leonard Nathan Boys At The Edge from his collection The Potato Eaters published by or Casey's and used by permission here on the writers almanac for Monday, March 13th made possible by the people at 21 North Main sellers of used rare and out-of-print books and supporters of national literacy campaigns be well. Do good work and keep in touch. Regional broadcast of the writers Almanac are supported by market Banks your community bank offering a broad range of financial services for your business and personal needs by the way. Tomorrow Garrison will be back at his regular time 1155. Well, that's it tomorrow here on midday. It's off to Bemidji Main Street radio special tomorrow first hour taking a look at Transportation as it affects rural Minnesota. And then over the noon hour. We will Zero in on the wolf management plan here in Minnesota. So couple of lively hours tomorrow on midday. (00:51:18) NPR listeners know the importance of investing wisely make a wise investment for your company invest in NPR listeners as your customers become an MP our program sponsor call Sheree Davis at (00:51:29) 6512901496. You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. We have a partly cloudy Sky 33 degrees at Kenner wfm 91.1 Minneapolis. And st. Paul partly cloudy through the afternoon. It might warm up another five degrees or so partly cloudy tonight with a low in the low to mid 20s partly cloudy tomorrow with a high temperature near 40 degrees. It's one o'clock.