SONNIE WRIGHT

CIS 121

My Educational Experience

My formal education is high school. I graduated from Columbia High School in White Salmon, WA in 1960. I also graduated from the United States Navy's Interior Communications School, located in San Diego, CA in 1961. My best and most valuable education has been real life experience and self-education on subjects of interest, and tasks important in the work place. (such as computers)

I have been in sales or sales management for most of my life. This will teach anyone more about human nature and psychology than they might care to know. During this time I have hired and trained many people, and for the most part is has been a pleasant experience.

I have started three different businesses from scratch. This educated me in the small business world of financing, promoting, accounting, taxes, and all the headaches that go along with any business, large or small.

I was General Manager of a snowboard factory and traveled extensively to Europe and Japan to market our products. This gave me an excellent education in dealing with a wide variety of cultural, and language barriers, involved in international trade.

I was General Manager of a Recycling company, and this job opened my eyes to both the good and bad of State and Federal Bureaucracies. It made me realize how self-serving they can be, with job preservation and an un-healthy lust for power appearing to be the root of the problem. It is so easy to turn good ideas or causes into disasters, when they are promoted for the wrong motives.

I firmly believe that education should be continual throughout our lives.Our minds need to be exercised as well as our bodies.

My favorite quote or saying:

If common sense is so common, why is it so rare? There are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened!