I have to admit that I do not find watching sports the least bit interesting. If I’m watching TV, I usually have The Learning Channel, The Discovery Channel, HGTV or HD Theater tuned in to some show dedicated to home improvement, watching about how something is made or creating a rolling piece of art from some piece of junk that has been sitting out in the desert for 30 years.

Being the son of a carpenter and the designated gopher/helper since I was 8 years old, tends to shape your life in a different way than the sports dad who has their kid enrolled in a sport for every season of the year. Instead of spending my Saturdays on the grid iron or the baseball field, I was helping build walls, pouring footers, laying brick, setting doors, installing insulation.  You name it, we did it for either our own house or for a relative, friend or just someone in need of a little help. It might sound like a really odd way to grow up. It probably was, but I was engaged with the things my dad was teaching me at the time and which have proven to be a huge asset to me and my family now. Negotiating our way through problems (in construction there are always plenty of those) and deciding on the best course of action that did not cost an arm and a leg was the norm.

You might be wondering why I’m picking such an introduction. The point is the manner in which I was taught to think about the world around me and those mechanical / structural things affect what I’m concerned with on an average day. For example, when someone sends me an e-mail or calls me with and application problem, I’ve learned to dig into the situation and think about the problem as if it were my own. I ask myself, “How would I solve this problem if it were my responsibility?”. Even if the answer comes back that using EXAIR products really are not the best way to proceed, I will do my best to find a referral for the customer.

Of course we are in business to sell product. The important part, though, and that which keeps customers coming back is making that customer and helping them with their application the only focus. I have been with the company for 14 years and the job still does not get old. It is like the old adage states, “Do what you love and come to naturally and the rest will follow”.  Problem solving is our business. We have a lot of folks at EXAIR who come to that naturally.

Neal Raker
Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com