James Stanley:
CLASS OF 1969
Red Bank Catholic High SchoolClass of 1969
Red bank, NJ
James's Story
How fast 54 years has gone by.
Here's my story and life journey.
.
PS Side note: Keith Richards will outlive us all. :)
Just turned 72, rounding third base, coming home. :)
COLLEGE
Graduated Fordham University at Lincoln Center with my BA ( dual major - Political Science and Psychology ) and a MBA in NYC. Received a AA from Our Lady of Hope Seminary in Newburgh, NY. Graduated from NYU 's Telecommunications program and Dale Carnegie courses.. Worked 35 years as a individual contributor and managing Sales and Technical teams for USA Communications/ Colocation companies ( i.e., AT&T, Verizon, MFS/Worldcom, Abovenet, Qwest and Telx/Digital Realty Realty) in NYC/ Northern NJ .
After High School, spent two years in a Oblate religious institution in Newburgh, NY that did not turn out to be a exact match for me. .
I made a education /life change and went to Fordham University at Lincoln Center which provided me with a traditional liberal arts and good solid business education.
During my last two years at college years, spent time riding NJ Transit to NYC and took subways to the Village, Yankee Stadium, Lincoln Center ,Madison Square Garden and South Street Seaport. 90% of my classes were at the new Lincoln Center campus in mid town Manhattan. Had the opportunity to take a music appreciation class at Julliard. Made good friends in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Lived in Brooklyn apartment for my junior semester and pulled all nighter's, spent quality time in the Library, and ate lots of pizza. .
Went to Fordham Graduate business school at night , while working during the day.
I remember surf/road/camping trips in a Volkswagon Van to Ditch Plains at Montauk, 10th Ave at Virginia Beach and Jones Beach. I still have my Australian pintail surfboard. Can't fit in my wet suit. HA.
Hey it was the early 1970's.
( i.e., Easy Rider, Saturday Night Fever, Lou Reed, Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead, Eagles, Jackson Browne and Boon's Farm Apple wine and Ripple,:)
Back then, my evil twin had a Handlebar mustache, Leather fringe jacket, Wrangler bell bottom Jeans .
EARLY TELCO CAREER
One of my life lessons, after college , working in a number of operations, sales and mid level ( 2nd line) management level positions for New York Telephone/AT&T in my first 17 years of my work life, It was a good experience , Received good product training, Worked at AT&T corporate HQ's at Basking Ridge as a product manager for Dimension 2000 Feature Package 8. Worked for AT&T Long lines HQ's at Bedminister on a PBX corporate database. .
During a five month Verizon strike assignment, got to work with Field forces in the manholes of Manhattan from the Citibank Building in midtown down to Battery Park, Saw my first fiber optic muxes and splicing. Although I had Telco product management, plant and central office operations/private line experience, I really enjoyed speaking to customers- so I transferred into sales. I really liked speaking to clients and help solve problems or increase their market share . With Verizon I received my sales AE -IC and Senior AE Sales Certifications, And then got promoted to run my own Verizon Industrial sales team for 5 years at 100 Church Street.
Although leaving Verizon was somewhat bittersweet and disappointing in the end.
Hey, I got a pension out of the deal.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
My experience when I worked there, there were very good people but still a very flawed insular looking company,
Other factors such as : the growth of Cellular telephone , new CLEC;s were starting up and being deployed in Manhattan and sold against Verizon product line and and growth of something called the internet were happening . Many Fortune 100 companies treated voice communications separate from data communications. .
Verizon really did not have a competitive coherent response in 1980's. Cisco, a new company was selling data equipment. Where was Verizon?
They were simply playing catch-up in the marketplace. Verizon was considered to be old school. They came up with a service called ISDN. This "super" product was not accepted in the marketplace and was not widely deployed. Verizon then tried to be a reseller of PBX's and after 3 years left that market.
TIPPING POINT
One tipping point for me was that I had to "certified" my sales position by writing a masters thesis on how I sold major accounts and then present and be "approved " by a five person committee just to keep my job thru multiple layoffs.
Because, after all, everyone KNOWS high level Bell System Managers ( dolts) instinctively have developed life skills such as: account management , product knowledge, customer contact skills ,and years of field sales experience to compete in a competitive world better than field sales people who work and sell to clients everyday.
( please insert sarcasm here)
Even after being over 100% of yearly quota's for 5 consecutive years ,
to have to go thru this process and pass ( two times) just to keep my job was a very unusual and trying time.
UGG.
I will never forget when my " enlightened" Branch manager told me and my team to please stop selling high speed fiber private line circuits to financial and industrial firms in Manhattan. Stick to selling Centrex, and long distance /WATS and 800 service. "
My office situation was very similiar to being in the movie" Office Space"--
When the entitled Senior Manager ( age 24) asked the seasoned employee,
" Yea, you are going to have to come in this weekend and did you get that memo, JIM?"
The memo ?
PS I never did find that red stapler.
OFFICE SPACE
I am sorry for this inside joke but the "Office Space" is such a great movie on trying to make a living in corporate America with stupid, insane Senior Management demands/requests /suggestions made and implemented with a such a religious fever
-not closely related to reality. HA
After working for a good number of years , I had developed a brazen instinct to think for myself.and not follow the official company line.
No wonder the Federal Government and Justice Department broke apart the old Bell System monopoly. In the 1980/1990;s -
Plus CUSTOMER SERVICE was not a Verizon's strong advantage.
CAREER CHANGE/ ADAPT OR DIE
At the age of 42, I moved on in my career. I never looked back. Other opportunities were calling. The development of light wave fiber optic circuits and semiconductors and muxes were changing how networks work. Interesting fact- none of this was being developed at Bell Labs.
The good news, after leaving, it was cold calling and selling for brand new CLEC'S in downtown Manhattan before 911, which provided me with street smarts , direction, experience and knowledge to sell and manage teams.
Worldcom , Abovenet and Telx had better mentors and trusted advisors. And these CLEC's provided a greater appreciation of working with people, teamwork , how to manage teams, and how to be successful in the corporate. world. There was a true Esprit De Corps to sell against AT&T and Verizon. I always tried to hire people with street smarts, good work ethnic and integrity,
CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
My personal career highlights were: managing a 60 man Bell Central Office for installation and repair in Manhattan for private lines. Responsible for a team handling the sales/service and installed base of major and strategic CLEC accounts from Boston to Baltimore. Being responsible for selling to the Wall Street community with my own sales team. Made presentations to CTO's/CFO's t0 : The New York Times, Conde Nast, Calvin Klein, American Home Foods, Hanjin Shipping, Bloomberg, Lightower, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns,and J P Morgan Chase.
Sold a colocation system for the NYC subway systems to provide mobile service. And over a 15 year period, sold multiple USA colocation hubs to several European and Asian international carriers, financial institutions, VOIP and media companies. Companies like Tata Communications, AT&T, Lightower, Zayo, Telecom Italia, Qwest, Digicel, Bermuda Telecom , Epsilon Telecom, and TeliaSonera.
In my last year, received Digital's lifetime sales achievement award.
MY MENTORS
Got to work with Lou Baumback, Sales Manager from AT&T and my first boss, Gary Dobel. VP of Sales from MFS/Worldcom, Bill La Perch, President from Abovenet, Hunter Newby, Chief Technologist from Telx and Bill Kolman, VP of Sales from Telx/ Digital. .
TELX AND HOW IT GREW AT 60 HUDSON
For example, from one Telx location at 60 Hudson, you could connect to the world ( Europe, Africa, Asia and S...Expand for more
outh America ) over international fiber optic cables and cross connections. Many international carriers and companies used Telx as a colocation hub in NYC rather than the Bell System.
At Telx, Spent a lot of quality time in the Google building ( 111 8th Ave) and 60 Hudson Street , The two most important carrier hotels in the NYC/NJ area. It was the "network effect " that made Telx so valuable before the age of cloud computing.
DEFINING WORK EXPERIENCE
In the last 15 years, helped start, worked as part of a team and sold a true NYC start up colocation ( TELX) company, I was there in the beginning when we had just 50 employees, 50 customers and 50 prayers in downtown Manhattan! It was so exciting. Telx's business model took off. Selling colo space, power and fiber cross connections installed in two days took off. American capitalism works when you have an equity position and you help grow a company.
In five years, Telx acquired 15 colo locations in the USA.
Digital Realty Trust. the second largest data center company in the USA acquired
Telx for $ 1.8 Billion in 2015. It was a dream come true. I wish my old Bell System managers could -
Hear me now.
PERSONAL/FAMILY LIFE
Married for 48 years to my bride Kathy . My wife taught at Red Bank Primary school for nine years as a backroom teacher from 1 to 4th grade classes. And then at St. James Grammer School , She developed and taught their first "gifted and talented program" for 10 years.
She brought computer training , classic novels, Grammer and group learning to the classroom. Raised two daughters, Liz and Jen , who are both married who both work for Department of Defense in Northern NJ. Have three beautiful grandchildren ( Mila (8) and Mary Kate (5). And Lorelai, 10 months ago came into this world . She is first grand daughter from my youngest daughter Jennifer and James Rustwick.
Recently moved to the Warwick , NY in October 2020 to downsize and for security to get away from the recent NYC/ NJ crazyness. They will be a migration out of NYC and Northern NJ.
Who doesn't want to work a part of the month from home and save the commute into NYC.
One thing is clear. Fewer people will want to travel to work.. There will be a great reshuffling. Things are not returning to normal. Social distancing, working from home, contract tracing and a more contact less society will become the new norm.
TRAVELS AND OBSERVATIONS
Survived 911 ,Sandy, and traveling on PATH and NJ Transit trains to the Freedom Tower. Traveled to Ireland, Aruba , Bermuda and Mexico and saw most major cities in USA.. Enjoyed Dublin and the beautiful Dingle Peninsula. I even kissed the Blarney stone. Marched in the NYC St. Patrick's day parade and appeared on TV. Enjoyed Cabo and the Pacific. Went to Bermuda three times.
What a beautiful Hotel -the Fairmount SouthHampton Princess in Bermuda.
Drinking Dark and Stormy Ginger Beer overlooking the Harbor at sunset.
And also to quote Thomas Jefferson, " Life is to short to drink bad wine." :)
Over the years, I spent some quality time looking at the waves at Sea Bright, Tampa and West Palm Beach in Florida. Saw great concerts, made good friends and business associates.
Now enjoying retirement for the past 5 years. Recovered from a health issue. LIfe has been good so far. Being a grandparent is the BEST. Looking back, the four years at RBC was sometimes like being in the Wonder Years TV show. It was a much simplier time. No quotas, computers, internet , smart phones, 5G, AI , genetic engineering, robots, Blockchain, 3D printing nor self driving cars. Who doesn't want a Tesla?
Now- Elon Musk wants to go to Mars and space travel is now available for a hefty price.
MY EXPERIENCE WITH TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE AND BEYOND
I remember one experience of technology. in 1971 I remember spending a unbelievable
$ 250 for a Texas instrument calculator to get the square root function key for a Statistics class. -- Now it is free. In 1971, Fordham had an IBM 360 main frame computer which cost $ 1 million dollars. 50 years latter , now you have a smartphone with greater capacity for $ 400. Plus it does : Search , does Windows ,Translates , gives Directions , takes Pictures and even plays Music for free.
Or as Ray Kurzwiel , Director of Engineering and Futurist from Google states, " Technology has always been a double edge sword. "
Fire kept us warm, cooked our food and burned down our house. :)
. WOW.
I remember selling long distance calls for 10 cents per minute. I remember orders coming thru on a Friday night at the end of a month on a scratchy FAX machine that would run out of special paper. :)
Now international Zoom video calls with sound are FREE on a smart phone. Technology keeps improving. In 2020. There are fiber muxes operating on backbone circuits at 800G or 800 billion bits per second.
By way of contrast, in 1971, I saw my first 300 baud modem/private line operating between NYC and Albany. And I was programming in BASIC at Fordham with punch cards......
Talk about a difference. Star Wars does not compare.
RETROSPECT OF 1969
1969 was a very special moment in time. In the summer of 1969, we had Woodstock , Vietnam and a man actually walked on the moon for real. :) I will always remember my 1964 Pontiac Le Mans convertible, eating Maxs Hot Dogs in Long Branch and the Eatontown drive in theater. Surfing at Sea Bright and Gaskins Beach in Long Branch. Unfortunately , I still forget who was my date for the RBC Senior Prom ? (Elizabeth Daley) I remember it was held at the Berkley Careret Hotel in Asbury Park and we stayed out all night.
I remember the Chambers Brothers playing the song on the radio -Time has Come today .
There were no Bob Sager - Night Moves for me that night. :)
In 1969, my first real paycheck job was working at Harry's Lobster House In Sea Bright. Imagine working on Friday and Saturday nights, and watching winning jockeys that day from Monmouth Race Track entertaining tall blondes from NYC. This topic was not covered in RBC Religion class.!!
Always loved listening to AM radio in my car to the Beach Boys - Good Vibrations ,Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Doors, Stones and Beatles.
Now- 50 years has come and gone.
MY EXPERIENCE AT 50 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION- GO CASEYS
How fast time moved on. I am now rounding 3rd base and coming home. I attended the 69 Reunion at The Raven and Peach restaurant in Fair Haven. It was a Great personal bucket list event . At the 69 reunion, Bill Schiller , Frank Ehlers , Sheila Sandlass, Susan Reardon , Harry Salter, and Barbara La Banca and I all connected .
What life stories we can tell.
It was like drinking fine wine.
The stories got better with age.
What were we thinking back then.?
There was no Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook ,
Square, Telsa, Zoom nor Shopify. Who even knew about 401K's.
As Tom Petty once sang, The future was like the Great Wide Open. When people now call me Mr Stanley , I think they are looking for my DAD. That is the cycle of life.
What nice people we all became-
as I discovered at the 1969 reunion.
Sister Mary and my dear parents would have been proud.
TANGLED UP IN BLUE
Sometimes with an adult drink, late at night,
I put on Bob Dyan's "Blood on the Tracks" album and
listen to the song : "Tangled up in Blue."
All the people we used to know
They're an illusion to me now.
Some are mathematicians.
Some are carpenter's wives.
Don't Know how it got started
I don't know what they do with their lives.
But me, I still on the road....
headed for another joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point of view.
Tangled up in Blue.
PURE GENIUS
MY PROJECTIONS FOR NEXT TEN YEARS- 2030
1) Augumented Reality ( AR) glasses will replace smartphones
2) Computer power in the cloud will surpass the human brain
3) Self driving cars will transform many industries/Transportation as a service.
4) DNA sequencing will drop to $ 100 per person
5) Human Lifespan for anyone born in past 20 years , will exceed 100 years.
6) Quantum Computing will change the world
7) The Metaverse is coming and is closer to realty
8) Smartphone Technology ( i.e., 6 G) will be inside our bodies by 2030. Man/ Machine
Retirement, the next chapter in my life has begun.......
And so, I retire to my little music den, play some Van Morrison,
have a cocktail and let the world spin out of control.
And there is nothing ,
I can do about it.
If you find a real solution, please let me know.
"Momma, told me there would be days like this" :)
Cheers,
Jim
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