NEW VIDEO CLIP: Ed Hill on Ways to Be a Valuable Employee

Ed Hill, a business executive and vice president at Atlantabased Prommis Solutions, shared insight and advice with a group of seniors atGrady High when he stopped by the school to participate in the Grady Talks program.  Hill began with apersonal maxim he coined as a young man to help guide himself through the upsand downs of life: good decisions lead to blessings; bad decisions lead toconsequences.  Everyone has made anumber of both, Hill continued, and everyone will continue to make bad decisionshere and there.  What reallymatters, Hill said, is that you take responsibility for your decisions; thatyou enjoy your rewards as the fruit of your labor and own up to your mistakes.  Hill shared stories of some of his ownpoor decisions with the students. He told them about his choice to drop out of college and his struggleswith alcohol and drugs as a young man. He told them that his poor decision-making and the resultingconsequences led him to feel, at times in his twenties, that he could not andwould not ever succeed. 

That changed, however, when Hill reconnected with a distantcousin, who taught him about the value of taking responsibility for one’sactions and thereby regaining control over one’s life.  His cousin helped him learn to face upto his struggles and take ownership of them.  It’s never too late, Hill learned, to change for the betterand to break away from a negative cycle. Hill urged the students not to blame the world for any problems theymight encounter as they grow older; instead, he urged them to spend theirenergy making positive choices and looking for practical solutions.  “Take the word entitlement out of yourvocabulary…No matter where we start, it’s where we finish that matters.  We may have been dealt a bad hand, butwe have to own it and embrace it…Attitude and work ethic determine success,”Hill told the class.  Hillcontinued, “You are the sum total of all of the decisions you have made.”  Hill ended with a few simple words ofadvice.  He told the students to avoidcomplainers, keep a good attitude, and work hard – all while always rememberingthe importance of every decision they make.