I was a young broker, had barely earned an office.  Mr. Edwards was coming to town for a branch visit.  We all looked forward to seeing him.  He came into the branch shook everyone’s hands, made some small talk with us.  I told him I had been in a couple of years, etc…   After 15 minutes of small talk, he asked me to go to my office with him.  I was shaking.  When we got in the office, he closed the door, and got out his pen and a small notepad.  He said, “What can we do better in St. Louis to help a guy like you?”  I was amazed.  He wanted to know what wasn’t working well.  The next 10 minutes I was just stunned that a guy, running a big company like AGE, would actually take that much time with a shrimp like me.  He wrote down everything I told him that I thought needed improving.  He thanked me for my candor, and said he would check it out when he got back.  I will never forget that 10 minutes.

qb…most of the back office that made age great are gone…the top people went to SF eddy Jones or jumped over to Tad’s operation which is expected to do business in the next 2 weeks…entire depts have been downloaded to Mumbai…what you are getting now is a bare remnant from the legendary age days.