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

Ed Hill: Ways to Be a Valuable Employee
By Ben Gross

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

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