ATLANTA–Maurice Smith has a favor to ask: Find a 12-year-old and ask them what they plan to do with the rest of their life. They will (eventually) thank you for it, he said.
Smith, the retired president and CEO of Local Government Employees CU and Civic FCU who chairs the African American Credit Union Coalition, who served as a chairman of CUNA and who is widely respected across credit unions, shared the story of his life with the AACUC’s 25th annual meeting here and explained how his life changed when he was 12. It’s a story he has shared before, but it’s one that offers lessons and reminders. It’s a story that’s all about his father, who farmed vegetables outside a small community in North Carolina named Southport, where Smith grew up and often aided in farm work.
The Lessons
While Smith said many have heard his story, he said he continues to share it because of the lessons it offers to others.
Smith’s father, an Air Force veteran, had also worked as a longshoreman, an electrician, a real estate broker and a county commissioner, although he never attended college.
“My dad had this knack of always finding the simple little things in life to make a lesson out of it,” Smith said.
Lesson From the Potato Field
One of those lessons came in a potato field when Smith was 12 and his father stopped him and asked, “What are you going to do with your life?”
Smith said his primary thoughts at that age were around trying to figure out girls, but his father continued. “You need to choose your career and if you don’t, I will pick one for you. I don’t care what you do in life as long as it’s legal and you can take care of a family. It’s OK if you change your mind. You can have another career. But you can’t substitute a goal with nothingness.”
Smith said he asked his father for 24 hours to give an answer. The next day, they were in a local bank and Smith noticed in one office was a man with certificates on the wall, what appeared to be important papers on his desk, who was wearing a suit, necktie and a starched white shirt.
‘Who is That Man?’
“I asked my father, ‘Who is that man?’” Smith shared. “He said, ‘That is the bank president.’ I said, ‘Dad, that’s what I want to be’. This was 1969. I had not with my own eyes seen an African American man sitting in that position in my community. My dad said, ‘You want to be the bank president?’ I said yes. And his next three sentences changed my life. He said, ‘You need to go to college. You need to major in business.’ And number three, ‘I will help you’.”
Smith said from that point forward all conversations with his father changed. His dad would drill him on subjects like the Rule of 72, Keynesian economics, how interest works, the creation of money and more.
Fin Lit Before There Was Fin Lit
“He was talking about financial literacy before there was such a thing as financial literacy. I have often been asked, ‘How did your dad know these things; he didn’t go to college?’ I don’t know. But from that point forward in everything we saw there was a business lesson in it. He even said you need to learn to play golf, as all bankers play golf. I never learned that lesson.”
But, Smith added, he learned everything else.
“I never got to work in a bank. I worked in a credit union. I landed much better than that,” he said to applause from his audience.
During the rest of his life anytime he had a big decision in front of him Smith said he would ask his father, who even though he never worked in a financial institution would always draw upon some lesson from the farm.
A Legal Lesson
Later in his life, in his mid-40s, Smith decided he wanted to go to law school.
“I said, ‘Dad, I’ve been out of school for a couple of decades. Let’s keep this our secret.’ He said, ‘deal.’ He told everybody he knew. Everybody knew it within 24 hours.”
Smith said on his very first day of law school he was in a large auditorium with 150-plus other students and a very demanding professor who put a lot of pressure on the future lawyers to prepare them for what they were about to face.
“The first person he called on was me. I thought, oh, crap, this can’t be good. He asked me about the case and I froze. He said, ‘Sit down Mr. Smith, let me call on somebody who belongs here’,” Smith shared. “The next day my dad called me and asked how was my first day. I said it was a big mistake. I don’t belong. There are fifth-generation lawyers. People from Ivy league schools. People way ahead of me. Dad said, ‘I guess you will have to use your secret weapon.’ I said, ‘What secret weapon?’
‘You Cannot Outwork Me’
“He said, ‘Maurice, you need to realize in most rooms you go into you are not going to be the smartest person in the room or someone born with a silver spoon in their mouth. But I raised you on a farm. You know if you wake up at six in the morning you wasted half the day. You know what it’s like to pick up a garden hose and wash the dirt out of your teeth and nostrils. You don’t let anyone outwork you.’ I have spent the night in the office. You cannot outwork me. That’s my secret weapon.”
‘He Just Smiled’
Smith’s father died of pancreatic cancer in 2007, but he did get to see his son in the corner office of LGECU’s new offices in Raleigh, N.C.
“My dad was escorted to my office and he sat on the sofa. He looked around. I was watching him take it in. There are certificates and degrees on the wall. Then he turned and looked at my desk, nodded his head, looked at me and I’m wearing a starched white shirt and he just smiled,” Smith said. “That is my legacy. It’s nothing fancy. Just a farm boy who was blessed to have a father who believed in me, who invested in me, and I became his dividend.”
‘Force Them’ to Choose
That’s why Smith wants everyone to ask 12-year-olds about their career plans. Even if they shrug their shoulders, Smith advised, “Force them to make a choice. And if they change their mind, help them with that choice. That’s how you pay the dividend doing forward.”
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