ATHOL DICKSON

American Success Story

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How to Go From Janitor to Corporate Executive
Future Corporate Executive?

“When you mop that floor, you make sure it shines and you make sure they know a Montañez did it.” When Richard Montañez went to work as a janitor at a Pepsico factory in 1976, those were his father’s words. According to Montañez, “I took that and have been living that statement ever since. It doesn’t matter who I work for, I work for my last name.”

That’s just one of many wise insights in this report about Montañez’s recent commencement address to the graduating class at Chaffey College, a two year community college in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Speaking to graduates receiving associate degrees and occupational certificates, Montañez shared the story of his rise from a factory janitor to PepsiCo’s director of multicultural sales and marketing across North America. 

Among his other pearls of wisdom:

  • When people tell him he started at the bottom: “No, I started at the beginning.”
  • Moral of a story about being marginalized in grade school because of his ethnicity: “Graduates, remember, you were not created to fit in. You were created to stand out.”
  • Although he dropped out of high school: “I do have a Ph.D.. I’ve been poor, hungry and determined.”

In addition to personal pride and hard work, Richard Montañez used his head and heart to succeed. School was difficult because he never heard English in his parent’s Spanish speaking household. He dropped out of high school. But as an adult he learned to read and write in English. And although he was “only” a janitor, when he had a good idea (Montañez invented Pepsico’s “Flamin’ Hot Cheetos” recipe) he had the courage to suggest it directly to the company’s CEO.

Would they let Richard Montañez speak at U.C. Berkeley?

Montañez’s rags-to-riches story is proof that the American dream still exists today for those willing to take risks and work hard, regardless of one’s roots. “He comes from a modest upbringing; his father and grandfather worked in the vineyards of what was then known as Guasti, near Ontario International Airport. He is one of 11 children, the eldest male.” He had no “privilege” growing up, white or otherwise, yet today he’s on the boards of some of America’s most influential institutions, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference where he is the first Latino ever to hold that position.

The “can-do” gumption and common sense advice in Montañez’s address to the graduating class of a two year community college stands in stark contrast to the pampered mindset of “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” so prevalent in our major universities, where faculty and students would rather riot than listen to ideas that make them uncomfortable. Young people desperately need to hear from more people like Richard Montañez. What a pity it is when they won’t allow it.

 

 

Give Like a Smarty

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How to give taxes to charity.
Give your taxes to charity!

How would you like to pay your taxes to the charity of your choice instead of to the government? Sound too good to be true? It’s not. Read on.

The IRS does not apply capital gains taxes to a charitable contribution of stock if it’s transferred directly from a donor’s account to a registered not-for-profit organisation such as a church. Also the IRS does not tax any gains when a not-for-profit sells stock and transfers the cash to its bank account. This can result in a sizable windfall for both you and for the charity of your choice. For example, compare these two scenarios:

Say you want to donate about $5,600 to charity this year, but your Christmas shopping has depleted your ready cash so you decide to sell some stock. You own 100 shares of Microsoft which you (after consulting your crystal ball) bought at the very bottom of the great recession for $15.50. Now those shares are worth $63.40. So those shares are now valued at your original investment plus a long term capital gain of $4,790. Most of us would have to pay a 15% long term capital gains tax on that amount, meaning Uncle Sam’s cut would be $718.50 ($4,790 x 15%). That leaves you with $5,621.50 to give to your favorite charity.

But what if your charity has a brokerage account? In that case you can transfer the 100 shares directly from your account to theirs. The capital gains are not taxed, neither when you transfer the stock to the charity, nor when the charity cashes out on their end. So instead of giving them $5,621.50, they get the full $6,340.

Cool deal, right?

It gets better.

In the first scenario you only get to deduct $5,621.50 from your taxable income this year. In scenario two, you can deduct the full $6,340. If your average tax rate ends up being in the 20% range, that could save you as much as $143.70 in taxes. Or, since your original goal was to give $5,600 anyway, instead of transferring the full 100 shares you could transfer just enough meet that goal and keep the rest, or give it to an additional charity.

If you’d like to do a little year end giving this way but don’t have any thoughts on who should get the dough, kindly allow me to suggest three excellent possibilities.

I like to use this strategy to support charities with stock I would otherwise sell anyway for other reasons, especially when rebalancing. The IRS doesn’t allow this strategy in a tax deferred account like an IRA or 401(k) until you’re 70.5 years old. After that you can transfer stock from deferred accounts and it counts toward your Required Minimum Distributions, which could be a very handy tax planning tool for those who give to charity during retirement. And yes. this strategy does apply to mutual funds and exchange traded funds.

If you’d like to do a little year end giving this way but don’t have any thoughts on who should get the dough, kindly allow me to suggest three excellent possibilities. All three of these outfits have brokerage accounts, and they are all familiar with this process. My wife and I have supported their work for some time now. We like them because we know for a fact that a large percentage of our donation is used in direct support of people who really need our help and we know people in the leadership teams personally, so we’re sure their hearts truly are in the right place.

Youth Believing In Change – an organisation that tutors and feeds underprivileged children after school and during the summer break. Email Vincent Gaddis – YBC at sbcglobal dot net

Morning Star News Service – a team of reporters focused on the horrific persecution of Christians that’s happening in some of the world’s most dangerous countries. Email Jeff Sellers – editor at morningstarnews dot org

The Salvation Army – we have personally witnessed the miraculous results they achieved in a homeless alcoholic family member’s life.  Email Bruce Branstine – bruce dot branstine at usw dot salvationarmy dot org

You probably noticed I’ve spelled out those email addresses to avoid subjecting these charities to robotic spam. When you type the addresses in your email, simply substitute the @ sign for the word “at” and use a period (.) where I wrote “dot” and do not include any spaces. For example, “me at myaddress dot com” would be: me@myaddress.com. Tell them Athol sent you!

Simple Gratitude

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Arek Trenholm stands for the flag.
Gratitude.

Look at this photo of young Arek Trenholm. Confined to a wheelchair because he has spina bifida, Arek is using his arms to “stand” at a parade while the honor guard passes by with the American flag.

In the comments at his uncle’s Facebook page some people call him a patriot.

I say he’s just a young man who has been taught by heavy trials (and probably by good parents) to appreciate his blessings and to say so with a heartfelt “thank you.”

Way to go, Arek.

At 16 years of age, you’re already wiser and more mature than several famous adults I could mention.

UPDATE (11/11/2016): A veteran who works for a company that builds “standing wheelchairs” saw this story and donated one of the company’s chairs to Arek. To see a video of Arek using his new chair for the first time, click here.