Life is short & precious – appreciate every moment; work your passion; treat others as you want to be treated; we’re all imperfect, so be kind & forgiving to everyone (including yourself); strive for perfection – settle for excellence. – Ron Kamen
When Ron Kamen was in college, he took a part-time job working for a neighborhood supermarket. The manager was a high-school dropout and a major control freak and egotist. He would yell and scream at Ron and his co-workers through their “probation”. After 2 days, Ron told him that he had been on probation with him, too – and he had failed.
The summer before his final year of undergraduate work, Ron wanted to save up to go to Europe after graduation with his girlfriend. He worked as a beach guard 7 days a week from 10-4. Ron also took a 5 night security job from 11-7 at a nearby nuclear power plant that was under construction. In the daytime, Ron learned that he liked to work with people, and they liked him. At night, Ron discovered the incredible waste of the nuclear industry. A a $300 Million dollar budget turned into a $7+ Billion fiasco that bankrupted the local utility.
A New Perspective
Ron’s Masters work was funded via an assistantship in the college Library. It included great reading, public service, plus paid room, board, & tuition. “That summer I worked as a carpenter’s assistant for the state. I was told the work I finished in a day was “supposed to take a week”. I was told that I needed to slow down because I was – making the regular workers look bad”.
When Ron finished his Masters, he realized 3 things:
- He couldn’t work for a large corporation or government agency that wanted to make him do things that didn’t make sense.
- Life is a continual learning process, with so much left to know, and the world’s best knowledge yet to be discovered
- Ron needed to work at a job where he could make a difference by working with and helping people
Ron got his first “real” job as a community organizer in 1980, working for a non-profit to empower local communities with the ability to create positive change. The issue at the time was the massive rate increases from the massive cost-overruns of multiple nuclear power plants in the state. “I became an energy policy expert, and the thousands of people I organized created legislative and regulatory reforms that changed lives. While I had a board of directors, I controlled my schedule, budget, and actions – and created an independent – social enterprise”.
Earth Day
Ten years later, Ron felt that he had done everything he could do in his territory in upstate New York and decide to move on. “I had the “gut feeling” that the 20th anniversary of Earth Day was going to be a “big deal”. I became the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director for Earth Day 1990. My 100+ local committees mobilized over 3 million people, including 2 million in New York’s Central Park. While Earth Day 1990 mobilized 100 million people across the planet. But, because of the lack of resources, it failed to engage the vast majority of those participants in ongoing environmental action”.
Ron resolved to use his energy expertise, people skills, and entrepreneur abilities to create a new organization that would educate the public to the benefits of energy efficiency. He also wanted to create revenue streams from the energy savings to fund expanded environmental work.
An environmental philanthropist liked what Ron was doing and funded his start-up non-profit organization. But, when the education turned into the implementation of commercial projects, the IRS made him spin off a for-profit subsidiary. And so began Ron’s lifetime journey as a clean energy environmental entrepreneur.
Our Current World
Ron’s escape from the 9 to 5 continues. He is able to take whatever time he wants out of the “normal” work week to do things with loved ones and take care of personal necessities that are strains for those working a regular corporate job. He has made the jump into podcasting and is now able to spread his message of clean energy world wide.
His business and personal life hasn’t always been filled with sunshine. Family health issues have been a dominant theme for the last few years. Huge medical bills have been a dark cloud in his world. But Ron has never lost hope. “There were many times I thought all was lost, but then all the work culminated in a shift that changed everything…The great news is that there are some problems that can be solved by throwing time and money at them”. Ron continues to be positive. He adjusts his approach to work and life as needed and continues to focus on making the world a better place.
Checkout Ron Kamen on iTunes or Stitcher, or listen online at https://www.earthkindenergy.com or https://www.awesomeearthkind.com
