Conversation with a Teenager
Mike Brozek is SVP for pdvWireless.
I'm pretty protective of my Saturday mornings. But it's not every day my teenager asks me to talk about my work and help him think about his own career plans. So instead of screaming at college football on the tube, I recently found myself happily – even proudly – sitting on our front porch in Melvern, Kansas, gazing at the lake and talking about my long history in the utility business with a kid who was entirely focused on the future.
Like any up-and-comer, Cody was excited by all this talk about increased electrification, figuring it could only be a good thing for the industry, a lucrative trend to carry a lucrative career. Not to dampen his enthusiasm, but like any dad I just had to bring him back to earth. Yes, there's opportunity, but not without major change.
Mike: Get your feet off the rail and stop slouching. More coffee?
Cody: Sorry. Yes, please.
Mike: The point is, this electrification thing isn't just about cranking out more power. Think about the highway system. President Dwight Eisenhower, the greatest Kansan, saw that the nation's roads were inadequate to support post-war America. The old roads were narrow and inefficient, it just took too long to get anywhere. So he built the interstate highway system we have today. That was sixty years ago. Interstate highways transformed America. Imagine where we'd be without them!