The best advice given to me on my first real job was, “The only way you’re not going to make mistakes is if you’re not doing your job” (Laubhan, 1972). Another quote from Henry Ford, “Theonly real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing,” added tomy philosophical base (Ford and Crowther, 1922). Without the wisdom conveyedby Laubhan and Ford, plus Oklahoma State University colleague Phil Kenkel’s (1990) famous quote, “How hard can it be?,” mine could have been just another mediocre career.

As a dairy and farm boy from Muskogee County, Oklahoma, with a new Ph.D. in agricultural economics, I set out to educate producers in the area of marketing and risk management. I noticed that attendance at meetings and workshops was good. Participants were interested and listened. They even triedsome of my ideas. Nearly all of them, if not all, reverted back to decisions and techniques they had used before my meetings or workshops.

Observant and inquisitive soul that I was, I conducted research to determine who was right. The results indicated that the producers were mostly right! If research-based information and education were to be transferred, and management practices were to be changed, either the subject matter and/or the method of delivery had to change.