Herman Cain Speech at Zaun for Congress Dinner

Here is Herman Cain 9.9.2010 Speech at a potluck dinner for Brad Zaun in Newton, IA. It's part of Herman's "Take Back our Government" tour and Hermanator PAC which is supporting 40 conservative candidates nationwide.

Sorry to ping you twice but one more thing... as I was checking out Herman’s site - I also found this interview that I thought you might enjoy!

HERMAN CAIN: THE HERMANATOR IS HERE!
Monday, August 23rd, 2010

By: Scott Schneider, ConservativeFeatures.com

Herman Cain recounts a story from one of his nationally known books, CEO of Self where, just before being transferred to becoming VP of operations for Burger King, he faced the difficult task of having to let go one of the worst assistant managers he’d ever seen. The decision was easy: the execution, arduous, because the young man, though he clearly did not have an ounce talent or like for his job, was clearly devastated.

“He broke down, he cried, he hated to lose his job,” Herman recounted. “And I said, ‘What? How did you end up in Burger King anyway? You don’t love this kind of work, you’re not good at it, why did you end up here?’ He said, ‘Well, it was the only job I could get when I got out of college.’ And I said, ‘Well why did you stick with it?’. . .’Well. . .got married, started having kids, I needed a job. I couldn’t change because I couldn’t afford to’. . .they kept giving him little bitty increases and stuff like that. . .”

It turned out that Herman’s decision had already been made and his only best recourse for both parties was to simply let the young man go.

“After he got through the emotional part and everything,” Herman finished. “He said, ‘Well I don’t know what to do’, and I said, ‘Well let’s figure out what you should do’ and I started to probe and say well, ‘What things do you enjoy the most? What do you enjoy? If you are fortunate enough to end up in a profession relative to something that you enjoy, guess what, you’re going to succeed at it because that will then allow you to cultivate your natural ability with your learned ability! The two go hand-in-hand!”

Turns out the now former-employee had a passion for fixing electronics. Herman contacted a friend who was in human resources at Honeywell Computer Systems. Honeywell invited the man over, ran some aptitude tests and discovered he was the perfect fit to fix computer systems at the industry. He was hired, excelled at the job, and never looked back.

Today, Herman spreads his inspiration and common-sense conservative ideals through radio on the “The Herman Cain Show” broadcast from Atlanta 7 to 10 PM EST; his newspaper columns NORTHSTAR NATIONAL , has expressed his experiences and beliefs in 4 books, Leadership Is Common Sense (1997), Speak As A Leader (1999), CEO of SELF (October, 2001), and They Think You’re Stupid (May, 2005), and is aiming to push the country to the right in November through the influence of his Hermanator PAC.

Born on December 3, 1945 in Atlanta Georgia, (WIKIPEDIA) Herman first positioned himself for success by graduating with a mathematics degree from Morehouse University in 1967(HERMAN CAIN). He then earned a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Purdue University while working as a mathematician for the Department of the Navy. He started his ascent in the corporate world by working as a business analyst for the Coca Cola company. He married his wife, Gloria, in 1968 and the couple have 2 adult children.

He achieved explosive success when he went to work for the Pillsbury Company in 1977 and became Vice President of Corporate Systems and Services within 3 years. He was only 34. After that, Herman went straight up to the top. He decided to tackle the restaurant industry in the 1980s. He started from the ground up by making hamburgers at Pillsbury’s Burger King division. Nine months later, he was managing 400 Burger King units in the Philadelphia region, the country’s poorest performer. Within three years, his region had earned the reputation for excellence and was the company’s best.

In 1986, Pillsbury appointed him presidency of struggling Godfather’s Pizza, Inc. chain headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. In 14 months, under his leadership, Godfather’s regained profitability. In 1988, he led an executive buyout of Godfather’s from Pillsbury. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Restaurant Association in 1988; in 1994 to 1995, served as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He was additionally appointed to serve on the Economic Growth and Tax Reform Commission in addition to serving as Chairman and Member of the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Herman also served as the senior advisor to the 1996 Dole/Kemp campaign for the Presidency.

An accomplished speaker, writer, and motivator, Herman has a litany of awards and degrees, too numerous to mention here. I was inspired by Herman when he sat down with me this week after his radio show and was able to articulate the things that were the most important to him in his current life, and what it is that has helped drive him to the pinnacle of his life and profession.

1. YOU HAVE SERVED AS THE PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARDS OF SEVERAL ORGANIZATIONS. HOW HAVE THESE EXPERIENCES ENRICHED YOUR LIFE?

They have enriched my life in that they’ve helped me to appreciate what problem-solving is all about. That’s what businesspeople do, the good ones, the ones that succeed know how to solve problems, so they have enriched my life by helping me to be a better problem solver. When I was in college I was a math major and a physics minor and so I was in an analytic discipline, mathematics and science, but until you get out into the real world and apply those disciplines and thoseanalytical skills, that’s how you really develop becoming a problem-solver. It’s kind of like how a doctor practices medicine, a lawyer practices law, well a problem solver practices solving problems and the more you solve the better you get and the better off you are and that sort of thing. And because I became an expert problem solver, it has enriched my life by helping to provide a very, very, very comfortable career.

2. TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR GREATEST SUCCESSES? GOD? AMERICA? YOURSELF? HARD WORK?

Three things: I attribute the things that have helped me to succeed to first: My belief in God, secondly my belief in myself, third my belief in the United States of America. This is still the greatest country in the world even though we have a lot of issues and a lot of problems. And I learned those values from my parents because my dad started his life away from home at the age of 18. He literally walked off of a farm with just the clothes on his back but the things that they instilled in my brother and I are, belief in God and belief in yourself and what you can make happen and then believe in this country.

3. YOU’VE RECENTLY ENDURED A 4-YEAR BATTLE WITH LIVER AND COLON CANCER? WHAT DID YOU LEARN MOST FROM HAVING SURVIVED THESE ORDEALS?

Surviving my bout with colon cancer and liver cancer, it did 2 things: One, it accentuated my appreciation of life. It didn’t increase, it, it accentuated it, because I’ve always been positive about life and enjoying life, what it is as well as what it isn’t. Secondly, I told this to my pastor just last week: It made me unafraid of dying. When you only have a 30% chance of surviving and you come through that; I don’t feel as if I’m living on borrowed time. I feel as if I’m living on extended time because of something that God wants me to do and that’s still unfolding. It might be a run for office, it might not be a run for office, but I’m living on extended time so that’s why I have a very positive attitude about everything. It’s not a feeling of invincibility, it’s that I’ve been granted this gift and I’m supposed to do something with it.

4. YOU’VE HINTED THROUGH THE INITIATION OF YOUR HERMAN PAC THAT YOU ARE CONSIDERING A RUN FOR THE PRESIDENCY IN 2012. IF SO, WHAT PERSPECTIVE DO YOU THINK YOU COULD BRING TO THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE THAT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATES?

If I were to run and make that decision, the first thing that I would bring is a focus on the most critical issues that we face, a focus on solution to these big issues. My big issues start with national security. This administration is cutting our Defense budget, they are weakening our national security. They have canceled the missile defense system in Turkey, they are cutting back on NASA. All of these things, I think, weaken our national defense. Secondly the economy: There is a lot of low hanging fruit out there that can stimulate this economy. We cannot spend our way to prosperity and so I would talk more about not just the problems but how I would go about trying to address these problems. You can’t change some of these things overnight but in nearly every instance, there is some low-hanging fruit. The third one would be spending: halt the spending, just halt it, and the president has the power to do that! The president is really only the single individual in office who can do that! But even Bush didn’t just say halt it, keep it at zero, “Well it’s only 2.3%”, well no, that doesn’t change the culture. You have to change the culture by saying, “halt it”. Energy independence: Real energy independence starts with removing a lot of the regulatory constraints that keeping us from exploring all of the natural resources that we have here. We have tons and tons and tons of resources that are just being choked off because of the “environmental wackos” quite frankly. They are not going to be happy until they totally strangle this country and there isn’t one gasoline company or oil company left in America. They’ve already driven away most of them. Their headquarters somewhere else. So those are the kinds of things that I would focus on and I would force the other candidates to talk about, “What are your solutions, this is where I would start”.

5. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A PERSON WHO IS STRUGGLING TO FIND HIS OR HER WAY TO SUCCESS IN LIFE RIGHT NOW? HOW WOULD YOU ENCOURAGE SUCH AN INDIVIDUAL?

First of all you have earn a living and if you are not happy with the lifestyle that you are able to enjoy, do what my dad did and get 2 jobs and make a sacrifice for a while. Save off of one, live off of one as you try to determine what you want to do, if you want to retire early, if you want to start up a business. Some people work hard, say “I’m going to work hard for 30 years” and are going to become savers and they are going to invest conservatively and they want early retirement so they can do a 2nd career. You have to first decide what it is that you really, really want and everybody’s lifelong passion is different. First, decide what it is that you want to be in 10 years, what you want to be in 20 years, in 30 years that sort of thing. And so once you decide that, sometimes people have to make some sacrifices early in life. I’ve made some sacrifices in terms of going to school and after I got married I went to graduate school while I was married that sort of thing. I couldn’t watch a lot of football games on Sunday afternoons but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make until I finished my graduate work and that sort of thing. So first, figure out what it is that you are really, really passionate about doing and then make the sacrifices you have to make in order to achieve that sort of thing, working 2 jobs etcetera. My dad worked 3 jobs while he was focused on what it was he wanted to do. If it is something you feel passionate about achieving, you won’t mind the sacrifice. If you’re making the sacrifice and you are not totally convinced with where it is you are trying to get too, you’re not going to enjoy making that sacrifice.

6. HOW OPTIMISTIC ARE YOU THAT THIS COUNTRY CAN AND WILL TRULY MAKE 2010 A NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER?

I’m very optimistic because of the groundswell of grassroots in this country, here in Wisconsin, and I am encouraged by the people that I talk too in terms of their activism as I go across this country. The liberals want us to believe that we can’t take back this country, that we can’t change things and all that does is infuse energy into what’s going on across the country. So I’m very optimistic. Even if we don’t get net 40 to take back control, we are going to reduce the number of Democrats in the house and that is still going to give us a lot more leverage than we have today.

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