The 50 Mile Rule

A couple of years ago, in my capacity as Chief of Training, I was introduced to the term: The 50 Mile Rule. It was a name for phenomenon  that I knew happened, but wasn't able to express as completely as this phrase does.

Basically, the 50 Mile Rule says that an instructor who is from 50 miles away can tell students something their normal instructors have told them before, but they will receive it as manna from heaven. It's basically based in the fact that this instructor is a stranger.

The picture above is from this last Friday night at the Peachtree High School Band Reunion. The man with me is our Band Director Robert Rice. I remember a lot about my time in the marching band and jazz band, but what I remember most is a conversation in Mr. Rice's office when I was a junior.

As I related to Mr. Rice Friday night at the reunion, during my junior year he sat me down in his office and basically told me I was acting like an ass. I thanked him for taking me to task and told him that I thought he probably didn't remember the conversation. But I wanted him to know that it really  had a profound and long-lasting effect on me. He claimed to remember the conversation, and his comeback was pretty perfect. He said, "You don't remember that we had that conversation multiple times."

When he said I was "acting like an ass," he wasn't talking about the moment just prior to him pulling me into his office; he was talking about my behavior in general. He explained that even though I couldn't see it or realize it, I was a leader in the band and others were looking to me to see how to behave.

Later in the night at the reunion, I heard him bragging to someone else about how he had, as guidance counselor for Chamblee Middle School, requested that I come to talk with students on Career Day. He was pretty complimentary in how he described me to others as a captain leading other firefighters that day, and I have to admit it made me feel really good to see how proud he was.

Now, I wouldn't have taken a sit-down-in-my-office-talking-to from Mr. Rice lightly, but it took a while for what he said that day to seventeen year old Billy to really sink in. I would like to think that it was the beginning of me developing as a leader. And I'm invoking the 50 Mile Rule because I'm sure it's nothing my mother hadn't tried to tell me time and time again.

All that to say, he really was a formative person in my teen years. I know it was the same for many of my fellow band members. Many of them were also influential in me becoming the person I am, and it was really great to see so many of them at the reunion.

So thanks to Mr. Rice. Thanks to anyone who had an effect on me even if I didn't then or don't now recognize it yet. And thanks to my mother and others who by virtue of being around all the time, suffered the bias inherent in not being a "50 Miler."