Although he was an inexperienced artist, he was a fast learner. And working for Mr. Bond was a Godsend job since it was a one-person shop, Mr. Bond and Rock. That gave Rock ample opportunities to do everything that needed to be done around the shop. And Rock tackled everything as if he knew what to do and with minimum supervision. And within a month, he was an experienced graphic artist.

One of the jobs he was assigned to the bimonthly magazine. The lady editor, Mrs. Smith, was a wonderful and kind lady in her sixty.

In those days, everything was done by hand as there were no computers. A long and time-consuming process that today's computers have made easy and a seamless process. In the case of this magazine, once Mrs. Smith and her assistant gathered all the articles, pictures, and advertisements that were to be included in each issue. She would send the articles to be typeset that took a week or so to complete. Then Mr. Bond would design the layout of the magazine. A week or so later, and once that was done and approved, he would give it to Rock to make the "camera-ready-art" for the printer to use to print the magazine. Rock was innovative and talented and very quickly understood what was needed to be done and created many methods that speed up the process, and was applauded for them.

In the beginning, Mrs. Smith was uncertain and sat right behind Rock and directed and monitored every move he made. And every day, when they went to their two hours lunch, she would demand he stops and waits for her to come back from lunch before continuing with the job. That was fine with Rock as he was new and needed her directions and help to complete his tasks.

After a few days, Rock was able to master the job and could do it without her supervision. So, one day after she left for lunch, he continued working on the magazine. When she got back from her lunch and learned Rock had continued without her supervision, she got furious.

Rock calmly waited for her to finish ranting and objecting. Then he asked her to please check the work he had done, and if she could find any flaws, he will never do it again without her supervision. But if everything was to her satisfaction, then he should be trusted and allowed to continue without her close supervision.

To his surprise, she agreed. She checked what Rock had done and found no flaws. She praised him and told him that he had done an excellent job, and after that, she never left her office to sit behind Rock to monitor his work. She told him that the girl before him made many mistakes, and she had to sit behind her to make sure everything was done correctly.

Back◄ Next►