East TN was the State (and area) to which I ran back in 1990, when my EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE put me into a DIME A DOZEN group for potential employment opportunities which even for a dead man walking is still rather easy to comprehend.... oddly, and to my favor as it worked out, TN was not as progressive as NC in that area of the marketplace, so, in 1990 I was ONE of THREE who had this particular expertise, even though the expertise was still not in high demand, outside of Kingsport which was the home of EASTMAN CHEMICAL formerly known as Eastman Kodak.
It appeared that Eastman Chemical had hired a PhD by the name of Edwards W. Deming to help them improve the quality of their products and their profitability. Deming was a PhD Statistician who taught the top mangers TQM and SPC and how to improve processes, reduce costs, all while improving quality with that quality being defined by the customer not the producer.
In 1990, I was trained in those areas as well as it turned out... and quite ironically, that training had absolutely nothing to do with my BA degree in English or my MBA in Strategic Planning... I could have acquired this training without going to college at all.
By 2005, I was again in the DIME A DOZEN pond and 15 years older than before with no desire to find another State in which to relocate... So... I turned to Proprietary Education and go caught up in Project Management Course Design which was DIRECTLY connected to my MBA as in the 1980's this area of business was referred to as PRODUCT MANAGEMENT or managing a womb to tomb operational product line for a company... kinda like managing a company within a company.
SO... in 2012, it was this same State that put me out to pasture that had given me life 22 years earlier. And, it is this same State that continues not to have a State Income Tax and offers a cheaper cost of living index than most anywhere else in the country.
This State whether it wants to admit it or not, has saved my life with the quality doctors at the University's Medical Center that were trained by the best healthcare facilities all over the USA and who decided to give it all back in Knoxville....
Irony or Comical... I am not sure what to say... but what Tennessee has offered me is worth far more than the millions of dollars I could have earned elsewhere... Tennessee saved my life and continues to do so everyday that I am alive and look out into this beautiful valley or over at the Great Smokey Mountains... it is free to anyone who wants to park their car on the side of the road and look.
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