Meet Don Johnston | Retired chemist & author
We had the good fortune of connecting with Don Johnston and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Don, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Though I selected the “starting your own business” question, it fits so well with the “risk taking” question that I’m going to weave them together in my answer.
The biggest risk I ever took was leaving a successful career in industry and starting my own business. My journey and the thought process behind it is described below.
Upon graduating from college with a degree in chemistry and biology, I took a job as a microbiologist with an oilfield service company in Houston. The work was highly interesting, but it was a dead end–the company employed 35-40 chemists and engineers but only one microbiologist. Consequently, I transferred to the chemistry lab, and slowly advanced from bench chemist to chief chemist and (eventually) Lab Manager.
After twelve years with my original employer, another company lured me away to be their Lab Manager with “an offer I couldn’t refuse” (a nice salary increase plus a company car!).
Was I happy? Yes, until I got the entrepreneurial itch.
At the time the itch became intense, I was in my mid-thirties and had made a lot of money for my employers–enough that I was entertaining thoughts about giving it a shot on my own. Just before turning forty, I did. Quitting my job caused a lot of anxiety in my family. Though my wife supported the decision, she worried constantly until I got my first customer (nearly three months). My parents, who had gone through the Great Depression, didn’t understand until the business became successful.
Starting your own business is a challenging risk/reward scenario. I warn those who are thinking about it not to take a “foolish” risk by starting a business before they are ready. Generally, I advise them to work a few years for another company in preparation for going out on their own. In other words, “Get prepared before taking the risk.”
Nearly fifty years have passed since I left the corporate world. It was the best career decision I ever made, and also the riskiest. My own business succeeded because I was prepared.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
While answering the first question, I summarized my career in the corporate world, so I’ll tell you how I became an author.
The story starts 83 years ago. At age five, I found a tattered science book showing a monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. That incident ignited my lifelong passion for science.
Upon graduating from high school, I joined the Air Force, and while serving as a jungle survival instructor in Panama, I wrote a “gossip column” for the base’s weekly newspaper. The editor liked my writing and asked if I would like to work on the paper full time. I said, “Of course!” and requested a transfer.
The Base Commander gave me a snarky reply, “Airman Johnston, your training is in jungle survival, a skill more valuable to the Air Force than writing gossip columns. REQUEST DENIED.”
The commander may have done me a favor. After my discharge, I enrolled in college and got degree in chemistry and biology.
During my career as a chemist and microbiologist, I wrote numerous research reports and technical articles. Upon retirement, I missed the craft of writing and turned to fiction to fill the void. After writing research reports and technical articles for many years, my first soiree into fiction felt rather odd. As a scientist, it didn’t seem right to “make stuff up.” After a short struggle, I claimed the position of “god” over my fictional world and viewed everything I wrote as true–at least for the duration of the story in progress.
My work and military service allowed me to experience life in several countries and observe a wide range of political dynamics. Writing fiction provided the perfect way to blend my professional experience with lessons learned from travel and cultural exposure.
Since turning 80, I’ve published three novels and a book about the stock market. My goal is to write one novel every two years for as long as I can.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I invited Martin, my best friend while in the Air Force, to visit me, and he said “yes.” We’d served together in the Panama Canal Zone and had some incredible adventures there. When our tour of duty was over, Martin returned to New York and I returned to Texas.
We were young then, but we’re old now.
Martin’s flight landed late Sunday evening at Bush Intercontinental Airport, and he took Uber to my house (I seldom drive at night anymore). Since, I live alone, we had decided that he should stay with me. When he at arrived at my house in Crescent Lakes (Sugar Land, Texas), we opened a bottle of Pinot Noir and talked until it was empty–about midnight.
We got up Monday morning and had coffee and apple fritters in my sun room overlooking the lake. The local birds seemed to know we had a visitor. During the first ten minutes, we saw cardinals, blue jays, mocking birds, egrets, a great blue heron, and a flock of ibises. Martin was impressed. Our Air Force specialty was jungle survival, and we love nature, so we decided to take an outdoor jaunt on our first day together. We went to Brazos Bend State Park and stayed all day.
Once back in Sugar Land, Martin said, “Let’s have Mexican food for dinner. I want to see if it’s as good as you Texans say it is.”
“We call it Tex-Mex,” I said. “I’m sure you’ll like it.” We went to a family-owned restaurant nearby and ordered beef quesadillas. The beef had been smoked with mesquite wood, and Martin said that he had never tasted anything so good. In addition, we had “Grand Gold” margaritas, which triggered the need for an early bedtime.
On Tuesday morning, we took a driving tour of my “pocket universe,” an area near my home that contains practically everything I need and many of those I love. After the short tour, we went to Space Center Houston and visited the museum.
“This reminds me of the time you put a Sputnik 3 sign on your car after the Soviet Union launched the first two satellites.” Martin said, as we studied an exhibit. “When the Panamanians saw it, they shouted, Sputnik tecero.”
Later that evening, I introduced Martin to some of my family and friends. Though their accents were different, they quickly “adopted” him and asked a lot of questions about New York. He invited them to visit him, and some of them are considering it.
The rest of the week went by in a blur as Martin and I took a trip down memory lane. While we visited some interesting places and dined in several nice restaurants, nothing else mattered as much as renewing our friendship and merging the past with the present.
My conclusion–no matter where I eat, drink, or visit, the people I do it with should be the focus of my attention.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to several groups of people who are always available to help and encourage me.
One of them is my coffee clique (I call them “the troops”). We have coffee together regularly and try to “solve the problems of the world.” I’m a widower, so one way they help is merely by being present. They’re always eager to find out what’s happening in the sci-fi novel that I’m currently working on, and I enjoy keeping them up to date.
In addition to the troops, I have a “Mexican dinner group.” We have been eating together every Thursday for about twenty years (yes, 20).
Last but not least, I have a special lady friend who proofreads everything I write. People who support and inspire me are an integral part of my life.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/don.johnston.12382
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