[Taylor]

At some point, I have told every student I have had about the three most important people in any building. Not the CEO, not the engineer, not the assembly workers. The three most important people in any business are secretaries, cooks, and janitors. If you are in the good graces of these three groups, you have access to things the President of the company doesn't even know about.

I think I can say with some certainty that the students on 1529 respect me. I can say with absolute certainty that the students on 1529 idolize Dean Kamen (or Woodie Flowers or Dave Lavery etc.). However, my team has virtually daily interactions with me; their exposure to these fine gentlemen is once, maybe twice a year. And those interactions aren't exactly two-way. Whatever "elitist" comment Dean makes does not override the daily lessons the team learns. I guess what I'm getting at is my team decides how my team operates, not Dean Kamen.

To extend the analogy a bit further, I imagine most everybody on here respects his or her father. But somewhere along the line, Dear Old Dad probably said something that we found a bit coarse/bothersome/offensive, and he probably did this in front of our friends. Did this stop our friendship with Jimmy and Timmy and Sally? I'd hope not, and I'd hope Father Kamen's misstep doesn't affect your relationships with your sponsor-friends either.