MRK Merck and Co Inc

By Joann S. Lublin 

Fred Hassan has twice led big U.S. businesses, but he will never forget his lowly first job as a roughly $1-an-hour laborer.

The former chief executive of Schering-Plough Corp. and Pharmacia Corp. is now a partner at Warburg Pincus, a private-equity firm. He also wrote "Reinvent," a leadership book published in 2013.

Mr. Hassan says his stint as a produce picker and cannery worker in the summer of 1965 "was a character builder." He spent three weeks in rural Cambridgeshire, England, following his initial year of college studying chemical engineering in London.

Born and raised in Pakistan, that summer, Mr. Hassan harvested farm fields and canned fruit and green beans alongside students from other European countries. His free summer housing consisted of a small hut with six bunk beds.

Mr. Hassan says he cited that difficult experience years later while advising his son and two daughters about summer employment options during their college years. In an interview, he reminisced about his formative first job:

"You have to get up early in the morning. That gives you a certain discipline. There is a certain team pressure to do the work.

"We would load up in the hay wagons in the morning. It was very hard, backbreaking work -- especially picking the strawberries. An aching back all the time. If you're doing it all day in the hot sun, that is tough.

"The harvesting occurred pretty quickly. (Inside the cannery), it was very hot. There was no air conditioning. It was probably 85 or 90 degrees.

"That was the only time I ever worked in agriculture. It absolutely convinced me to feel I was very lucky to have the opportunity to earn a (college) degree. I didn't want to be that manual laborer for the rest of my life.

"I saved (the summer wages) toward buying a car. I bought my Mini in 1966. It was new, but it was bare-bones. I felt very proud that I had done something on my own.

"I convinced (my children) to do something during the summers while they

were in school.   I said, 'This (manual labor) is a character builder. It would be good to see how the world lives.' 

"(But) they didn't do the rough stuff. They were more impressed by getting these (prestigious) internships. They missed out on something as a result."

Write to Joann S. Lublin at joann.lublin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 26, 2016 12:49 ET (16:49 GMT)

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