About Dr. David Schein
Dr. David Schein is an author, professor, consultant, and public speaker. He is a Professor at the Cameron School of Business at the University of St. Thomas where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses with a focus on leadership, business ethics and business law. His books The Decline of America: 100 Years of Leadership Failures and Bad Deal for America unravel the gradual downfall of democracy in the United States. Dr. Schein also hosts the podcasts “Saving America” and “Business Law 101”.
Blue Ocean: Tell us about your professional life. Why did you choose to work in this industry?
Dr. David Schein: I had some medical issues as a child, and I received some help from a talented doctor. So, I always wanted to be a medical doctor. When I went to college, I started as a pre-med student. I came from a very poor family, so I had to work to get through college. In my first semester of college, I worked with a medical doctor, and rather surprisingly, he was a researcher. He assigned me to help with testing on patients who had gangrene. It was a horrible thing for an 18-year-old to experience. I realized that this would not work out for me, so I went to the Career Services office at the University of Pennsylvania and had some testing done. I tested off the charts to be an attorney. I hadn’t thought about becoming an attorney, but by then I had started my own business in college. I had also changed my orientation to study transportation economics. I had a weekly radio show on Public Radio and was well-known. I also founded an arts management business in Philadelphia, which was not hugely successful. Still, it was successful enough that I paid the rent and kept my costs covered.
Because of my success as a business person, I was accepted into the competitive two-year MBA program at the Darden School at the University of Virginia. As soon as I finished my MBA, I was accepted to a couple of different law schools, and I decided to move to Houston, Texas. And so I went to law school here. I worked for a major oil company while I was in law school. And as I finished law school, I was hired by Shell Oil Company. Interestingly, I was hired not to be a lawyer, but in human resources. They wanted people like me with advanced degrees to improve their human resources and introduce new methods of administering HR to enhance their employee workforce. So, that’s how I ended up as an attorney with a focus on employment law.
Blue Ocean: What does your typical day look like?
Dr. David Schein: I get up early in the morning to go to the gym and do a full workout three mornings a week. On the days I don’t go to the gym, I do yoga or pilates for about 20 to 25 minutes. On Tuesdays, in addition to my full workout, I do a half-hour tennis lesson. Then I go to my office, eat a healthy lunch, and grade student papers. I teach two sections of a graduate MBA course. At 7 PM, I pick up my partner, Karen, and then we go to a one-hour Tango lesson until eight.
Blue Ocean: What is the one thing that makes you feel your career is worthwhile?
Dr. David Schein: I think it’s very fruitful to work with minority populations and try to help these students succeed. I felt very rewarded at a special celebration for my former student who had just become a dean. She acknowledged my assistance publicly. She gave a heartwarming speech recalling how I had helped her when she was working on her master’s degree. It was rewarding to know that I’m helping people become better professionals.
I emphasize ethics not just in law, but in business as well. We must be ethical in all spheres of our life. We should treat our employees, vendors, and customers with respect and decency.
Blue Ocean: How have you differentiated yourself, and what underpins your success?
Dr. David Schein: Apart from being a professor, I’m also an author. I have two books that are part of a series of commentaries on the challenges to democracy in the United States of America. My books point out these problems and encourage solutions. Being a published author has given me more visibility. I have had 25 publications in peer-reviewed journals. I think it’s important to realize that you don’t have to be the smartest guy in the room. You just have to be somebody who applies your knowledge effectively. Because sometimes, even extraordinarily smart people are not able to apply what they do and communicate with the rest of the world effectively. I think I’m a good interpreter.
Blue Ocean: How did your experiences as an academician shape the person and professional person you are today?
Dr. David Schein: I was interested in politics in the past, so it was natural for me to get into that. I ran for office in Texas twice when I was younger. I was unsuccessful but I gained a lot of respect for running as a Republican.
I became a founding director of the Asian Chamber of Commerce of Houston in 1989, where I was on the board of directors until 2000. During that time, I was also the director of two other nonprofit organizations.
I want to continue to advance my webcasting activities with syndication and to get back to writing books. I have two books out and I am working on my third book. It is called A Cheap Education, and it is a work of fiction based on fact.The book captures the four years I spent at the University of Pennsylvania, where I went from being a struggling pre-med student to a business student and a pre-law. It explores my journey of owning a business and being on public radio when I was only 19-20 years old. I was going to functions with celebrities who were on television and the stage. It was an extremely interesting period. People have been telling me that those are really good stories. And that I should write a book about that unique time period. I’m doing that now and I’ve written about 14 chapters. The book will have about 70 chapters, so it’s probably about 20% done.
Blue Ocean: What advice would you give to your younger self?
Dr. David Schein: One of the pieces of advice I would give myself is that I should have worked on my doctorate earlier because I have encountered so much age discrimination since I completed my doctorate. If I had earned my PhD earlier, I would have been able to do more with my academic career. I would have started writing books earlier, as well.
Blue Ocean: What is something you are grateful for?
Dr. David Schein: I’m really grateful for my parents. Unfortunately, both of them have passed away. One of the things that we need in the United States is parents who are more involved in the upbringing of their children. I’m the oldest of 7 children. My mother was a stay-at-home mom because of the responsibility that came with all those children.
She did not finish high school. She was ill near the end of high school, so she had a GED. My father tried to attend college after high school, but the Korean War began, and he was called up to military service.
Being an enlisted person in the US military does not pay well. Therefore, it was very financially tough for them to raise 7 children, but they did a wonderful job. They were married for 51 years before my father passed away. They focused on their children and gave us a good start in life.
People ask me why I am so appreciative if they weren’t financially successful. It’s because it is not about the money but about the commitment. And it’s funny because my parents always emphasized working hard in school so we could go to college. My dad would always say that our only job was to focus on school. And it’s interesting because my parents had no clue how they would ever financially help us go to college.
When I went to college, I didn’t take any money from my parents, and neither did my next-oldest sister when she went. Our parents probably thought, “This is a great deal—just get them to do well in school, and they’ll take care of themselves.” We were fortunate in that regard. We were both quite entrepreneurial. I started my own business during college, and my sister, a talented scientist, worked as a laboratory technician while she was studying.
Blue Ocean: What is a quote that resonates with who you are?
Dr. David Schein: I would say that it’s applying ethical principles to everything that you do. Treating people with respect and honor.
In one of my radio shows, I interviewed the retired president of Southwest Airlines. He had released a book called Do the Right Thing. There was a young pilot who was very interested in getting hired for their airline. The young pilot had been cocky and egotistical. He was very polite to the senior members of the interview staff but very rude to the office staff. After he left, the people who interviewed him found out that he had been rude to the support staff, and the airline did not hire him. He was shocked when he was not offered employment, and called the recruiter. He was told that the reason they didn’t hire him was that if he was rude to people regardless of their status in life, then he was not the kind of person they wanted working for their company. And I think that’s a very valuable lesson. You need to be kind to everyone you interact with. Not because you’re trying to get something from them, but because it’s the right thing to do.
Blue Ocean: Outside of work, what passions and interests do you pursue?
Dr. David Schein: I have a passion for theater. My better half has a passion for opera. Houston has a tremendous opera company, and so one of my interests is opera and live theater. And I’m also learning Tango.
I do enjoy playing tennis. I also love international travel. When I was young, I had been to England, Canada, and Mexico. Then, in the last 12 years, I have been to about 20 or 22 different countries in total. My daughter lives in Belize. She and her husband are involved in the tourism industry. And so my wonderful granddaughters are in Belize with them. I have also been to Scotland, Africa, Japan, South America, Italy, Spain and France.
The only problem with international trips is that it takes me away from writing. On the other hand, traveling ensures that I’m not just sitting at my computer and typing away all the time. It’s also interesting to experience different cultures.
Health is a major focus for me. In law school, I was a proud member of the Texans Against Public Smoking, “TAPS,” and the Group Against Smoking in Public, “GASP.” Given the dramatic reduction in smoking in general, and smoking in particular, I think those efforts were very successful.
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