Two years ago, at Miller Resource Group’s summer meeting, I announced that I was stepping away from the business to “practice” retirement. 

Well, I’ve discovered that I’m quite good at it. 

So, I suppose it’s official. 

I’m retired. 

It feels strange to put a period on a career that started almost entirely by accident. 

It Started With an $80 Guarantee 

In 1977, I walked into Sales Consultants of Oak Brook looking for a job. 

The recruiter I met quit a couple of days after my visit, so naturally, I asked the owner a question: 

“Who’s taking his place?” 

I majored in business. They wore neckties. It was a job. How hard could it be? 

The owner apparently saw something in me because he offered me a one-week tryout at a $2-per-hour draw against commission. 

I did the math. 

Eighty bucks guaranteed. 

Let’s go. 

I spent the week doing exactly what they told me to do. Smile and dial. Call people. Start conversations. 

That Friday, the owner told me I was welcome to come back Monday. 

I did. 

And I stayed in recruiting for nearly five decades. 

Learning the Business One Conversation at a Time 

Those early years turned out to be an incredible education. 

This was before answering machines became mainstream. When you called a company, someone answered. 

For roughly eight years, making about 40 calls a day meant tens of thousands of conversations. 

I talked with gatekeepers, salespeople, executives, candidates, managers, and business owners. Every one of those conversations taught me something. 

I learned which behaviors caused people to open up. 

I learned which ones caused them to shut down. 

I learned how to ask questions, how to listen, how to sell, and, most importantly, how much there was still to learn. 

There was no shortcut. 

You got better by doing it again and again. 

Becoming the Owner 

The recession of 1982 nearly took me out of the business. 

I survived it, bounced back, and a few years later, the owner asked me if I wanted to buy the company. 

In January 1986, I became the owner. 

I didn’t have some brilliant strategic plan. 

My strategy was pretty simple: 

Sell enough to pay the bills. 

Within about a year, everyone who had been senior to me had left. 

I could have panicked. 

Instead, I decided I was going to find other people and show them why I thought this business was so much fun. 

The pitch was something like this: 

Call people. Find out what they want. Help them get it. 

Do that well, and they’ll come back. You’ll learn a ton along the way. And we’ll have a pretty good time doing it. 

It worked. 

The company grew. 

Eventually, Sales Consultants of Oak Brook evolved into the Miller Resource Group people know today. 

A Mosaic Built by Thousands of People 

When I look back now, I don’t think about my career as one big accomplishment. 

I think about it as a mosaic. 

Every conversation, candidate, client, coworker, mentor, recruiter, interview, mistake, success, and unexpected experience added another piece. 

Over the years, I’ve personally interviewed tens of thousands of people. Our firm has filled thousands of positions, and we’ve received feedback from more than 100,000 interviews. 

Think about how much there is to learn from that. 

What did someone say that made a hiring manager lean in? 

What turned them off? 

Why did one candidate connect while another didn’t? 

Why did someone accept? 

Why did someone walk away? 

Why did one employee flourish while another struggled? 

I’ve spent much of my career curious about questions like those. 

And I’m grateful to everyone who helped me find some of the answers. 

Growing Up in Factory Automation 

I was also fortunate to build my career alongside the factory automation industry. 

There was growth everywhere. There were entrepreneurs, new technologies, new businesses, and people building things that hadn’t existed before. 

I learned from some of the best. 

I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the late Alan Schonberg, MRINetwork, and the incredible trainers, mentors, and peers I grew up with professionally. 

Those relationships helped shape the recruiter, business owner, and person I became. 

I still have fond memories of those years. I learned from the best. 

To Everyone Who Took a Chance on Miller Resource Group 

Thank you. 

Thank you to the clients who trusted us with important hires. 

Thank you to the candidates who trusted us with important career decisions. 

Thank you to the people who joined our company and invested part of their careers here. 

Not everything worked perfectly. 

That’s business. That’s life. 

But we learned. 

We grew. 

We had a good time doing it. 

And I’m incredibly proud when I look at the number of people who built successful careers in this industry after spending part of their journey with us. 

The Next Chapter Belongs to MRG 

One of the things that makes retirement easier is knowing I don’t have to worry about what happens next. 

I’m excited to leave the firm in the good hands of my oldest son, Travis Miller.   

It’s extremely gratifying to see them growing, prospering and having a good time doing it…together! 

MRG doesn’t need me running the business anymore. 

That’s a pretty wonderful realization. 

It means we built something capable of continuing beyond any one person. 

I’m Retired. I’m Not Disappearing. 

I still pay attention. 

I still enjoy opening LinkedIn and seeing what people and companies we’ve worked with are doing. 

I still love connecting people who ought to know each other. 

And I’m especially grateful when someone I’ve known over the years asks if I’ll talk with a son or daughter who’s graduating college and trying to figure out what comes next. 

I’ll probably always say yes to those conversations. 

You don’t spend nearly five decades being curious about people and suddenly stop caring about them because you’ve retired. 

So I’ll still be around. 

Just maybe with a little more golf, fishing with the grandkids, and time to enjoy everything outside the office. 

To everyone who has been part of this mosaic, thank you. 

It’s been one heck of a career. 

That’s all, folks. 

I’m retired. 

Gary Miller