Behind many successful business people is often a great story of how early in their career, they weren't quite on top.
Others tell a tale of a supportive spouse who gave them help as their star climbed higher and higher.
Jim Miller, chief executive officer and president of Renown Health, can tell both tales.
Miller hails from Henderson, and he graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a degree in business administration.
His emphasis was in accounting, but for some reason, Miller had a hard time landing a job after school. He estimates he got 18 rejection letters from prospective employers. He had decided it might be a good time to go back to school for his master's degree when he got a call from a former professor.
The professor had another ex-student who was looking for someone to work for him at Sunrise Hospital. Miller called the man, and went to see him the next day. As he walked in, the man recognized him. The interview went something like this:
Sunrise interviewer: "I know you. You went to UNLV."
Miller: "Yes."
Sunrise: "You had Dr. Taylor's class.
Miller: "Yes."
Sunrise: "What did you get in that class?"
Miller: "An A."
Sunrise: "When would you like to start?"
The class in question was an information technology class, and the professor taught the class in Fortran, a difficult programming language. Miller, who had no background in Fortran, bought books and taught himself the language during the class. About 30 people started the class, including math majors already familiar with Fortran, but only four students completed it. The man conducting Miller's interview at Sunrise was one of the students who started, but never completed the class.
"He was impressed enough with someone who actually finished the class. I talked with him on Friday and he put me to work on Monday. I started in health care, essentially, that simply," Miller says.
After that serendipitous start in Las Vegas, Miller has been with Renown Health for the last 26 years; he's been in the top position since 2000. When he and his family headed north, it wasn't without some tears as they left family in Henderson. But quickly, the charms of northern Nevada worked their magic.
"When we moved here we were very fortunate to move into a neighborhood where the people next door were our age and had kids our kids' age. I opened the car door, the kids went next door and in 20 minutes they were playing. My wife didn't really want to make the change at the time, but she recognized we probably needed to do something different.
"I think we were here about four weeks and she said 'I don't think I want to go back.' That says a lot about the people and the relationships she could form that fast. Ever since then, she's told me that it would be a long way for me to drive back to visit if I decided to go back (to Henderson)," he says, smiling.
Not that there's much chance of that. Miller has become entrenched in the area through his job and the nonprofit boards such as WARC/HIS that he serves.
His work with Renown is one of his greatest sources of satisfaction. The hospital's new children's emergency room and its cancer treatment, and their impact on the community, are two areas of which he's particularly proud.
"If a child has a medical problem that needs to be addressed and they need to go someplace else ... who's staying home and who's going? It's more than just an inconvenience for families," he says.
That impact on the people that Renown serves is exactly why Miller loves what he does for a living.
"If you think about it how many people get the opportunity to manage the resources that they entrust me with, or us as leadership with, in order to make a difference to help people in our community? And I get to serve with a board of directors who care about the community. They want to make this stuff happen. It's a golden opportunity.
"On top of that, we work in a field, where what you produce matters. We're not just rolling out 'things,' so we get to do meaningful work. On a day-to-day basis I get to come to work and work for people who care about what they do, and what they do matters. They're here to make a difference in people's lives. What could be better?" he asks.
Maybe the only thing that could give him more satisfaction is spending a bit more time with his wife of nearly 35 years, Leslie.
Miller credits his wife with supporting a career that's been full of long days and nights at work, so when he does get out of the office, he makes sure to focus on her. He jokes that Leslie tells her friends her husband loves to shop.
"I've never told her I don't necessarily like shopping, but I like being with her," he says, smiling. "This job is a lifestyle in itself. It's difficult to stay in touch with the community and do the number of board meetings we have, so when I do get time away, I try to do the things my wife likes to do. People ask me why I don't golf more; well, my wife doesn't golf. So we find things we can do together."
Asked for more secrets to a long, happy marriage and Miller quickly replies, "Marry a great woman. Without that, you can't do much else.
"It's give and take. One of the things I try to remind myself is giving is not work. It's kind of like people I run into. Sometimes they spend more time trying to avoid work than the work would take. I enjoy work and if someone puts it in front of me, I kind of appreciate getting it done. I think if you're dealing with your spouse or family or job, you have to look at it the same way. Life's now, it's not tomorrow or yesterday. And you might as well enjoy what you're doing."
A get-it-done guy
Who: Jim Miller
What: President, CEO of Renown Health
Family: Wife, Leslie. One son, one daughter.
He says: "There is no happy life without purpose."
