February 8, 2005 William Slater II '78, speaker President, Wm. Slater and Sons, Inc. "William Slater is a fourth generation owner of the Slater Funeral Home in Pittsburgh, PA. He graduated from Thiel as well as the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. He was the first person to attend both schools and start up the Mortuary Science program here at Thiel. After his father passed away, William and his brother became partners of Slater Funeral Home. Eventually, Mr. Slater bought out his mother, sister and brother and expanded the business. His goals included growing as a business, being on his own without his brother, and to be able to pay his bills. Mr. Slater accomplished all of these goals and continued to expand. As of today, Mr. Slater has bought out nine funeral homes." - Laura Simonetti, senior business administration major "At the end of the presentation I talked to Mr. Slater about my future plans and also his plans with the franchising business. We talked for about 15 minutes about different options in the funeral business and different roads I can take. This was one of the best experiences I have had at Thiel. It was great to be able to network with business people, and I feel this class gave me a great opportunity for a job." - Adam Guthrie, junior business administration & mortuary science major "When everyone was saying he was crazy and he would never survive, he didn't care what they were saying. What he did was see the potential and the future. I've learned that if I want to grow then I somehow have to take a chance." - Ji Young Kim, senior english major "Mr. Slater talked about his idea of franchising funeral homes. He stated that one of the reasons you make money is by helping other people make money. Near the end of the presentation President Masters made a comment that he had heard the same idea on how you make money by helping other people make money." - Matt Rowlands, senior accounting & business administration major "Lessons learned were: 1.)It's not necessarily what, but who you know and what impressions you've made upon them. 2.)Don't let other people tell you that you can't when you know you can. 3.)Be creative; don't be afraid of change or risk, without them it is impossible to succeed. 4.)Whatever you do, do it with confidence. 5.)Seek to enrich yourselves, but don't try to just get rich, money can only go so far. - Jennifer Schmidt, junior art & business administration major