PAUL SIMPSON: From Down-and-Out to Up-and-Coming
Posted Nov 15, 2012 in Labs & Profiles
Paul Simpson turned his life around after he discovered dental technology at age 20. Still trying to shake off the consequences of growing up in a bad neighborhood and dropping out of school a few years earlier, he applied for a job at a local laboratory. "I had no car, no high school diploma and was struggling to pay my rent," he says. But soon after I started that job, my whole perspective changed. I enjoyed it—and was good at it—and knew I had a chance for a future."
The job was in a large laboratory with over 200 employees; he started out painting dies but was designing pressable waxups within a year. "Although it was a production environment where everyone just did one thing all day, I looked for any opportunity to learn. When something went wrong or someone was working on a difficult case—even in another department—I always paid attention."
His next position at a small, quality-oriented laboratory gave him the opportunity to...