Bob Sigall: A Look at the Man Behind the Rearview Mirror

On September 30, 2021, Columnist and Consultant Bob Sigall and HHF’s Executive Director Kiersten Faulkner co-presented a visual journey back to post-World War II Hawai‘i in a webinar hosted by Kapi‘olani Community College (KCC).  Titled “Back in the Day: 1946 Facts and Throwback” the virtual presentation was the fifth segment of KCC’s Kaiāulu Webinar Series that is offered in commemoration of the College’s 75th anniversary.

Known for his Rearview Mirror newspaper column and book titles, Sigall led the audience on a fascinating look back at 1946, the beginnings of the transformative post-war era. Encouraging everyone who joined in to make a more personal connection, he asked the audience to imagine what life was like at that time for their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

“It’s really interesting to me that KCC began at a very pivotal time for Hawai‘i,” began Sigall.  “In many ways, Hawai‘i was very different in 1946 than it is now…In 1945 we succeeded. The war came to an end in September, we put down our guns and went back to our lives…”

“The GI Bill of Rights that was passed by Congress gave soldiers money to go to college. My dad and millions of others like him were able to do so. My dad said he never would have been able to go to college if that hadn’t been the case. In an effort to return to civilian life we can see the beginnings of what would become KCC.”

Following the presentation, HHF asked Sigall to reverse roles and allow himself to be in the spotlight. We share his story, written in his signature conversational style.

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation: You started your column, Rearview Mirror, ten years ago in 2011. Please tell us about the events/people that led you to start writing it. Did you make a pitch to the newspaper to get printed? What was the first column of Rearview Mirror about?

In late 2010, I had a Small Business Administration meeting at Restaurant Row. My third The Companies We Keep book had just come out.

I decided to walk into the Honolulu Star-Advertiser offices at Restaurant Row and ask the business editor if he would do a story about it. They had done so about my first two books, so I thought it was likely.

David Butts, the business editor, and I chatted. I had never met him. He asked Erika Engle to write the article and then asked if I had ever thought of writing a regular feature in the paper. I was very pleasantly surprised.

We met again in January 2011 and I gave him four possibilities. He picked one and we considered titles. He suggested “Rearview Mirror.”

The first column was (published) in the paper on Friday, April 15, 2011. It was about Magic Island, and had a photo of Henry Kaiser’s proposal, which included two artificial islands as well as the peninsula. It was about a ¼ page.

Initially, I thought I’d massage stories from my books into my column. I believed I had maybe three years of material there, but wasn’t sure what I’d do after that. But, after a while, I found my column attracted a good number of fans, who sent me questions or stories.

I created a free weekly email newsletter called “Rearview Mirror Insider” to have a back-channel communications network with readers. I give them extras that don’t fit in the column, and they share their questions and stories with me.

To date, I have sent out over 240 newsletters to about 1,400 subscribers. Those interested can sign up at: www.RearviewMirrorInsider.com.

This Friday, #547 of my newspaper column runs this week (on October 1, 2021). It’s now about three-quarters of a page.

I never dreamed I would be a columnist. I have never taken a class in journalism, but the opportunity presented itself and I grabbed it.  My life is a long series of such opportunities that seemed to come out of nowhere.

For instance, I never thought I’d be a teacher. I was a business consultant for 40 years. In 1998, a dean at Hawai‘i Pacific University attended a 90-minute class on marketing I led at KCC (Kapi‘olani Community College) for Small Business Hawai‘i. She–Lola Lackey–invited me to teach a graduate course there in marketing.

I told her I had a master’s degree in psychology and never took a class in college in business. But I had owned four businesses before graduating from high school and was a lifelong entrepreneur. She said “perfect.”

She told me it should be practical, so I threw out lectures and instead brought in experts in business for the students to meet and question.

I brought in people who needed help with their marketing and my students had to write marketing plans for them (that averaged 25-35 pages). They did that 3-4 times a semester.

Instead of a final exam, we had a party.

Students also had to attend two business networking meetings, meet 6 business owners and get one to give them a tour of their company, to learn the value of networking.

My weight training group, Pau Hana Pumpers, encouraged me to turn the students’ reports into a book. The first “The Companies We Keep” came out in 2003.

The cover says “by Bob Sigall and his students at Hawai‘i Pacific University.” The student’s names are in the book along with the companies they interviewed.

To my surprise, book 1 was on the bestseller list its second week out. The initial 3,000 copies sold out in 3 months.

People began reaching out to me. Many said, “I’ve got a great story you missed.” That led to four more books.

HHF: What memories do you have of your own childhood? Was there someone/something in your past that influenced your interest in business and history?

My father was an accountant. He was often frustrated with bosses or clients and the family encouraged him to start his own business. He never did. Possibly in reaction to that, I’ve always worked for myself.

I had four kid businesses before graduating from high school. We lived near a golf course when I was 8 and would find lost balls. My brother and I would clean them up and sell them to new golfers for 10 cents apiece.

My dad made home movies and my mom worked in the animation business, and had cartoons. We’d show them in a neighbor’s darkened garage and sell snacks. That was my second business.

In 8th grade, my dad told me I had gotten a 1099 IRS form from a summer job. I had to fill in a “1040 Short” form – half a page, with five pukas, to get a refund. He told me all my friends who worked had to do the same and that I could do it (for them). I was good at math, and the numbers from the 1099 all went onto the tax return. My friends all got back whatever had been withheld. I charged them $5 each. I didn’t know I was too young to be a tax preparer, so I did it.

In 10th grade, I settled into the more mundane kid job of window washing. I’d put flyers on people’s porches and they’d call. I figured I made four times what my friends with jobs earned. I did this through college.

After grad school, I continued my entrepreneurial path. I opened a private practice as a therapist in Kailua in 1975. Three years later, a business consulting firm asked me to join as a partner.

By 1980, I realized both occupations helped people with their problems – personal vs. business – but business consulting paid more. I closed my Kailua office and focused fully on consulting.

About half my clients needed managerial help (relationships and communication) and half needed marketing help (how to tell the community what they did).

I figure I helped over 1,000 clients in the 40 years I did that.

I was a director of Small Business Hawai‘i and suggested they reach out to young entrepreneurs. Many of their members were former young entrepreneurs, but 99% were over 35.

We cut our membership fee for under-35s, put a young entrepreneur on our board of directors, and created a young entrepreneur sub-group.

That group decided to put on an all-day entrepreneurial training at KCC in 1997. I taught two classes in marketing, and as I said earlier, that led to my teaching at HPU, which led to my books and column.

Click on the image to view the “Back in the Day: 1946 Facts and Throwback” webinar slideshow:

Bob Sigall received a Preservation Honor Award for Interpretive Media from Historic Hawai‘i Foundation in 2020 in recognition of his newspaper column, Rearview Mirror, as a historical record of the Hawaiian Islands. Rearview Mirror runs every Friday in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. His series of books, The Companies We Keep, can be found in local bookstores and through Sigall’s website. 

To sign up for Sigall’s free weekly email newsletter called “Rearview Mirror Insider,” visit www.RearviewMirrorInsider.com.