Taking off in business

When he is not teaching business classes, Charles Nobles likes to spend time tending to the 18 animals on his farm or piloting a Cessna 172 Skyhawk plane through the air.

When Nobles first joined the teaching staff at Portland State in 2004 there were only six business classes offered for non-majors. Nobles said he was teaching a third of them. He wasn’t disappointed with the lack of classes offered, but felt each class could offer more than just basic knowledge.

“If I had been taught some of the business tactics in college I had to learn the hard way, it would have saved me a lot of stress and time,” he said.

In his 25 years of business experience, Nobles has won multiple awards for his help in creating interactive snowboard Web sites. He began his business career in advertising during the early 1980s, and in 1999 he started Paris France, a high-end Web development company. Although www.parisfranceinc.com is not in business anymore, the Web site still remains online, and it reminds Nobles of how much fun work can be.

“We were starting to do great, creative and strategic work that we all could be proud of,” Nobles said.

During the Web site’s almost five-year run, Nobles and his team took home three awards for three different sites they created for the Millennium Three Snowboard line.

“The way those sites turned out encapsulated what we were all about,” Nobles said. “The pride we took in our work and the joy we felt are all there.”

Nobles and his team eventually decided to close down Paris France. He never considered teaching his next option until, according to Nobles, “I thought about teaching and felt I could give something back.”

For Nobles, the biggest challenge in transitioning from the business world to teaching the subject was communication.

“It’s one thing to know and another to teach,” he said. “We were always involved or targeting the youth through our Web site designs, so I think that helped as well.”

Outside of the classroom, Nobles spends time with his wife Sheryl on their five-acre farm in Helvetia, Ore., where they care for their animals: eight goats, seven cats, two dogs and one horse. According to Nobles, “…the goats are not for eating. They are members of the family.”

On a cold January night in 2006, Nobles and his wife awoke to his favorite goat, Petunia, going into labor. Nobles called one of his neighbors who had experience in goat birthing.

“He told me to basically just stand there with my hands out, like catching a football and wait,” Nobles said. “There was not much more to it than that, but wow, what an experience.”

Petunia birthed two kids that morning, a male that died and a female that Nobles named Daisy. Today Daisy likes to chase Nobles around their farm, trying to headbutt him.

“I love having those goats around,” Nobles said. “I think they are similar to my students because they keep me feeling young.”

Growing up as a self-proclaimed city boy, Nobles never anticipated he would someday help in the birth of a goat. Ever since the age of three, however, Nobles said he always dreamed of flying a plane.

After six months of rigorous flight school training in 2002, he was able to take the wheel for his first non-simulated flight.

For Nobles, a successfully run business is very similar to flying an airplane. Both take extreme concentration, patience and self-determination. Flying and business are also similar, he said, because they require trust and belief in one’s self.

“A pilot must believe that they have they skills and training to fly. If you start to doubt yourself up there in the air, things can go wrong very quickly,” he said. “The same can be said for the business world. If you don’t believe in your product, than no one else will and your company will crash.”

Nobles is optimistic about the future of business. He said with the market constantly fluctuating, it would make sense for everyone to obtain some business knowledge and experience.

“I want to give our students the proper tools for effective problem solving,” Nobles said. “A strong business involves practical people with a realistic perspective on the world.