The author's initial entry into the field of adult education has been via an indirect route from the industrial environments where she has worked for the last 20 years in various engineering positions. She came to recognize many years ago that a large part of her job involved the education of adult employees. As a research and development engineer, she has been tasked with introducing new equipment and processes into existing production efforts. In some instances, this involved new technology for which there was no established curriculum in existing training or educational programs. In other situations, she was involved in introducing an established technology to a new geographical region and to employees who would be responsible for the new processes. Each of these situations left her in the position of being one of a small group of engineers who were knowledge resources called upon to prepare work instructions and develop training programs for specific employees. Developing educational programs is a common responsibility for many engineers. In this article, the author describes her journey to foster self-direction in others.