From Waiting Tables at Bubba Gump's to Co-Founding a Disruptive Technology Platform

This is me, I’m not having some English major edit my work for grammar mistakes.??I’m not having any of my team members review this and tell me to restructure it this way or that way.??I’m not having my mom or sister who were/are educators, review my work. In fact, I’m writing this on an airplane flying back from San Antonio to Washington, DC and I’m just feeling the flow so hopefully you will go on the journey with me.?

Eventually my intention is to speak on various topics in the IT Channel as the newsletter title and description suggests, but first, I want to catch you up on how I went from waiting tables at Bubba Gump Shrimp House in Times Square (NYC) to being part of one of the fastest growing companies in the channel (ID Agent) to now co-founding a innovative, disruptive technology platform called Channel Program.??https://channelprogram.com/

We don’t all have our life path planned out the second we graduate college.??I studied business in college because I didn’t have a single passion that I was aware of like someone who knows they want to be a musician, an actor, a math teacher.??I had a sense business was the general direction I wanted to go, but I had no clue what type of business I would be passionate about.

WHO DO YOU KNOW?

?One big mistake I believe I made was turning down the opportunity to travel abroad right after graduating.??I was too excited to earn my first paycheck and get out into the working world.??I had my entire life to work, but I feel like I missed out on some amazing memories that would have lasted a lifetime.

So while my friends were off in Europe, I started my first job out of college, where I was a Marketing Assistant at an accounting firm. I was very good friends with one of the partners sons and I think at the time created the position for me.??I was making $24.5k a year and living the life.??Shared apartment, very low expenses, still splitting gas with friends when we’d travel to the beach.??I honestly lived a great life on that salary somehow.??

?2.5 years into it, it was clear that it was time to move on.??I wasn’t being challenged and quite frankly if I’m being honest, I became known as the social butterfly.??I did however have some great group lunches with my co-workers who would become lifelong friends.??

YOU CAN’T CUT IT IN SALES

2 weeks into my next gig as a copier salesman doing door to door sales, I was brought into the office of my manager and she gave it to me straight.??She didn’t think I could cut it sales.??This was one of those companies that made you take some personality assessment which I personally despise.??She took a chance on me because apparently I didn’t pass whatever test of personality they were looking for, but she cut the cord quickly.??She wasn’t wrong about me not being able to do door to door sales for copiers, but she was dead wrong about me not being able to do sales.

I give major props to anyone who is comfortable doing door to door sales, which I’m not sure is even a thing today.??I was absolutely uncomfortable with it, but what added to this was the fact that I was selling something I had zero passion for. Getting anyone to care that much about the difference between copier X and copier Y when they were locked into long-term contracts was a brutal conversation.

I remember sitting in my car, this was the height of summer and those damn cicadas were back after a 17 year sleep.??“What am I doing, I hate this, I don’t want to go into this office building and knock on doors.”??

I didn’t realize it then, but this manager did me a huge favor by firing me.??Never again was I going to settle for a job doing something I didn’t enjoy.??Also, she become number one on my list of people I wanted to prove wrong.??As T Swift would say “haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate…”.??I found a tremendous amount of drive from proving someone wrong.??I’m not saying this is healthy, I’m not saying this is right, but I’ve also been that way.??

?I used to run track in high school and was quite good, peaked with a 158.8 half mile and 4:37 mile, but my absolute highlight of my track life was my sophomore year, first race of the season and a senior (state champion) was in the half mile race as well.??Going into this season, I was obsessed with this guy, all I could think about was beating him.??At this point, there was no logical reason for me to believe I could beat him and certainly zero people outside of maybe myself and my uncle that thought I could.??Something about being an underdog drove me.??Well my friends, that day and that day ONLY, I did beat this man.??Yes, he was a man at this point and I was still a boy.??(C’mon, you know how much you grow up from your sophomore year in high school to your senior year).??The entire race I had one focus and only one thought that I kept repeating in my head, “you’re going to beat this guy, you’re going to beat this guy”.??My brain had no room for anything else and I willed myself to that victory.

?I share that story because no matter how successful I may be now compared to my early days, I’ve never given up that underdog mentality.??Very similarly, after being fired, I kept thinking to myself, “I’ll show you who can do sales”.??

For Part II stayed tuned, and subscribe: Here is a preview:

Location Change from DC to NYC, waiting tables at Bubba Gump Shrimp House to finally finding a steady career job.

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