Humility, and owning your life

A humbling opportunity

In 2012, I was all of 11 years into my sales career, however; I had a few stops along the way, (T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, tw telecom). Like most working professionals, I was searching for meaning, purpose, and money, (because those 3 things don’t always come in the same package I later found out.) To every single employer, I was grateful. I always showed up and produced, brought a great attitude and quota wasn’t an issue. I had promotional opportunities, made great friends, and received best in class training. In sales, quota is always a topic of discussion and it never comes easy, and if it does, it won’t last long.  

I spent some time with my wife, and we had found that we had a little mountain of debt that we wanted to tackle to get behind us, paying it back plus interest for some luxuries from the previous years. We both talked about what we should do, and I agreed that I would do something uncomfortable to ensure that I remembered not to end up in this experience again.  I was hitting quota and then some at work, however; commissions paid 3-5 months in arrears and I wanted to show a little bit of humility in our reality. Our family isn’t large, but it’s my wife and my son, and this was an opportunity to provide an example. Oh boy, was it ever!

That night, I drove down to the local Domino’s Pizza store and asked if they had any delivery jobs. They did, and I said, “I will give you 3 months, 20 hours a week.” The Manager said, “Are you sure you want to put that sign on your Lexus?” “Yes”, I replied.

I showed up the next day in my Dominos visor, shirt, and within 20 minutes my car smelled like a Deep Dish Supreme pizza. I met this with 100% commitment. When I wasn’t delivering, I was folding boxes or making pizzas. I found that I loved the fast paced environment. In Minnesota, you can’t see the house numbers in December at 5:30 p.m. and it’s -10 degrees, so you tend to take hints from the vets, i.e. the 20-year olds who had some pretty damn good tips. 

A few highlights…

1.     I was robbed and I didn’t even realize it until after it happen. That’s how distracted you get when you are asked for a $20 bill to break change for a man with no clothes.  I didn’t read the note, “beware, this guy is crazy.” He was a Packers fan, go figure...

2.     I averaged $198 a week in tips working 20-hours, so we put a $3,000 dent in the debt and paid it off within 12-months

3.     I had to wash my car daily, as I was constantly bringing my Sales VP and Area Director to meet with clients.  One day, my VP said, “it smells like deep dish pizza in here.” Me? “Kids! They are so crazy!”

4.    I used this story to get my dream job. I didn’t think that I would ever tell a soul, and I did, to my close friends, it was met with a lot of respect, a little bit of, “dude, why not sell more instead of delivering pizzas?”, …and a lot of humility on my part.  When I had a final interview with a major Wireless Provider in 2012, and was asked the most difficult time in my sales career, I was compelled to tell this story. I was able to save multiple commission checks, and shortly after that was hired and my largest commission check exceeded my previous largest one by 12x.  This was all within 24 months. Oh yeah, I got the job.

The point? I’m not sure. I do know that if I can offer any advice to anybody, it would be to never feel so safe that you stop grinding on all angles. I wasn’t going to let some debt get me down. I owned it, and when I put my notice in at Dominos, it was honestly one of the tougher times I’ve had telling a boss that I was moving on.  He believed in me, as crazy as it was, and I was thankful for the opportunity.