Lessons from a Tobacco Barn

Growing up in rural North Carolina, we learned things differently than other areas, and extended families helped raise each other’s children – it is just how it worked. Portions of my time as a child were spent with an aunt and uncle (and my awesome cousins) while my mother worked multiple jobs. They were humble people who raised tobacco, worked hard every day (no excuses), and helped to shape me more than they will ever realize. 

And many of those lessons took place at a tobacco barn (well – multiple barns). 

As children, we were taught to work at an early age when we thought we were just kids building tobacco stick houses in the dirt under the barn. We thought it was super cool that we were allowed turns to drive the tractor and move it up in the row of tobacco that we were all working at the same time. Where I grew up, dirty hands covered in tobacco goo were normal, and an early summer morning included being in the field to snap off the tobacco leaves while the heavy dew still hung on the plants (the plants were taller than me at the time). “Snack time” (around 10:00 a.m.) included the best tasting soda in the world, and peanut butter on crackers (that we ate with our dirty hands). The memories are still vivid in my head – and they are pretty great. 

We thought we were just playing and tagging along with the grown-ups. Nope. We were learning some valuable lessons and didn’t realize the impact at that time. 

Those tobacco barns represented so much and taught me valuable lessons that have carried over into my supply chain career – and my life in general.

Hard work produces a payoff of some sort

For most of us, there has never been an easy button in life or our careers, and the investment of hard work starts early. Some of us finish college later than “normal” (raising my hand on this one too), or we set a goal that requires certain steps to get there. 

A field of tobacco required SO much hard work. There was not a day off regardless of level of frustration as the goals had timing which required a plan. The payoff included trips to the tobacco auction where all that work came together and resulted in the financial benefits of so much hard work. The days of early mornings, sunrises from a tobacco row, wet clothes from early morning dew, tobacco-gum-covered hands, and the work to get it into the barn and ultimately back out again once it was cured – the payoff supported families throughout the year. But that work to get there – it was not easy. 

Teamwork is always how it gets done

There was absolutely no way that an entire field of tobacco could be worked and ultimately make its way into the barn for curing without teamwork. Every person who showed up to work had a role and each of those jobs was important! Even as a child, when my role was to go in the barn and pick up all the leaves that had fallen from the top to the bottom, that role of getting the “product” off the barn floor and back into the process was important (and a cool part of the tobacco supply chain that I didn’t even realize at that point).

Nearly everything we all do requires the support, input, and collaboration from other people. The team must always work together in pursuit of the same results in order to get there. I don’t care what type of job you have or would like to have; you can’t be successful if the approach or view is not teamwork-oriented. 

Getting your hands dirty is required

Learning requires hard work, and nearly every job, function, or vocation requires getting into the weeds to know your job well. You must get your hands dirty. There is no way I could have understood the importance of this concept when I was younger, but I totally get it now.

Getting those hands dirty simply means you need to do the work. You need to be willing to dig in and do the portions of the job that may not be fun nor glamorous, yet will help you to be a better YOU. Putting in the work sometimes requires getting up early and being in the trenches. Getting the tobacco yuck on my hands made it seem like I was doing “grown up work”, but it truly helped me to physically see the results of my hard work. Now that I have been an adult for a LONG time and can reflect on how I have learned so much over my career, I attribute much of my success to dirty, tobacco-sticky hands. 

Every function matters – and they are ALL important

I had a cousin that ONLY wanted to drive the tractor as she felt like that was the fun job. It certainly served an important function as the attached trailer (called a tobacco slide) was where we all put the leaves we were picking as we worked our way up each row. That job compared to the other functions was especially important – but every part of the process was absolutely critical to the ultimate success of the day.

Some people get hung up on the overall importance of their role, climbing a ladder, specific titles, comparison to others, etc. when in all reality, each function represents equal importance – the CEO and the janitor are both equally important to the success of a company’s mission as the functions they are responsible for are theirs to own. If any one individual does not execute their role as needed, the achievement of goals is compromised, and the “harvest” does not reap as many benefits for the team. 

Learn from others – the impact is lifelong and life changing

Working in tobacco fields taught me so much. Watching my aunt & uncle plan, manage, and ultimately harvest many acres of tobacco was my earliest exposure to supply chain. I observed excellent planning skills, coordination of roles, accountability of processes, execution of plans, and the payoff to months & months of hard work – nobody handed them a thing that was not earned. 

Each of us has a network. We are surrounded by people who know things that we do not. We see people who emulate skills that we desire and people that we say in our minds “I want to be NOTHING like that”. We are constantly learning from others which is such a cool thing about relationships and our network. 

The learning should never stop and can truly be life changing.

We eventually bought the house my aunt & uncle built (where I stayed so many nights as a child and started a lot of early mornings before tobacco-field work), and we still live there today. I drive by the tobacco fields where I worked and played as a child on a regular basis, so the reminders of my humble roots are always around me. I can walk into one of those barns today, and the smells take me back to the lessons I learned that I did not know were shaping me at the time.

Very thankful that my supply chain lessons started early and included dirt, good role models, and tobacco barns.