Good Afternoon Profiit Academy,
In 2001 I started working at Circuit City (RIP). Still the longest job I have ever held until my current “job” passes it later this year.
I was in college studying computer technology at the time, and I had a horrible job before that, so when they opened I knew I wanted to work there.
So I applied and after filling out a LENGTHY application I got an interview.
During this interview they asked me what department I was interested in working in.
I didn’t even know what the options were.
In my infinite 22 year old wisdom I told them “Well I am not very good with people, so keep me away from the customers”.
(I am still friends with the manager that hired me and we joke about that to this day)
Thing is, I was being honest.
I wasn’t good with people at all.
I didn’t like talking to them, and I just preferred to sit back an observe.
This caused me a lot problems in jobs and relationships.
But I knew if I could observe people, I could learnt how they behave, and then I could learn how to interact with them and get better at it… and get the things I needed.
This did not happen as easily or quickly.
I remained quiet, or when I would talk to people I hid behind sarcasm and other defense mechanisms.
But I kept observing, and slowly getting better at understanding the way people behave and getting better at communicating with them, and predicting how they would react and what they would react to.
Before I go further in this story, I don’t want this to sound like I was trying to learn how to manipulate people. I just wanted to be able to have the types of relationships other people had, and not let this be an obstacle.
This isn’t something you can really measure progress on in a traditional manner; so I didn’t realize when I made progress…
…until I started working in political campaigns in 2007.
There I was suddenly, and sort of without warning (that’s a story for another day) put into a leadership role and required to organize a HUGLEY diverse group of people in a large area in a short amount of time.
I quickly learned I couldn’t do it myself; so I identified key people, and figured out what they needed in order to motivate them to help me get the result I needed.
And it worked!
The next campaign I worked on was in 2010 and was much larger in scope.
A big part of my role was recruiting, and engaging volunteers.
There again I would look at the information I was given and figure out what my experience taught me they would respond to in order to get them to donate their time.
And I did quite well.
After I got tired of getting fired every November (win or lose) I went into IT and got a job doing support.
I quickly learned there that as much as helping people fix their computer, I needed to learn how to calm them down and make them comfortable with work again.
While I HATED that job that is the main skill I took away from it.
That brings us to the what I do now and have been doing full time since 2016.
Now I have a team of around 25 people, 2 thriving businesses, thousands of customers, 3 massive communities and interact with people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and other demographics.
I literally talk to 100 people a day sometimes.
While I am not perfect, I am very good at helping them get what they need, and I am very comfortable with it an enjoy it.
I am very happy with who I am and the way things are going for me now, and I owe that to the people around me, and the relationships I have built with them.
That brings me to todays message.
It has taken me 20 years or patiently observing and learning to develop a skill and intuition that has lead me to the life I want for myself.
If you could graph it out over time you would see a lot of ups and a lot of downs in the progress I made… but the trend line would always point upwards.
Change takes time, learning the skills you need takes time, getting the life you want takes time.
For me it took 20 years. But I always knew it was possible, and I never gave up because I knew it was worth it.
So my question for you is this; are you willing to put in the time?
Are you willing to figure out what you need to do; then work on it day after day, month after month, year after year of set backs, restarts, and getting (metaphorically) punched in the mouth until you get where you want to be? Until you get what you deserve?
Because that’s what it takes sometimes.
The good news is you all have it within yourselves to do it.
All you have to do is identify the goal, figure out what’s going to be required of you to accomplish the goal, then pursue it relentlessly until you achieve it…
…and it all starts with a question; how long are you willing to wait?
I hope the answer is “As long as it takes”.
Because you owe it to yourself, and you owe it to the world.
Talk again soon.
Best,
Chris