Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:32 — 7.6MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, A 2015 PR Newswire survey found that 54% of Americans are overwhelmed by clutter, with 78% feeling unsure how to deal with it. And I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
Who do you think of when you think of a highly organized person? Perhaps you’re like me and think of a TV or movie character like Monica Geller or Claire Dunphy. You know who doesn’t come to mind? ME!
For today’s story let’s jump into the time machine and go back to the early days of my career at the bookstore. In those days I saw myself as a buyer working from the corporate office rather than continuing up the ladder to become a store manager or regional manager.
More specifically, I wanted to be the Bible and software buyer. I knew those products extremely well and was passionate about each of them. One day I got the call I’d been hoping for. Charles, the head buyer for the books and bibles department, told me he’d like to interview me for the Bibles and software buyer position. I was ecstatic!
The interview went well and it ultimately came down to me and another guy named Dylan. In the end, Dylan was offered the position. I was extremely disappointed, but I knew Dylan well and didn’t mind losing to him. He was extremely smart and analytical, knew the products well, and I knew Charles had made a great choice.
Buyer positions didn’t open up very often and I knew my chances of getting another shot were very small. A couple of years later I opted to become a store manager instead. That turned out to be a good choice. I performed well, took the store from being a low performer to a high performer and won bonuses for doing it. My work was noticed by the corporate office, and after two years my phone rang again. It was Charles.
This time was different. He wasn’t hiring for the Bible and software position—Dylan was still doing a great job there. Instead he was adding a new buyer responsible for buying nearly all of the books we stocked. Charles would remain the buyer for bargain books, but the remaining categories would be handled by this new hire.
Just as before, Charles and I sat down for an interview. At one point he asked me about my weaknesses. After some thought I shared that I struggled with organization. I didn’t struggle with keeping the store organized—from an inventory control and personnel management perspective, the store was very organized. But my office was a mess and I struggled to manage paperwork.
Days and weeks went by with no word from Charles. Eventually I got the call and Charles let me know he’d decided to hire me for the position. I couldn’t have been more excited!
The new job was more difficult than I expected. The team consisted of Charles, Dylan, Theresa our secretary, and Susan, an assistant buyer who worked directly for me. She was great. It took us a few weeks to get into a groove, but she helped get me acclimated much more quickly than I’d otherwise have been able to do.
However, just as we began to get settled, Susan let us know she and her husband were expecting! We were all excited for them. A few months later Susan left for maternity leave, planning to return once her leave concluded.
Charles opted not to hire anyone to replace her, even temporarily. So there I was, barely settled into this new job, now doing the job of two people. I was responsible for buying more products than any other buyer in the company. It was overwhelming.
I started struggling right away due to the sheer volume of products and my lack of organizational skills. Charles saw my struggles and we had candid conversations. I could have blamed the situation that had me doing two roles, but I couldn’t in good faith use that as the primary excuse while knowing my organizational skills were the root cause.
It was a very difficult time and I couldn’t wait for Susan to return. I read books about organization, spoke with Dylan and other buyers about systems, but I still struggled. Yet even as I struggled and Charles expressed concerns, he continued giving me more responsibilities.
I remember telling Dylan how frustrated I was that Charles kept giving me more work. Exasperated, I told Dylan that either I wasn’t performing as poorly as Charles indicated, or Charles was setting me up for failure.
When Susan’s return date came, she let us know she’d decided to stay home with the baby and would not be returning. I was happy for her decision but wished she’d made it months earlier so I could have hired help!
Charles and I met and I got approval to begin looking for a new assistant. After months of searching and interviewing, I finally made a decision and set up a meeting with Charles for his final approval.
As I sat down in his office he spoke up with an update. He had decided that rather than hire another assistant buyer, the position would become a full buyer. As such, I would not be hiring for the position, he would. The job search was starting over and I’d be enduring the overwhelm longer.
During this time things went from bad to worse. Advent was an important season and it was my responsibility to choose which books we’d carry, how many to send to each store, submit that to the secretary for entry into the system, and then submit the final order. I did everything except submit the final order. The paperwork had gotten misplaced on my desk and I didn’t realize it until too late.
By the time stores would get the books, it would be too late to sell them. I spoke with Dylan about options, but he agreed it was too late. I decided not to tell Charles and hoped he wouldn’t find out.
Just as my search had taken months, so did Charles’. I was relieved when he told me he’d made a decision and the new hire would be starting soon. He told me which categories I’d be responsible for, and much to my surprise it wasn’t the categories I was most passionate about and knowledgeable of.
Two weeks later I understood why. He’d also hired a second buyer and that buyer would be taking my job. He did know about the Advent books and it was the last straw in a series of errors due to my lack of organization.
Graciously, the company kept me and reassigned me to the stores where I had excelled. Six months later, after conversations with people at the corporate office, I decided to go back to school and finish my degree. Challenged to seek a degree in any field I was passionate about, I chose computer programming.
I also spoke with our IT director, Joe. I wanted to know the chances of him hiring me once I graduated. Joe and I had known each other for years. He couldn’t make promises, but said he expected to be growing his department and the odds were good he’d have a spot for me about the time I graduated.
We agreed to keep in touch and continue the conversation as I progressed. Every few months I called him with updates on what I was learning and my performance. He was enthusiastic and supportive. I already had several credit hours and took CLEP tests to expedite the process. In all, it took about 15 months to complete my degree.
At some point my conversations with Joe changed. He was less enthusiastic and seemed rushed to get me off the phone. Even though I graduated magna cum laude, Joe did not have a spot for me. I felt like something had changed and I was disappointed that I’d seemingly reached a dead end.
I eventually discovered that Joe’s demeanor changed after a conversation with Charles. When Joe was seriously considering adding me to his team, he did his due diligence and spoke with my previous boss about my work history. Naturally, Charles told him about my organization issues. Based on that conversation, Joe decided he would not be hiring me.
Here’s what I learned.
There are a few lessons we can pull from this story.
First, I don’t think Charles did anything wrong in his conversation with Joe. He didn’t say anything unfair or inaccurate. I also don’t think Joe did anything wrong by talking to Charles. In fact, it would have been wrong if he had NOT spoken with him.
But that’s where the first lesson comes in. For those in hiring positions, I urge you to go one step further than what Joe did. It would have been nothing for Joe to call me and talk about the situation with Charles, exploring if or how I’d learned and grown from that situation. Then Joe would have heard both sides and had a fuller understanding of how I’d developed since working with Charles.
That leads to the next lesson. Were the cards stacked against me in that buyer job? In some ways, yes. But blaming those things rather than looking internally would not only have been passing blame and failing to take responsibility, but it would have prevented me from assessing my own skills and seeking ways to improve them.
If I ever wanted to grow or handle higher-detail jobs, I needed to improve myself. And that’s exactly what I did. I owned my shortcomings and worked on bettering myself. I now run my own company that is highly organized and built on clear and redundant systems. I’m better today because of that failure and that should be the outcome of any failure we face in life.
Lastly, we need to keep our head up and understand that missed opportunities are not the end of the world. When Joe passed on hiring me, it felt like a dead end. But if he had hired me I would have been his subordinate with 5 or 6 other people ahead of me in the pecking order. Instead, a few months later Jason hired me to start the ecommerce department. That job placed me equal with Joe. Had Joe hired me, I wouldn’t have been available for the better job offer coming my way.
Does it always happen that way? Certainly not. But in all things, we should seek and trust in God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
I want you to be a part of the next Monday Mailbag on December 29th! Monday Mailbag is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can send in questions or responses to my SILY episodes, and I’ll respond to them via Monday Mailbag episodes. You can participate in Monday Mailbags by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page.