Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:15 — 8.1MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, one of my favorite music videos is “The Scientist” by Coldplay, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a story about a mutiny and nearly missed opportunity.
Do you find opportunity hard to recognize?
Today’s Fun Fact: On this day, August 1, 1981, MTV was launched.
Though the premiere of MTV on this day in 1981 would later be seen as the beginning of a whole new era in popular culture, only a few thousand night-owl subscribers to a single northern New Jersey cable system were able to witness the televised revolution.
It was just after midnight in the early morning hours of August 1, 1981, that the fledgling Music Television network flickered to life. “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll” were the words that preceded an opening montage featuring a chunky guitar riff playing over the familiar image of an American astronaut planting an unfamiliar flag on the surface of the moon—a flag emblazoned with a big, block capital “M” and the smaller, handwritten letters “TV.” The video that followed was, famously and prophetically, “Video Killed The Radio Star” by the little-known English electronic new wave duo, the Buggles. Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run” followed, and from there a rotation that featured several songs and videos that might be considered classics of the early MTV era (e.g., “Rapture” by Blondie and “Love Stinks” by the J. Geils Band) and many more that might not (e.g., “Can’t Happen Here” by Rainbow and “Little Susie’s On The Up” by PhD).
The roughly 80 different videos that made up that first week’s rotation on MTV probably represented nearly every promotional music video then available. This would change, of course, as MTV proved its ability to break new artists and as record labels responded with ever larger budgets for lavish video productions. But on that first night, as several employees of the fledgling MTV gathered to watch their creation in a New Jersey bar, it is impossible to say how many others actually joined them. Soon enough, however, MTV would spread to cable systems nationwide and begin to exert the cultural influence that has since been credited (or blamed) for everything from Flashdance and Miami Vice to Rick Astley and Attention Deficit Disorder. (Source: History.com)
In case you’re wondering, “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel is the most played video in the history of MTV.
What I Learned Yesterday
The was 1995. I’d been working at the bookstore for less than a year. I got the job at the bookstore with practically no effort. My grandma had been long time friends with the manager of the store and she put in a good word. When I got called in for the interview, it was really more of a question as to when I could start more than an actual job interview. The job was simple so it’s not like an in-depth interview was necessarily needed, but it was still a bit odd. I didn’t care, of course. I got the job!
There is no way that anyone could know on that day that the guy they hired as a part time cashier would work his way to a full time employee, then a department head, key carrier, assistant manager, store manager, buyer, co manager, and ultimately ecommerce director. No one, especially me, knew that my time there would last nearly 19 years. But it almost didn’t happen. In fact, my time there was nearly less than 18 months. Believe it or not, I even quit my job. But I’ll tell you more about that in a moment.
As I mentioned, the woman that hired me did so primarily because of her friendship with my grandma. Let’s call her Diana. Diana was very nice and knew her stuff. She’d been with the company for a long time and had seen the company grow from just a few stores to a dozen stores. Diana wasn’t without her faults though.
Just like Diana hired me because of her relationship with my grandma, she had made other similar hiring decisions as well. Her assistant manager, and key carriers were all women that she had longstanding friendships with through her church denomination or similar connections. They were all very nice women and I got along with all of them. However, others saw problems that I was too naive to notice.
After I’d been working at the store around a year Diana was visited by one of the bosses from the corporate offices. They had made a decision to move her to a different store on the other side of town. It was a smaller store, so Diana saw it as a demotion. It may have been a demotion. At the very least, it broke her away from the team of friends that she had built up at our store. As I said, I was very naive and I had no idea what would happen next.
Diana was promptly replaced by a new manager we’ll call George. He was not new to management, but new to our store. He was around the same age as Diana, but probably a bit younger. He’d had a long history of working in the grocery business and had been with our company for a while training at a different store. When he was given the reins at our store, it was his first time as a store manager within our company.
Naturally, he was excited. He brought a lot of energy and fresh ideas. While the rest of us had grown accustomed to the way the store looked and the way we merchandised things, he was able to bring a new perspective and help do things in creative ways that we’d never done before.
As I’m sure you can imagine, not everyone liked George. In fact, I soon found myself in the middle of a mutiny. One of the employees took one of the business cards of the new manager, scratched out his name, and wrote in the name of the previous manager along with the word, “forever.” The assistant manager nearly immediately quit. I was pretty friendly with Jane, the key carrier and, Chuck, the guy who ran the Bible department since he was the same age as me. The key carrier, was very close friends with Diana as they went to church together, and she was not going to stand for the injustice that had been dealt to Diana.
Jane was able to find a job at a local clothing resale company. She told Chuck and I about it and how they were looking for a pair of drivers to take clothing between their stores in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Lawton. Jane was able to help get Chuck and I interviews at the company and we were soon both offered the position of working together driving shipments of clothes.
While none of us were happy with the change at the store, we didn’t want to quit at the same time. Jane quit first and George accepted her resignation. A week later Chuck quit and his resignation was also accepted. A week after Chuck quit, it was my turn.
I approached George in his office and told him that I’d found a new job and I was turning in my two week notice. For reasons I can’t explain, he didn’t accept my resignation. He said, “Well, that’s too bad.” I’ve suddenly found myself in need of a new Bible department head and I think you’d be a good fit for it.” I was surprised. The last thing I expected was to turn in my resignation and be offered a promotion opportunity. George asked if I would tell him how much money they had offered me and I told him. I don’t remember how much it was but I think it was between $6 and $7 per hour. George then asked if I would give him 24 hours to make a counter offer before I submitted my resignation. I agreed.
The next day I was already at my position at the cash register when George arrived. He came right over to me and told me that he wasn’t able to match their offer, but he was able to offer me a raise and the position of department head. The salary he offered was pretty close to what they offered me. I really liked the idea of staying with the bookstore. To be honest, I liked it there. I liked working with Diana, but I didn’t see the point in the mutiny. I thought the idea of working in the Bible department sounded better than driving clothes all over the state of Oklahoma, even if driving clothes would have given me more money. I accepted his offer.
Here’s what I learned.
A few years later George was mentoring me to become a key carrier and then assistant manager. He saw leadership traits in me early on and had steadily given me more responsibility and fostered those leadership qualities. He once told me that when someone wants to quit, don’t stop them. He said that there had been several times in his life that someone had quit and he talked them out of it. The only time that worked out was when he talked me into staying. I found that statement fascinating, and was honored that he’d given me a second chance even though the odds were not in his favor.
As I look back on this story that happened 20 years ago, it amazes me. What would my life be like if George had not made a counter offer? Well, for starters, I never would have met my wife. About 2 and half years after George talked me into staying, he hired a young girl that had just moved to Oklahoma City from Tyler, Texas and that young girl would become my wife just a few years later. Isn’t that crazy?
I also think about how naive and easily influenced I was. For no good reason at all I allowed the remaining leadership of the store to pollute my mind and cause me to pass unfair judgement on George. The fact is, George had done nothing wrong. He had nothing to do with Diana getting moved. He was a very capable leader and actually helped grow the store. He was then selected to be the first store manager when our company broke into the Dallas market. He finally retired from the company just a few months before I left.
As I opened up today’s episode, I asked if you find opportunity hard to recognize. I’ve spoken a lot about opportunity on this podcast. I believe with all that I have that opportunity is around us at every turn. Every change of life is opportunity. Every dawn of a day is opportunity. Every mistake is opportunity. Every new relationship is opportunity.
Would I have had opportunities to learn, grow, expand myself, and try new things if I had left the bookstore? Of course, and that’s the point of today’s story. My life was filled with opportunity no matter which decision I would have made. In fact, my life is filled with opportunity today. Your life is filled with opportunity today.
Each of us has the opportunity to look at someone with fair, fresh eyes and not the eyes of a prejudiced peer. Each of us has the opportunity to take a chance and prove ourselves. We all have the opportunity to foster growth in someone around us. We all have the opportunity to make the most of our current situation.
Opportunity truly abounds. Do you see it?
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
Follow Golden Spiral Media on Twitter at GSMPodcasts and facebook.com/goldenspiralmedia. To subscribe to Stuff I Learned Yesterday visit goldenspiralmedia.com/subscribe. If you’d like to join our popular Facebook group please go to facebook.com/groups/stuffilearnedyesterday and if you’ve enjoyed this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I would be grateful if you’d leave a review in iTunes by going to goldenspiralmedia.com/itunes.