Where's That Guy?

Getting over past mistakes is a hard road. I made one when I started selling cars. It started before the interview when I returned a phone call from the General Manager and used a line that got me hired on to a previous job. That was an insecurity showing up.

I interviewed the next afternoon, and was honestly excited at the prospect. I wore a suit and maintained a friendly but excited demeanor. After awhile it started to wear on me to the point where I couldn't comprehend much of what was being said. I caught snippets like "long hours . . . see this body? That's from the bad diet . . . but there's plenty of money to be made . . ." And the rest droned on. All I could think about in that chair was smile big, act excited, and get the job!

A couple of years previous a friend of mine told me something I found difficult to believe. He was teaching me about attitude at work, and how he turns on the switch. As a result he was a respected employee, and made better money than the rest of us. With his last words of the conversation he said, "I do this at job interviews, too. And there isn't a job out there I interviewed for, and didn't get."

Well I've had that disappointment, and I cannot quite believe that he was telling the truth. Perhaps he keeps his prospects slim, perhaps he really is that good. Either way I was determined to get this sales job.

Outside the office three men were speaking to each other. The owner, the principle dealer/owner, and a sales guy about to become a finance manager. I learned their names from the General Manager before I left the office, walked confidently up to them, and introduced myself, calling them by name. Big smile. All show.

Do you know what I lacked? Sincerity. I was so afraid that I would have to go back to my barista job that I did whatever I felt needed doing to get that gig. I left with a smile, pardoning the interruption, and walked out smiling all the way into the car, and down the street. I had a good song to help me smile playing over the radio.

I was hired three days later, and started the fourth. It was November 1st, which felt weird enough. The first day at work preceded by Halloween, with Thanksgiving and Christmas in the near future. Immediately I succumbed to intimidation. Until I set foot in a car dealership as a "Sales Consultant" it never mattered that I knew nothing about cars. Now it mattered entirely.

I had never generated a sales list before. Now I was expected to. I was wholly unfamiliar with the car dealership culture and slang. Now it was being shoved down my gullet. Never, as far as I remembered had a job intimidated me into being a mute. My personality faltered. My ego slipped. It wasn't long before I was clashing with the owner, who had a personality who I've never got along with. All this time I was trying to answer that elusive question of how to come to work to work, and leave home at home.

The harder I tried to leave home at home, the more it came with me. I soon became complacent in the dealership environment, and aggressive in my sales. But I was aggressive in the wrong way, repelling customers rather than attracting them. I managed in my final month to cover my salary with enough commissions. I even made a little extra. Things were looking up. Then they laid me off without a reason, or an apology.

In a final conversation I had with the owner he hearkened back to my interview, when I was ballsy enough to go out and introduce myself to him, "Where's that guy?" he asked.

I should have, in that moment, been able to understand what I know now. Throw some sincerity in there and "that guy" as he was called, is 'at work' Justin. He's the focused professional, the ideal candidate, the excellent worker, the one who can leave home at home and come to work to work. In the Motel Experiment I have learned so much about having a job.

Good day, bad day, doesn't matter. You need to don the man that works hard, and well, and let him have the run of the shift. When you work you take on a persona. At the front desk I am the motel manager, wholly at your service, and glad to see you here. After I close the door and walk back into my home I am Justin. The importance of distinction cannot be overstated, particularly when you represent your business.

In Thames I am the guy who runs the TJ Motel, not Justin. I am first and foremost my job, even when I'm out in the city. That has altered my focus and perspective on what it means to go to work to work. Not because of any philosophical tendency, but by the fact that I have no choice. I have specific examples of when I messed with people in the past, was short with them, or openly agitated. A high enough percentage of these interactions had negative consequences, the worst of which were my own feelings about myself.

I learned that you really can't mess with anyone. The ideal thing to do is be professional at all times when working, and when interacting with your customers. Another situation that has taught me this principle of leave home at home is living on site. There are countless times per day when I must instantly shed my home life to help a customer.

Should you ask the customer after our interaction there is a strong possibility that they wouldn't even know the little house in the middle of the lot was my home. They would not know that there were two toddlers, and a wife expecting a baby in December living their lives inside.

What better school is there for "that guy" than living at work - literally. A keen professional knows that it may sound cold not to talk about wife and family at work, but it is necessary. The roles we accept with our job description must be that, and little else. There is little in the way of license and innovation in any business environment when it comes to the individual. With a business that has been around for millennia, the ways of the hospitality biz are well established. The innovation you may utilize come from your problem solving abilities, and methods of changing processes that have no doubt been around for a long time. They just haven't been implemented during your tenure.

"Where's that guy?" He had to make connections utilizing experience, hard learning, and hours of thinking. Then he had to combine them. The phoenix doesn't rise perfectly from the ashes, but he does rise a better animal than he was before. I still have years of learning and refinement to procure. The point is I'm excited about it, and I am always eager to learn from the mistakes. What has changed is the speed with which I learn because I recognize one great truth - you need to learn fast, to progress more.