In 1990 I had a college job working at a branch of the billion plus dollar wholesale company, W.W. Grainger. One day the boss was out of town. Nothing much was going on.
My friend Tony and I decided to play a prank on the Omaha office. We sent them this fax:
TO: ALL BRANCH MANAGERS
FROM: RICHARD KEYSER, CEO
SUBJECT: STOCK PRICE FLUCTUATION
TODAY, GRAINGER’S STOCK HAS SUDDENLY AND INEXPLICABLY PLUMMETED FROM $63 PER SHARE TO $17 PER SHARE. WE WILL BE CLOSING ALL BRANCHES EFFECTIVE FRIDAY.
I WISH TO THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR YEARS OF HARD WORK AND DEDICATION, AND WE WILL MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO COMPLETE PAYROLL FOR THE CURRENT WEEK.
Tony pressed the SEND button and waited for them to call us back. We hoped they’d say “Ha ha ha, very funny.”
But that phone call never came.
We waited and waited.
Finally we couldn’t stand it anymore. We called them.
“Oh, that was YOU? Brenda pulled that off the Fax machine and immediately went into hysterics. She started calling all her friends and relatives, sobbing – ‘I just lost my job after 12 years and I don’t know what I’m going to do….!’
“We didn’t know what to think, so we faxed it to Des Moines.
“They didn’t know what to think, so they faxed it to Sioux City Iowa.
“They didn’t know what to think, so they faxed it to Fort Smith Arkansas…”
As hard as it is to believe, I got fired for sending that fax. My very first firing. A shameful, traumatic experience for me… at first.
It wasn’t until 20 years later that I realized: This was my first experiment in electronic viral marketing. “Dang. This is pretty much what I do every day. People PAY me to do this now!”
In fact, until Paul Hartunian pointed it out to me in a speaking class, I hadn’t even realized the story all by itself was a huge asset! Now I tell it when I speak at seminars.
QUESTION FOR YOU TODAY:
What thing got YOU in trouble, which was actually a clue to your greatness, and you never realized it until just now?
The 10 best answers get an unreleased product, a presentation I gave at Dream Chicago last year called “Navigating the Business Startup Mine Field.” $50 value.
Post your story on the blog below —
Perry Marshall
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
32 Comments on “Whatever landed you in boiling water… that's your gift!”
When I was in my version of the Dilber Cube I was beginning to get an impression of what the call on my life was, and decided that it was time to hang my shingles from that career.
But prior to my resignation, I got into hot waters with a coworker when I made an unintentional comment about her relationship. She took offense from a single phrase comment, and the backstabbing and department character assassination began… all of which I had no idea was happening. That’s why it called back stabbing right?
Eventually, my boss had to call my attention because it was creating unnecessary department tension.
After reading this post, I’ve just realized that I’ve been giving relationship advise since I got down on my knees and worked out own emotional junk. It was tough growing up knowing that you’re a child born out of a one night stand.
I know it was said somewhere in that ancient but relevant book that we are afflicted so that we too can bring comfort to others – paraphrased – that our place of pain is our greatest place of gain.
Now moving forward… because of grace, those who stayed within the relationship advice and strategies I’ve layout have gotten married, and are staying married. Those who strayed away from the coaching and mentoring ended up with unnecessary struggles, felt lost or heart broken. Although I’m not saying that the advice given is infallible, the current batting average has been positive.
And to think about it… I wasn’t even getting paid to de-clutter peoples’ emotions to sort out the facts. Which now leads me to be more inclined to turn this relationship giving advice into a probable business?… Hmmm…. Thanks Perry! You always bring out the best from people!
Summer 1984 MCLB Barstow.
Six Marines left behind to guard the jeeps while the rest of the company returned to Pendleton.
After they left we were informed we couldn’t guard the jeeps because they were locking up the Motor Pool. I made a command decision to scatter and meet at the camp e-club.
In the club I took off my blouse and hung it on a barstool back. I had my cover (hat) on and cocked up. I was playing 8-ball feeling good knocking back ice cold buds.
Barstow is a logistics base. Everybody works in supply. They’re a low key bunch. I also found out there’s a Marine Corp Band unit there.
Technically I was out of uniform when the Master Gunny In Dress Blues walked in. Oh yeah, he spotted the cocky Lance Corporal out of uniform right away. He was in my face in a heartbeat and dressed me down while I was dressing up.
When he spotted the jump wings and diver badge on my blouse his disgust was palpable. He didn’t say anything more but I’d seen the look and I knew what he was thinking.
“Recon guys…Glorified grunts…They get to play on the beach and wear shades and dive watches. They all have great tans. And they get all the great toys.” or something like that.
While he’d been bathing me in contempt I’d noticed a bunch of spit and polish Marines in Dress Blues filing in through the front hatch. It dawned on me they were band guys.
Oh shit! This hard ass Master Guns is a band leader. I can imagine all the shit he’s taken in 20 plus years in the suck. And I’m sure more than a bucketful came from recon guys.
He turned away and addressed his troops and seemed to forget about the turd he’d just polished. Close one.
A few beers later and I’m standing in another part of the club at the open end of a long bar. There’s a gaggle of senior NCO wives playing bingo in the room but no one behind the bar.
One of the band guys walks up to the bar and just stands there. I don’t think anyone’s gonna show up so I just walked behind the bar and asked him what he wanted. He wanted a Coke.
“You sure you don’t want a beer.”
“I’m not old enough. I’m only nineteen.”
I was instantly pissed off. “You mean they don’t let you drink in the club…on base?”
“No, not here.” I guess all the lard ass supply guys didn’t want the kids to have any fun.
But here’s my gift. I do the right thing in the moment without deliberating…the hell with the cost.
I slid open the lid to the cooler behind the bar. It was full of bottled Budweiser and ice. I reached in, grabbed a frosty one, twisted the top off and handed it to the wide-eyed private.
“Everyone in dress blues drinks free tonight.”
Five minutes later Master Guns’ iron jaw hit the floor when he saw half of his band lined up at the bar swilling free beer.
Yes, I spent the night in the brig. No I don’t regret it.
When I was in college, I was a typical broke student.
So I found a university letterhead and typed a letter ‘from the university president’ to my parents, telling them what a great student I was and how it was unfortunate that I was hungry and struggling for much needed funds. I thought it was a funny way to ask them to send me money.
I even signed the president’s name and made the letter look formal and legit.
A few days later my father received the letter, read it – and promptly called the school and talked to the president. (My mother later saw the letter and immediately knew it was a joke.)
Next thing I know, I am called into the office of the university president and verbally reprimanded for what I had done and for forging his signature on a document.
I’ve had some jobs end badly because I saw a bigger scope for tasks than my boss, and tried to touch on things I wasn’t supposed to do. Now I’m realizing maybe I have to be an entrepreneur to actually be me. That was a tempting vision many times in the past but is the challenging reality now.
Perry,
I was a VP for A.L. Williams, an insurance/mutual fund marketing firm from 1979-1989. In its day it was a very controversial business because its product was “buy term and invest the difference” and we replaced billions and billions of dollars worth of whole life insurance, ALW was a large insurance general agency or a MLM depending on how you want to look at it. I gave it my best shot for 10 years, but in the end almost had a nervous breakdown, filed bankruptcy and more. The thing that got me in trouble was that I wasn’t smart enough to quit earlier and move on without such pain. But since then and even up to now, one key to my greatness is that I don’t quit. For example, I just left the cube after 13 years with a company that was very good to me, leaving on my own terms with my head held high at the top of my game, and now I can focus on my current online business with all my energy. Another 2 or 3 years and it probably would have been a different story, So I learned that lesson it seems.
I didn’t get fired for this, but my boss at a previous car shipping company was constantly pissed off at me for it and would repeatedly ask me to stop, however…
When handed a stack of leads with phone numbers and emails, I would copy and paste the email addresses from each one into a separate word doc that had my ‘groups’ for each day.
Then, each day I would copy and paste a group from a previous day into an email (yes, spammer, guilty as charged) and also copy and paste one of about 10 or so non-descript follow up emails that said something along the lines of “Hey, I’ve been trying to call you. Do you still need help with that car move?”
I used to call it ‘shaking the trees’ (but now I think ‘racking the shotgun’ is so much more BAD ASS.)
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was being my own little auto responder sequence. (but with a whole lot less ‘auto’)
At the time, I just found it so much easier to talk to a handful of people that were interested rather than calling a bunch that weren’t.
My boss saw it as ‘slacking’.
Little did I know it was my natural foray into the world of 80/20.
Oh, yeah. What doesn’t kill you outright may make you weaker for awhile, but it is man’s indefatigable spirit that keeps him bouncing back. I learned to believe in myself, become more resilient both spiritually and skills-wise, and more determined than ever to never let The Man determine my future. That’s why I dig it living on Planet Perry.
Over a 22-year career in IT at a global insurance company, I had worked my way up from an entry-level computer operator position in the corporate data center to a mid-management IT director position responsible for a couple of hundred people and a ten million dollar annual operating budget. Not one to brag, I was proud of the fact that I always earned either a “top-performer” or “exceeded expectations” rating when annual review time rolled around.
People wanted to come work with me, and we had a lot of success accomplishing some quite remarkable achievements together during that time. I put together a killer leadership team and technical organization, and we were crushing it. We ran our department like a business, beating external industry benchmarks in various operational categories and even turned a modest profit. We accomplished a lot and we were proud of our accomplishments.
When the 2000 – 2001 recession hit and a new cadre of senior management with a scorched earth philosophy was brought in, the company convulsed itself through its first-ever corporate layoffs, taking out entire layers of staff every couple of weeks.
Indiscriminately and ham-handedly executed, I saw a lot of top-tier people jettisoned without a second thought. Fear ran rampant through IT as the rivers of blood ran unchecked; people I had known and respected for years were literally disappeared overnight.
When they finally came for the 50 IT directors, I was called into my assistant vice president’s office and told that my job was being eliminated. Not content with just dropping that little nuke on me, the SOB had the chutzpah to lambast me for various and sundry imaginary issues that he simply conjured up to shamefacedly justify my dismissal. (It’s an old trick taught by HR weenies to cover management’s butts from wrongful dismissal lawsuits.)
Silly me! I thought my track record of being a top achiever and consistent contributor to the company’s success would insulate me from being arbitrarily “fired”. NOT! Listen, man – when the Turk walks, it’s over.
Before I walked out, I still had enough presence of mind to tell him that he was obviously either a hypocrite or an out-and-out liar and that the company was fortunate to have had me, my evaluation record standing in mute testimony to my achievements and a clear refutation of his bogus claims. It was my last hurrah, a drowning man’s final clutch to retain whatever shreds of self-worth and dignity I had remaining.
A 22-year career. It was a great run while it lasted, and as it later turned out the culture there became so toxic that I seriously would have considered leaving on my own volition.
Just as a footnote, all that happened just before my ex-father-in-law croaked unexpectedly from a massive heart attack, followed the next day by the terrorist attacks on 9-11. Three emotionally devastating sucker punches landed squarely in my solar plexus within a span of three short weeks. Life can be a real bitch sometimes.
And that’s my story, Perry.
Interesting question.
I must still be in the “trouble” phase, because I haven’t yet experienced “greatness.” I hope when greatness comes I’ll have a “clue” as to how what got me into “trouble” brought about my “greatness,” because I am not only in “trouble,” but I am also “clueless.”
Well
Last year I read an article in a newspaper from London than the reporter mentioned something like “You should quit your job in order to give an opportunity to new generations” And man, I really think “That is a great idea” but nobody (included that reporter) will do.
Well I put that idea in my blog and guess what? In that week I get fired for my job of about three years!
Well I said, “This is the moment that I Want and this is the opportunity than I looking for”.
Well, the thing is after that, I started to work on my own bussines and after three months my old boss looking for me and offer me a new job with much better conditions than I had before!
That was a glorius moment for me!
As a consultant, I wrote and sent an email for a guy that informed his recent customer’s that they “didn’t get everything you paid for” when they bought their product. Admittedly, this was a ploy.
The email informed them that we were supposed to have included a $179 voucher for a one-on-one consultation, but it didn’t make it in the package. They were told to call my phone number for details.
The next day the owner of the company terminated my contract for “destroying his brand” and repeatedly asked me how I dared to insinuate to his customer’s that he didn’t care about them. He would never leave something out that the customer had ordered.
Ironically, I had to find time to have this firing discussion with him because my phone was blowing up with his customer’s calling me saying “I’m so glad you reached out to me about this. When can we do the consultation?”
My favorite part of it was how many customer’s would say, “You know, I thought I was missing something when that package arrived.” Or something similar.
I now intentionally build this into my own business as a standard piece of the puzzle.
In short, “You didn’t get everything you paid for…” are magic words. Create a way to use them that adds value, fun, and extra happiness to your buyers and good things will follow.
My first ever “sales letter”:
When I was eight and my brother was seven, we were playing football (soccer to you) in the garden, and one of us kicked the ball over the fence into the neighbour’s garden — by accident.
I put my head over the fence and said, “Alex, sorry for kicking my ball over. Can I come and get it, please?”
He said, “Is this your ball?”
When I said, “Yes”, he walked into his kitchen, came back out into the garden carrying this HUGE knife… and then stabbed by football, which was a birthday present from my mum and dad, who were really struggling financially at the time.
THEN he threw back over and swore at us!
I was eight, my brother was seven.
Anyway… me and Jack (my brother) were livid, so we thought of ways we could get revenge. In the end, we decided to write a letter.
So I wrote a letter that, in effect, told him exactly what we thought of him. I don’t remember exactly what it said, but I remember it contained some swear words that neither of us understood the meaning of. But we knew they’d provoke a reaction.
Anyway… with the naivety of an eight-year-old, we both signed our names on the bottom and hand delivered it. Then we went out to play on our bikes.
I can remember hearing my dad’s car screeching around the corner, and then him dragging us home by the ears. And we both literally got our mouths washed out with soap. Not for the letter. But for some of the words we used.
I later found out… our psycho neighbour was an ex-soldier, who’d been court-marshalled for attempting to murder one of his friends. He just took a gun out one day and shot him or something.
I can’t remember what my and my brother wrote, but I can remember we were brainstorming different things we could say that would upset him. Seems stupid now, but it made sense at the time.
~~~
My sales letters are more benign now, but I try and inject some of the same provocation in when it’s appropriate.
A bond issue came along where it was proposed to borrow $30 million in the name of the school district renovation to finance the renovation of six buildings, three of which were private and the kids would never be allowed access to. The bond required that the city repay $45 million! I said, “That makes no sense. Why are we going to spend money from the educational budget to renovate private citizens’ businesses and repay $45 million? That’s nonsense!”
So I got citizens to write 300 letters saying they did not want the government to borrow the money and if borrowed, they did not want the government to repay the loan. I packaged the 300 letters plus a cover letter. This cover letter basically said, “You will never see your money, and if you try and collect you will have to use draconian tactics that will make your Third World activities look genteel.” When I sent this off to the bankers, they refused to make the loan. The bond issue dissolved.
My medical license was removed. I’m also on two “Do Not Employ” lists, and I’m also on the Terrorist Watch List. As a result of this, I now live in an overseas paradise and have a business educating large numbers of people to take action to improve their health. I realize I was in the wrong place at the right time and now I am very happy.
Perry, A fax that didn’t go through got me fired. I was a recent hire at a Lexus dealership as a salesman. My third full month there, I waited on an engineer from the Colorado School of Mines.It was a busy Friday and the last thing I wanted was an engineer when there would be lower hanging fruit coming through the door. Since he owned a Lexus, I took him over to a board of all the salesmen’s pictures in hopes that he would remember who he was dealing with 6 years earlier. He looked at me and said he didn’t know anyone on the board and I was “it”. Four days later this turned into a two car deal. The manager appraised his trade and pulls the owners books out and finds the salesman’s name who sold him the car 6 years ago. He then with a straight face tells me I should split the two car deal with the salesman that sold him his Lexus 6 years ago. I told the manager that was out of the question. I told the manager if that salesman had any follow up letters in the last year, no problem splitting the deals in half. Well, he hadn’t contacted the customer in over three years!! The manager said that didn’t matter, the right thing to do was split the deal.
I was so mad I sent a resume to a national sales training company on the dealership’s fax. The fax didn’t go through and the top third came back with a reject notice. The general manager found it and was upset I would send a fax for a job over their machine. I explained to the GM what his manager was trying to do to me and he agreed that splitting the deal was not what should happen considering no follow up in over three years. All that being said, he said he still had to fire me for faxing my resume on the company fax.
As a side note at the exit interview, he said he would recommend me since I was second in sales for the month to a salesman that had been there ten years. I told him don’t worry, with his logic he can go to hell!
Thought I was in big trouble – but actually got rewarded…
Prior to starting my own engineering consulting firm in 1987, I was a Field Sales Engineer for Intel. It was a great experience with a great company, and proved very helpful when running my own business.
But it wasn’t all peaches and cream. Like any large company, the bureaucracy was always there. Unfortunately for me, I never got along well with petty bureaucrats. Guess I wasn’t cut out to be a good corporate rat.
So, when a new monthly reporting form came out, I first chose to ignore it. Known as the “Disti Report”, it asked for a detailed forecast on sales through distribution for my accounts.
Since almost all my sales were direct, why waste my time filling out a report that had no meaning anyway?
But Chris, my sales support, came to my rescue. She reminded me that I had not submitted the report along with the monthly status report.
“So what?” I said. Being wiser in the ways of bureaucracies, she said, “Hey, just do it. It will only take you a minute.”
So I grabbed a form, made up some numbers, and handed it back to Chris. It took about thirty seconds. She grinned, and attached it to my status report.
The following month we went through the same exercise. Chris asked, “Where is your Disti Report?”
I replied, “Do you have last month’s report?” After she handed it to me, I made a photocopy, handed it back, and she attached it to my status report.
She grinned again. The next month, she asked “Should I just make another copy of the Disti Report?” I replied, “Yes – and you don’t need to even ask me anymore.”
So for the next twelve months, she just attached copies of the unaltered Disti Report to my monthly status report. I even think she made photocopies of the photocopies, so they were starting to fade.
Then one fateful day, our Regional Sales Manager came to town for a meeting. When he passed out an agenda, one item stood out – Disti Reports.
I winced – looked at Chris – and she winced back. I figured my impudence had caught up to me, and I was about to be severely chastised.
We finally got to the Disti Report on the agenda. The RM started out, “We have a big problem with Disti Reports, folks.” I closed my eyes – wait for it, I thought.
Then he continued, “Nobody in this office is filling them out, and we need that information. No wait, Gerke has faithfully filled his out every month — but he doesn’t even sell anything thorough distribution!”
I snuck a look at Chris. It was all she could do to keep from bursting out laughing. Me, I just breathed a sigh of relief. As far as I know, we were never found out.
So what was the big lesson here? If it only takes a minute or two and it not that important, just go ahead and play their silly games.
But the games did finally grind me down. Two years later, I started my own firm and last fall completed 25 years in business. (And no, we do NOT have Disti Reports.)
The first week I arrived at college, I met a guy named Aaron, in a different school, and we enjoyed running into eachother about once a semester for the next four years. I had pursued two degrees in Art History and Fine Arts, which translates into a few things for a liberal arts gal…by the end of four years, I was financially retarded and a little career-stuck with my future options. So, at the end of my college career, I must have taken out my subconscious anxiety on this cool guy. My senior year, I run into him one. last. time:
“What’s your next step?” I ask him. He replied he got his degree in American History Studies. He already lined up a gig teaching high school History, and he was really looking forward to it.
My stomach instantly churned at his words “high school teacher.” His words triggered the standard presumptions others had of my art degree — “What are you going to do with an art degree? TEACH?” Like I was some pariah spinster from the 1950s whose only second-class options were school-marm, nurse, or secretary.
So I promptly smeared shit on his face:
“Oh, that sounds great, Aaron, **until something better works out**”
Cannibalized his dream like a Wendigo. Watched his face fall. Swear his eye even twitched a little. What I would do to take back those stinging words in that instant. I had never been more embarrassed by my inner cruelty rearing its ugly head. We never saw nor spoke to eachother again, and I always remember this moment as one of my most embarrassing and shameful interactions, especially since it was so clear I was projecting my inner nightmare, not his…
The irony? I’ve been devoted to the education field now for 13 years. You can’t curate artwork unless you’re an educator. You can’t produce and market information unless you’re an educator. You can’t lead, inspire, and transform the world around you unless you have some ability to frame information for others to apply. Maybe I didn’t want to teach high school, because I thought it was weird my Economics teacher painted houses in the summer instead of floating around on a yacht somewhere, but that doesn’t mean my Physics teacher didn’t rock my world for being the first person I knew to order a book from Amazon.com in the 1990s!
Maybe “academics” are out-of-touch snobs, but now that I’ve come in contact with “reverse snobbery” in the information marketing world, where entrepreneurial misfits endlessly rag on the broken education system, I’ve accidentally become a champion for all educators and all education, everywhere.
How do I know this? #1 – I’ve become a go-to girl for major online marketing communities, because ex-employees reinventing themselves in the cyber economy continue to demand step-by-step curriculums (even though they claim they hate ‘school’). #2 – In my college classroom, New York City fashion students are introduced for the first time to how women changed the marketplace, equipping them with ammunition for their own career pursuits. #3 – Many of my social-commerce-savvy students have already launched their online businesses, and I make it very clear that, because I’m not an “ordinary research professor,” I can put them in touch with resources to get their business on a legitimate foot.
When I told Aaron many years ago, “go teach until something better works out,” it launched a long-term wrestling match with the *education demon,* like the angel dislocating Jacob’s hip…What is it for? Who is it for? What might it look like? Fortunately, I’ve figured out the many creative forms education takes shape, and the many creative ways to “get paid WELL” to teach and transform.
I love the story you shared. It reminded me of a time that I was almost fired for a April’s day joke I pulled on my coworker in 2006.
I was in sales for a prominant New home builder in Charleston, SC. The site builder that I worked with every day was a huge dog lover. He volunteered with the American society for prevention of cruilty to animals and owned 4 dogs himself.
Before going to work on April fool’s Day I went by my local veterinarian’s office and picked up a cone that is used to Prevent dogs from scratching their ears or face (large cone that slips over the head).
I put it on my head and pulled up to the office where my co worker was standing outside. You can imagine what he must have thought when I got out of the car with that cone around my neck. He said “what in the world are you doing?”
I replied that I had just come from the doctor and had been told I had an a rash that would not heal unless I stopped scratching it so the doctor placed this on my head to prevent the scratching ! He looked at me like I was crazy but just began discussing the day ahead.
As we were standing on the street having a conversation the owner of the company rode through the community and saw us. Me with this cone on my head and my co-worker looking confused.
The owner of the company called my boss and said ” I don’t know what Mia is doing or why she has that thing on her head but I am wondering if she is a good fit for us”. My boss called and I explained the joke. I wasn’t fired thankfully but I have never pulled a prant at work again.
But I persuaded them that this was real and the doctor had actually recommended this treatment. Now I am persuading people that they cannot live with the product I sell and am very successful in my field.
I think we have to be careful that our strenghts do not become our weakeness. However, I enjoyed the prank !
Another Addendum/Update
Sorry about writing a 3rd time.
Having 2nd thoughts about adding my hourly rate and sailing the world in cruise ships, publicly.
Maybe best to simply end it with the statement I wrote… (something like):
“Thank God … for being fired for listening to the radio!”
……………………
Use your judgement, please :)
And edit it however you like.
~Sunny :)
Perry:
When I was 23 years old I was a VP at an apparel company. I was promoted to run the 1st women’s sportswear branded apparel division in the US. The CEO of the company didn’t want the division to be successful so his thinking was that he would give it to an unseasoned guy and I was the lottery pick.
To promote the division, I contacted the California Apparel News, the industry trade magazine to promote the launch. The paper published a full page article on the launch and planted a large picture of me front and center. The CEO was livid. Who does this “kid” think he is making the announcement for the corporation.
Although I wasn’t fired, the heat was palpable. As a result, I was recognized as a market leader and EXPERT in large size women’s apparel. That got me recruited to Levi Strauss & Co. and launched me as a very visible player in the Women’s apparel industry with additional assignments at Liz Claiborne, Jones Apparel Group, and the Leslie Fay Co. where I was president of divisions with bottom line P&L for business units from $7 to $400 million.
As you stated, this was a wonderful gift. Cheers. Dan
Hi Perry
You really touched a nerve with this one.
9 years ago I had a fight with my now ex-girlfriend. She’d made an off the cuff remark about my looks going downhill and I spent the next few days simmering because she was in the same boat as me. Eventually I couldn’t hold back and I told her I’d noticed her face changing too and she should check out this book about facial exercises.
Of course her reaction was completely angry as you’d expect, and for a long time I felt guilty over how shallow I’d been to place such importance on her looks. But at the time it had felt really important to me that we had that conversation.
Fast forward a few years and I found myself in a situation where I blindly followed someone’s exercise advice and ended up feeling very ungrounded. Not knowing where to turn, I put my hands together to pray, asking to show me how to get grounded. I was instantly blessed with an answer – a surge of energy moved through me and moved my arm in a very specific pattern.
To cut a long story short, I spent 6 years in full time research and applied this pattern to every part of my body, undergoing a dramatic transformation, including a major improvement in my previously average looks.
I now know that the reason I was so focused on looks in the incident with my girlfriend was because this is the path my soul was on. God was going to show me this movement that would allow me to release my tension and transform into the best version of myself.
As you know, there are no accidents in nature, nothing is random. And now I’ve discovered the truth that we’re all made to a beautiful pattern. Why wouldn’t God want us to release our pain and transform into our most beautiful selves? Just like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar :-)
Thanks for your post, another synchronicity!
Frank
In the past I haven’t responded to these kinds of posts, but this one was too fun to pass up.
As a young engineer, just out of college, I entered into a field sales training program for a company called Vickers, who manufactured hydraulic equipment and components. In that job, we were shuttled from facility to facility around the country and spent time in many different offices, plants, etc. to help us learn the company and how to be more effective field sales reps. With all this moving around and shifting of focus, we didn’t have a set office to report to or anyone who was keeping too close an eye on us from day to day. In this environment, I learned a ton. I was a rising star in many ways. I would spend a lot of time studying and learning outside of work, but I also got into the habit of managing myself and my own schedule. This meant sleeping late some days or just working for home for a morning, etc. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an approved schedule. It worked for me and I was very productive. But it wasn’t sanctioned or acceptable as I was about to find out!
One day I was taking my time in my apartment, probably around 10am and I get a phone call from my roommate who also worked for the company. He said “hey, what the heck are you still doing home? The VP of sales is in from Toledo and wanted to meet all the trainees and everyone is looking for you.”
As you can imagine, my heart raced and I got ready and in my car in a matter of minutes. But when I got there, I had to weather quite the storm from my direct boss as well as that of the VP.
I survived without any real repercussions, but the lesson I learned is that I don’t fit well into the schedule and plan of others. I work much better if I am allowed the freedoms to manage myself and my own schedule.
This lesson has always served as a wonderful reminder that me and the Dilbert Cube never were meant to get along.
NOTE: This is an update of my earlier submission … to help you with editing that submission (in any way you like for brevity, flow, or whatever :)
After 7 years in Radio, in 1987, I started my side biz as a Private Party & Nightclub DJ, providing my own sophisticated sound and lighting systems.
This side business grew into Pro Sound & Video Corp in 1994, and 5 years later I sold it for a handsome profit, to retire at age 47 & move to Maui… to live the life of my dreams.
I now make $500 to $1200/hr as a Google Certified Ad Agency & Consultant…
a job I do from Maui & from Cruise Ships, as I sail around the Globe.
Thank God I got fired for “listening to the radio” by that sniveling son of a factory owner :)
I attended college in Albany, New York; a place that can get pretty cold during the winter months. My particular dormitory was one of the many that was located at an off-campus site. As a result, the school had buses that would run from the dormitories continuously, transporting students to and from the school.
On one very cold evening, I was standing in front of the school with a pack of other students, waiting for the next bus to arrive to take us back to our dorms. When a bus finally appeared, it was loaded with students who were arriving for evening classes. As customary, when the bus came to a stop, the door opened and the students that were on the bus began to exit. As they were unloading, our group was huddled together, shivering in the cold, patiently waiting for our time to board.
It was at this point that “it” happened. The flow of students exiting the bus came to a halt. Now, this would be normal if there were no more students waiting to exit the bus. However, I could see at least 10 more individuals standing in the middle of the bus, facing forward, waiting to exit. However, no one was coming out of the bus. This could only mean one thing: some idiot must have stopped to ask the bus driver a question, halting the exodus.
Well, in my opinion, this was totally unacceptable as I was freezing cold and anxious to board the bus. So, from my place in the crowd, I yelled “Hurry up… we’re freezing out here!”.
Not two seconds later, a man with a seeing eye dog exited the bus.
Ouch! What I assumed was an “idiot asking the bus driver a question” was actually a blind man trying to navigate his way off of the bus.
I felt like crap. Any everyone around me gave me a look that said “Jerk!”
Yes, I had jumped to a conclusion and, Yes, I was wrong. However, I realize that my willingness to step up and speak when everyone else around me was quiet was a quality that I have carried with me throughout my life and it has helped me be successful in business. …It has also taught me to be sure to know what I’m talking about before I open my mouth :)
The last job I had helped me realize I couldn’t really work for someone any more as an employee.
After another layoff I had honed my marketing skills quite a lot and learned a few basic lead generation techniques using the internet.
I landed a job for a small local company in the IT and Video security industry selling outsourced services. In fashion of most of the small companies for the sales guys they do not do any lead generation for you and expect you to just pick up the phone and start cold calling. I was already way past that but did some targeted calling.
Well their marketing material was not very good and didn’t match what the VP of sales was telling me was their strong points. Their website also did not reflect this information. What they wanted to focus on was Cost Reduction.
I did a couple of things that ultimately got me fired after just a couple of months.
1. I marked up their main flyer/marketing piece and made a lot of corrections to it and showed it to the VP of sales. He was appalled and told me the CEO had written that. (Didn’t matter it was wrong)
2. I setup my LinkedIn profile and a website focused on Cost Reduction for businesses offering a free cost reduction review (valued at $300). Then I could at least open some doors when talking to CFOs and CEOs about how we help them.
I didn’t tell them about it but they happen to find it. Which I thought was pretty cool. They freaked out about it. They asked me why I did it and what was I trying to do. I told them it was lead generation pure and simple. (And they didn’t tell me I couldn’t do it) They took as me trying to do something on my own or whatever.
The VP of sales and the CEO had been at some pretty large companies before and ran larger companies and had some success but from what I say it was more about their ability to make acquisitions of companies and not in developing marketing for lead generation.
At any rate the day I delivered a proposal for $100,000 to a possible new client they fired me.
Have not looked back since.
Peter
My first “Adwords/Advertising Success”
Back in 9th grade I placed my “first highly successful ad”. Needless to say it landed me in a lot of hot water very quickly.
The ad was placed on my teachers back.
I had no idea how responsive my fellow class mates would be to such a short well written ad.
“Bark at Me”
What started in good humor blossomed into an entire room of barks, yips, and whimpers.
Even a custodian that visited the class joined in on the fun.
That was definitely my best ad ever.
It was extremely well placed and garnered nearly 100% compliance and everyone immediately took action after grasping the message. :)
The custodian later pulled the teacher to the side and caught him up on the act.
That was my first experience with detention.
A decade later I began my career in marketing. As it turns out 99% of my job still entails finding the perfect advertisement placement and creating short, straight to the point ads that drive compliance and action.
I never put two and two together until today
Thanks Perry
I got fired for standing up for people and having vision. I have always been the one people come to for connections from here and now to the big picture, and connecting people to vision. People would come to me to “small-talk shop” because I had things to say that apparently made sense to them. My boss, in a role higher up than me (which is usually the role most intimidated or fristrated with someone thinking outside the box) got insensed that I would be someone to consult with, over her. Unbeknownst to me, pointing people to the “right way” (seemingly to me) would set off red flags and act as a beacon to my desire to be more than the role I accepted. From day one, I have always worked in but projected outside of my own role, for the highest good of whatever company I was in. I have spent the last few years trying to determine how to translate that into my own career/company. Such treatment by “higher ups” was great for my self-esteem and boosted confidence in MYSELF, but such breakdowns in my immediate boss relationships caused utter destruction in my confidence in my ABILITIES. The next months after such free reign to create that vision would end in a list of reasons why I was no good at my immediate job/role, breakong me down with gossip and undermining included by said boss. Most times I never saw it coming. Arg. BUT: AHA!
Perry, I’m always giving out advice, telling people what they should do. I’ve also started numerous businesses, so it makes sense that I’m now a business/entrepreneur coach. Mostly I wanted to comment and tell you how much I’ve learned from the writing email modules I got from you, and now I read your email in a totally new light. What a gift you have.
Hmm…
There were two things I could never do in school: stay quiet and sit still.
I always had to talk, and I always had to move.
And that was enough for teachers to decide I was a bad kid. I’ll come back to that in a moment… but first…
One day, in November, about 15 years ago my father announced he had to go on a business trip. I was still a teenager then, living with just my father (at that time my Mum was still alive, but they were in some sort of dysfunctional “separation”.)
Anyhow, he asked my older cousin John to stay with me. He also expected me to write a German language exam.
Well, what he didn’t know was that I hadn’t gone for most of the classes ( some thing deep inside told me German wasn’t really the key to me having a successful life).
He also didn’t know that instead I was rehearsing for a show – and the exam day was the show day.
Of course, I decided to go for the show instead of doing the Deutsch thing. So I went and did the show.
When I came back home, all excited, my father was waiting for me. He had all sorts of objects lined up for me – cables, sticks, etc.
He was back early from the trip, and my cousin John told him everything – about not going for the Deutsch classes, and about doing the show.
As soon as I walked in, my father proceeded to beat the living $h!t out of me.
I learnt that people can betray you, and that others will punish you without fair trail.
But here is the thing: my love for performing got me into trouble.
I used to talk in class, and then it was a “bad” thing. When I did the Marketing DNA test, it turns out that talking and connecting to people (empathy) are my biggest strengths! So all that while I was practising something that would later shape my future.
As far as doing the show is concerned, it later led to me getting many appearances on national TV and radio back in Ghana.
All that brought to marketing, and eventually, to Planet Perry.
The point: your best bits don’t fit into the mould. The moment you realize you can’t fit in, figure out why, and do it even more!
I actually realized this “fully” a couple of days ago. 20+ years ago I was a stoner college kid who accidentally stumbled into the “awakened” state of being. The precursor to enlightenment. Since that moment I could never relate to “ordinary” passions, drives, and wants and have been an emotional trainwreck or a brickwall all this time. Through a freakishly, amazing, set of coincidences (which can be better termed as ‘grace’) I am finally in the position to accept what happened to me for what it is. And I am also almost ready with a book which is somewhat related but not totally. I really don’t like the term “greatness” ‘coz in my view even the worst scumbag has “greatness” in him/her. But that’s something to hair split over… :)
After graduating from college with a B.A. in Classical Liberal Arts, I found myself working in a factory, drilling holes in wood-stove doors.
I was fired for listening to the radio in headphones while I worked. I was fired by the son of the company owner, who was on a power trip.
After being fired, I applied to graduate school in journalism and got a full scholarship, everything fully paid, but I needed a work study job to complement the scholarship.
I was hired at the University of Oregon classical music radio station, to do on-air announcing. I found I loved it far more than my studies, and I left grad school to become a full-time Professional Radio DJ, Program Director, Music Director with my own Private Party & Nightclub DJ Biz on the side.
I went on to earn #1 ratings as a DJ & eventually started my own company = Pro Sound & Video Corp, retiring and moving to Maui at age 47.
Thank God I got FIRED for listening to the radio!
~Sunny Hills, Maui, Hawai’i :)
Great story! Here’s mine:
I used to work for a law firm, and I never really got on with the ‘work long hours for the sake of long hours’ attitude. I’m a firm believer in working smart, not long hours. Nevertheless, there was a requirement to bill a staggering number of hours to the client every year, and it was tough to do that inside a normal working day.
So what I did from day one in the job was to try and plan each working day so I could arrive for the start of the working day, get 2/3rds finished and billed in the AM and the remaining 1/3rd billed in the afternoon, take my full lunch hour to enjoy my break, and leave on time to see my wife. And this approach worked. Every year other than my very first year in the profession, I continually hit my targets whilst hardly ever working late and with ever reducing time write-offs.
In contrast, my peers who were habitual presentees and stay-late workers, sometimes struggled to even hit half of their targets year on year.
Every year it was commented on that while I was hitting my targets, that I arrived on time and left on time and rarely stayed late, and this was not seen as a positive.
Come promotion time after the first few years, which I had been assured was GUARANTEED provided I hit my target hours, I was denied a promotion along with my peers. Whereas my peers rarely got close to my target and they were denied their promotion because of their hours, I was given no real reason, because the only reason seemed to be ‘we don’t like that you don’t stay late’, even though the only real point to staying late would be to hit hours and finish work that wasn’t finished in the daytime. The comments on not staying late for the sake of staying late didn’t cease either.
Eventually I decided to leave and set up my own business (now businesses). A factor in this was because I became overwhelmingly frustrated with this idea that working efficiently and to time was considered a NEGATIVE and was not only not actively rewarded, but resulted in PENALTIES!
Since moving to being self-employed, I’ve experienced great initial success, which has led to a string of new start-ups. It’s early days yet, but I’ve found that the very attitude that got me in constant trouble in my old career, the attitude of ‘working smart, not long hours’, has paid dividends towards running a efficient business as well as having a thoroughly enjoyable quality of life.
Ha – never looked at it like that. When I was in the 5th grade I build a grid to outline which of us kids were responsible for what chores on a rotating basis because my older sisters were always conning me into doing the tougher ones. Pissed them off royally :)
Then when I was 15 I got fired from my first job bussing tables, carrying up room service trays and unloading luggage off tour busses at a hotel in Albuquerque. They would call me at all hours of the day and night to come in and work; when I showed them how to fix it so they didn’t always have to call me, they said I was ungrateful and fired me for my attitude – guess they wanted me to just shut up and do it their way.
So my gift is seeing patterns of logic and simplicity in jumbled messes.
Wonder if anyone would pay me for that…