My first job out of school was designing speakers. It wasn’t quite my dream job, but close enough for government work. Stereo equipment was my first “sold out” hobby at age 13 and now I got to do it for a living.
I worked in the division that made components for the big automakers like Ford and Chrysler. My job was to take a budget of $3.83 x 4 speakers per vehicle and turn a Honda Civic into a nice-sounding car.
If you’ve grown up with a silver spoon in your mouth, you might hate a job like that. But I loved the challenge.
I had all kinds of naive notions of the world. One believing that lack of engineering acumen was one of the world’s most pressing problems.
About 2 weeks into my new job, I said to myself, “People skills seem to be a much bigger problem around here than anybody’s technical know-how. I didn’t have classes on that in college.”
Astonishing revelation, huh? I bet you’re impressed that I was able to pick up on that at such a young age :^>
Management didn’t listen to engineering, engineering didn’t listen to manufacturing, nobody felt appreciated, and departments would throw problems over the wall and let the other team solve ’em. The salesmen milked their expense accounts for all they were worth.
One time, one of our suppliers asked a manager if he should ship the latest batch of prototypes to our Skokie Illinois office.
“Skokie? We don’t have any office in Skokie.”
“You don’t? Just last week I shipped some freshly machined parts over there.”
Turns out those parts were for a draftsman’s motorcycle engine rebuild.
Ever worked at a company like that?
The whole business was on life support via government regulation, which required that a certain percentage of parts in an American-made automobile be sourced in the USA. Everybody knew that. Everyone knew we couldn’t compete with Asia.
One summer, the company lost a major project from Ford, immediately slashing revenue by tens of millions of dollars. I got spit out in the first inevitable layoff.
Then months later, another layoff… a plant closes, then another… the rounds of layoffs were like cutting your leg off an inch at a time.
Three years later, the whole thing collapsed and the Original Equipment division shut down.
Now here’s what’s interesting, the thing I wanna zero in on today:
Everybody who worked there, dysfunctional as they all were, clung to each other like Titanic survivors in a life raft. Ten years later there was still a big giant CC: email that would go round once or twice a year. “Hey y’all, everybody’s getting together at Rog’s Pub in Schiller Park… Everybody’s meeting up at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.”
It was like a recurring version of the movie “Breakfast Club” where all the misfits and delinquents find love and solace and invent new cuss words together whenever the teacher is out of the classroom.
The man’s boot may be on our neck, but he can’t stop us from commiserating and drowning our sorrows and playing darts.
None of the “healthy companies” I worked at had a big loyal clique like this. They didn’t even have a little one.
Why was that?
I mentioned this to a friend, and he said, “It’s the misery that bonds everybody together. If management didn’t treat ’em like crap, they wouldn’t be buddies. They HAD to work together.”
Why do you have such strong feelings for Batman at the beginning of the movie? Cuz the bad guy killed his parents. The speaker company clique was just a different version of why every epic movie is an orphan story.
You wanna sell to people? Talk to ’em about their orphan story. It’ll bond them to you faster than anything.
But here’s the thing — and this is big:
YOU CAN’T STAY STUCK IN EVERYBODY’S ORPHAN STORY. Or you’ll die of cancer. Figuratively. But maybe literally too.
There are many, many groups of people – political parties, unions, 12 step groups, churches, mosques, skeptic meetups, movements, militias – whose entire world is forever defined by:
“SOMEBODY STOLE MY CHEESE.”
And you know what – if that becomes your identity, then just wait, cuz you become a cheese thief magnet and somebody’s gonna steal your cheese again. And pretty soon you’re stealing their cheese too and you’re just as much an abuser as they ever were.
This is HUGELY important for anyone who wants to take a long and enduring leadership position in any market, any group of people.
Yes, you can get their money and their allegiance by telling them a sad story. But you can’t become seduced by that.
You must understand that even though every story may start out as an orphan story, your job is to make sure it doesn’t END that way.
Which means that orphan story is not you. It is not your identity. It is not who you are. It doesn’t define you.
It’s only where you came from.
It’s not where you are going.
Never, ever forget that.
Seize the day.
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.
10 Comments on “Breakfast Club at the Factory of Dysfunctions”
Perry, Last year learned from copywriting the importance of the hero’s journey and his struggle, being orphaned. I thought to myself, sh**, I’m in my the hole that people talk about and how everything turned for them. So I’ve been documenting it for a year and a half so I can write about it when I’m completely out. You see, over the last 18 months I’ve been harvesting the bad seed I’ve sown the 10 years prior. Mostly having to do with financial stuff. Close friends tell me it’s not my fault, but it was. So 2012 and still into 2013, a lot of my work has gone into weeding, but also planting new, healthy seeds. My wife and I are already seeing clear signs of hope in our financial, spiritual, social, and business life. No big breakthrough, but lots of little ones. One I want to share here. This week will be the first year in more than ten that I have all my bookkeeping and accounting ready for 4/15./13. Every year prior has seen me procrastinate and push out to Oct of every year, usually cramming for two weeks to file ‘on time’. It got so bad that I didn’t file 2010 and 2011 until just 4 months ago!! So I guess it’s a big breakthrough that I’m done with 2012 tax prep!
Anyway, this post truly resonated with me about the orphan story and not to stay hung up on it. Yes I jacked things up for my family, but the seeds I’m planting today are gonna pay off someday, just like the small (good) seeds I planted last year are already turning into beautiful little flowers to enjoy. And I’ve got some good stories about how much it sucked having to pull out weeds for a year and a half. Thanks for these posts Perry.
“Which means that orphan story is not you. It is not your identity. It is not who you are. It doesn’t define you.
It’s only where you came from.
It’s not where you are going.
Never, ever forget that.
Seize the day.”
Aye, aye, cap’n! :)
“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves as well. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen accidents, meetings and material assistance that no one could have dreamed would come their way. Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”
– Goethe
Onwards & Upwards Perry,
To infinity and beyond,
He who hesitates is lost,
Predicting the future is easy, all you need to do first is invent it,
Speed has little to do with haste and much to do with direction…
Good post, bit of a shake up. Thanks a million
Dan
Love your writing Perry. Super post, terrific meaning, great story.
Mary
Thanks. Inspiring yet not “pie in the sky”. Send more; we need the reminders.
Aidan
So true. Connecting people to people with stories of hope and victory have built our business. My opinion is that good marketing develops a system to make these connections simple enough for anyone to do.
My first job out of college was clearing power lines in New England. Everyone on my crew except for the crew chief was an ex-con. I learned at an early age how to keep yourself in a self-imposed prison of “the world’s against me”.
They were a tight group of guys that re-enforced their thinking pattern on a daily basis. Their stories were heart engaging, but left one hopeless to ever see an opportunity for them to escape the prison of their cruel world. I soon found out that any attempts to help were countered by “that’s only for others, not for us.”
Thanks for sharing.
That is a very interesting insight.
This is the other side of the “whinging client syndrome”. They aren’t satisfied with their lives, and want to share that with everyone. Add a job like you describe and you have lots of people to share your discontent with! A whinger’s paradise
… oh, dear.
Simple awesome ending to this post. The very end of this post really, really laid it all out for me and helped even gave me some direction on where to go from here. Thanks Perry.
Thanks, Perry, for the insights. They hit close to home.
After being laid off 3 times over the last 12 years (despite being rated as a “top performer” and being well-rewarded financially), I’ve been given several “opportunities” to “re-invent” myself.
Funny thing is, each negative event led to something even more positive (more fulfilling, more lucrative, etc.). I’ve only had to remind myself (not always easy to do!) of the strengths and talents I possess and what helped me be successful in the past, and then re-apply them to the next challenge.
Once you give up on yourself, it’s pretty much over. Keep the faith – because no one else will for you.
Thanks again!