The Soundtrack of My Life, A Good Time to Assume

I don't normally comment on "stat stuff," but I noticed that this is my 800th post on this blog. Can you believe it???

This is still the summer of 1988 and I'm still selling books door-to-door in Colorado. This was a revelatory sort of job for me, though I wouldn't understand the ramifications for years.

So, there were reasons I was successful at this door-to-door sales thing, and they were thus:

I memorized well and could deliver  the presentation conversationally, AND when I made my pitch I sold the whole set. I never broke it up because if they were going to buy, they would buy it ALL.  

I am not going to bore you with every sale I made ~ heck I can't remember every sale I made.

I vividly remember going up to this blue house on a cul de sac (would you believe that I can still picture this house but I can't remember some of the names of my good friends ~ egads) and the mother of the household answering. It was a Saturday (prime day). I gave her my get in the door pitch and she responded like this, "I would love to look at your books but my husband is TOO CHEAP (this thrown over the shoulder in a very loud voice for the said husband's benefit)! He is SO CHEAP that he does things like this.." At this precise moment her two children come out the front door carrying their bikes. "He makes our children carry their bikes out the door because he doesn't like the wear and tear on the garage door opener." Again, all of this was not directed to me, but to the invisible husband.

I backed up fast and said something like, "Well, this isn't a good time. I will come back later."  I hastily got out of Dodge and made a notation in my notebook.

That isn't the end of this story.   

I was back in this same neighborhood trying to eliminate everyone from my list as either buyers or not.  I found myself back on that same cul de sac, and that blue house was the only one that hadn't gone one way or the other.  I was having a Terrible Day and decided to nail the lid on the coffin by going back to that blue house. The husband answered the door, the wife wasn't home, and I honestly never expected to make it off the porch. Wonder of wonders.... I got in.  Normally, I wouldn't go into a home where just the husband was there, but the kids were in a room that was visible from the kitchen, and I felt okay with it.  He was nice.  However, I was still caught up in the Bike Incident of that Saturday and Intimidated.  I was so convinced that he WASN'T GOING TO BUY that I only showed him three books out of the set.  I departed from my usual pitch, because I made the decision for him about what he would and would not buy.  I was trying to minimize my time investment in the call.  Big mistake.  Huge.  I got done and he never even gave me a closing argument.  All he said was, "Do you take a credit card?"  

Holy crap.  Yes, I did.  And while he was getting his wallet I was mentally kicking myself down the street.  Never ever assume what your buyer will buy.  In fact, go into every sale assuming that they will buy.  You assume it and more often than not... they do.

Only later would I look back on this very successful summer at door-to-door sales and understand that sales is my Ideal Career Path.  If you can make money in door-to-door sales, which is the toughest gig  going, commission sales on consumable goods is a cakewalk .  

Not everyone in our group, but some... (click to enlarge)

Now, I don't have a song to go with this story, though it's a darn good story. However, I do have one more song that I think of when I think of that summer. My father said that the song Baby Blue came out that summer I was in Colorado, and whenever he heard it he thought of me. The way he said it I think it was kind of sad for him. That was not so long after he and my mom divorced, and instead of coming home I opted out entirely to move across the country to sell books. And then it was pretty much straight back to college. I spent very little time "at home," and he probably thought I was pretty much all but gone.

This one's for you, Dad!

Did you have a job that you thought was just a summer job or short-term job, but ending up pointing you towards your ultimate Career Path?  Or a job that you learned a lot of Life Lessons from even if you didn't stay in it forever? Is there a song that one of your parents thought of as "your song?"


If you're enjoying these posts, feel free to share your own Soundtrack. This isn't a hop. No requirements at all, but a suggestion to do it one song at a time. (If you participated in the hop several years ago, you can still do this. Just post them one song at a time, with the freedom to add more songs if you'd like.) I'll link to all participants at the bottom of each of these posts:

StMcC Presents BATTLE OF THE BANDS

Cherdo on the Flipside 

Holli's Hoots and Hollers 

THE DOGLADY'S DEN

The Soundtrack of My Life, Don't Poop on My Parade

In the summer of 1988, for my summer job I was recruited by a fellow student at college to sell books door-to-door.  She had done it the previous summer and made a lot of money.  The books were educational types (though not encyclopedias, if you were wondering).  I don't know why I thought I would be good at this job, but I did.  The training lasted a week in Nashville, TN, which is where the company is headquartered.  They called that week training;  I now call it brainwashing. I still remember repeating things like, "Never go back to your headquarters during the day, " ad nauseum.  It should have been a clue that this job was going to be hard, as in really hard.  Mentally hard.  Physically hard. Okay... hard in every possible way.

About twenty other students from my school, and an equal number from a college in Louisiana and Tennesse combined, road-tripped out to Colorado where we would be selling.  I ended up living with a family in Littleton, Colorado.  Their daughter was selling books for the same company in West Virginia.  Not long after we arrived, it came to me that they moved you as far from home as possible to deter you from quitting.  It was a long ride home alone.  Even so, the number of kids who quit was HIGH.  Heck, I quit four times (at least) that first month.  I about drove my mom crazy.

Anyway, I worked the job pretty much the way they intended for two weeks.  I was exhausted, frustrated, and so many other things.  Then the miracle happened. You won't see this coming... I got diarrhea. Yep, you read that right.  And I had a reason to go back to my headquarters during the day.  I couldn't work like that.  It was sheer bliss.  I have never been before ~ or will ever be ~ as thrilled to have diarrhea as I was that day.  I got to REST... with the exception of the frequent trips to the bathroom.  I remember Ann, my recruiter and direct supervisor,  giving me grief at the end of the day when we did our nightly phone call reporting our sales. She was VERY ANGRY  that I hadn't taken Immodium and gotten right back out there.  Was she nuts?  I hoped it would last another couple of days. Immodium shmodium.  And that was the end of my relationship with Ann.  I became someone that she simply couldn't deal with and that was fine with me.

At one of the many national parks we visited on a Sunday

After I got over my Quit or Not To Quit and decided to stay, I decided to work the job My Way.  That meant I worked until I reached my Sales Quota for the day and then I knocked off.  I got to see a lot of Colorado in my spare time AND kept my sanity.

In the end, there was just me and a French girl named Valerie living at my residence (aside from the family).

Valerie on the right and another friend (who quit) on the left

Valerie was one of the most laid-back people I'd ever met. I remember the boys yanking her chain one morning (rather, trying to yank her chain). I can't remember where she got this bicycle, but I know it was free or darn near. She learned to ride it carrying at 30 pound book bag on her shoulder and fell off repeatedly in the beginning, but she kept at it. At night, she'd lean it against the fence. No chain. No nothing. So, back to the boys and their prank... One morning they yell up the stairs, "Valerie, come quick. Someone's stolen your bike!"

She peeks around the door, waves her hand, and says, "Lucky girl."

They were so disappointed. No one took that bike...

I learned a lot that summer, but I got to see in action what a Type B (or C) personality looks like. Nothing phased Valerie.

I look back on this time and am astounded at the amount of growing and changing that happened in just one summer. You could say I was on a Rocky Mountain High...

 

 

Have you ever had a job that was just really hard?  Did it burn you out?  Or maybe just a summer job that was really bizarre that you wanted to quit? Have you ever met someone like Valerie (or maybe you are someone like Valerie!)?


If you're enjoying these posts, feel free to share your own Soundtrack. This isn't a hop. No requirements at all, but a suggestion to do it one song at a time. (If you participated in the hop several years ago, you can still do this. Just post them one song at a time, with the freedom to add more songs if you'd like.) I'll link to all participants at the bottom of each of these posts:

StMcC Presents BATTLE OF THE BANDS

Cherdo on the Flipside 

Holli's Hoots and Hollers 

THE DOGLADY'S DEN

HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY

I've been so busy with Soundtrack posts I haven't even thought about trying to put together a HERE'S TO YOU post. Seriously. I've been posting 3 days a week, doing BoTB, and HERE'S TO YOU has been shuffled to the backburner. It's not that I don't get video ideas as I read your blogs, but I tend to just post them on your blog vs. doing the feature. And then I read something tonight that ABSOLUTELY DESERVED to be in a HERE'S TO YOU. That triggered me combing your posts and seeing which posts made me think "video." And this is what I came up with.

Those of you new to this blog: once upon a time this was a (more or less) weekly Thursday feature. And then I sidelined it in favor of my Soundtrack posts. By the way, I just thought of something tonight that should've gone in sophomore year and didn't. I'm gonna have to just insert it late. I apologize for messing up the chronology (again).

Moving on to HERE'S TO YOU. Whether you're new or old to this, sit back, relax, and enjoy! HERE'S TO YOU!!!!

This one is for everyone:



This one is for Dixie at dcrelief ~ BATTLE OF THE BANDS:



This one is for Jeffrey A. Scott at J.A. Scott:



This one is for Holli at Holli's Hoots and Hollers:



This one is for Janie Junebug at WOMEN: WE SHALL OVERCOME:



This one is for Cherdo at Cherdo on the Flipside: