Happy Sunday Everyone-
You’re probably tired of hearing “take control of my life”, a theme I’ve been on, in fact today is day 17 according to my journal. Those are the first words that go in each day “take control of my life, day XX”. Still feels good, it’s a daily reminder on my decisions/thought process as I navigate/plan the day ahead.
Without doing this exercise, Jack, my oldest, is doing the same, taking control of his life and I couldn’t be prouder. I wrote a while back about his college experience, year 1, being less than he wanted it to be. He brought it up to us, we discussed, we put some action items in place, did our due diligence, and he made a decision to transfer in the fall. A decision I would consider good, not easy. Watching our kids struggle sucks, watching our kids navigate those struggles, is gratifying. I wish there was an easier formula for it, but I don’t believe there is a better way to understand what you do want by experiencing what you don’t.
What does this have to do with Porta-Potty’s? Nothing, except that Jack has a little more pep in step so he decided to go for “good vs. easy” decision #2, he’s selling porta potty’s this summer over a few easier “college kid” jobs. Jack has an entrepreneurial spirit, he started Jack’s Junk Hauling business in high school and did well by it. This job probably sounds like a “what?”, but how it came about and the opportunity to learn and understand the inner workings of a successful family-owned business is something Jack wanted to take advantage of. I also don’t believe there is any greater experience for someone going into business than door to door sales. My first job out of college was Nextel. I wash fresh out of U of A w/ a degree in finance, which turned out not to impress the San Francisco Investment Bankers, so I found myself selling phones door to door in industrial parks. My parents bought me two suits, 5 shirts, 2 pairs of Allen edmonds (one black, one tan), and away I went. I’d sit in my truck, blast Chumbawumba’s “I get knocked down but I get up again” on full blast, my crazy ass boss would jump on the radio and say “Hunter, you there, I want you to go out there and kill that pig, kill that pig, just hit um, him um, bang bang….”, I’d jump out of truck and start going door to door, I swear all this to be true. I went from 0% of quota 3 months in a row to 300% of quota on the 4th month, why? because I just kept going and no one told me to stop. I had to get my shoes resoled 2x in a year. It was the greatest work experience in my life, it was good, NOT easy. They’d tell me if I wanted to see the owner of a concrete company, I’d need to be there at 6:00AM thinking they were getting rid of me, next day, I was there at 5:45 waiting for him. I loved it (I also sold them 25 phones a year later at a $1000/piece).
Going back to Jack-he’s nervous, he’s asking me all the same questions that I thought about back then (still do), how do you handle rejection? what’s my pitch? what do I do if they tell me to leave? how do I follow up? what does my day look like? how many calls do I make before I stop? I LOVE being able to coach Jack on this right now. We might have to do a little in the field sales training, never thought I’d be going door to door selling porta potties with my son but here we go! I have no idea how this is going to go for Jack, I just know he is taking control of his life, he’s pushing himself way out of his comfort zone, and he will benefit from it. There is something massively liberating about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, making decisions you can’t go back on i.e., burning the boats. Watching him go through this encourages me to get out of my comfort zone more, settle less, push more, less fear. It all leads back to taking control of one’s life. Nothing better than learning from your kids.
Have a great rest of your Sunday and if you need a porta potty, please let us know!