Up the Creek

Up the Creek

 Many years ago during my last year of high school I was fortunate to get a job away from the farm and in town at the most popular tire store for many miles around.  I learned sales thanks to my bilingual skills, and pretty much every aspect of the tire business including vulcanizing (a process better known as tire re-treads), and warehousing.  Those skills from the tire business plus skills learned at the farm made me an all-around kind of guy.

My goal had always been to move to California and go to college, where all of my father’s family lived.  Through family contacts, a person that managed a Goodyear Store in Central California offered me a job based on my experience as related to him.  I immediately began my planning by saying my good byes and packing all I wanted to take with me.  I pulled a U-Haul trailer behind my Ford Victoria, and like the Beverly Hillbillies I headed to California.

I allowed myself one day of rest after I arrived before presenting myself at the Goodyear Store ready for duty.  To my dismay the person that had offered me the job had been fired together with most of the staff and promptly replaced prior to my arrival.  Apparently there had been some monkey business going on and while my contact wasn’t guilty, it did happen during his watch and was let go.  All the staff fired had been replaced, and besides they probably didn’t want to hire anyone that was remotely associated with the old guard.

I am a firm believer that everything you say and do will affect you for the rest of your life one way or another.  Who is to say where I would be today, if I had gone to work at the Goodyear Store?  I might be the CEO of Goodyear today, or maybe even shot by an angry customer, luckily I will never know.  I do know that I am happy the way my life found its way to where I am today.  On that very day without wasting time I drove to the unemployment office, and I was referred to an employer for a management training job where I eventually worked my way into mid and upper management. 

The corporation that I ended working at was considered second in size within its industry nationally.  To this day I like to brag that everything I needed to know I learned at that job.  I guess the only thing that makes sense is that no matter what life throws at you, you need to carefully analyze it and make the most of the opportunity.  I feel that I have at every turn.  I am grateful for all that I’ve been given and have earned, to be sure I made a good return on all the lemonade stands I’ve had to operate.  The best is yet to come….