It is difficult to say whether Mr. Andrews or Mr. Halpin is more deserving of eulogy, for the reason that both showed evidence of having an abundance of that very rare quality known as IMAGINATION. Mr. Andrews deserves credit for seeing, in young Halpin, a “go-getter” of the highest order. Halpin deserves credit for REFUSING TO COMPROMISE WITH LIFE BY ACCEPTING AND KEEPING A JOB HE DID NOT WANT, and that is one of the major points I am trying to emphasize through this entire philosophy— that we rise to high positions or remain at the bottom BECAUSE OF CONDITIONS WE CAN CONTROL IF WE DESIRE TO CONTROL THEM.
Controlling the Conditions
The paragraph above is a conclusion to a short story about a man named Dan Haplin, it’s definitely worth checking out for those of you working a job that you don’t like.
The story reminds me of my experience working at the airport. I was asked if I wanted to go out and submit applications with a group of friends, and since I absolutely hated my current job working as a security guard at the time, I decided to go along. I figured anything would be better than working that security job. When I applied for a job with Paradies Metro Ventures, I was simply applying for a “job”. I didn’t even know what they were hiring for.
A few months later I got the call for an interview. It had been such a long time since I applied for the job, I actually didn’t remember anything about the company. The only thing that I remembered was that it was at the airport. At the interview I was offered a position in the stock room; I had done stockroom work before so I didn’t have any problems with the position at the time.
It was on my first day of work that I had problems. The stockroom manager didn’t have a clue as to how to operate the department, and neither did her managers. The stockroom looked like the stock was unloaded from the back of a dump truck into one big pile; stuff was everywhere! I didn’t mind a challenge, but the job of organizing that stockroom under bad leadership was beyond a challenge.
I was ready to quit after the first week, however, I stuck it out. A month or two later, I had an opportunity to get a job in the cleaning department. I inquired about the position and was offered the job and I took it!
Although I was just “the cleaning guy”, I kept my eyes open for opportunity. I went from being just “the cleaning guy” to being “maintenance supervisor”. This was my first time in a supervisor position at a 9-5. I had a couple people working under me, and although I don’t know where they found these “mentally challenged folks”, I had people that reported to me nevertheless and I embraced it.
Eventually I convinced the operation manager of hiring more qualified people to report to me and she did. Shortly after I saw another opportunity; I saw how much they were paying outside contractors to buff the floors. There were over 20 gift shops and they were paying over $700/month to buff the SMALLEST stores. I looked at the invoice and it had opportunity written all over it!
I wrote up a proposal that would cost the company HALF of what they were paying and the agreed to proceed with it. This is a long story that I’ll share another time, but I’ll cut it short for now by simply letting you know how it turned out. The latter part of my maintenance experience took place during the summer of 2001; I had built up a lot of momentum and respect within the company. And all of the momentum that I had built up was lost after the September 11 attacks.
So many things changed at the airport after 9/11 that were beyond my control, and the opportunity to expand my operation was one of those things. Even though all talks about the contracts ended, the experience let me know what I was capable of accomplishing as long as I focused on the opportunities and the conditions that were in my control.
~Matthew