It’s easy to look at successful people and envy their situation. What you often don’t see is the pain they went through to get there. That certainly applies to me.
I’m not a CEO because I’ve made fewer mistakes than you. In fact, it’s probably just the opposite. I’ve made more. Believe it or not, I have actually been fired from three jobs in my career.
Each of these was a very painful experience. But they also taught me important lessons that I probably could not have learned any other way.
- Lesson #1: Don’t take your job for granted. I got my first real job at the age of fifteen. I was hired as a dishwasher at Giovanni’s Pizza in Waco, Texas. After a few months, I was given the opportunity to cook pizzas.
It was a part-time job. I usually worked a few evenings after school and then Friday or Saturday night. It wasn’t too demanding, but it gave me some much-needed spending money.
After working at this job for a little over a year, I was fired. I was unceremoniously given the boot. I didn’t do anything egregious or outrageous. I just got sloppy. I was often late to work. I regularly asked my boss to change my work schedule at the last minute.
The problem was that I thought the job was about me. My employer (rightly) thought it was about him and the restaurant. In the end, I became more trouble than I was worth, so he canned me. This was the best thing that could have happened to me. It got my attention, and it was the beginning of my education.
After this experience, I never took any job for granted.
- Lesson #2: Take time to clarify expectations. When I was in business for myself, I agreed to manage an artist’s singing career. I was reluctant, but she was persistent.
At the time, she was a B-level artist who was convinced that she could be an A-level talent with the right exposure. My job, as I understood it, was to get her better concert bookings, a book deal, and exploit whatever other opportunities we could create. My job, as she understood it, was to make her famous.
I knew I was in trouble after the first month. In the first thirty days, I doubled her bookings, secured a decent book deal (even coming up with the book concept myself), and got her an appearance on a major, national TV show.
I was feeling pretty good about my progress. But, she could only find fault. Over dinner, she complained that she still wasn’t “famous.” I pointed out what I had accomplished. She dismissed it as “the low hanging fruit.” She then pointed out all the things I hadn’t accomplished. I left the meeting totally demoralized.
I realized I had made a major error in not getting her expectations on the table from the get-go. Unfortunately, the relationship never really recovered. She eventually fired me—by sending me a fax. It was painful, but, honestly, I felt relieved. I knew I was never going to meet her expectations no matter how hard I tried.
After this experience, I decided to discuss expectations at the beginning of any new relationship—and document them.
- Lesson #3: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Unfortunately, I’ve made this mistake more than once. The last time was about ten years ago.
At the time, I co-owned a literary agency. I agreed to take on a giant project for a major client. I worked my tail off for about a year, focusing exclusively on this one client. My relationship had morphed into an artist management relationship, and I was, essentially, managing this client’s career.
Meanwhile my partner and associates took care of everyone else. We all thought it was a good bet. But in the end, the client fired me (also via fax!) and signed with an agency who promised to get him “a major book deal with a New York publishing house and an appearance on Oprah. (His book with the New York house tanked and, to my knowledge, he never did get on Oprah.) I was left high and dry with nothing to show for my year-long investment.
The worst part was that I did not see it coming. I was blind-sided. I thought I had done a great job. Besides, we had enjoyed a long-term personal relationship. My client wasn’t so impressed with my work. He had his eye on bigger things, and decided I couldn’t take him there. So, without even so much as a discussion, he dumped me.
In the end it was a humbling—even humiliating—experience. I learned that clients (in my world now, authors) are fickle. You can’t afford to put all your eggs in one basket. You have to spread the risk. You also can’t assume that today’s victories will be remembered. You have to keep raising the bar.
These, of course, aren’t the only mistakes I’ve made in my career. I’m not even sure they were the biggest ones. But they were mistakes that got me fired, and in the end that got my attention. They were painful, but the education was invaluable.
What have you learned from your mistakes?
Technorati Tags: getting fired, job, work, your job
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Thanks so much for sharing these stories. I hope you don’t mind if I laughed a bit, especially about your B-grade star client.
It’s encouraging to know that we all go through “failure” moments. I read a book once in which the author claimed failure is the back door to success. Handled rightly it can lead us to character growth, wisdom for life, and greater humilty.
It was humble for you to share. God gives grace to the humble.
Thanks.
Hi Mike,
I would have to say that one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made is assuming that working with Christians makes a job easier….NOT! Are you kidding me, working with other Christians is one trial after another. So the lesson that I had to learn the hard way is that Christians are not to be trusted or given any more grace than nonbelievers. Plus, when you work in a ministry setting you have to be very careful with your boundaries because the tendency to blur work life with “fellowship” is great…and if you’re not careful you can really get burned. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything :)
Stacy,
I have certainly found this to be the case. It’s all about expectations. People expect Christians to be honest and treat them kindly. This is not always—or even usually—the case. As long as we have to recruit from the human race, we will have human problems.
Thanks,
Mike
I have never been “fired.” They offered me a membership in the Corporate Castaway Club. I was “let go” and not because I was slothful or not doing my job. It was “business.” Same effect. Still painful. Still suffering from the effects of losing 2/3rds of my income in one day. Ouch! It definitely was a wake up call. Thanks for sharing! Somehow it takes a little bit of the sting out to know someone highly successful recovered and flourished after a similar experience.
I was “helped to resign” from a job I didn’t have passion for. Reflectively, it was best for me and done out of love. I am now pursuing the passion of my life and loving the pursuit. My previous company treated me very well and kept both our best interests at heart. What I learned was grow where you are planted, and if you are uprooted and replanted, grow there too.
I worked for an outdoor advertising company, I was the first woman ever to work in the shop and some of the egotistical men thought I should be harassed. I stood my ground and proved myself as the master of billboard paste. ;)
I had just graduated high school and after a year of working and attending college, I felt the need to move on. About six months later the shop foreman called me to offer my job back plus a sizable raise. I accepted. This actually happened three more times. I was making more than anyone had ever made in that position and had restructured the process so that efficiency and output were at an all-time high.
The corporate office restructured management , my boss was demoted and they brought in a man with twenty years experience at the steel mill–to run a billboard shop? It didn’t make sense to anyone. They asked me to train him. I asked for a raise. They declined.
I told the Executive Supervisor the new shop foreman could watch and take notes, but without a raise I wouldn’t formally train him, they should find someone qualified to fulfill that need. They fired me.
I packed up my files and went home. If I remember correctly, it was about a year later they were acquired by another outdoor advertising company and the Executive Supervisor and the new shop foreman lost their jobs. I got a call to come back to work. I declined.
I was young, so my actions might not have been the best choices, looking back though, I learned that if you allow people to walk on you and take advantage of you, they will. I wouldn’t stand for it from the guys in the shop and I wouldn’t stand for it from the supervisors. Yes, I lost my job, but I gained the respect of everyone else working there and became rather infamous. This all happened over a decade ago and I still get calls from new shop foremans making pretty decent offers.
The most important thing I learned, though, is that a formal education doesn’t teach you how to deal with people.
As low man on the totem pole, when you approach someone in upper level management with respect and honesty, you’ll find the depth of their character and integrity simply by the value they place on you. I’ve found the greatest have walked a mile in your shoes and remember the feeling, therefore they treat you with respect and they’re more than willing to help you succeed. I’ve also learned that this type of person is rare, but a blessing when found.
I spent the first 14 years of my career as an engineer with a public utility company, and despite my resolve not to, eventually developed a “job for life” mentality. When the business climate changed and the company started reorganizing (downsizing, rightsizing, etc) I like everyone else seemed to focus on what I could do to keep my job. I realized I had become “a slave to security”. After much prayer and thought I volunteered out, taking a package that allowed my to go to work for myself. I could never have forseen this was simply God’s way of putting me where I needed to be for what was soon to happen in our lives. But my leaving was jumpstarted by the CEO of my former company who said in a meeting, “The only job security any of you have, is to be good enough at what you do that you’re able to find a job when you leave here.” He meant it, and I believed it, … any by God’s grace, I was. :)
Stacy and Mike, I agree.
Sometimes working with your brothers and sisters can be dissappointing just like working with your blood relatives.
I’ve worked in many Christian niche businesses from church architects, bookstores, magazines to recording studios. What I’ve learned is to never take a job or contract until you have received payment. Oftentimes Christian businesses and churches expect you to do the work on a volunteer basis. They assume that since you’re Christian, you will not ask for a check.
But I’ve learned that your clients will be more cooperative, give you more referrals and respect you if you demand some form of upfront payment. And no matter how great the person’s voice is, great their ministry is don’t complete a service unless some monies have exchanged hands and a contract is signed.
Dear Mike,
Reading your story actually made me feel a litlle better. I am only 25, and i have already got fired 3 times. I got a BA in communications 3 years ago. And so far has led me nowhere. For some reason I am always the first one to go out the door. 1st job I got fired was hard core telemarketing sales, i gave 200 percent and got nowhere, they fired me after a yr w them. Saying it wasnt agood fit. 2nd job was working w a small family company as an assistant to president 7 months later, they fired me again bc I wasnt a good fit. The women at the office just didnt like me, i was the outcast. Too young, too dressy, too outgoing etc. 3rd job another small family business, i was there 4 month, this time i have done exceptioanl job, or so I thought and they let me go. Again not a good fit, this time it was my lack of experience that go me out the door, and it was another sales job. I have learned my lesson, No More Sale Jobs. But now I am starting to doubt myself, how come I am always the one to go. When I am such a hard worker that gives everything even though these were no t my dream jobs. In reality I still dont know what I want to do. I know what i dont want. But now i feel like i cant even say o got fired so many times with a BA. And I know it wasnt my fault, but so what.Thats now what a prospective employer would say. Dear Mike What do I do now?
Dee I suggest you first stop beating yourself up, just chill out. I say that with love. You are young and the world is still yours to be had. Life is not a race or a competition you will find your way. Learn from your mistakes and those of others. Forgive yourself and forgive others and always keep trying to better yourself. Never give up. God Loves you too.