I rejected a job offer.
My experience, and what it taught me about success.
Part I
Earlier today I rejected a job offer. This is not the first time that I have had the pleasure to do this. I don’t mean to sound stuck up, or better than anyone, I just really enjoy being able to reject a job. It’s like negotiating from a position of strength. When you know that what they are offering you is way below your pay grade, it gives you a sense of accomplishment. Knowing that you have a good job gives you a real sense of success. So to get structured, I am going to break this down into two parts; ONE: the narrative of how the day and interview went, (for those of you interested in my day to day) and TWO: my reflections on success and this whole ordeal, (for those of you more interested to see into my thought process).
Part II
So I basically said F**k this.
Holy SHIT! what time is it? That’s how my day started. I didn’t get to bed until about 3:30 am, because I volunteered to do some middle of the night adoration at our church. So when I got home I had set my alarms for 5:00 am, two of them. Come 5 I somehow unconsciously turned both of them off. Which is difficult considering that one of them was on my Alexa, meaning that I had to verbalize the words, “Alexa, stop!” and then swatting the off button on my iPhone. I just wanted to hit the snooze button, but we have all had this at one time or another, so fast forward just 5 min and it’s 5:40. Dammit, I have to shower, pack all my stuff, grab MacDon’s and hit the road by 6:15 am. So I grab my new suit, fly through the shower at light speed, which is very difficult considering I can barely fit in that sucker without accidentally turning off the water supply. Mind you this is not because I am fat, it’s because I lift, and my shower is the size of a golf cart. Then I just skip shaving because I can barely even grow a beard, (shows my age), speaking of beards, it’s almost sad, but one of my fantasies is to be able to have one of those huge ass beards that is so full and trimmed to perfection, you know the ones that the Man Bun dudes have. Next I get my new S. Cohen suit on, grab my shoes, a pair of jeans for later that day, grab my coat and jump in the car with my entire work bag. It snowed a bit more prior to me waking up, so my shoes get all wet in the snow, which might I advise anyone who has wingtips, don’t treat your shoes the way I do, especially not Johnston & Murphy’s. My car is frozen, (an Ice storm came in too), so when I get to McDonalds I can’t even roll my window down at the drive through, meaning I have to open the door to order and pay, and get my food. What a way to start this day. I hit the road and next thing I realize is that my aux chord isn’t working, so I have to use my AirPods and hope I don’t get pulled over, (as I say this I realize how whiny I sound, but trust me this is all in good jest.) So anyways after trying to see if Kwik Trip has another chord, I hit the road.
Remember how I said it snowed the day before, well yeah, and it is still bad. The part of the road that looks clear is actually covered in black ice, and about 3 min into being on the FreeWay I almost rolled the car because I started swaging back and forth like I was from Harlem or some shit, I was able to maintain control, but I swear when it was over I was shaking, and the funny part is, my first innocent thought after I had control again, besides, Holy Shit was, “Damn, if I would have been in a wreck, I would have ruined my new suit, that would have sucked the most. (I did think about the car too, but that has insurance). So basically even though I was on the road in time, I was on bad roads and was worried I would be late for my first appointment with a client.
After my client meeting at 9:30 I made it to my interview about 3 min late, because finding parking space in Milwaukee is a pain sometimes, ultimately I ended parking in someone’s reserved parking spot. That actually felt good for some reason. I get to the building and there is this group of people outside, who look like a bunch of high schoolers, trying to do a last minuet warm up before they hit the stores to sell their product, and as a salesmen I wonder how any of them got this job. Honestly the guy just kept snapping his fingers and then would say something very quickly and inaudibly because he was mumbling. However I won’t judge too hard because he seemed to be the new guy.
Anyways, a little side note here is, due to the fact that I only got about 2 hours of sleep, I had already had one coffee on my way down, an OJ, and then at my client meeting his wife offered me a water, and then another coffee, so I was almost drowning inside, and trying to look like a confident SOB in my new suit, in front of all these amateurs, while having to piss so badly, is not an easy thing. In fact I consider my main accomplishment for the day not pissing my pants right there.
Eventually they radio up and this guy comes out of the elevator in a suit, so I immediately have some respect for him, his name is Ion, he makes some gestures when he comes down to the group leading me to believe he is some-kind of big shot there. I shake his hand, and we go upstairs. I ask him about his suit and who made it, after noticing from my closer look that it did not fit him at all, he says Apt 9. … I almost laughed. If he really is the big shot around there, why the F**k is he wearing Apt 9. Anyways, sorry don’t mean to be condescending but come on guy! We go up, I ask where the bathroom is to take care of what really matters, then I wait for a min and the interview starts.
He asks me a bunch of questions, that’s normally what they do in interviews, then after feeling like I totally killed it (which I did) he goes into a very vauge description of what the job actually pays. Granted he did a decent job of presenting the company as a big player, however I know based on what I see that they are just lucky to have gotten the gig that they have, because they are all amateurs. However, what really gets me is that he didn’t one time mention that it is possible that I might be over qualified, he wouldn’t describe the pay to me very clearly as well.
So I had to ask and clarify, and the deal is, you get a draw at $10 per hour, then you have to pay back the draw with your commissions, which is something I am familiar with at my job, however the thing that gets me is, their HR rep. who spoke with me on the phone and set my interview time, explained it as a base pay with bonus commissions and she also told me they were hiring someone who they are going to train into a manager. This was all false as they are simply hiring entry lever people to stand in Walmart and Best Buy to sell internet and TV. I am sorry but that is disrespectful to a person like myself who was number one in my class of salesmen in 2018 with a total income of $70,000.
Anyways, after I clarified pay, I basically said F**k this, I am not taking this job, because I am not going to work for a company that just lies to you, about the whole process, and job, they can’t be trusted. I mean, the fact that they required me to come in wearing a suit, and expect me to wear a polo shirt and say, hey man, do you have Spectrum or AT&T in Walmarts is ridiculous. Honestly I have not seen something so ridiculous in my life. My advice to you would be, if you ever find yourself in this type of position, don’t take the job, those kind of people are just looking to fill quotas, and who don’t care about what they do in life.
Part III
It is okay to be imperfect.
What is success? This experience has taught me a few things. What is success has been a question that I have been trying to answer for three months, ever since someone asked me it. And the conclusion is…well I am not completely concluded yet, and that’s what I hope this article does, and I hope to get your input on it. As a 19 year old, who already has my own apartment, makes really good money, has a very thorough knowledge of the financial industry, and has a deep connection to my Catholic Faith, I would say I am successful. However, what I have learned, is that success isn’t something you just become, it’s not something that you do once and you’re done. The problem with how I viewed success in the past, (unconsciously) was, like climbing a mountain. Success was the top of the mountain. So now that I am thinking about it, what exactly is the measure of the peak, is it money, friends, peace, religion…? I never formalized that. I think what I would classify the peak as now, is Heaven. I mean that’s the only answer I can give, but that also doesn’t speak to our human desire for earthly success, so I would say, the peak, is the ability to look back at your life, while on our death bed and see the masterpiece of life, and enjoy looking at it for the rest of time.
As all artist will probably agree, all art has imperfections, if it didn’t, we wouldn’t really enjoy looking at it. At least I don’t think we would. You see, my thought is that our society has indoctrinated us that we have to be perfect, and we are scared to be imperfect. What we need to realize, and teach all of our friends, is that, it is okay to be imperfect. The pursuit of perfection is the painting. If it was perfect it would be boring. Think of all the book reports you did in high school, to me the ones that stand out the most were the ones with the biggest conflict that was resolved. The bigger the conflict the bigger the victory, and even more so, when the protagonist fails again, and yet again overcomes it. Those make for the most entertainment, and most satisfaction, why tho? I believe because we all know deep down that we too have those conflicts and we just want to be able to overcome them like the main character just did. I believe that we have so much empathy for them, and really seeing ourselves in their shoes.
Maybe for some or most of you reading this, it is old hat, but for me it isn’t. As a young man, who wants to know myself and why I do the things I do so vehemently this is a big deal. Seeing these things in my own life is incredible to me and I wish I knew them sooner. I wish someone shared these things with me, so even if this only changes one persons outlook on life I am going to be so happy. I really believe that in order to pay-it-forward, we need to help each other understand WHY. Why is a huge question. Simon Sinek has devoted his life to helping people discover their WHY. That is something that I admire, and find very interesting. His WHY is finding other people’s WHY. That’s a story for another time.
Remember success isn’t making it to the top, it’s having the courage to climb.
What I ask you, you who are not so different from me, as we all have that one great commonality: Humanity. Please let us help others to realize that we shouldn’t see life as a mountain peak to reach, we should see it as a mountain that we can’t even see the top of, and our success will be the climb. We can see that as long as we are climbing, and fighting for every inch, especially when it gets slippery and we start to slip down, we are succesful. Because how many people actually climb. Most don’t even try because they can’t see the top of the mountain. We don’t care, we fight for it, because we know that if we don’t fight, one day, we will certainly get bored with the view that we have at the bottom and the nature surrounding us, we will take it forgrantted. Remember success isn’t making it to the top, it’s having the courage to climb.
