Taking A Risks Is Always A Step Forward

Sometimes things get thrown at you in ways that you have no time to think about except to just run with it.

One of those opportunities got thrown at me in the middle of May 2014, where one of my old managers called me to see how I was doing and asked if I wanted to be a branch manager and open up my own office for the summer. It was something that I wanted to do for a while, but never pursued it. Funny how that works out, just outta nowhere, fell into my lap. But the position required me to move for the whole summer, to be five hours away from my friends and family. It was a very tough decision because I had a good internship already set up for me and a family business to help take care of. There was a lot that I was gonna have to give up that I wasn’t comfortable enough to really do. But after three days of pondering on this, I’ve decided that I was going to do it. I called him up and he said he will have the division manager for that area called me and then told me all that I needed to bring with me.

For the next four days, all I did was plan for the trip down to a town called Edwardsville located in southern Illinois. I didn’t really have much time to tell all my friends what I will be doing for the summer. So I packed a small set of clothes and as much office equipment I could fit into my Honda Accord. That is where my adventure started and with only $600 in my bank account at the moment. As I was driving down there, I had a feeling of uncertainty. I had no idea, just not a single idea just what I was putting myself into. When I got to Edwardsville, I realize that I had nowhere to stay and had to look up over forty apartments in the area and email everyone with a simple message that I would just copy and paste,copy and paste,copy and paste.

I remember that one of my college friends lived by St.louis which is near Edwardsville, so I hit them up and asked if I could stay over for the night only to realize that it was an hour and a half away. So I only did that for one night, and I just slept in my car for the next few days. It wasn’t till a week later when I finally found a place to live. That was just poor planning on my part.

When I first got to Edwardsville to check out my office, it was completely empty. Not a single thing in there, so I would have to buy all the office equipment and I would have to set a budget for the next two and a half months for just my office. It was all so quick and fast, that I tried my best to be as conservative with my money but still get things done. It was just one obstacle after another obstacle, but with each part, there was always someone willing to help. An old manager gave me all of his supplies for very cheap, and another manager let me rent their computer, and my division manager did his best to set me up knowing that it was a lot to do in just a week without any planning. They had this expectation for their branch manager to plan their office opening for nine months before opening, and I didn’t realize that my time was cut short and I did it in a week and a half.

My first two training sessions was terrible, I had no idea what I was doing and how I should do it. That’s the best part about learning how to do something, you are allowed to fail in order to know what's right and wrong. After my first two failures in training others, I became a better trainer. As weeks passed, my training became better and better.

When our annual summer sales conference was coming up, I had this goal where I wanted to be in the Top 5 Sales Office in my field, so I pushed myself every day for two weeks before. In those two weeks, I put more work into training the staff to be better at selling and prospecting so that our office can end up on "Top 5 Branch Office". It was hard on me and the sales staff and when the conference came. It was a period of growth for everyone in our office, where everyone was selling more and sales were up by a lot. When the summer conference came, we were the #4 branch in our region. That was a proud moment, knowing that hard work paid off. When you push yourself beyond your limits, you can really feel the result that your body and mind is going through.

It was one of the best learning experiences I could ever have had in management, sales, training, and working with others. I was only one year into my college career at that time and I felt that I've learned more in those two months than I did in one year of college. It was hard, tough, and hella rewarding. It was the mindset that you can envision something and how you want it done. So you go on and do it and the end result of finishing up your office, training people and having them get their first sales.

Each point of accomplishing something that you have never done before opens up your eyes to more possibilities.

The most rewarding things came from when my sales representative and staff would give me long texts or calls with positive remarks on how they like their job and me as their leader. Those words always stick with me till this day because it leads me closer to understanding myself and realizing my passion in helping others to achieve their goals.

It’s about setting goals and working hard towards it. It feels great once you hit your goals. It's not always about hitting that goal, but the amount of work you put into it to achieve it. There were some goals that I couldn't reach, and I realize that was okay. The amount of growth and work that I put into it was better than nothing.

It's about taking risks to understand the experience of going through something in order to learn and have a better understanding of it. In return, you can better understand yourself. There are no failures in life, just learning experiences. You have to fail a lot in order to get to the right one.

Taking A Risks Is Always A Step Forward

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