It’s true. I did. In fact, I had a pretty colorful stretch of employment between ages 18-24 where I was fired twice, almost fired another time, and “my contract was not renewed” which in my mind was always higher ed speak for “fired”.
Let’s start with high school where my brother helped me get a job with one of his college roommates painting houses. I think his name was Joel. I also think he sold acid on the side. In any case, Joel put me on a crew with two other guys who were new and we had no idea what we were doing. I honestly don’t remember very much about this job. I remember getting zero training, and I remember Joel also had a crew that was one of the best in the company. That crew could paint two houses to our one. In any case, I sucked at painting houses and so did my co workers and one day Joel rolled up and canned us all in the middle of my second job.
I was pretty OK with it and wound up going home and getting a job at Pizza Hut the rest of the summer cooking pizzas during lunch and delivering and taking orders at night. It actually was a pretty fun job.
My first year in College my school got a Mcdonalds on campus. My time at Mcdonalds lasted a LOT longer than my painting career. It was at least 3 months, maybe even 4. I just did not get along with my supervisor and truthfully, I was a smart mouthed kid with a quick wit and sup-par work ethic. Like any 19 year old, I am sure I thought I knew more than I really did and looking back I am confident I knew nothing important.
There came a time when my supervisor was looking for anything to get rid of me. I was on time, I did my job, I wasn’t a poor worker, but my attitude was bad. So one day, as I am throwing away a handful of chicken mcnuggets because their time had come, I ate a few. He came around the corner and caught me as I was enjoying one of these delicacies, and you would’ve thought he just bagged a trophy buck. “Matt, go home”. I couldn’t believe it- really?!? You’re sending me home for this?
He fired me for whatever rule violation “eating food that is going to be thrown away” is. I did go back about a week later and apologized and even tried to get my job back. It didn’t work.
After my fast food career had come to a screeching halt, I got one of the coolest summer jobs ever. I worked for Amtrak. I would work on the train and have the responsibility of one car for an entire trip. I worked routes from Chicago to Seattle, New Orleans, San Antonio, New York, Oakland and LA. I got to see the entire county by train as a 20-22 year old. I have some incredible memories from that time. I also have a memory that was not so great.
We were on the last day of the Texas Eagle trip and we had a stop in Champagne Illinois. Now these trains can be pretty long and have 18 or more cars on them. In some instances the train will stop at a station, let some passengers out, then pull up to let some passengers out in a car further down the train.
The train stopped and I was down in my vestibule with about 5 passengers waiting to get out. I opened up my little porthole window and peeked my head out and saw that the station was about 100 feet to my left and If I opened my door, I would be letting my people out on the street. Well, this just didn’t seem right and I am certain that the train was going to pull up so I waited.
Sure enough, the train started to pull up and then it started to pick up speed and the train hits a speed where I know we are en route to our next stop. I am sure I turned as white as a sheet, because I had NO idea what to do and was panicking. Now, hindsight being 20/20, I would’ve grabbed the intercom phone 3 feet from my head and yelled something like, “Chief!! Stop the train! I have passengers I need to let out!”.
Instead, I take off running through the train looking for the chief as the train continues to roar towards terminal velocity. I find him in a panic and say, “Chief!! Stop the train! I have passengers I need to let out!”. He immediately grabs the intercom three feet from his head and relays a message to the conductor to stop the train. They end up letting my passengers out on a random corner and getting them taxi’s back to the station.
My chief, whose name was Ron Gray, lit me up and I had nowhere to hide. He was a big, imposing man with a loud voice and he had probably 5 inches and 120 pounds on me and he is reading me the riot act, including the forward, the dedication, the epilogue and even the appendices. He actually made me cry. Not the full blown crying that you can hear, but the kind that you fight so hard but can’t help it. The lip quivering, tears welling up kind.
I was confident that I was going to get fired for the third time and I was starting to wonder what was wrong with me. I liked this job a lot and did it well. I even had passengers on my car tell me that they would write letters on my behalf telling Amtrak I was a good employee. Although, if any of the 5 people I left on a stranded on a street corner wrote a letter, they would hear a different side of the story. I didn’t get fired and managed to work that job for 2 more summers.
The last job I couldn’t keep was the one that opened my eyes for good. It was my first professional job out of college. At the time I wanted to work on college campuses and specifically with the students who lived on campus. I took a job as a hall director at SUNY Geneseo 30 minutes south of Rochester NY. I was 23 years old and right out of school, and again, felt like I knew more than I did.
I made bad decisions, didn’t take the job as serious as I should have, and looking back, for some reason I had a small dose of entitlement. Like I could do what I wanted regardless of the right or wrong factor. I got advice from other professionals that I didn’t take and listened more to the voice inside my head than the voices of those who knew better. The director of my department liked me and saw potential in me. I would show flashes of the person I would become, but it wasn’t nearly consistent enough to warrant me staying.
After my second year, on the day I was completing my masters degree and for fun, on a Good Friday, my supervisor pulled me into her office. “Matt, we are not going to renew your contract”. “You’re firing me?” I asked. “No, we are not renewing your contract”. I asked, “What’s the difference?”
I ended up going into her supervisors office because she asked me to, and I think I said something like, “What, does he want to fire me too?” I didn’t see this coming at all, but it was the right thing to do. The Director of my department was a man named Kevin Kelly who I always liked. He told me that he is trying to put the best people on the field and build an all star team and that I am not quite there yet. I couldn’t really argue with him. I was hurt, but deep down, I knew he was right. I had no one to blame but myself.
I did a lot of self reflection after that and turned a massive corner. I was scared of not being able to hold a job, and to not be able to do a job well enough to keep it. What I needed was to grow up. I was smart, capable, well liked, funny and a blast to be around. I just didn’t take ANYTHING seriously and it was time to change that.
Kevin helped me with my job search. He wrote a glowing letter of recommendation and even made phone calls to others telling me that I would be a good fit. To this day, I am thankful for his generosity. I landed at Washington State University 2436 miles away. I packed up my 1991 Ford Thunderbird with everything I owned, including some very important lessons, and put NY in my rear view mirror.
I remember arriving in Pullman and being thankful that no one here knew me. I could write a new story on a clean slate. I decided to take initiative, be a leader, take direction from the right people, and be confident. I took that job very seriously and worked very hard. The work paid off as my second year I won Hall Director of the year at a Pac-10 university. It’s a small award that still hangs on my office wall today as a reminder of my professional growth.
All of those experiences taught me things that I use to run my business every day. Kevin taught me compassion and taking responsibility for my actions, Ron taught me to pay attention to details, Mcdonalds taught me to follow the rules, and Joel….. Well Joel didn’t teach me anything, he was a punk kid like I was.