How Can I Help?
If you have come to this site thinking I am selling a product, it is time to go elsewhere. I have recently retired, and now it is time to “Pay Forward.”
I have been fortunate in my life. People will tell you, ” You create your own luck.” This is true. However, they do not tell you it is just as easy to create your own bad luck as good luck.
I attended the school of hard knocks. “Steve will not live beyond the age of 25.” “Steve is the luckiest guy.” He is always at the right place at the right time.” I am lucky in love. Christine and I have been married for nearly forty-plus years. Without this wonderful partner in my life, I truly would not be writing my personal blog to you. Two wonderful sons, an unbelievable daughter-in-laws, and one person that continues to give me strength every day, my grandson.
I received a full scholarship to attend a University of California school and decided to conquer the world. I went directly to work in the retail industry. I loved it. For the next seventeen years of my career, I worked in the best job in the world. But, good things do come to an end. My life was impacted by the passing of my mother. Time for another crossroads.
Allow me to summarize my value to you at this time of my life based on the above experience.
- Seventeen-years managing a brick a mortar business.
- Responsible for hiring and unfortunately, dismissing employees.
- The district store revenue would be over $26 Mill annually in today’s dollars.
- I opened my business in 1992, from a business plan on paper to a volume over $1 Mill.
- Bull dog marketing, canvassing, television ads, radio, and more importanly, giving customers the value they look from a retailler, a smiling face, and “Thank you.”
Outside Sales Professional
Another major crossroad, is how does anyone go from retail to working for a Fortune 50 company with only a high school education? As I will tell anyone I mentor, “network, network, and more networking.” Or one of my best “A one minute conversation can change your life forever.” My neighbor would see me leave at 8:00 am in the morning and return in the late evening, working some weekends. Based on my work ethic he offered me a job.
“Alex, what is a mainframe, DASD, Clustering?” Countless nights learning about mainframe computing. To be quite frank, people don’t do business with you all the time because you are the smartest technology person. They buy from people they trust, are likable, and work with them with high integrity. My retail skills also played heavily in my knowledge of working with clients. “Service, Service, and more Service.”
Another crossroad. Trouble in my own paradise created challenges, I was not able to overcome by myself. Christine to the rescue. This provided the time to look at where I was at with my life goal; Opening my own business. Two years later, a manager at a Fortune 500 company, worked with me on several partnership deals and asked me to apply for an opening with their company. Oh yes, I competed against four people for this job. All have college degrees, me with a high school education. I created my own luck; I studied everything about this company and based on a major data point the company was trying to accomplish, and me elaborating on the topic, I got the job.
The Power of Your Voice! 