How bad do you want it?

I have been asked many times in my career from potential employees during their interviews, “how do I get your job?”
On the inside I always laughed when I’m asked this. On the outside, I looked people in the eye and said, how can I explain to you everything it took for me to be in this chair? The pathway would be nearly impossible to describe, and most would not believe the circumstances anyway.

Everyone wants high compensation jobs and yet few attain what they dream of or aspire to. In this article I will try to explain some of my real-life decisions and sacrifices that I made along the way. I feel compelled to share some of my experience, as it seems especially important considering the current dialogues I have with many candidates across the Country. In conversations with many folks the last 3-4 years, I am surprised how cavalier many are about their desires to get into the dream jobs, or 1% of the business environment. They list their top box demands or wishes and quite frankly they haven’t earned the right to make those demands. I sit and listen, and on the inside, I think “you are eternally damned to be stuck in middle management”.

A true story: After taking over a failing highline business, one of the top sales performers walked into my office and boldy told me about all that was wrong with the store, and how he wanted to see certain changes in operations–I listened intently and when he was done with his list of items to be addressed, I said, Well that’s a big list you have there, it’s a wonder you stayed so long.. Then I shared this with him: Hey Man, if you have about 35 million dollars in unencumbered cash you should go buy your own store and report back to me in 2 years if you make it.. A few months later he was unemployed. I fired his ass. He was a big part of the problem there. Bottom line, he had no idea what it took to be successful other than riding the coat tails of someone else. He only knew how to operate under someone else’s umbrella without the pain and sacrifice. There’s nothing wrong with role players who understand their role, but the guy who is all hat and no cattle, and acts like Henry Kissinger, that guy will never get the big pay day.

What is the sacrifice you are willing to make? How bad do you want it? What will you do to learn when others won’t help or teach you? IF YOU WANT THE BIG SHOW, you will have to do unusual things to be highly successful. You will have to mature into the role and most importantly gain the experience and knowledge to actually lead.
In 1981 I had an epiphany on the seashore of Cabo San Lucas. I was nearly broke and had a gut full of not winning or getting ahead. Sitting alone in the bar of the Hacienda Hotel in the center of the harbor, I took a napkin and pen and looked out into the Pacific and said out loud to myself, “this won’t be my last time here“. I wrote down 5 things that I had to do to change my life and circumstances, and after a methodical and deliberate hour or so with a bottle of Tequila, I was determined to go back to America and accomplish all 5 items quickly and never look back. It would involve changing of friends, geographics if need be, and higher expectations of myself in every measurable way, expecting absolutely NOTHING from others. I went back and answered an ad from a prestigious business and got the job over 35 other applicants who stood in single file for 1 job on a Saturday morning–this was at the end of the great recession from Jimmy Carter and jobs were NOT easy to come by. The night before the interview I had borrowed a Countess Mara tie, had a decent older jacket on and a pair of new French Shriners which was all I could afford at the time. When I reported to work the next week, I met with the uniform Man outside and cut a side deal with him for extra jackets and slacks, as I had no others. When the jackets arrived they all only had “1” button on the sleeve, so I took them to a seamstress and asked her to put 4 matching buttons on each sleeve of these “rented” uniform jackets–she also put darts in the rented shirts so they would fit me instead of being big enough for a fat man at a salad bar… My Father (Ex Harvard) gave me several more Countess Mara ties, and now I was ready to interact with highline clientele despite me personally having nothing but my rented clothes and an overdue utility bill to pay. Paydays were precious and I need the money NOW not next Monday, so I drove across town on Friday nights and paid 4% to a grocery store to cash my payroll checks. I busted my ass there and became very successful and gained a good reputation which became a springboard for more success.
Every January of every year thereafter, I took a paper napkin at a restaurant wrote down 10 goals every new year and was hell bent to achieve every single item I wrote down each year–including at least 1 item that I called “the wild card and intangible“–and I always got what I wrote down each year. Careful what you ask for!

It wasn’t all fun and glory along the way–I put up with a lot of crap and had to outlast many people who were at times roadblocks and remember what I expected from others–NOTHING.. There were many mind-numbing meetings that I had to suffer through, never ending conference calls and totalitarian bosses who didn’t have the common sense to pour piss out of their own boot..
Early in my career I had to literally build my own financial statements from scratch when owners wouldn’t share them, and I taught myself relentlessly and engaged with mentors who knew one hell of a lot more than me and I absorbed the information quickly.

As my career escalated, many times I found myself to be in the presence of people that were heads and shoulders above me in knowledge and power. I decided to sit, listen and walk away knowing more than I walked in with. I was in meetings with worldwide industry leaders and on many occasions, I would look around at the meeting participants and say to myself, “My God, I’m the dumbest son of a bitch in this entire room, but I won’t be next year!“

My goals were lofty but realistic and I knew that I had to outwork those who were much smarter than myself until I had the experience, the wisdom, the depth of knowledge and the tenure to win big and have others chasing me on another day. I would literally burn the midnight oil and have done many midnights and 2 a.m. drive bys to be sure all was ok at the businesses I ran. Amazing what you’ll find at 3 in the morning when you show up unannounced. It’s called giving a shit and treating the business as your own even when someone else pays you to manage it.

Yes, I sliced a piece of my liver off at many jobs and won despite the odds. Purpose combined with a tireless sense of duty to others is the way I got ahead. What’s the payoff from all this work? I had the job that others wanted to know how they could get it. The success of my career paved the way for a wonderful life full of friendships that are priceless, and successes that sometimes are hard for me to fathom. Self-satisfaction is the big win.

Since the Countess Mara tie helped me on that 1981 interview, I decided to give away about $1,000 worth of ties annually at my businesses and it meant a lot to me, to see young Men wearing them on the job.

So, the question is–how bad do you want it? And remember, to expect NOTHING from others.

all the best,

Bruce Daugherty