I remembered this sentence the other day, and I'm not quite sure why it popped into my head. But I do remember the experience clearly and how it has affected my life and career.

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You see, an incumbent general manager made the statement to me when he took over the restaurant I worked at. Our general manager had been terminated, along with a few other managers, and corporate wanted to see that the restaurant turned great profits once again.

 

I had worked my way up from dishwasher to meat room butcher. This particular restaurant chain boasted fresh cut meats served to its patrons, and that was my primary focus. As time went on, I found myself often placed in leadership roles and wanted to follow that dream of becoming a manager. So I had applied and was accepted into the manager training program, with the prior general managers endorsement.

 

I was actually progressing nicely and learning the functions of a shift manager, that included staff scheduling, quality service delivery, financials and bank runs. All of the common tasks of a restaurant manager.

 

Until that fateful day came, when I showed up at work and only three of the previous seven managers remained employed. Within two weeks, the new general manager who had come to clean this place up, had brought in other managers and returned me to my standard employee duties in the meat room. I was finally able to pull Rob aside and ask about returning to the manager training program. 

 

It was then that he dropped the bomb on me. You see, he had brought over some friends from other restaurants and placed them in this store in positions of authority. I was an unknown entity to him and not a good ole buddy.

 

To the best of my recollection, and I paraphrase, he told me, "you're not my first choice, or even my second, for this opportunity. I understand you're over halfway through the training and want shift responsibilities. I'm not ready to give that to you. As a matter fact, I'd like to remove you from this program but you're already in and haven't done anything to justify removal. So I'm hoping you will remove yourself. 

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I'm changing your requirements. It's not good enough that you simply be familiar with every area of the store in case we need you to fill in at a moment's notice as a manager, but you must now go through the entire formal training regimen and pass with a 90% or better score in each area, as if I was promoting you to the manager of that area."

 

He rewrote the rules for my particular case only, to make it nearly impossible to succeed, in the hopes that I would drop out of the manager training program and he could implement his own hand-picked candidate.

 

I'll be honest, it was a tough time for a 21-year-old young man with aspirations of greatness, so close to meeting my goal, that was now suddenly so far away. I was heartbroken and angry. But on the good side I was still employed. 

 

I went home and shared this setback with my fiancé. Rachelle's response was a supportive one. Just go for it. That I could accomplish anything that I put my mind to if I just tried hard enough. 

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I'm really not sure how much of that I believed back then as my character was still in development. But I did want to believe her and set my mind to doing the impossible.

 

I accepted Rob's challenge, and did not quit the program, much to his disappointment. I went on to spend 2 to 4 weeks in each of the following positions learning each job better than the employees in each of those areas who had worked there for many years. I cooked, food prepped, worked the salad bar, waitered, worked block taking orders and checking people in, and of course dishwashing and meat cutting. I had gone from the requirement of knowing one area of the store and becoming a manager, to needing to know all seven areas extremely well.

 

In time, I succeeded, and he begrudgingly became a believer in me.

 

I took two life lessons from this experience. 

The first is that I can accomplish whatever I set my mind to, no matter how lofty the goal.

The second, is that it doesn't matter if others doubt me and wish my failure, as long as I believe in myself. With confidence and drive, my belief will overcome their doubts.

 

So let me encourage you, if you ever find yourself in a position where someone says that you're not their first choice, or even their second, to you have the courage to prove them wrong!