I just got a surprise text thanking me for giving a little assistance to a good friend in a job search. I was quite touched and warmed to be thanked. I gave just a few insights to this person but Im glad they resonated. So why post on Facebook about this? Because 22 years into my career I can recall the following: -- my first mentor and most patient one: Pat. Without her teaching me the traffic position I could never do what I do. 1994. -- hardest mentor but biggest cheerleader: Rachael Polansky Klein. Grilled me on my interview but made me work harder than I can imagine. Also got me to put myself at work because she couldnt stand me being in. 1996. -- beat me to a pulp and built me back up mentor: Steve Rotterdam. Kicked my ass up down and around but took a chance on a 23 year old kid who made critical comments about a poorly printed piece of signage during the interview. Couple this with Tracy Wirth Lanza who took a jersey promo guy and made him into a NYC exec and together we created the longest toy promo in history.1996 -- mentor who broke me down to my bare basics and taught me showmanship and encouraged my creativity and personality to shine: John Zamoiski. 1997 -- then there were Steve Caputo Sheri Westfal and Mindy Wasserman who shuffled me around but as frustrating as I was at times kept pressing me to be better. 1997. So what is this about: Its about remembering the biggest INFLUENCERS in your career and never forgetting the lessons you learned from them. Do I remember everything that they taught me? I try to! Do I remember the hard lessons getting my ass handed to me? Absolutely! (My boss made me come in during hurricane Floyd!). Do I use those lessons every day? HELL YES! But do I remember the names of the horrible bosses and the horrible co workers? Some of them. But theyre not in my heart and definitely not in my mind. If I can impart ANY of the knowledge they passed on to me, I would be blessed. So when I gave my friend just a bit of insight in her job search, I thought what each of them would have said to me and I repeated that to her. So glad it worked! Never. Ever. Forget your roots. And that you started at the bare bottom!
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 04:35:45 +0000
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