I had been working for four years as Front Desk Manager for a nationally franchised hotel chain when I saw the ad in the newspaper.
The headline was, Writer Needed.
I was a writer, for sure. I had been writing creatively for most of my life. My Mom sent me my first published work a few years back — it was on mimeograph paper from a school bulletin in 2nd grade.
That said, I was not a Writer. I had never really been a Writer. In other words, someone who does so professionally. For a job. For money.
My jobs until that point were delivering newspapers, bagging groceries, overnight stock work at a major chain, working in retail sales, working and managing video stores, and, of course, working front desk at a hotel. Hardly the qualifications for applying for a job as a Writer.
Did I let that stop me? No. Did I send in my resumé with a cover letter and, most importantly, a writing sample? Yes.
Did I get the job? Yes.
I got the job because no one ever said “No, you can’t do that.” The most important “no” I never heard was the voice in my head. I had decided I was a Writer. I had always wanted to be a Writer. Here was the universe sending me a sign — this was my chance — to become what I had long believed I was; a Writer.
And, that’s how I started my career as a Technical Consultant.
“What?”, you ask.
You see, the writing job was at a build-to order computer manufacturer, ZEOS International. They needed someone to join their small customer service letter writing team. You see, this was in the early days of the home PC revolution. Email, as we know it now, wasn’t really a thing. If someone had something they wanted to express more seriously than a phone call, they wrote a letter. The team I was going to be on were the ones who wrote the replies.
A couple of years after I got the job, the Tech Support managers came to me. They were looking to build an automated tech support system and needed someone to write the scripts. They had heard that I was a bit of a geek in writer’s clothing, had my own BTO PC at home that I tinkered with, so would be a good fit for the project.
Had I ever worked in tech support or done troubleshooting of any kind? Did I consider myself a geek? No.
Did I take the project on? Yes.
By doing so, not only did I do the job at hand but, though my research and conversations with the tech support staff — The Knowers of Such Things — I became a Knower too.
After the project was completed and the Tech Support Manager asked if I wanted a job in that department instead of Customer Service and offered me a higher tier position at nearly double the hourly pay, I said “yes”.
After a couple of years of that position I intuited there was a real need in the market for someone who could just go to people’s homes to troubleshoot and fix things and that it would be easier, faster, and frankly worth the cost to the user to have such a service, I decided I wanted to be a Technical Consultant and should begin learning everything I needed to know to do that well.
Did I have any idea what that looked like? Did I know what skills I would need to hone? Were there any examples to follow at the time? No.
Did I start down that path anyway? Yes.
Tier 2 PC Tech Support at ZEOS to Tech Support for a printer manufacturer to Tech Support for a networking company to QA for a Software Company to being an Independent Technical Consultant.
I said Yes.
So, what is the point of all of this. The point (and the one I’m trying to impart to my Daughter) is that I’ve been able to do what I’ve done in my life by saying Yes to the opportunities that intrigued and presented themselves to me. I did not dwell on my own shortcomings or limitations. Most importantly, I did not tell myself “no”. My policy was “yes”. Sure, some of the opportunities were luck. But luck often happens to those always ready to accept it.
When your opportunities come, say yes. Make it your personal policy.
