Everyone is Replaceable (Meet Eugene)

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Meet Eugene...

  Hello my name is Art Wallace and I want to tell you a story. A story were I learned the importance of being able to rise above disappointment, discouragement and just the everyday foolishness that inevitably comes your way.   

  I am a highly respected and accomplished consultant with one of the leading Retail Property Management companies in the world. They shall remain nameless for this post. (No way am I going to give those #$%^ free advertising). A little background: I do not have a college degree, nor did I even go to school for the field in which I work. I am strictly O.J.T. and God gave me a gift for numbers and problem solving. All things considered, I was VERY well paid. And therein lay the problem. There had been a regime change in the Senior Management team. Everyone who knew me, and with whom I had curried tremendous favor (and procured my reputation as a miracle-worker, who could walk on water and change water to wine), had either left the company or was marginalized. And the new bosses figured that they could hire 3 guys for what they were paying my no degree having behind.   

Monday Blues 

  Imagine my surprise when I came to work and my badge to the elevator was not working. And so I went over to the security desk for assistance. Not only did they grant me access to the elevator, but they escorted me to the 12th floor.  “Hey fellas, I really don’t need an escort” I said with a smile. They replied “Yeah, you do.”  As we exited the elevator, one walked in front of me and the other in back. We arrive at my new boss’s corner office and on his desk are 2 boxes. Both with my name on them filled with my personal belongings and memorabilia. My boss (who shall also remain nameless-only because the name I now have for him is not suitable for print), asks me to have a seat. He says to me “Art, you are amazing at what you do. You are quite simply the best I have ever seen. But you are breaking my budget and I have to let you go.”   I reply, “Who’s gonna do my job? There is no one here qualified to do what I do?” My  Boss says “Eugene will be taking your place. “ “You’re kidding right?” I retort. “Eugene could never do what I do. He is a code monkey. Eugene is literally a monkey...an ape actually.”   

  My boss continued, “Eugene is a great worker, he follows instructions, everybody loves him and quite frankly compared to what we are paying you, he works for peanuts. And the occasional banana or two”. And as I was being walked out, we passed my former office, Eugene and I made eye contact, he nodded, grinned and kept pecking away at the computer keyboard. It was official…I had been replaced by a monkey named Eugene. Now, not only was I degree-less, I was also jobless.  So what did I learn that I would like to pass on? I learned that with every setback, there can be a comeback if you don’t lose hope. I don’t want to preach, but it is also very important what (or whom) your source of hope is. From this setback, I started my own company called Rise Above It Social  Network.   In a later post, I will explain more in detail what the overall vision and mission of the company is. But for now let me just share with you the company motto: 

  Character over Money – Integrity over Profit – Truth above All    

Learning To Endure 

  I learned that you must own your story.  Don’t make excuses, own your decisions, and don’t blame others. You must “develop the capacity to carry on through conflict and changes in season without compromising your standard or internalizing commentary…” And you must find the faith and the courage to keep it moving forward. You will be surprised to discover that the best is yet to come.   

 I learned that everyone is replaceable. Now, mind you, I am not advocating “disposable” relationships. I am saying that we need to take a good look at who is on our team and who we are aligning ourselves with in relationship.  Everyone who smiles in your face and who comes around you is not there for your well-being. When the money was flowing and I was picking up the tab, I had lots of “friends and hangers on”. But when the chips were down, I learned who was true blue. (Remember, a crisis always clarifies relationships). There were some people that the change in my circumstances eliminated. There were others that I had to make a conscious decision to let go of. I know you love that person, but they don’t have your best interest at heart. Samson loved Delilah. And you see how that turned out. Samson’s biggest problem was not that he messed with Delilah. It was that he KEPT messing with Delilah. It is time  to let them go.  

  As for my work experience, I had given that place a decade and a half of my blood, sweat, tears, heart and even my soul. And then suddenly without warning, I was replaced by a monkey. Everyone is replaceable.  Now, I have to go and talk to my soon to be ex-fiancé. She is about to be replaced.