Hi @futurethinker and @evecab, Thank you for this opportunity that you’ve given us to share what have we become for the past years, to share the lesson that we learned and I hope that you and other audience can learn something from my experience.

I was working as Assistant Store Manager in other city (Makati City, Philippines) last 2015. And the city is divided into 3 districts by our company, Starbucks Coffee. In my district, there were 10 Assistant Store Managers are working in different stores, including me. Being a District Coffee Master that conducts coffee seminars at least 3x a month in different stores, I was well-known by my peers. Receiving several awards, such Partner of the Quarter at least thrice in a year and even receiving an award of Partner of the Year, it shows that I was quite doing good in my position. I’ve was appointed as well of being the District Marketing Specialist back then. Having this roles, you cannot say that I am busy but bussier. Lol. I have a lot of loads.

What I feel back then is that I am Superman, I have a lot of achievements and roles among my peers and hearing my name everywhere in the district, even outside ours. I can say to myself that I AM THE BEST, no one can do what I can do, I deserves a promotion. Then the day comes that my District Manager told me, through my Store Manager that I was shortlisted to in the next position. Which I am happy about. This is my dream, this is what I worked for, I am the best, I deserve this.

As a prerequisite, I should present my SWOT business analysis to our Area Manager, which I failed. I felt sorry for myself, and as part of the action plan, for me to be more familiarize with business action planning, I was transferred to another district. Not just another district, but another city (Taguig City).

I told to myself, that it is ok. Since I am the best among my peers in my former district, there’s nothing that I should be worried. I did things more than any of my peers have done in my district, so in another district.

Then my first in my new district came, after a week, I met my co-assistant store managers and new District Manager. I remember I was very conceited that day, as I always mention all my achievements and roles back in my old district, which I was proud as all of them have not experience yet what I experience.

But lo and behold! I was surprised of the things that they can do, they are all very familiar with business analysis, they are all doing profit and loss reports, they are all been doing the reports that I failed to present to my Area Manager, They are all been doing it for more than a year already. While I was just introduced to this reports a couple of months past, and still hasn’t understand everything.

From that moment, I realized to myself that I don’t deserve yet a promotion as I don’t even understand the core of our job, our business. While these people are more diligent when it comes to doing our reports. They know every corner of our profit and losses. They could explain it in details.

These people deserves the promotions more than I do. So, I told to my new District Manager that if she pleased, I don’t want to have any presentation yet, that I want to stay with her district more and learn these things that I didn’t know, that I should be knowledgeable of.

From that moment, I started asking for lectures from my peers. Asking for their help, for me to understand more about the core of our business. I learned from them, one by one, since each of them are getting the promotions that I always wanted. They are all became ahead of me. So what? I still need to learn things.

Until today, as of the very moment of this writing. Sitting in the Store Manager position for almost 2 years now, the position that I dreamed and worked for. I am still learning things, learning through the help of my peers and even from my subordinates. Never conceited anymore, humble and never again lift my own chair nor bragged what I have accomplished.

And most of all, more friends.