Staying Hungry : Trying to Grow Professionally by Leaving my Comfort Zone.

I'm an Engineer by education but I work in IT. Both professions attract introverts, as I am, or at least I was until the Great Recession pulled me out of my comfort zone by force and changed my life.

I was working at a relatively small IT company after college. I provided IT support for a large investment bank in NY. The work was challenging but became mundane after a while. When that happens the most rational thing to do is to look for a new job with more responsibilities and greater pay to advance your career. Introverts do the exact opposite. They ride the wave and the waves came. Not all bad at first.

Our smaller company got bought out by a huge IT company and the contact that I was on ended. I was transferred to a large pharmaceutical company and circulated within the ranks for the next 7 years. It was stable work. The pay was OK. But back then I didn't know how to get to the next level so I stayed.

The Great Recession then hit. I was out of work and out of work for a while. Months into it I landed a job in something the scared the crap out of me. Sales. I was determined to breakout of my shell and venture into sales because I was desperate and needed money to get by. Only the sales job was for liquor and wine of which was new to me. Yes, I drank with friends on occasion but I knew next to nothing about liquor let alone wine !!!

I speak Spanish so my territory became upper Manhattan, Harlem and the South Bronx. Then I learned that sometimes I would have to pick up payments for shipments that were due. I could get robbed but what the hell i took the job.

Some of those areas are actually very nice but around the some liquor store ( the seedier ones) it can become quite dicey. Some liquor store in impoverished areas are what they call Fish Tanks. Bullet proof glass covers and separates the patrons for the store and the employees and its for good reasons. I've seem fights, death threats, gun threats (by the owner on me) and even a store which had almost no liquor in it but was open for business ( half the lights were on). What the business was I didn't stick around to find out.

What I did learn was how to talk to people. I mean how to open a conversation from scratch and find common ground quick. I learned how to establish trust by being knowledgeable about my products and guide a new client through a low risk attempt at them carrying a new product then growing the product line based on success alone.

I learned to sit and have coffee with my clients sometimes for hours, hanging out and watching their business work. Seeing what moved and what didn't then discovering new ways for them to provide the same type of product at a higher margin by using a less expensive brand.

I learned that some store owners were cold and calculated and had gotten big that way. Other store owners were living day by day selling bottle after bottle hoping to make enough to pay the next bill.

I learned how really hard core drinkers buy half pints they can conceal in their many inner coat pockets, buying them before, during and after work.

I learned that everyone is human. Even the successful ones have faults and may or may not be happy at their lot in life.

I learned to talk to people I didn't know and I learned how to do it one after another with ease.

Now I work in IT Project Management in the Hedge Fund space. I attribute much of my success to breaking that barrier long ago. Much of my peers are still on the other side hoping that they will become ultra successful one day by knowledge alone. But you have to sell at some point. Everyone has to sell themselves.

I'm on the cusp for breaking the mold once again. Back into sales. IT sales. The salary potential this time around is twice what I thought was a good salary as a college graduate. This time I was excited at the potential of what this new job could become. I'm actually excited and looking forward to cutting my teeth on a position that could change my life.

I used to run track in college. When I was in great running shape and at the starting line I used to feel pumped and living in the moment.

Once again after so many years I'm pumped at the starting line.

Random Observation: I feel SteemIt is such a great platform because its by writers and for writers. Writers have the patience to read an article that will take them to a new place they haven't been. Writing for an audience in return makes you more creative and lets you take risks you otherwise wouldn't on other social platforms which shall remain nameless.

Thank you for reading!!!

Keep Steeming!!!

Cheers,
Alex

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