Is there something you are grateful for that helped you progress in your career?

Tiffanie - Here is a blog I wrote"

What Were You Doing At Age 17?
I was at the end of my junior year in high school. My grade point was a 1.4. That's a "D" for those who don't know. It was that high because of my first B, in school ever that year, in "bonehead" English. That meant I was one of the smarter kids among the dumber low end english students.

When people would ask me what I wanted out of school I usually would say "me".

My experience in school was not a pleasant one. I flunked the sixth grade once and was very close a second time. My dad said "when you finish the 9th grade you are on your own". That didn't hold up in reality but the mindset was because of his life experience. My perspective of who I was, how smart I was and my vision of where I was going was severely limited and limiting.

That summer I got into a screaming match with my alcoholic dad and I left determined to be on my way "somewhere". I spent three days living at a high school friend's home without a clue. Thought I might enlist in the military, then an amazing event happened.

My mother was a legal secretary and also a receptionist for a doctor who had just passed away. She was helping the widow of the doctor clean up his office and estate and mentioned me and my having left home. She didn't know me but offered to let me stay at her house until I finished high school.

The house I left was a one bedroom one bath with 4 rooms downstairs with a large space upstairs with an unfinished floor and window settings both with exposed two by fours and no insulation. An exposed brick chimney ran through that open space. Our crudely built and sparsely furnished home was heated by a cooking wood stove in the kitchen and a front room wood furnace heated the rest of the house ??. Our home was inhabited by 7 people (5 bothers and 2 adults).

In addition, my mother was overwhelmed with her life so our house was messy, cluttered and not particularly clean, a lot. At my home we had a small kitchen radio as an entertainment center, hand ringer washing machine, ice box for refrigeration and a primitive toaster. No phone, no TV and no car until my older brother bought one in 1952. Walking was our usual mode of travel. I was fifteen at that time. Neither my mother (bus) or my dad (taxi) drove. I have no idea if they even knew how. My older brother went into the service via the National Guard and I became the designated driver at age 16.

The new home I moved into was immaculate and well furnished including a baby grand piano. It included numerous modern appliances, even a mangle for ironing and a white picket fence around a huge green well kept front lawn and also a huge flower filled back lot She had a two separate entrances driveway into a two-car garage housing a 1954 Cadillac. I had my first private bedroom ever.

I thought I had died and gone to heaven!

She changed my life in many ways. She also legally adopted me at age 21. I went from Paul Davenport to Paul Coulter, and created a new persona, one I hid behind, that carried me for years. 20 years later at 37 I was a college graduate and a self employed Sales Training Consultant working with American Honda M/Cs facilitating 3 day workshops for their company sales reprs and their dealership sales personnel nationally with a retail sales training program I created.

This later led to consulting contracts with Schwinn Bicyles, Giant Bicycles, Harley-Davidson, Yamaha Golf Carts and Honda of Canada doing similar things. I abruptly stopped doing sales training at 47 as I started a new and different phase of my life.

If you check out my linked in profile you'll see what a humungous difference one person made in my life

My 80th birthday will be June 20, 2015. I am still working, still growing and evolving.

I am fortunate and thankful to live the life I live and love being able to continue to pay my life forward in many different ways to my family, friends and clients.

One candle can light many other candles.

May you blossom and prosper as you light others candles!

Hey, Tiffany...

I'm grateful for my current General Manager. I have been with my company for 14 years and tired several times through other Managers to get promoted with no luck, until I transferred to the store that I'm at now. My GM took me aside one day and asked me where I wanted to go with the company and what she could do to help me get there. That was a life changing milestone for me, through her guidance I was promoted within 9 months. She will forever be my hero and Mentor.

I treat "failure" as a catalyst. When you fail you have a few different ways to treat it. If you let failure defeat you, you have failed. If you fail, but use it to learn and master a specific skill or behavior you turn it into a sharpening stone. Be aware of your smallest failures first. If you can't master the smallest of tasks how can you conquer the mountain.

So, yes, I am very grateful to failure. Lol

Hello! I’m grateful for the examples before me. Whether good or bad, I still learned from them. Also for the people that I can call my mentor. They are the light that shall help you get to where you want to go

Hi Tiffanie

After I got out of the Military I was still pretty young, I went into retail. I didn't think that I would like it. But I had a Store Manager that changed my life by helping me along the way. He has been with me in my retail life for almost 25 years. He explained that as you grow, you will meet people that you may work for now, but in time that same person could end up working for you so it is important to never burn a bridge. To me that was one of the most important lessons I have been taught. I work with some amazing people and still work with that person, in a different company.