Category Archives: Career

I’m a Man – Society’s Opinion

The expectations of society on men vary. One sector tells men to be “manly men” with a scruff of a beard, work boots, flannel shirts and dirty hands at the end of the work day. Another sector of society tells men to be “clean-cut” with a sharp suit, $300 shoes, the perfect coif, and a 9-5 job that is actually a 6-9 job full of fast paced business decisions and high-powered meetings. There are also sectors in society that tell men to be timid and reserved. Another sector tells men to be a “great dad”. Men are pulled many different ways. Every day.

My question for men is this: What should you be? Where do you find yourself falling on the “man spectrum”? Is there one perfect model of what you should be as a man?

My answer to the question is that there isn’t one single perfect place on this spectrum. God created us all as unique people. What society tells us to be, isn’t necessarily wrong, but it isn’t right either. I’m certain there are men in $3000 suits and men in work boots who are both following the path God has for them. What society thinks about each of these men can vary.

Do you have a stereotype in your mind when the slick looking business professional walks into your auto repair shop? Is it different from your stereotype of the man in work boots wearing the Carhartt overalls? Do you value one over the other?

Value. Usefulness. Worth. Importance.

Modern society, by which I mean the all invading modern marketing and media, places “value” on money. Often the value of a human revolves around how much income is created by and around an individual. A popular professional athlete is perceived to have a far greater reach when compared to a person with a four month old blog with nine subscribers. The athlete has a higher “value” in our society.

Do you have a high value in society? Do we fall prey to the marketing influences in our daily lives as we place values on individuals?

SELFISH

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“Dreaming and walking down the road to awesome is not inherently selfish” – Jon Acuff

Is it wrong to want to publish an award-winning blog or to write a New York Times best-selling book? In a word: No. If you have been called by God to do something, it is never selfish to desire to be wildly successful at it! God has called you to a task, a mission, with a purpose for you. God wants you to be wildly successful.

Let’s make sure we are clear though. You have to desire that success for His glory. His glory alone. For many of us (myself included) this brings up the question of how to combine “wildly successful for God’s glory” with “wildly successful for my income and for my family”. It can sometimes be difficult for us to come to terms with success. Satan does some of his best work when he twists our success into pride. He also does some of his best work when he takes our success and plants rapidly growing seeds of guilt in our psyche.

I was brought up with the guidelines that I was to work hard at my job, do my best, don’t rock the boat, and collect the pay check. These things are all good. But why have these ideas become purveyors of guilt, and why have they put in us a fear of asking for something better? Is asking for a raise a selfish act if you’ve been a loyal, hard-working employee? Is it wrong to desire a job you truly enjoy?

I’m trying to walk down a road that will bring me to my personal “awesome”. Fear sometimes tells me to stop dreaming and stop walking down the road. No more. I am going to walk down the “road to awesome” with a purpose and a goal. I will walk and dream with intent. I’d like to invite you along for the walk. Join me.

What dream have you put aside because fear has told you to “do the right thing”?

If you want to see how some other people are being “selfish”, check out my friends at FrankenStart.

Starting Anew

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Anew. Again. Refresh. Reset. Reboot.

This is where I am with my day job. After 16 years working for one company, I find myself now working for another. I was “unemployed” for 61 days. While the shock of being let go from my previous employer was very short lived, the transition with the new employer has been a bit odd. The new company is great. The people are great. I didn’t expect any less. The owners have a stellar reputation. The odd part has been me.

You see, I loved my previous job. I made a point of telling this to people. “Hey, have I told you lately how much I love my job?” I was blessed. So many people don’t love their jobs. They dread going to work every day. I can honestly say that in those 16 years I never had a day that I wasn’t excited about going to work. I had a number of days when I went home wondering why in the world I put up with whatever was going on. But by the next morning I was raring to go and get back at it.

There was a problem though. The “love of job” was eating away at me physically, mentally, emotionally, and any other “ly” you want to throw in. My family never saw me. The last two or three years I was working 60-65 hours a week at the office. I would also work at home in the evening (and yes, even on vacation). I couldn’t let go. I had to do everything. Or so I thought.

I was contacted by my new employer a couple of weeks after I was let go from my previous employer. They had heard through the grapevine that I was available. They wanted to talk to me about joining them. I wasn’t sure what to do. Did I want to go back to the same job? If I loved it so much, what was the hesitation?

For 16 years I learned how to sell new vehicles. I learned how to run the new vehicle side of the retail auto business. I loved it. I was very good at it.

(Don’t insert the stereotype here though. In 1997 I went to work for a man who did it the right way. I was taught that the transaction did not need to be a win-lose situation. I was taught how to make it a win-win situation. Ethical treatment of the customer was the foremost concern. My new employer also sees things this way.)

So, back to the part about me being a bit “odd”. More so my feelings being odd, not me. (Some may disagree, but I still love them.) The odd part is that I’m still not sure if this is what I should be doing. It is easy to fit right in and begin selling again, but for some reason my heart has not latched on to it yet. I began on July 1. I’m still waiting for that “I can’t wait to get to work” feeling to return.

What if it doesn’t return?

Then what?

That is where this blog comes in to play.

For the longest time, I think since 6th grade, I’ve wanted to write. I’ve never worked on it. I’ve never let the thought get developed past a fleeting wisp. Now I suddenly had some time to think seriously about writing. For the first few weeks after I was let go, I researched on the internet, read every blog I could find, investigated what a few other people were doing with blogs and how they were developing a platform. And I wrote. I wrote a lot. All of the writing was in the form of notes on books I was reading and notes on ideas that were suddenly popping into my head! Suddenly I had a couple of legal pads full of notes. What do I do with all of these notes?

I prayed quite a bit during this time too. I wanted to make sure I got it right this time. I wanted to listen intently to what the Lord wanted for me. So I was confused when I was called by my new employer. Did God want me to go right back to what I had been doing? I thought You wanted something different for me? This doesn’t make sense. Why? Well it seems that I can do two things at once if I let Him work on me. I don’t have to work 60-65 hours anymore. I have every Tuesday off. Every other Saturday as well. Do I need to get to the store at 7:30 am? Nope. 9am works just fine.

So it is time to earn a paycheck with my wonderful day job, and to also write. I’m going to write. I’m going to learn how to write. I’m going to write some really bad stuff. Hopefully there will also be some really good stuff. I look forward to both.

Please tell me what you think about the good stuff and the bad stuff.