The year was 1970. I had just completed 4 years in the U.S. Army. To my mind, it had been a complete waste of my time, and the Army's. I had completed two years at Pensacola Junior College, majoring in business, prior to a disastrous two semesters at Florida State University. I had majored in pool playing while they thought I was majoring in Accounting. Having succeeded in learning how to hustle pool, but not how to do accounting type stuff, Uncle Sam took over my education.
Before he got his hands on me, however, I did work a few months at a local grocery store. When I returned to Pensacola after 4 years of service, the local grocery store hired me back. I had figured out that I was a failure and had basically given up thoughts of returning to college. I just figured that I would go back to work at the grocery store and that would be that. Unfortunately as it seemed at the time, but fortunately as it turned out, the only place they had for me was on the night stock crew.
The first night, when the truck pulled in, Larry, the crew boss, told me, "New guys have to go on the truck." I had already figured that one out, so, after the driver lifted off the back pallets with a fork lift and lifted a hand pallet truck inside, I climbed into the trailer. The job was awful. The floor had a layer of gook and slime from things that had previously leaked. Somehow this defied the laws of physics, because it anchored the wheels of the pallet truck, while slipping beneath my feet whenever I tried to get traction.
The pallets were stacked two high, seemed to weigh several tons each, and the inside of the trailer was an oven. Somehow, however, I managed to get everything to the tailgate where the driver lifted it off with the fork lift and took it into the store where the crew distrbuted the cases to their respective aisles and began marking and putting the stock up on the shelves. After an exhausting two hours, I got to join them. The work inside the store was a cinch after what I had been through in the truck.
This went on for a few weeks, twice a week. It was funny, but I didn't question it, just did it. In fact, I actually grew to enjoy it. It was desparately hard physical exertion, but I began to enjoy the challenge, and looked forward to my two hours of enforced meditation inside the trailer on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
One day, the store manager called me into his office. The grocery manager was there, as was Larry, the night stock crew chief. The manager told me that Larry was taking a better position at one of the other stores and would need to be replaced. He explained that Larry had recommended me for the position of night stock crew chief. He went on to explain that one of the reasons was my age and military background. Larry had apparently been impressed with my willingness to take on the challenge withoug complaint and get the job done. Additionally, the store manager and grocery manager felt that everyone else on the crew was too young or not dependable enough. They felt that I had the maturity to handle the job and that my military training and background would be of benefit. I wasn't sure about that part, but accepted the job.
The first night I showed up in my new, elevated capacity, I pointed at one of the other stockers and said, "You're in the truck tonight." He immediately made a face and started complaining. That's when a small piece of my military background rose to the surface and I told him to knock it off and get on the truck.
The rest of us went into the store and began straightening shelves. Shortly, the driver brought in the first pallets from the back of the truck and set them on the floor. We began distributing the cases as was normal. After a few minutes, however, the pallets were empty and the driver had not brought any more inside. I began walking to the back to check to see if something was wrong. The driver came out of the wareroom into the store and met me halfway. As soon as he got to me, he demanded heatedly, "Are you going to put anybody else on that truck with that boy?"
"No," I replied. "Why should I?"
The driver's face got kind of purple. "Every other store I go to puts two people on the trailer to unload it. One person can't do it by themselves!"
I turned around and saw the other stock crew members behind me. One of them who had been with the company for several years sheepishly nodded his head. So, I sent him out to help unload the trailer...the same trailer I had been unloading by myself for several weeks.
At first, I was angry. I had been taken for a ride. Then I thought about it, and I began to realize that I had learned something in the army after all. They had tried to make me understand that when I thought I had reached my limits, I could reach inside and find something else to call on. That had gotten me through basic training and through 4 years in the army.
Yes, I had learned something. I had learned that many of the limits that people allow to control their dreams, their successes, come from inside their own heads. I was able to unload the truck because I didn't know it supposedly couldn't be done by one person, and I made a decision to do it come hell or high water. There wasn't a man on that crew, and some were bigger and stronger than me, that thought that they could do it...and they couldn't!
The next day, I started thinking about going back to school. Eventually, the store manager and grocery manager asked if I wanted to begin training for the grocery manager's position. I didn't have any trouble figuring out what to do. I thanked them, and told them I would be enrolling in the University of West Florida to finish getting my degree in accounting...and I did!
The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online. To learn more about improving your marketing performance, please visit http://marketingsecrets.xtramoney4me.net. To read more articles by the author, please visit his blog at http://donovanbaldwin.blogspot.com/, or http://xtramoney4me.net/internet_marketing_links/articles/index.html.