I wander in to Brad and Jordan's office for a quick lunch break.
I sit in the ikea chair amongst their desks, Jordan's covered in flower bits and on the shelves books on bees and plants and the like.
The conversation drifts to things we did in childhood. Jordan grew plants. Brad tinkered with things and fixed them.
I spent my childhood, no joke, going door to door selling shit.
My pops was a salesman, a good one. He sold Avon. They'd send him to all the regions that weren't doing well and he'd motivate those Avon ladies to be their best. The end of his career had him creating the global sales force in Europe.
Our house had boxes and boxes and boxes of Avon stuff. Skin So Soft. Gross smelling colognes in glass bottles shaped like old cars. Crazy, intricate beer steins. Earrings. Makeup. Soap. Shampoo.
I'd open the boxes and sell what we had door to door.
I also sold smoothies, lemonade, healing tonics, and in my utmost altruistic moment, I went door to door collecting money for the animal shelter- which hadn't sponsored me, I just decided it was important and collected $500 from my neighbors. Which, I honestly, handed over to the shelter.
I am of gypsy, Turkish stock, I suppose.
And we still are what we once were, I suppose as well. Like Jordan is now a farmer and Brad is now the count-on-able jack of all trades who fixes everything.
I did a crazy, intense sales training program for a year when I was in my 20's. I was so attached to the outcome, so attached to my sales and so attached to my successes and failures, that I declared I could never be in sales much to everyone's disagreement. My own father said, "Lacey, when you are passionate about something, you sell everyone on it."
It's true. When I fall in love with things, I want them to succeed. Like, there's these raw chocolate tarts at Whole Foods, every time I buy these little bits of chocolate ecstasy, I sell everyone in line with me on them.
In my adult life, I find myself back in sales and not afraid of it at all because I truly believe that this product will make people happy. And it's soooooo fun! I love getting people jazzed up about something.
You know that Steve Jobs commencement speech? Where he says, going forward in life, you don't know where you are headed but when you look back, you can connect the dots. Looking back, it makes complete sense that this is what I'd enjoy doing but I would have never, ever guessed that in my youth.
Funny where you find your bliss, so obvious once you find it, but completely hidden from your view when you are looking for it.