“It’s not very fair. I’ve been a customer for this company for five years and they’re hitting me with a $200 cancellatio

Had I had a different attitude about becoming a store manager of a video store, I could’ve behaved in an entirely different way. Had I looked down on the position instead of looking at it as a learning experience, perhaps I’d still be working there.,I’ve had lapses in my own employment life — wondering why I should try so hard when this isn’t my dream job — and I always end up reminding myself that nothing is wasted and everything is a learning experience.,I read a story on LinkedIn recently about a girl who worked at a Taco Bell. She was extremely polite and courteous. She went above and beyond in an industry that doesn’t really reward that type of behavior.,I accepted the job as the “manager in training.” To prepare for my new position, I started watching interviews of successful people and TED talks about leadership. I invested myself and the process I used to become a better manager led to me becoming a writer and doing what I’d always dreamed of doing.,Before landing the job as the manager of the video store, I’d been hired and fired from a string of menial jobs (while supplementing my income selling weed). I could never hold a job down for longer than 6 months.,I write on the side for right now. My income from my side projects is getting close to the income from my employment. At this critical time, I’m doing what I can to get everything I can from my current work to help me in my future endeavors.,In the process of learning to become a better leader and learn new skills, I started to share ideas and things I learned on my Facebook page. A friend took notice of my essay-like status updates and asked me to write some articles on his website he was working on.,James dealt with his grief differently. He threw himself into work. The longer he was away from the house, the more he could push his feelings to the side. Loved ones worried that his absence was putting a strain on his marriage and making his wife feel as though she were alone in grieving for their son.,The smart and capable person I knew I could be was buried beneath the experiences that shaped me into becoming someone I didn’t enjoy being. I wasn’t completely devoid of hope. I had the feeling that things would turn around someday.,At the time, I was just looking for a job because I was broke. I happened to live by the video store so I walked in and applied. I filled out the application in persuasive detail (I was always decent with words), told the manager about myself and seemingly made a good impression.,Build profitable skills with this free checklist — The Ultimate Guide to Discovering Your Natural Talents and Strengths. Learn how to become a top Medium writer with my free 5-day course,A man who frequented the Taco Bell often noticed her positive attitude and intangible qualities. He worked at a company that was much more lucrative to work at than T-Bell. He asked her to come in for an interview and now she works at that company.,It is imperative to acknowledge that more often than not, people are sensitive and do not want to hurt others. They end up holding on to the biases just because they haven’t been aware of it and would be careful as soon as they understand the rationale behind it. Therefore, it is not for political correctness to police them or to ban words altogether. Yes, all the nations are in Africa, and yes, geographically all of them are located below the Sahara Desert. In this light, all of them are certainly individually ‘sub-Saharan’ exactly how America can be called ‘trans-Atlantic.’ However, the problem sets at the moment we start to ascribe a common identity to them, just because they are near each other. We inadvertently associate them on the basis color of their skin because that may be a signifier of identity in the west. It is this gross generalization all of us should be extremely careful about because there are no black people in Africa.,Andrew Mason has always had strong opinions on how the world is supposed to work. Namely, he believed in taking massive collective action against greedy capitalist overlords.,The thought that I was capable enough to manage a store was alien to me prior to him bringing it up. Someone seeing something in me was all it took for me to get motivated.