kane

The GF and I were talking about some people who were strangers that said things to us or did things for us that inspired us.

One that sticks out for me was when I was just out of high school. My senior year of high school and for about 6 months after graduation I worked at a small convenience store. Mostly I pumped gas and it sucked when the weather was wet and shitty. One guy came in almost every day and filled his truck up. He owned a construction company and this was his work truck. It was a pain in the ass to put gas in and took about 10-15 minutes to fill. You couldn't turn it on and let it run you had to constantly squeeze the nozzle handle while holding it at a specific angle. I would break the rules and start the pump going then let him take over. He knew the trick and could do it faster than me and it freed me up to help other people. Technically we weren't breaking the law, but most places would never let people pump their own gas under any circumstance.

A few days before Christmas, about a month before I left that job, as he paid for his gas he handed me an envelope with a Christmas card in it and he told me he appreciated that I let him pump the gas and that, unless it is an emergency, he only buys gas at this store because of that. We shook hands and wished each other a merry Christmas. When my lunch break came I went inside and opened the card. It had $500 cash in it (at the time I was making $3.25 per hour so that was a ton of money to me) and a note that he had written that said he could tell I was a smart, driven guy and he knew that I was going to do some good things in my life and be successful. He also said if I ever get into the construction field to call him and he will help me out.

The kinds words meant as much as the money. I don't remember what I bought with the cash, but here I am about 24 years later and I still remember the card and the note like it was yesterday.

Anyone else?

Failed

I worked laborer jobs throughout my teens and laborer/warehouse jobs in my early twenties. The last warehouse I worked for was filled with a great group of people. The people in the office and the crew on the docks. It was my first experience with a true "team" environment.

The manager who was responsible for both the warehouse and the office also was in charge of giving us merit increases. He would always tell me how impressed he was with my work ethic and ability to articulate myself. Whenever I ran into him he would share stories of how he use to work in warehouses, drive forklifts, and had to work his way up through the ranks. He was real proud of the fact that he didn't come straight out of school and into the position. I was impressed by this as well. Just like most people, I enjoy a good underdog story.

Anyway, there was an annual two-week slow season in which we struggled to find enough work for everyone to do. People were given the option of not coming in at all and taking vacation during this time. Most people did indeed take the vacation. I always tried to earn every dollar possible and would never volunteer to take off. During those 2 weeks I would go around and clean all the bathrooms in the warehouse and the office. Even scrubbing toilets was something I took pride in and wanted them to shine. They had my name on them, so to speak.( It may sound corny, but I really do take pride in any job I'm assigned. Anyone who has seen my writing will most likely agree.)

The manager actually took notice to the difference in cleanliness of the bathrooms and wanted to find out who was cleaning them. When someone told him that it was me it wasn't too surprising to him, I guess. He called me into his office during that break and told me by the end of year I better not still be working there. He explained that I shouldn't be doing this type of work, nor should I spend a career getting to his position.

We talked for at least 3 hours that day and he helped me come to the conclusion of working for myself and exploring education options that involved really using my brain. I respected him so much, and he gave me so much confidence that I haven't needed anyone else to provide a living for me since then. I still talk to him from time to time.

That experienced changed my life.

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SilentKnight

Although realizing the OP mentions 'strangers' - but my father has always been my inspiration.

He's had numerous career changes over the years, always starting at the bottom and eventually working his way to the top. In the early/mid sixties he went from being a phys. ed instructor in a YMCA...to the Executive Director position of two Boys Clubs of Canada.

In the mid-seventies during a difficult economic/employment period, he took a menail job as a hardware receiver in a local hardware/lumber yard - just to pay the bills and make ends meet. By the early 80s he'd worked his way up to General Manager of a different lumber yard. Then he took over as GM of another store...and eventually a third before eventually leaving the industry.

Shifting gears, he started his own successful home renovation business - deck building and minor interior renovations...until he finally retired.

His work ethic, ambition, devotion and wide variety of skills in so many fields has always amazed and inspired me. We've always said he's the rare type of person who can dig a ditch with the best of them...while the next day impressing a board of directors with his business savvy and knowledge.

They don't make'em like that very much anymore.

epitome

How's that working out for you?

Failed

I like this thread. Thanks for the stories of inspiration. I hope more people share. It's always motivating to read about this type of thing.

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kane

That rocks. A long time ago I worked for a big tech company and I quit to move to Los Angeles and take a stab and being a screen writer. On my last day my manager said to me, "I have enjoyed working with you and you have been great for the company and could go far in this business if you wanted to, but to be honest with you, I hope you never come back."

It was pretty cool to have someone you admire wish you well like that.

kane

My mom has been the same way for me. She divorced my dad when I was five and raised my brother on I on her own. My dad was a deadbeat so it would have been easy for her to just go on welfare and live on the system. Instead she packed us up and moved 1,000 miles away, worked multiple jobs and created a good life for us. We were often poor as I grew up, but she provided for us, worked some seriously tough jobs and helped instill a work ethic in both my brother and I that have served us well.

kane

This whole thread idea started today when the girlfriend was at work and had someone say something nice to her. She is a dental assistant and is going to school to be a dentist. Over the last few months this mother has been bringing her 13 year old son in for a ton of work. He had oral surgery, a few teeth pulled, spacers and now braces. A lot of painful, not fun stuff. She has always been the assistant. The GF is kind of sarcastic and is a hot half Asian/half white girl so I'm sure the boy was crushing on her, but she always made him laugh and went the extra mile for them.

Today he and his mom brought her a Christmas present into the office. It was a goody basket with candy, cookies, cheeses and stuff like that and the woman told her that she had picked the right career path and that she was going to make a world-class dentist. She said she started crying as the woman told her this and she told me it inspired her and really made her feel great about what she is doing.

Spunky

Cant say anybody gave me any words of wisdom over the last 35 years of working other than a few pointers on how to do things a bit better.I had to learn on my own,can't rely on anybody but yourself really

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fitzmulti

Yes.
;-)

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Relentless

Nice thread idea.

When I was in my teens I did some catering work, weddings mostly. I usually was put in charge of the host table... Father of the bride and their family. One thing I always noticed were the wedding toasts. Most of the time it was a lame attempt at rhyme, or something sappy and blatantly copied from a book of toasts or hallmark card. The waiters, bartenders and I would make jokes in the shadows and try not to laugh loud enough to be noticed as these idiots in tuxedos tried so hard to sound formal and dignified instead of speaking from the heart.

One night I'm working a very high end wedding in manhattan. High end enough that the singers and band were broadway performers and the flowers alone probably cost a small fortune. People there were in tuxedos and the whole room looked like something out of a big budget movie. The crowd was full of overly self-important assholes. Nasty looks from people who felt the rest of the world was beneath them, men in their 30s who couldn't behave themselves around female waitresses and this one guy, maybe in his late twenties is at the host table wearing a $50 suit with wrinkles and a bad haircut.

That one guy looked so freaked out and nervous, you'd have thought he had a bomb strapped to his chest. It turns out he was the bride's brother and when it comes time to give toasts they hand him the microphone. Every waiter in the room got this awkward look like we cant make fun of this guy he's clearly handicapped somehow. Then the room got quiet as the crowd looked at him. There were 300 people there and you could tell not more than 20-30 of them knew the guy by name. He starts stuttering into the microphone and his own father lets out a loud sigh like he wants to get up and take the mic away. The crowd is snickering at him. There's spit flying out of his mouth and it sounded like his tongue was three times too big for his head.. He's trying to say 'I love my sister and I'm proud of her...' Yet his own sister won't even look at him. The stepmother, who is thirty years younger than his father, actually takes out a nail file and starts doing her nails.

You can see the bride starting to look skittish and the groom feeling awkward. It was such a sour moment. His own family acting as if they were all embarrassed by him and wished he would just die quietly. That's when this little old lady who had to be in her late 80s or early 90s stands up and walks over to him from the host table. She had a massive diamond ring on her finger that I can still see in my mind to this day. I'd be willing to bet she was wearing 200K in jewelry. She pats him on the shoulder gently and says to him just barely loud enough for the mic to pick up her voice "Relax David, they only act this way around you because they don't know yet that I'm making you my only heir. Say whatever you want." She smiles at him and slowly walks back to her seat.

It was the loudest silence I've ever heard in my life. The look on the father's face when he heard he is being skipped over and the fortune was going directly to his son was grotesque. He wasn't breathing and his face turned purple. The stepmother puts her nail file away and scurries off to use the ladies room. The bride stands there with her mouth open in a silent scream wanting to run over and try to convince her grandmother not to disown her, but she has 300 people looking at her and a spotlight on her. Just thinking about it makes me feel uneasy. Then from her seat the old lady barks out 'Now they understand how you feel David!"

This little old lady had enough and she took down an entire room full of people with two sentences. The guy gave his speech and suddenly the asshats were hanging on every word. He finishes the speech and two dozen people came up to introduce themselves, nobody could get enough time around David all of a sudden. Now he wasn't some embarrassing retarded guy to be ridiculed or ignored, she made him into an instant bazillionaire who just happened to also be retarded.

That old lady didn't give me a penny but she did a lot for me, even unintentionally, at a time in life where I could have gone down the wrong path. That moment taught me the difference between being a 'nobody' and being a 'somebody' can be instantaneous and very fragile. People rise and fall, but what matters is your character, not how high up or low down you are at any given moment.

John-ACWM

Pr something like that. I once parked on an area for the handicapped and an old guy helping someone in an wheelchair kindly told me I shouldn't do that. And that was the last time I did it.

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seeandsee

When i was kid i was visiting my father while he was at construction field, my father was firemen but worked as private builder from time to time.

And man that was paying my father to build him house told me a great story about space, he started with *imagine big bang* and then told me story backwards, and that was great inspiration for me to later explore science about universe, planets, stars, black holes and all other stuff related.

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SilentKnight

In the wake of the horrific events down in Connecticut - we could use more threads like this lately.

Good idea to start one, Kane.