Unrecognized Growth

I’ve been out working since I was sixteen years old.  The training process has always come easily to me. With each new employer, I enjoyed the beginner phase. There is always new learning and processes to add to my knowledge base. There was one situation that came to mind and it was one where I experienced tremendous growth. 

I had worked for a company for approximately ten months. I have often worked in customer service. I enjoy relating to customers and people in need. I am hungry to learn how to handle a variety of transactions and problems because this helps me work with customers no matter what the situation.

There was one time when I had been told several times that there were details about my work that I was missing. I was frustrated that these details kept me from being considered one of the better employees. The other people I worked with in this job had histories with the company from five to thirty years. 

I committed myself to continuing to grow in the necessary areas and was firmly committed to picking up the details that were causing me a problem. Most of the needed improvement was as simple as pushing a button and turning a lock. Each day, I was pleased to find that I was growing in my use of the necessary details. I had days when there were no mistakes and I was feeling more comfortable each day; 

I would come to work each day feeling happy and proud of the progress I was making. I realized that by adding new training and observing my other workers, I was becoming better and better in my work. 

Early one morning, after just coming into work, my supervisor took me aside and said that we needed to meet with our manager. I was excited to share my feelings of improvement. When I sat down, I was handed a paper to read. The paper was titled “Termination Notice”. I felt sick to my stomach  There must be a mistake. This document had to be for someone else. 

Couldn’t the employer see how much I had grown in the position? They couldn’t have known the joy that I was finding in coming up to speed in my job. I learned that day that sometimes the improvements we experience and enjoy are not obvious to those looking from the outside in. I had to make a choice that day. There was no turning back. I chose to make it good enough to enjoy the success I knew I had experienced and move on.

I found it challenging to move on from this “failure”. This was a defining moment for me. I had taken a risk and it did not go as I would have liked. I learned that failure is not an event. It is a learning experience. Mistakes are our strongest teachers and they are not fatal.

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