Careers: Lessons from days gone by

It seems conventional wisdom these days that people entering the workforce are going to have two or three careers and 8-10 jobs. I got to thinking about that the other day while going through my own drumroll of assorted (and sordid) occupational twists and turns: engineer, sales and marketing director, recruiting manager, small company owner, author/speaker...and then the industries: (nuclear) energy, (computer) manufacturing, information technology consulting, healthcare, personal growth, education, natural foods...

Ironically, the job which had the greatest impact on my life was straight out of a Norman Rockwell print: the summer selling encyclopedias (actually, student reference books) door-to-door in the "Tobacco Road" boonies of eastern North Carolina.

Verily did I carry my display case (which resembled an oversized lunch pail) out into yonder hamlets; striking out each morning - by thumb - from the teeming metropolis of Enfield, pop. 3,000.... 80 hour weeks were the norm, walking in the heat and humidy, and I lost 20 pounds that I didn't have to lose.

What lessons, however:

* When a sign says "No solicitors", it's best not to walk the dusty 1/4 mile down the driveway to find out if the property owner really means it. In my case, I'll never forget the eerie silhoutte of a man with a shotgun, the "click-click" indicating he meant action, and the elocution of his speech - something about a "g-damned" peddlar needing to vacate his porch with great alacrity.

* When a would be "mark" (er, customer) repeatedly asks "what do they cost," it's folly to continue your canned shpiel...fortunately, the slammed door actually reopened as I was walking forlornly away, and the kind ex-librarian proceeded to mentor me about candor and directness before digging into her purse and putting down 50% for her order.

* The ol' "check's in the mail" line is about as reliable as a politician's word.

* Don't judge books by covers - more than once I witnessed sharecroppers in primitive settings pull out stacks of dead green presidents and pay cash on the spot when they liked the product. (these folks, who got paid once a year when they took their tobacco to market, pretty much spent from that kitty)

* Quality over quantity - my fellow student/colleagues seemed obsessed with how many doors they could knock on. I preferred to spend more quality time with real prospects.

* The kindness of strangers - particulary, the little old lady who took me (and two others!) in for the summer, without charging us rent... and the impressive clutch/foot work of two young sharecropper boys who orchestrated with me to pull my '66 Dodge Dart, Horace, out of a deep, muddy gully in a pouring rainstorm (hence the phrase, 'gully washer') I had purchased the car for $250 from my brother in order to make my deliveries.

* "When at first you don't succeed, try, try again - then quit - no sense being a damn fool about it.." The esteemed wisdom of W.C. Fields helped me realize when the law of diminishing returns was kicking in... why beat on more and more doors for less and less return?

* "A sucker's born every minute"... no, just kidding, my employer's products were quite good...Still, the old adage about "selling the sizzle, not the steak" is timeless and applies not only to commodities but services. That doesn't mean that the product shouldn't be first class - it's just that content isn't as important as the feeling, the identity, that the client develops. In the case of these hardworking, scrape-to-get-by sharecroppers, the books symbolized that their kids would have a handy, practical, cost-effective learning tool to help give them an advantage (or just keep up) with the more privileged kids.

Door-to-door selling may be gone with the wind, but its lessons are timeless. And while not my favorite summer - not by a long shot - it was definitely my most instructive into the fickle, bizarre, labyrinthine human psyche. Oh, and "caveat emptor" - let the buyer beware....