This time of year always gets me thinking a lot about my Uncle Jack. Though he died several years ago, he continues to be a big influence in my life. In honor of him, I’m sharing a memorable past Words of Encouragement about a time in my life when Uncle Jack gave me the confidence to get through a tough season.
Many of you know that the company where I have worked for almost 30 years, McShea, was bought recently by Avison Young, an international commercial real estate firm headquartered in Canada. At our last official “McShea” sales meeting, Tim McShea presented the achievement awards for 2013. I received the “Comeback Player of the Year” award. I have to tell you, I’ve won a few top producer awards over the years but none of them quite compared to winning this award.
2012 was an extremely difficult year for me. In fact, it was one of the worst years I’ve had in my 28-year career. Going into 2013, I found myself facing a lot of doubt and fear about what the year ahead would bring. I fell well short of my expectations in 2012, and that sapped my confidence enough that I wasn’t sure I could ever get back to the level of sales achievement I had once maintained.
I started asking myself a lot of questions: Was I getting too old for this high-stakes business? Were the old-school fundamentals that had always worked for me before outdated in the modern business world? Were my attempts to learn and use social media and other tech tools ever going to pay off, or was I just too old and set in my ways to learn to use new technology?
At the end of 2012, I had a chance encounter with my uncle, Jack McShea, at the office. It was a slow day around Christmas, so I wandered into Jack’s office and started spilling my guts about all of my concerns for the coming year. I also updated him on some of the deals I was working on, several of which were back-and-forth, down-to-the-wire kind of affairs that I wasn’t sure were really going to happen.
Jack listened to me for a while and then he proceeded to walk me through the ups and downs of his own career, from starting out as an assistant bank teller to his current position as founder and head of McShea. With each story, he candidly revealed all of the fears, doubts and setbacks that he suffered at the various stages of his career. But each story led to the next as he conquered his fears and overcame the setbacks. He never gave up, and I drew strength from listening to him.
As we walked out of the office a couple hours later and stood outside in the parking lot next to his shiny, brand-new Cadillac, he put his arm around my shoulders, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “You are going to close those two big deals and there will be many more in your future. I know you’ve still got it, Big Boy [his childhood nickname for me], and I never doubted you.”
Watching him drive off, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a while: hope, inspired by his encouraging words. I later learned that was the last time he came to the office. He passed away just two months later.
He was right, though. I did close those two big deals at the end of 2012, which gave me hope and momentum going into 2013. In fact, 2013 ended up being one of my best years in a long time. More than once that year I stopped and remembered Jack’s words and worked even harder to prove him right.
As Tim finished his emotional presentation of the Comeback Player of the Year award at that sales meeting, my thoughts were on my Uncle Jack who I knew was looking down, smiling and saying, “I’m proud of you, Big Boy.”
Have a great weekend,
Ro