The Importance of Getting Fired
Written by José Reyes
I’m a firm believer in the idea that everyone needs to get fired at least once in their life.
Let me explain.
When I was in college, I had a huge chip on my shoulder. My family wasn’t sold on the idea of me going to school for art, and I felt a lot of pressure to prove them wrong and show them I had made the right decision. I thought that if I didn’t get an incredible job right after graduation, I had failed. So, I hounded everyone I knew in the professional world for months on end, which eventually landed me a job at a big agency in Atlanta.
I had my big “I made it” moment.
I felt important and successful, and I was on top of the world. I spent my first three months right out of school there, and I thought I was doing great. After those first three months, I scheduled a check-in with my boss in order to evaluate my progress. It had taken me weeks to get this meeting scheduled, and I had taken that time to prepare. I had all of my receipts locked and ready to go, I made notes in my head of everything I’d accomplished and all of the work that I’d done, and I was ready to show it all off.
I walked into his office, and immediately, my boss said, “Hey José, I’m sorry, but we have to let you go.” Just like that. I was absolutely crushed. I didn’t get a chance to sit down, much less make a case for myself, and show him that I deserved to be there. I had no idea what to do and felt like I had nowhere else to go, so I went back to my old high school job at Kinkos. I had never felt such a blow to my ego before. I’d had everything I worked so hard for right in front of me: a college degree, an apartment in a big city, a fancy job at a big agency, and in an instant, it was gone.
I was now back to taking orders at Kinkos from the very designers I yearned to be, who worked at the agencies that I felt like I deserved to be at.
At the time, I thought I had failed, and I was sure I’d look back on the experience and think of it as “the bad times.” But now, I know it was the best learning experience I ever had.
Getting fired taught me to let go of control, which is one of the most important lessons if you’re going to be in any profession, but especially the creative industry.
At that moment in my boss’s office, I had no say, no chance to plead my case, and no way to make the situation better. I had to deal with the situation at hand and put aside my own pride. I had to come to terms with the fact that the world does not always care about your feelings, and that not everything is about me. It made me realize that the things I had thought were the most important, like getting an impressive job or proving the naysayers wrong, weren’t. I can’t be sure of where I would be if I hadn’t gotten fired that day, but I can say that I probably would have lived a lot more of my life with that chip on my shoulder without the experience.
My firing was the catalyst that got me to ask the important questions: “Who am I? Where do I fit into this art thing? What do I want to make and change when it’s my turn?” And for that, I’m forever grateful.
About José Reyes:
José earned his B.F.A. from Savannah College of Art and Design and founded Metaleap Creative shortly thereafter in 2002. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Turkey, Utah, New Mexico, and Florida, his curiosity about all things keeps him traveling and searching for inspiration in the world around him.
Currently, José is serving as a co-chair for the Society of Publication Designers PUB 55 Awards and was a recent guest on the Creative Rising podcast. He has also spoken at the Q Conference, the 2018 SCAD Commencement Ceremony (alongside Oprah Winfrey), Auburn University, the City and Regional Magazine Association Conference, HOW Design Live, the University of Georgia, and other venues about beauty, inspiration, and Metaleap’s core values of creativity and relationship. He has also served as a judge for the Society of Publication Design, Communication Arts, the Gamma Awards, and Folio magazine.
