The Bestest Career Advice I Ever Did Got
Advice about crisps (and career)
Careers are hard. First, you gotta choose one, then you gotta pursue one, then you gotta triumph in one.
That’s a lotta gotta to contend with.
I was thinking about this gotta-problem as I was eating a Tesco meal deal in Slough train station one Saturday (I was enjoying my weekend off work), and a man in a suit came up to me and said “Do you want some career advice?”
I said “Yes, is it about the gotta-problem?”
He said “What?”
And I said “Nevermind.”
Then, as an awkward silence overcame us both, he stood there watching me eat a whole half of my cheese and onion sandwich. It took about 25 minutes (I like to savour my weekend sandwich). When I’d finished, he said:
“Anyway, don’t ever take no for answer.”
I said “What?”
And he said “Don’t ever take no for an answer. Do you understand?”
And I said “No.”
He then said, “Well, I’m not taking that as an answer.”
So I said “Ok” and carried on eating the other half of my sandwich. I hadn’t even opened my bag of crisps at that point, which were also cheese and onion flavour as I like to match my sandwich and crisps exactly (where possible).
The man in a suit stood there for a bit longer, about another 25 minutes by all accounts, then he walked off.
I was relieved as I didn’t want to open my crisps and offer him one. It’s impossible to open a packet of crisps in front of someone without saying “Do you..” and gesture the packet towards their face (that’s where their mouth is).
Any decent person should then say “No thanks” and take zero crisps, but this guy hates the answer no, he’s already made that clear, so he’d have probably said yes (the opposite of no), and he’d have took/taken 3–4 of the biggest crisps that always sit at the top of the bag. It’s the broken bits that fall to the bottom, and these rejects would have been left for me. And I was the owner of the crisps/bought the crisps (admittedly, at a discount as they were part of a meal deal, as previously mentioned).
Why am I, dear reader, telling you all this (about the career advice, not the crisp sharing scenario, which I believe is valid and important information)? Because it’s the best piece of career advice I’ve ever gotten/got/received/heard.
I immediately employed it in my employment on the following Monday. “Can I use this photocopier?” I asked a colleague in the office.
“No, it’s broken” they said.
Did I take that as an answer? I did not. I used it anyway. It didn’t work, but that isn’t the point.
Later, I asked my manager if I’m allowed to take the afternoon off. He said “No, we need you in the McClaggan meeting as you’re presenting.” I took the afternoon off anyway.
I was fired. Which means I did get the afternoon off.
In my call with HR that afternoon (so I still had to take one work phone call), I asked “Will I get severance pay?”
They replied “No.”
I didn’t accept that as an answer, and I’m expecting a significant payment into my account on the last day of this month. I’ve even booked a holiday in lieu of the pending money.
So there you have it.
I’m getting paid but I don’t have to work, I’m going on a cruise, and I can now afford to splash out on bacon sandwiches with Smokey Bacon crisps because I’m now so flush (at month end, at least).
That strange man in a suit was right. And now I think about it, I recognised him. And when I think about it more than I’ve just already thought about it, which was quite a lot anyway, he was me. From the future. I realise that now.
So, I’m going on a cruise and I get to be a time traveler too. That’s how much my life has changed by that supremely handsome man and his wise words (was he a male model too?)
So, don’t accept no as an answer and you too could do these things. Watch how your life will transform. It’s the bestest advice I ever have did get.
And that’s not something I say lightly (I say it heavily).
