The Ripple Effect: Volume VIII

Back home to Ypsilanti

(continued from The Ripple Effect Volume VII, Issue 849, June 8, 2021...)

I was back in Ypsilanti for just a few days before my freshman term at Eastern Michigan University began. I got a job at Marsh Office Supply with the promise of being given on opportunity to sell office machines and reopened my bicycle repair business. I was carrying a full load, 16 credit hours, singing in the Glee Club, founding The Young Republicans Club, working about 20 hours a week at Marsh's. And, I became engaged to the love of my life, Donna Lee Dennis. We were married on June 23, 1962. I was busy. Somehow, despite my packed schedule I was able to make the Dean's List. This, in itself, was a minor miracle.

The morning of our wedding day I worked in my bike shop. Chalk it up to nervous energy. I was enrolled in the fall term, and Donna Lee and I moved into married-student housing.

A week or so after we were married, I got a call from John Hancock. He told me the Crescent Tool Company was looking for a "missionary salesman" to call directly on retailers across the Midwest selling Crescent's tool displays. He recommended me for the job and asked if I was interested.

Donna Lee and I drove up to Crescent's plant in Jamestown, NY. My interview went well. A couple of weeks later we returned to Jamestown for two weeks of training, then to hardware shows to sell as many tool displays as possible. I was in my element. I worked hard, fell on the bed at the end of the day legs aching, feet sore, and a great sense of accomplishment.

At the end of the summer show season, my Regional Manager set up travel days with the wholesale hardware reps, men like John Hancock. We met early in the morning, traveled with them for the day. My job was to effectively and professionally, sell as many tool displays for them as I could.

When I didn't have appointments, I would drop in on hardware store owners, tell them the Crescent story, and see if I could sell them a few hundred dollars-worth of tool displays. The year went by fast.

On Fridays I could be in Tennessee, Michigan, Missouri, or any of ten midwestern states. If I was on pace for my $200-a-day personal goal, I headed straight home. If not, I pointed the van in the direction of Anderson, stopped at every hardware store along the way until the last store closed at 9:00PM.

Success is determined by commitment, not comfort. Commit to high goals, success is worth the price.

It's amazing what you can do when you focus.