Reaching Out Without Fear On Illumination

Where nobody can take you for a ride

This is the fourth article on some of my trials and tribulation from a working life spanning some half a century. I was going to say I have seen it all, but I am not so sure I have.

Somebody once said that he found it so disappointing that human beings have such a lack of imagination when it comes to doing wrong, it's always the same old sins. But I think that this is only part true, I do believe that there are people who spend a great deal of time and energy at least trying to come up with new, innovative ways of sinning. They might fail in their search for originality, but at least they try.

Casting my mind back to the late nineties, it was a time when I found myself once again back in the rat-race. And a phrase that comes to mind is "No favour goes unpunished." It is a phrase I have had cause to use far too many times for my liking, but I cannot help but try to help people, it is my upbringing. And far too many times I have lived to rue the day I ever bothered.

Some people get the idea that if you are a good person that means your are stupid and there to be taken advantage of to the maximum. As recently as 2018 one such person who I had treated very well as a friend for nigh on fifty years finally showed his true colours and I was forced to cut that contact. More fool him for taking me for some sort of stupid old fool. It is his loss not mine, which is usually how it all works out. And when I do cut a contact I insist on leaving no way back for the other person. Harsh? Maybe, but I have to protect myself from any further incursions into my personal or working life.

Around about 2000 I was working for a main dealer. One day I sold a very nice two seater sports coupe to what seemed a very well educated gentleman who was very softly spoken in a very camp sort of way. Anyway, he bought the car of his dreams and off he went.

About two months later he was back asking if the dealership would buy his car back off him as he had been made redundant and could not afford the monthly loan repayments. I asked my sales manager if we could buy the car back off the customer and the answer was no.

A month after that the gentleman was back to ask once again if we could buy the car back and again the answer was no. I could see the distress on his face and suddenly had what I thought was a good idea.

"Ok, listen up Joe," I said "Forget about selling the car, I have a better idea. I presume that if you had a new job you would be able to make the monthly loan payments and not have to sell the car, am I right?"

"Well yes, of course, what are thinking?"

"Wait here a few moments."

With that I got up and went to speak to my sales manager. I told him that we were becoming so successful at selling cars that I needed help, another salesman. And I have the perfect candidate sat at my desk."

Mike told me that he had been thinking of getting in some extra help and that he would interview the guy."

The long and the short of it was that Joe was offered a job right there on the spot. Two problems solved in one hit. I loved it. The only rider the sales manager attached to Joe joining us was that I was to teach him the job to help him to be successful. No problem, I knew the job inside out and set to with great enthusiasm.

In the first month Joe didn't sell a single car. Quite frankly he was useless, he just wouldn't listen to my good advice in how to qualify sales leads. I was under massive pressure to make this work and I was almost at my wits end. Suddenly Joe started selling cars and I should have been delighted, but his way to solve the problem was costing me dear.

What Joe had decided to do was to steal my business leads when I wasn't looking. People who I had appointed to come and see me to buy a car started to not turn up, or so it seemed. In fact they were turning up when I wasn't around and buying a car from Joe! The swine had got a hold of my diary and started to re-appoint my leads for my day off. It was costing me a small fortune in lost commission.

I did have a word with Joe and he acted like a spoilt child. "But it's not fair, you're so good at the job and the guy came in on your day off......"

Eventually he was stealing all of my deals and denying it was done intentionally. The sales manager didn't care as long the cars were getting sold. The eventual upshot of this sorry little tale was that Joe stole so many deals from me that I was let go. I was sorry I ever reached out to help him.

One of the many things I remember my mother teaching me was that "Cheats seldom prosper." In my experience this is not entirely true, at least not at first. But over time karma kicks in. The thing with Joe was, once I wasn't there any more to make any appointments in the first place, he had no leads to convert. Without all my hard legwork, Joe was lost. In the end he too lost his job and his life. Joe went to Greece on holiday with a new love in his now successful life and walking along a cliff top he fell a long way down onto some rocks and died. Now that's a sobering thought.

Here at Illumination I am more than happy to reach out and help others and I don't have to worry about somebody stealing all my hard work. And that is because I do that work freely anyway. Having said that, in a commercial situation, I would have to give a great deal of thought to the matter and consider the possibility of being screwed yet again. But here I expect nothing more than a simple thank you. Now then, what is the going rate for second hand thank yous I wonder ha ha ha...

I guess it's true that you should keep both your friends and enemies as close as you can and trust nobody. It is a sad reflection of our times, but more once bitten, more than once shy.

To MC