...Many, many years ago, I had a job that I absolutely loved. I was a Host Manager at a casino in a virtual world. Now, before you say "Oh, you played a game", keep in mind that I brought home as much money then as I do now. It was my very first experience in the work at home world. The casino itself started to move in a different direction. Instead of being about playing the game, (we were mostly a poker house) they started focusing way too much on the money. Money corrupts, sometimes. Me? I loved what I did and was all about the game. I was released from my position because my ideas of how to run things didn't mesh up with their ideas of how to run things.
I ran things there as I do here. My most basic principal is to be fair, and to be honest, with my teams no matter where those teams are. I was told a very long time ago that if you treat your people well, they will go to the wall for you. If you don't treat them well, then no amount of money could ensure their loyalty or their hard work. So, I did my best to treat them well.
When I lost that job, my entire world fell apart. I cried for a few days, and then I got back up again. I was offered one poker house to take over ownership of, and I jumped at it. Of course, that was nothing more than a ploy. I never received ownership of the poker house, and still had to shut it down. (Gotta be fair to the people that worked it.) It hurt my reputation a small bit in the community, but it was nothing I couldn't overcome.
Then, one day, a man with the worst possible reputation in the gaming industry of this virtual world came to me. He wanted me to run his poker house. I took the job, then quit on him. Twice. See, this was an entirely new team, a whole new set of people. And when a change over happens, the people tend to fight it if they don't know the person they are working for. And they fought every step of the way. They would run to the owner and complain, and he'd undo anything I had done. I was going one step forward, five steps back. It was very frustrating indeed!
After I quit the second time, he comes back to me and he says "I know you're the best. I want my poker house to be the best. Therefore, you have to run it!" I made him sign a six month contract giving me full ownership rights, and he would be a silent partner. He wasn't allowed to interfere at all. He signed and stuck to it.
And within two months of that six month contract, I took his place from the very last of over 2000 casinos, to the top of the list. Within two months, we held the number one spot both in traffic, as well as in customer loyalty. I worked hard and tirelessly day and night. I hired bug testers, accountants, technical consultants, etc. I fired a lot of people, and hired a lot of people. I went in with guns blazing.
Within 3 months, the poker house that had released me three months before was getting ready to start selling their sims and shutting their doors. Right before they made the official announcement, the gaming industry was shut down completely.
Again, I lost my job and it was a job that I loved and was great at. In two months time, I took a poker house that nobody would go to, all the way to the number one spot. I took this man with the worst possible reputation ever, and built him up to be golden. If gaming had not been shut down, I would not have left. If gaming had not shut down, then even now, many years later, we'd still be turning high profits.
I was heartbroken. Some of you may wonder how a heart can break over a job. You have to understand that before these two jobs, I had never found anything at all that I remotely liked. Well, I liked being a game master with Blizzard, but the hours on that was too hard on me and the family. This, I didn't just like, I loved it, and it fed that deep desire we all have to be the big man at the top making the decisions and driving the company to success.
I wandered around for a little less than a year. I didn't really do much of anything really. A friend in another game challenges me to find a work at home job. She made it a contest to see which one of us could find one first. One week later, I had two work at home jobs, both doing phone work. She is still looking even now.
Phone work was okay. It paid the bills but it just didn't work for me. There was no job satisfaction in it what so ever. Some people do fantastically with phone sales but me? I'm not the pushy sales person. If I don't believe in a product, I have a hard time really selling that product. And it's really hard to believe in things such as Kevin Trudeu's books. (The man is a con artist ex-convict.) I had a really hard time selling people a get out of debt program that cost $300 to $500 dollars, or Miracle Cures that advise cancer patients to stop all medical treatments.
That combined with the hardships upon my family just made it much worse. I mean, my husband and kids had to sit and be perfectly quiet for hours on end while I worked. If a neighbor's car door was slammed shut, I'd get nailed for it. If a phone down the building rang too loudly, I'd get nailed for it. Anything at all, even out of my control, I'd get nailed for it. It just wasn't a good situation to be in when you live in an apartment, have dogs, and children!
It was through one of those phone jobs however, that I found the next great love of my life. (Career wise that is.) I was sent an email about this new place. I forget the name they had for it at the time. It wasn't the same name it is now. I ran over to check it out. At first, I shied away from it. They only paid through Paypal. Most companies that only pay through Paypal are scams, so I was very hesitant.
Finally, I relented and built a profile right after the name of this company was changed. My husband at first cautioned me. He didn't want me working there because he too felt it was a scam. I finally told him that if they're going to scam me out of anything, it was going to be out of my time.
Once I was finally accepted, the work was tedious and boring and yet addictive at the same time. There was something abut the routine that just worked for me. I'd go upstairs to my bedroom and shut the door. I'd work for three hours and average out over $70 an hour. (Well over $70 an hour in fact!) And then, I was approached about running teams myself and I found another great love!
In every situation, I've carved out my own path. I carved my own path with raising my family. I carved my own path as a Host Manager, as the CEO of a major poker house, and now here at LW. Hell, I carved my own path through life itself! I like carving my own path! It is truly an amazing thing to believe that you're at the bottom, only to rise to the top through hard work and dedication.
Now, I hold three main work at home type positions, two of which I absolutely LOVE. The other one is just filler. This is the work at home world, and anything can happen here. When it comes to the WAH world, it's a lot like the Wild West. Okay, so we're not going to have a shoot out at the OK Corrale. Still, however, any number of things could happen. That's just the nature of it.
No matter what happens though, I am in it to win it! I'm not in the sidelines and won't allow myself to be in the sidelines. I'm just not a sidelines kind of person. I write my own headlines. I make my own path. Through it all, I'm right here. No matter what does or doesn't happen, I will be just fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment