True words indeed. I wish I'd thought of them first.
Jump back a bit in time to just after my last outing to Las Vegas in the Spring. It was a dire trip from a poker perspective. That in itself isn't anything really of note - fruitless trips in a small sample size are commonplace even for people who consider themselves (or just are) proficient at the game. It's just sometimes what happens, and I was fine with it. Just pack up your crap, come home, regroup, and start over again. Not the first or the last time I'll live by that mantra I'm sure.
Anyhoo.
Home I came. Resumed normal life and that was kind of that. Suddenly, through a weird twist of fate, a new job came up. I say a new job, it was more or less my old job, in the stone industry, for around the same money, but for a different outfit, and a LOT easier to get to and from each day due to the distance from home. I stumbled upon an ad one night, and gave them a quick call. The ad actually turned out to have been placed by the guy who was leaving the position to go abroad. We had a chat, and he quickly got back to me saying his boss was very keen to meet with me once he heard that I knew the game. I have good sales experience, industry knowledge, and most importantly I think, people skills and confidence. I went down to meet the guys at the new place, and it immediately seemed a pretty good fit and I was offered a job virtually on the spot. Readers of old will know I'm not shy about a bit of hard work, so we worked out terms and off I went. They were very good about honouring my prior Summer WSOP commitments as my holiday time, and so far the job largely seems to be going well. Who'd have thought boring old stone could be sexy?
Jump back a bit in time to just after my last outing to Las Vegas in the Spring. It was a dire trip from a poker perspective. That in itself isn't anything really of note - fruitless trips in a small sample size are commonplace even for people who consider themselves (or just are) proficient at the game. It's just sometimes what happens, and I was fine with it. Just pack up your crap, come home, regroup, and start over again. Not the first or the last time I'll live by that mantra I'm sure.
Anyhoo.
Home I came. Resumed normal life and that was kind of that. Suddenly, through a weird twist of fate, a new job came up. I say a new job, it was more or less my old job, in the stone industry, for around the same money, but for a different outfit, and a LOT easier to get to and from each day due to the distance from home. I stumbled upon an ad one night, and gave them a quick call. The ad actually turned out to have been placed by the guy who was leaving the position to go abroad. We had a chat, and he quickly got back to me saying his boss was very keen to meet with me once he heard that I knew the game. I have good sales experience, industry knowledge, and most importantly I think, people skills and confidence. I went down to meet the guys at the new place, and it immediately seemed a pretty good fit and I was offered a job virtually on the spot. Readers of old will know I'm not shy about a bit of hard work, so we worked out terms and off I went. They were very good about honouring my prior Summer WSOP commitments as my holiday time, and so far the job largely seems to be going well. Who'd have thought boring old stone could be sexy?
Much busier than it was at my old gig, but this is a good thing as the day never drags. It's also far less frustrating than the old job, since whereas formerly I was just basically sales, then hand it over to someone else, and had to basically fight tooth and nail just for information and get things done on projects, here I'm a lot more hands on with all aspects of the job from initially pricing up, right the way through to completion, which for me and for the business is MUCH better. My old bosses were just fine and the job was OK, but previously it was super frustrating and often felt a lot like two steps forward and five steps back trying to get anything done. Combining that with a horrible commute, it was getting me down, hence my departure. On a personal level with clients, I'm given plenty of leeway to basically just be myself, and whilst I sometimes think my new director might inwardly cringe as he hears me call a 60 year old customer "young man" or I say "how can I help you my love?" to a pretty girl who walks in, luckily he "gets" it and understands that largely, people will buy from people, and can see that my approach works well and puts customers at ease. You just have to know your audience, but I'm already getting on great guns with the walk ins and have some repeat business. Happy days. The guys and girls working at the new place seem generally a good bunch, and whilst the day is a long one, I'm pretty happy doing what I'm doing, and the numbers for my sales are already quite promising, so I must be doing some stuff right. Time will tell but I'm enjoying it - in so much as one enjoys properly working for a living. My first site visit last week was to Gordon Ramsay's flagship restaurant in London, so it looks like I'm already making the right moves as I think I've likely got the sale for that one already in the bag.
I'm prepping my WSOP schedule to go up on site this weekend. It will be only over 3 weeks at the end of June to mid July, however it will include the $10K main event, and a decent selection of sides in the Rio or Planet Hollywood, Venetian, Encore, etc for around the same amount. Watch this space, and we'll see how we go.
Update: WSOP schedule is now live, and can be found HERE
I'm prepping my WSOP schedule to go up on site this weekend. It will be only over 3 weeks at the end of June to mid July, however it will include the $10K main event, and a decent selection of sides in the Rio or Planet Hollywood, Venetian, Encore, etc for around the same amount. Watch this space, and we'll see how we go.
Update: WSOP schedule is now live, and can be found HERE
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