I live in Auburn Alabama and as you might have heard, it is a college town with a major college football team. In the fall, socializing revolves around football. I believe part of the reason is because there are no professional level sports in the state of Alabama. Sure we have class 5A baseball or whatever they call the minor leagues, but in reality college football is king in the state of Alabama. On game days this year I have been riding for TigerShaw.

In my line of work I rarely interact with the general public and don’t interact with end users very often either. It’s nice at times because the world I work in is binary, black and white, on or off, there is no gray area. Something works or it doesn’t. The goal of my work is to abstract out the human element and when you don’t have that human interaction you feel rusty in social settings.

I sold suits when I was in high school and college undergrad. When I say sold suits, I don’t mean $300 suits at Sears either, I sold suits at Bachrach back before they had a house brand. We sold Armani, Boss, Joseph Aboud and some high end Hart-Marx. My biggest sales were in the $10,000 range and this was in the 1990’s. I made good money for a kid. What I learned during that job was how to work the public, how to be professional in your interactions, and how to sell. Think about it, if an executive is going to buy a $2,000 to $3,000 suit from a kid, the kid had better be good.

The same holds true riding rickshaw. I make good money riding rickshaw but I am professional in my dealings with clients and I work the public. You have to be professional, work hard and sell yourself the same way to make $20 for dragging someone a mile and a half or $120 for selling a $2,000 suit.

Tailwinds.