At the beginning of my corporate career, I was a second shift supervisor. The hours weren’t great, but there was very few meetings. You win some, you lose some.
One of the guys on my second shift team was a big strong guy. He was new, and no one really treated him very well. He was quiet most of the time.
One day he started telling people that his dream was to be a boxing champion. He definitely looked the part, but had none of the confidence you think of when you see a boxer.
Plenty of people told him he couldn’t do it, both to his face and behind his back. Of course, these people didn’t seem to have a dream for themselves. That is often how it goes. Those that don’t see a path for themselves will try to knock you off of yours.
I thought that being a prize fighter sounded like an incredible dream. I told the guy I was rooting for him and encouraged him as often as I could.
Sometimes, it just takes one person to tell you to go after a dream.
On Mondays, he would give me the details of his weekend matches so I could live vicariously through him. That went on for a little while – less than a year.
The guy worked on my team up until the time he won the state Golden Gloves boxing championship. I was really thrilled for the guy. He had achieved a real dream worth doing. Working on second shift certainly was not a dream.
He quit the job to move to Europe to fight professionally. I haven’t talked to him since he left.
After that, I started moving up the corporate ladder. One summer, we hired summer help. One of the guys we hired was really good – a hard worker and very motivated. I left him alone while I tackled other problems. I never talked to the guy or even introduced myself.
I noticed later in my career that I sometimes didn’t give the hardest workers proper attention.
At the end of that summer, the guy left the company. Someone told me later that he moved to New York to be on a soap opera. He didn’t tell anyone at work about it. Someone heard it from a neighbor.
Later, the guy started showing up on talk shows to promote the new Superman movie, in which he played the lead role.
Sometimes, it doesn’t take anyone to tell you to go after a dream.
Crunch Time Coach 