Pay it forward

An old college buddy spoke to me this evening and was telling me about the story of an officemate of hers who was being the butt of all jokes. She had the juiciest resume a fresh graduate could ever have. Naturally, they gave her a role which they thought she could handle.

Since they were part of a customer-facing team, she was given the task to do very critical interfacing with middle management. It turns out that she was a big mess. She gave vague and erroneous emails.. to which she would send another email to disregard the previous one. During calls she would hesitate and often ended up not really understanding the whole topic or even make sense at all! The client was furious with the way she did her job. Her manager would always save her butt at the end of the day and she gets to see another day.

Of course, the customer is not very happy with this. They demanded they replace her with someone who is more competent or at the very least, have common sense.

***

I remember this particular moment in my life when I had a similar situation. I was escalated to the highest heavens for not doing this critical job. My customer was getting irritated by the fact that I kept fumbling and looked like someone who did not know what to do.

I felt like a lamb in a lion's den.

Sleepless nights I endured. Even my business trip to Japan was dreaded... and every time it was being mentioned at family dinners and get-togethers, my parents would brag about me being sent to other countries during my 1st year as a yuppie. I would cringe inside at the thought of staying in a country with no one to turn to for support.

One person pushed me to the limit. He patiently helped me in all my technical booboos. I was very glad he was also there with me in Japan. I may have died or killed myself anyway if he wasn't there. He became an inspiration to me. The respect he earned from me went up exponentially. I suddenly realized that I wanted to be like this person.

The commitment he gave to me motivated me to go beyond what I thought I was capable of. The world needs more people like him. So... I decided to pay it forward. I wanted to commit to people who need help and is willing to learn.

Sadly, he already left the company to pursue bigger things but he left such a big footprint that it was impossible to ignore. I want to help people in a way I know best. =)