Throughout our lives, we have defining moments that stick with us forever. It’s as if time stands still, and the recollection of those events live cemented in our memories. For me, one of those takes place at Rogers High School in my hometown of Puyallup, Washington.
I was a baseball player back then and spent my summers playing different leagues as a pitcher. So when I entered my first year at Rogers, it was only natural that I try out for the school’s baseball team.
The day of the try-outs was a typically rainy and gloomy Washington day, meaning they had to be held in the gymnasium. I sat with a dozen other teenagers waiting for my turn to bat.
When it got to me, the head coach, Coach Nichols, looked at me and said, “Show me what you got.”
I threw 3 pitches, all fast and straight down the center. Coach Nichols walked over, shook my hand, and said, “Thank you.”
I thought for sure I had it in the bag. I remember even thinking, “Wow. That was easy.”
The next day, the school posted the list of students who made the team in the hallway. I checked it — but my name wasn’t on it. I couldn’t believe it! First, I thought they made a typo. So, I went to the assistant coach and asked. He told me that, unfortunately, they had already picked the team. I simply said, “Ok,” and went home.
The first thing my Dad asked when I opened the front door was if I made the team. I told him what had happened and what the assistant coach had said. He stopped me there. “Are you kidding me?” he said. “You walked away? You took no for an answer?”
He wanted me to go to the head coach the next morning and ask to try again. Confused, and truthfully, a little embarrassed, I said, “Dad, they didn’t pick me. It’s okay.”
He told me, “It’s not okay to accept failure.”
He forced me to do it, anyway. I went in the next day to Coach Nichols’ office and said, “Sir, I don’t think I showed you my best and I’d respectfully like to ask for another opportunity.”
Coach Nichols paused, looked at me for a second, and said, “Ok.”
Like the time in the gymnasium, I thought to myself, “Wow. That was easy.”
After school, the coach and I met up, but this time I was a little more angsty. Fired up and definitely eager to impress, I threw my 3 pitches. To my surprise, he shook my hand and repeated the same stern, “Thank you.”
I didn’t know what to think.
When I ran into him in the hallway the next day, he saw me, stopped, and said, “You’re on the team.”
Now, I don’t know whether it was I pitched better or being forthright that made him change his mind; but either way, I went on to throw two no-hitters that year and won multiple awards.
If my father didn’t force me to talk to Coach Nichols, I would have never done it. Not only did that open up opportunities with baseball, but it taught me one of the most valuable life lessons I’ve learned to date — It’s only failure if you quit. And I didn’t know it back then, but that lesson my father taught me as a teenager would put me on a path that forever changed my life.
. . .
Most people in the car business find their entry either because of family, or they dreamed of doing it. For me, it was neither. In fact, I got into the automotive industry on a bet.
In 1990, I left my hometown in Washington to go live with my brother and girlfriend in Phoenix, Arizona. After two months, my SO and I had depleted every dollar we had, and I knew we couldn’t keep mooching off my brother. We had to get jobs.
So, we made a bet that we’d leave the house together at the same time the next morning and see who could get a job first. At the time, she had a Toyota pick-up, and I had a Kawasaki Ninja 1000R. We started at 9 am on the corner of 17th Avenue and Bell Road, where my brother had lived at the time.
Not wanting to jump on the motorcycle, I opted to walk down the street and look around instead. I saw a 7/11, a bar, a tire store, a couple of other small businesses, and a Toyota dealership on the other side of the street.
I had never talked to a car salesman in my life before, but I needed a job and I liked Toyota, so I walked in.
A man named Elmer greeted me and we instantly hit it off. They decided to interview me that day and it went great. The last step of the process was I needed to meet with Elmer’s manager, Debby.
Debby was intimidating, to say the least. There were no smiles when she walked up.
Eventually, we sat down and our interview went surprisingly well. She told me they would give me a call the next day. On the way out, Elmer was saying, “You got this dude! Can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”
I was elated. I probably walked those two blocks back home in 10 seconds so I could be sitting proudly on the couch before my girlfriend got back home.
Three hours later, she opened the front door. I asked her how her day went and she told me she scored a second interview the next morning. I boasted that I had already been hired and my first day was tomorrow.
The next morning, I didn’t get a call from the Toyota store, so I decided to walk down instead.
When I got there, Elmer was acting differently from when I first met him. I told him I might have missed their call, and that’s when he pulled me to the side and told me Debby didn’t really like me. I hadn’t gotten the job.
“What? I already told my girlfriend I got a job,” I told him. He apologized and asked if he could refer me somewhere else.
I said no. Instead, I asked if I could speak to Debby.
When he finally got her, I said to her, “Thank you for interviewing me. I understand your decision, but I’d like an opportunity to get into the industry. If you don’t mind, I’d love to hang out here for the day and see how things happen. Do you mind if I sit and watch?”
She said, “That’s the strangest thing anyone’s ever asked, but fine.”
I hung out at Toyota Bell Road for 6 hours, walking around, talking with people, and learning about the vehicles. The whole time, Debby was watching me shaking her head. Around 4 pm, I walked back home and was greeted by my girlfriend asking me how the new job was.
“It’s fantastic. Best job ever, the people are so nice.” I said. Truthfully, I had zero plan on how to fix it. I had already told her I got it!
So, the next morning I did the same thing. Debby saw me approaching the store and asked what I was doing. I told her, “I hope you don’t mind, but I was fascinated yesterday. Would I be able to watch again today?”
She shook her head again but obliged. I spent the whole day there and went back home at 4 pm again.
Now, two days deep into telling my girlfriend about my new job — I really had no plan, but I thought if I kept doing the same thing, something would happen.
On the third day of going to Toyota Bell Road, Debby walked up to me and said, “If you’re going to come here every day, I might as well pay you.”
So, she gave me the job on the third day.
Not taking no for an answer, mixed with a tinge of stubbornness and genuine curiosity, earned me my first job in the car industry — which turned out to be a pretty good thing. What my Dad had taught me as a teenager proved to be the single most important thing I learned. It’s hard to imagine where my life would be had I left Toyota Bell Road that day and not come back.
Learning to not accept failure helped me immensely, and it’s not limited to my professional experiences. I always say I didn’t get a beautiful wife like Lorie by learning to take no for an answer. Of course, use this advice within reason.
