Pay Your Dues

For years I wanted to be the boss because I wanted to make the decisions. Whether I was appointed as a manager or I owned my own company, I have always sought positions of leadership.

Often times, I would trudge through the mundane on a regular basis to achieve something greater down the road.

When I started my graphic design career, I first sold my services during the day then produced the products at night. I then moved to a grunt position at Kinko’s in the graphic design department and was promoted to the graphics job manager. From there, I was hired as the department manger at IKON Office Solutions producing legal graphic work in Salt Lake City.

It took working through the work I didn’t like before I was able to achieve the position I wanted.

A few years later, I started working for a company in Boise, Idaho as a technology specialist. It was a job that required working side by side with the sales staff to sell our products. Although I enjoyed the job, I wanted to move up. Later that year I was promoted to sales manager and another year and a half later I was promoted to VP.

Then, I started my company, Tribute Media. Of course, everyone always says that ownership means you get all the freedom in the world and you never have to do the work you don’t want to do. Well, that’s not the case.

In my new company, I started at the beginning as the entry level employee… the only employee. I was fortunate that I had another company that handled the sales for me. However, I spent a lot of time building websites and managing the fulfillment. I had never run a Web company before so I developed processes, learned new systems and learned how to effectively manage contracts.

Day by day, I built my skill and built my company until I could finally create the position I wanted.

In each case, I was never hired directly into the position I thought was my potential. I had to work toward it.

Everyone has to pay his or her dues. Some will pay dues longer than others depending on the circumstances. But, everyone has to prove skill in one area first then advance. Those that try to take shortcuts almost always fail because they get ahead of their real ability.