I came across a video from one of my mentors, Frank Kern and it really hit home with me.
It was based on the core belief that people flat out SUCK. I really resonated with this because I actually had the same belief as Frank. Once you watch the beginning of the video you will understand. It’s definitely worth your time because it will open your eyes to what may have been happening your whole life.
One thing that I really related with Frank with is the first jobs. I want you to think back on your first job and think about what you truly thought about it. Frank said his first job was as a gas pumper at a Marina. My first official job was as a dishwasher at a decent sized restaurant. I actually enjoyed the job mainly because I was surrounded by awesome people for the most part (we handled banquets and I didn’t have to deal with the angry customers).
However, this job lasted for a little while and I ended up getting another job later on which had more hours for me to work..once again, as a dishwasher. Once again not too bad of a job. It was my next job that really started shaping my belief about people and how truly miserable some people are. In NY state, you get a 5 cent deposit on soda cans, beer cans and a lot of recyclables. What my job was to basically have people bring in their cans to the beer distributor I worked for and I’d count up the cans to see how much money the person would get back and then I would write it on a piece of paper which would then be taken to the cash register and cashed out. Pretty simple, right?
Well…this is where I started to hate dealing with certain people. Some people were great, in fact I made a ton of friends and built a lot of relationships with adults through that job, and I actually got a ton of knowledge about how a business works. However, there were the few people who would come in and start complaining about everything, swearing at me and telling me how I failed to count up the correct amount of cans and was ripping them off. (Yes people think that I’d cheat them out of 20 cents or a dollar). They’d question my math and make me re-count things. This is where I developed my first system, 1 case = 24 cans = $1.20, 2 = $2.40 etc etc. 5 cases=6 bucks. Simple.
I don’t want to bore you with details but what happened was that I really started thinking the same thing as Frank, “people suck”. I carried this belief with me about certain people to my next job, clubhouse assistant at a country club and eventually even to a valet job where I parked cars. The country club helped to re-shape my beliefs, but the valet job gave me the same issues with people sucking…
Certain people would come out of the casino late at night, drunk, angry and just lost $500-$2,000 gambling and are flat out pissed off at me. Others would win and would give me a BIG tip which made me happy 
However, those people who lost would swear at me and tell me how I wasn’t doing my job right because their car wasn’t ready right when they walked out. Apparently valet attendants are supposed to have a sixth sense for angry drunks who want their cars, I lacked this skill.
One night I had enough. It was 1:45AM and I was to be off of work at 2AM. It’s a terrible thunderstorm and I can’t see the parking lot where the cars are parked from the entrance-way. I notice that there’s still 5 cars left and it’s getting closer to closing time and people should be starting to come out anytime soon. I start running down to bring the 5 cars up closer to the entrance so that people wouldn’t have to wait (another system).
At about 2:05AM, people start coming out and getting their cars. I got 3 of them up close and it was raining harder than ever. The 5 people left are all outside now waiting for me. I drove the 3 cars around so the people wouldn’t get wet and let the other 2 people know that it would be a few minute wait for me to get to their car and them. One person is fine with it, while the other starts SCREAMING and SWEARING at me. Whoa.
I’m not down with people screaming at me and it sure doesn’t make me want to help them any more.
It was after this night that I realized that people truly did suck. Over the past few months I have been working on changing this underlying belief that I had, and when I came across this video BAM. I found the root of the problem. Now I can begin to work on changing it.
In the comments below, I want you to share your job experiences and if you’ve had any similar experiences as me!
