When I was 20 years old, I decided to “take a semester off” from college and I found a full time job in retail store management. I was hired by the local JCPenney’s as the manager of sporting goods and hardware, when JCPenney used to sell that kind of stuff. I made minimum wage with some commissions on sales, and the highest commission was paid on rifles. Although I knew virtually nothing about rifles or guns in general, I learned enough to sell them and collect a commission. Apart from some required paperwork, there were two other rules to selling rifles, 1. Don’t sell to anyone who is drunk, and 2. Don’t sell guns and ammo at the same time.
On my days off, Brian O’Sullivan would cover sporting goods sales for me. He was happy to help out because he wanted to collect the “lucrative” gun commissions. According to Brian’s side of the story, (as it was recorded on the police report), there was a customer standing at the gun counter when Brian walked up. The guy asked to see a gun and Brian showed him a 30-06. The customer said that he liked the gun and wanted to buy it…he also asked if he could get some ammo (bullets) as well. Brian refused to sell the bullets at first, but the customer persisted. Since ammo was a commissionable item as well as the rifle, Brian looked around to see if any managers were nearby, but seeing none… he said, “Ok, no problem”.
Brian realized that the situation was going to get bad, when the customer drunkenly staggered away from the counter carrying the rifle and the bag of ammo. The customer didn’t appear intoxicated at the counter, but it was obvious that he was staggering drunk, as he managed to weave his way through the racks of JCPenney clothing. The drunken, gun toting customer made it to the back of the building before he started shooting. No, he didn’t shoot at anything alive, but he was very angry with some trees and a couple of aluminum cans on the ground.
About a week later, the gun racks were replaced with a bowling ball drilling machine. We made commissions on the sale of the $30 bowling balls, but it didn’t compare to the commission on the $300 guns.
The gun incident at JCPenney made me realize that to get a good job, I needed a good education. When you look back at life there are not a lot of times that you can identify a specific turning point, but this was one of those times. Although it would take several years of a “working, saving, attending school” cycle, I eventually completed my undergraduate and graduate education.
At B2BGateway, we thankfully don’t sell guns or bowling balls. We do have a minimum requirement of a 4 year college education for all employees. Some staff members have referred to the four year college degree as a corporate ante, which I think is an accurate representation. Obtaining a four year college degree shows that the individual has the perseverance to push on through. It shows they were able to overcome obstacles to attain a goal. Although my “taking a semester off” story is told here, I’m sure that our staff members all have stories of their own.
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