Leaving the Air Force for the "real world", I had to find a job and quickly. I read a book Customers for Life by Carl Sewell. He described a world of selling cars that I found appealing. I found out much later that maybe he was seeing his world through rose colored glasses, but one of his principles was not to work somewhere that acted like a circus.

This was 1991, and you had to visit in person back then. The first dealership was noisy and had balloons, so I moved on. The next one met in a hotel conference room, seemed very professional. I wasn’t smart enough to realize the dealership itself might not be so professional. Guess what? It was very noisy, and they had balloons too.

My manager's name was Bubba, and Bubba had a lot of wisdom to share with his new pupil. One of the first rules in selling cars is you must turn over a prospect to the manager before you are allowed to let them leave.   The higher-pressure car lots were very serious about this rule.

My first day on the job, my first prospect, and I let the man get in his truck and leave without telling Bubba. Now to know Bubba is to love Bubba, but he isn't easy to get to know. He cornered me and "politely" ask why I hadn't introduced the client to him before the guy left. I said the guy was an asshole. I was about to get the first of many lessons. Bubba said, "OK. You tell me one guy is an asshole, then he's an asshole, but if you tell me 4 or 5 people are assholes, and I begin to wonder, 'Who's the asshole?'" As odd as this lesson might seem, it has served me well. I'm a little slower to judge fearing I might earn a well-deserved label from Bubba.