Stairwell

This morning, in Hickory, I helped one of my agents with a meeting with one of their clients. (Wow -- lots of prepositions in that sentence. I really need to start doing a better job editing...) After the meeting, we walked down the stairwell, and a memory hit me so very hard... I wished I had my camera with me and I wasn't going to go get it and come back in, but it was so very strong that I think I gasped.

My co-worker had been talking to me about walking stairs and noticed I'd stopped. Then, I started walking down, and reflected about why it was that place has struck me so... a little over a year ago, I truly felt I was flailing around professionally (and personally, but I'm focused on professionally here) and didn't know where I fit. Chris had asked me to go to the meeting and had "sold" me pretty heavy to our partners there... Frankly, they were skeptical and had some fear, and has expressed their own doubt that I could perform in a sales role. They weren't the only ones... I really had begun to fear for my job, and couldn't deal emotionally with one more thing in that terrible year.

I walked out of that meeting the person I am today. I had found a footing, a skill I never confidently felt I could carry forward. I changed perceptions and accomplished the goal of getting the interest of this prospect and moved toward closing the sale. And I had done it largely on my own. And coming out of the meeting a year ago, and walking down those stairs with these friends who now had a completely different appreciation for what I could do to help... it changed that aspect of my life.

And I remembered the pride, and the relief, that I had done what I was capable of doing, and proving myself to people I admire and looked up to in that way.