was from a guy whose was one of my managers at a job I had a little while back. They had hired me to sell a new software product on a contractor basis, with a projected three-month term to be followed by an offer for a fulltime position if all went well. (At the time, I was delighted to be employed on ANY basis).
Well, all did not go well, mainly because the team who had decided on the pricing, licensing, and support structure for the product (before I arrived) got everything wrong. They were never going to be able to sell enough of the product to ever recoup their development costs, let alone turn a profit. All of which I was obliged to report to them, as I became aware of the facts.
So two months in, they came to me and said, thank you for all your good work, now beat it.
I was stunned. As I cleaned out my desk and got ready to turn in my laptop and badge, Rob - who had been my manager, technically, but who I rarely saw - stopped by and casually asked how everything was going. I said, Rob, didn't you know? I just got canned. He said, wow, I'm sorry, I hadn't heard.
A big part of why he hadn't heard was because he'd been out of the office a lot lately. Spending hours in the hospital every day with his youngest daughter, who was slowly dying of inoperable cancer.
And he said to me, just never give in to self-doubt.
Best cure for self-pity I've ever been given.
Well, all did not go well, mainly because the team who had decided on the pricing, licensing, and support structure for the product (before I arrived) got everything wrong. They were never going to be able to sell enough of the product to ever recoup their development costs, let alone turn a profit. All of which I was obliged to report to them, as I became aware of the facts.
So two months in, they came to me and said, thank you for all your good work, now beat it.
I was stunned. As I cleaned out my desk and got ready to turn in my laptop and badge, Rob - who had been my manager, technically, but who I rarely saw - stopped by and casually asked how everything was going. I said, Rob, didn't you know? I just got canned. He said, wow, I'm sorry, I hadn't heard.
A big part of why he hadn't heard was because he'd been out of the office a lot lately. Spending hours in the hospital every day with his youngest daughter, who was slowly dying of inoperable cancer.
And he said to me, just never give in to self-doubt.
Best cure for self-pity I've ever been given.
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