Old Sheldon

Hello everyone.

My first job after I left my parent’s house and lived on my own was for a toy wholesaler in Chicago. The owner of the business, Sheldon, had a showroom as big as a supermarket, paid well and was very demanding. There were two main salespeople when I started who both resigned on the same day Sheldon went on a trip to Asia to view new products. This situation immediately promoted me from warehouse worker to sales consultant.

As I mentioned, Sheldon was not an easy person to work for. Sheldon’s dad would sit at the entrance of the showroom everyday (Sheldon was about 60, so I figured his dad to be about 80). Sheldon’s dad would say things about customers (I don’t know what, but he would look directly at the customer and also complain about his colostomy bag in Yiddish) as they came in while planted in his wheelchair. I learned what the word meshuggeneh meant, and have used it in my vocabulary to this day.

Working for an independent businessman like Sheldon meant there was no HR department and no benefits (I did not even consider benefits in my early 20s). I could start work as early as 8am and work as long as until 11pm. I would also come in if needed on weekends (maybe I thought I was paid so well because I worked so many hours). After I was “promoted” (in the morning on sales, in the afternoon/evening in the warehouse) I was facilitated on how to make cold calls and contact former customers, running off the list of latest toys and prices in a manic, morning DJ -type voice. The latest Transformers robot, it’s two feet tall, shoots lazers and turns into a car, $150 a dozen!!! Barbie’s new dream house, it’s a condo and comes with her corvette and white poodle, $250 a dozen!!! Wilson basketballs with the purple/yellow Lakers colorway and signed by Magic Johnson, $75 a dozen!!! It was amazing to me how many sales I obtained back in the day without internet, YouTube or Instagram…just my voice. Sheldon had a short temper and would say things to me like “You need to lose some weight” in front of customers if he thought I was slow in getting a product from the showroom. One time Sheldon pulled out this old timey shotgun (it looked like a musket) and told me he was not afraid to use it if I ever looked side-eyed at him again (no HR department, folks).

Sheldon also drove me home every night if I stayed longer than 8pm, and would yell out loud, “Great job baby!” when he heard me complete a sale. I felt I was initially hired by Sheldon not based on the info in my resume as much as by the relationship I had with my parents that I discussed during my interview (Told him I was responsible for 50% of my college education, that my parents encouraged me to excel in school and respect elders).

Little did I know then that Sheldon’s training helped me to maintain careers from my 20s to my 50s. I have never been negatively affected during recessions, understood how it was important to, as Will Smith said, work while everyone else is sleeping, and have an ability to “think on my feet” no matter the type of work assigned – to access what needs to be dome immediately, and identify buying signs.
I urge you to tell your sons/daughters that if they feel defeated by life sometimes, that in that specific moment there may be the lesson that propels them to a desired future. Don’t be jealous of those who are doing well. Your time will come, just pay attention and realize that mistakes and negative results are also training tools. The world is looking for people who have better ideas, who can take an existing concept and improve upon it, and…I am truly serious when I say this…can be depended on for being on time to work. The amount of opportunities given to folks because they were in attendance while others were not is astounding. As they say in Shawshank, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” Thanks for reading.