Career – Making Your Way

Listening to Woman by John Lennon and thinking of one of those transformational moments in life.

Career life.

A total neophyte I was part of a district that supported Automotive OEMs and their supply chains. 

After years of experience and education I became an international supply chain expert.

 Regarding the OEM I was part of what became known as the GM C4 program.

This was back in the day of beepers.

As part of the effort to prove my mettle I was handed my very first beeper on a Friday afternoon and told there was a good chance it would go off in the middle of the night after which

I had to call the number

I probably had to follow instructions lest millions of dollars per hour would be lost – by our customer.

Oh – and if I had to go on-site?  Bad part of town.

Leroy Brown anyone?

The irony – unlike my colleagues who tended to be 15 – 25 years older – I’d spent a good deal of my childhood in the “bad part of town.”

Wasn’t so bad “back then.”  Those days came after Colman Young chased everyone – including the job providing corporations – to the suburbs – which happened when I was 4 – 6 years old. A witness.

My Heart – Detroit

Unlike my colleagues I wasn’t afraid to go to Detroit.  Still – stupid to send me there at 2 – 3 in the morning to walk by myself to the parking lot GM reserved for “Vendors.”

Surprised they didn’t put us in the dumpster.

It was a 2 – 3 block walk in the dark.

In the “bad” part of town.

There’s a WRIF Drew and Mike go round about this that is insightful – about needing tennis shoes so you could run from your car to your office in a manner that gave you a chance to outrun the muggers.

Sure Enough

As the moon was dark.

My beeper went off at 2am.

I was 22.

I rolled from bed, called the number, confirmed the system was down.

They would lose – as I understood it – $100 million an hour for every hour they were down.

This is global supply chain.

I promised I would be on-site as soon as I got dressed – they knew I’d been asleep – confirmed with my colleague who would meet me at “the parking lot.”

Asphalt patch of space 2 – 3 blocks from GM HQ downtown Detroit.

It was raining.

Typical Michigan March.

The colleague who was to meet me beeped so I called – agreed to the location.  He was adamant I understood the exact location which meant at 2:35 am I had to explain why I knew downtown Detroit better than any of my older suburbian coworkers.

Including him – who lived in Milford and had just cleared a bunch of trees from his newly purchased lot to build his McMansion.

Made It

Though I brought my own umbrella – it was pouring – he showed up on the asphalt with an umbrella – escorted me to the GM building.

The Elevator

We shut our umbrellas – checked in with the guard who seemed antsy – about me.  When we got on the elevator my coworker instructed me to look up at the corner.  Apparently there was a camera.  He said, “It’s so if someone on the elevator assaults you…”

Oh just yay.

The Lab

He walks me to a chair – I’m … a mental confusion mess – asks if he can bring me coffee.

Coffee?  I don’t drink coffee.

Not until after I became a sleep deprived parent decades later.

I only started to feel human once I recognized the “stuff” on the VJ290.

That’s a computer monitor from the past for those of you just joining us.  Before WYZYWYG.

I don’t think the decision makers in terms of my career thought I had what it took before that night and they’ve moved on but I can be proud because I did good.