Game changers are defining moments. Over a lifetime we encounter many people, events, and opportunities that are highly influential on the development of our interests, motivations, and behaviors. By examining the amusing motivational story of one individual we can begin to analyze and understand the causes of our own behavior. Some encounters are game changers that alter our lives.
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Sample Game Changer |
...When Trellis learned that I’d delayed the move, he called me into his messy office with its mountains of files and piles of paperwork covering his desk. When I told him why I’d done it, he screamed, “I told you to move those fucking assholes out yesterday, what’s wrong with you?” He followed up with a full-circle Sandy-Koufax-level windup to an arm sweep across the desk. Every single piece of paper and the telephone crashed to the floor. I told Trellis we would finish the conversation later and walked out. It was my thirty-eighth birthday and almost Christmas Eve. I wanted to get home before midnight.
The CBD debacle came to a head during the spring of ’94. While conducting employee benefit meetings, I deliberately disobeyed Trellis. As part of a benefit plan conversion, he wanted me to advise employees to invest their 401(k) assets into a shoddy investment plan run by one of his buddies. While finance wasn’t my forte, the motivation for the change seemed sketchy at best. After I conducted the first meeting, Trellis told me I should be more persuasive in influencing where and how employees invested their prior 401(k) contributions, which in some cases amounted to several hundred thousand dollars. According to established federal law, my role as a plan fiduciary obligated me to provide employees with unbiased information and not unduly influence investment decisions while upholding the federal regulations covering employee benefit plans. Trellis couldn’t care less about my ethical obligations. He warned me to conduct the remaining meetings the way he wanted or it would be a big problem for both of us. To avoid another Trellis temper tantrum, I agreed, but I lied. I wasn’t about to conform to his twisted demands. I conducted the next meeting the same as I had the first, but it was only a matter of time before Trellis found out that I had disobeyed his orders. I waited for a call from Trellis as I boarded my flight to L.A. with my longtime friend and investment advisor Reagan Ford, who was accompanying me to conduct the Los Angeles meetings. We settled into our first-class seats and made our escape from New York before Trellis found out that his dastardly plan had been foiled. We knew we were heading for a Wild West–style ambush. When we arrived at the Casa del Mar, our elegant 1920s beachfront hotel, the desk clerk handed me a message that read “DO NOT CONDUCT ANY MORE MEETINGS. RETURN TO NEW YORK IMMEDIATELY. Trellis.” Ford and I pondered our predicament and the meetings scheduled for the following morning with the Los Angeles staff. After downing a few martinis, we decided to ignore the note and go to the local office the following morning. When we arrived, the local VP was waiting and informed us the meeting had been cancelled. I was instructed to call Trellis, who told me I was fired for insubordination. Since our return flight wasn’t for another two days, Ford and I elected to stay. It was like a scene from a John Grisham novel—we were constantly looking around, feeling as if we were being followed and that any moment could be our last. We had two days of sunburn, paranoia, and inebriation before the flight back to New York and a meeting with Trellis the next morning. He offered me six months of salary, executive outplacement, and a positive reference in exchange for a signed agreement that included a gag order prohibiting me from ever disclosing the details of my termination and of that tumultuous year at CBD. Bucking Trellis was probably the easiest decision I ever made, despite its potentially grave consequences. Perhaps I should have feared the unknown, but I felt comfortable with my decision and confident about my future. I walked out of CBD mostly unscathed, with my ethics intact and $40,000 in my pocket. I felt again like I was in control of my destiny. I had been paid off because I refused to compromise my beliefs: it was unconscionable and unethical to deliberately deceive my coworkers. I had no job, but I realized that I actually had more security. Now I could rely on myself and invest my time and effort into developing my consulting business without the distraction of full-time employment. Working for myself, I would be less vulnerable to the whims of a distant corporate executive or a maniacal boss. If I failed, it was my fault—there would be no one to blame. I felt liberated. Getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to me. Trellis’s campaign for power and control taught me a valuable lesson, one that I couldn’t have learned in any school... |
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