For the record, I'm not afraid of making mistakes. If I like an idea and want to see something accomplished; I rarely hesitate to present them, sometimes directly in the face of adversity. I have come to expect the first responses I encounter to rarely be supportive. In fact, quite often the replies are at the polar opposite. That has resulted in a few difficulties in my life, but I'm still standing here.
My past career was in Pest Control. Serving clients with materials and technologies intent on killing things... invaders... bugs. Bringing my tools into someone else's private safety zone amounted to an invasion of my own. An invasion of mysterious chemicals and traps; presumably hazardous enough to remove the problem, yet supposedly applied safely and effectively. Gaining the trust of my clients through my knowledge and experience, I was able to alleviate fears and develop relationships.
My customers could rely on my performance, even when they didn't want to know the details. My return business response was extraordinary especially for a business where my job was to solve a problem for a client so that they didn't need me anymore.
I learned to trust my instincts; honed over years and years of providing those service solutions to people in their homes and businesses. I challenged the way materials were used and I challenged the customer experience. There were mistakes as I tested my theories, but through those trials I improved my company and my business relationships. Before I ended that career, we had developed a business model tailored to the needs of our returning customers. We were able to bring in more business than we could handle due to the customer satisfaction and promotion.
By challenging the known paradigm, we were able to build up and sell that valuable business in a manner that gave the company owners a satisfactory retirement, and for me, an opportunity to willingly change careers.
I'm doing something now that I've loved since my high-school days; software development. That change could have been a mistake too, a risky leap from a life I knew well for more than twenty-five years. Yet here I am eight years later still loving what I do for a living and remembering fondly the challenges I faced before, and the successes that came after.
I plan on making more mistakes. I'm not afraid. I'm empowered.
