"Not for Rehire": Lessons Learned from Failure

I keep reading that you learn more from your failures than your successes. That makes sense. If you’re succeeding at the level you want, you don’t really need to learn anything new—at least for the time being.

Many years ago in my walkabout stage of life, I was working three part time jobs to save money for a travel adventure. One of those jobs was as a high-pay-for-part-time-work UPS Pre-loader. This entailed being up at 4AM to take packages off a conveyer belt and load them into a UPS truck for delivery.

The driver for the truck I was responsible for loading kept complaining to the shift supervisor that I wasn’t stacking the packages right in his truck, and that they kept falling during his delivery run. I was doing the very best I could, but I couldn’t seem to get the load stacked the way the driver wanted it.

While this was frustrating, the real deal breaker for the job came one morning on the way to work when I fell asleep at the wheel of my car, hit a curb, and blew out one of my tires. I got to work late and immediately resigned.

The shift supervisor asked me to stay for another two weeks so he could train my replacement, but I declined because I felt some real urgency about making a change. I still remember him stamping “Not for Rehire” on my employee file, and that smarted a bit.

Major lessons learned: 1) While I’m very good at abstract thinking, I’m not very good at things requiring a strong grasp of spatial relationships. 2) You can’t beat the system—no amount of “trying harder” can overcome physical exhaustion. 3) Good pay won’t make up for ruining your health.

My experience has been that working “smart” by playing to your strengths while staying balanced are the keys to sustained success and happiness in life.

Don’t be a stranger. (770) 993-1129, tdockery@TheResolveFirm.com