Well, I did it. Thursday I quit selling cars. I'd had enough. Sticking it out for four months was about the limit of my endurance. I knew going into it that the hours would suck. They in fact did. They brought new meaning to the word suck; and brought my quality of life to a whole new depth of suckitude.
I wasn't satisfied with my level of sales, but I wasn't upset with my presentations either. Sometimes, people just don't want to buy a car. Unfortunately, Adam, my manager, didn't see it that way. While I had three...count em THREE customers in the showroom, he pulled me into a back office and proceeded to tell me (not to put me down, of course) that I essentially sucked at selling cars and needed to start training all over or else I should switch jobs, etc.
This coming from someone who redefines the term asshole on a continuous basis. Look up the word Kaizen. That's what he brings to being an asshole. Well, regardless, I sucked it up, went out, sold a car and fought like hell for another one. The third customer was way too far upside down to buy anything, but they left happy.
So I drove home and stewed on what happened. Then I did the math. I made 900 dollars last month. I worked about 70 hours a week. Doing the math told me I made about 3.23 an hour. All of that so I could piss away what little I did make in gas to do the 120 mile daily commute, never see my family, and listen to Adam's shitblast.
I decided Thursday morning I was done. I talked it through with Kelly, and she agreed. I HATE to give up a paycheck, but I felt as if the toll it was taking on my family was far too great. I can find another paycheck, but I can't replace the time with my family.
The past few days we've taken the kids to the park, let Jack run and play, and have just been catching up on being a family. I honestly didn't realize how much I missed it. Kelly and I spent a good part of the morning discussing how to get my web design business off the ground, which I think will at least help supplement whatever income I find here shortly. Anything's got to be better than what I was bringing in after working those ungodly hours. I'm actually really excited about doing websites. More so than I've ever been, and I'm much more serious about it than I've ever been. I'm not world-class yet, but I have some skills that I can offer to people at a pretty reasonable price and still make some halfway decent money at it. It's about time I did something I enjoy.
Tomorrow, I'd like to work on getting some business type stuff done, and I need to call the General Manager from the dealership who called to inquire what happened with me. He's a nice enough guy, and I owe him a call back. I'm moving on to greener pastures now though. This morning I got up, went out to get some OJ, came home, fired up the laptop and worked for about 5 hours. It just felt right. I can do this, I know it.
