The answers to life don’t come until later on, when you have proof of things you’ve sensed.
What worked, what didn’t…
The title of my post is kind of a summary of how it all worked together to make me an entrepreneur, and not someone who could sit in a loud chaotic office space and do work. I mean I could do it, I did it, at the largest ad agency in Pittsburgh in the 90’s.
In fact I’ve worked in a variety of places, some day I’ll make a list, but some main points of my “survival” have come from not fitting into environments that I was supposed to be creative in, and one of them included a whole lot of noise, all day long. One didn’t have windows and was hell to get to and park, street cleaning every other side of the street every week, which side, no pass just hit or miss, I had to keep a calendar in the car to park, got tickets, traffic was terrible. How in the world do people do this, all before work?? and then have a good day? to look forward to the traffic going home and the poor dog waiting…
I refrain always (in print 😅) from any personal judgements on personalities in ad agencies because I worked both full time, and on temporary assignments at many of them in Pittsburgh. Quite a few. The more stressful ones, we were all under stress and it was quite a ride, and sometimes we weren’t our best selves. 😜
True story, before that, I was offered a job at WPXI but turned it down. They started people out on the nightshift, the 11 o’clock news. So my job would have been to do the graphics for the news reels and they put you there and on the later night news until you proved yourself. (less viewers to see your boo boo’s) So the hours were 9 or 10pm to 5am or something like that. It paid a kind of low wage. I know, it could have been,… coulda shoulda woulda, but I never regretted that. Never once. The Brady Group? I think it was called at the time, offered me a job in production full time after temping there, but when I said I wanted to be a designer they (respectfully) said that’s not what we are looking for. Positions like that are pretty cut and dry. They loved my production work and said if you want that job it’s yours, but weren’t really after my potential for something else, which is great, I appreciated them, they were honest, so was I, we shook hands and wished each other well. My inner compass was something I couldn’t pinpoint but something drove me different directions.
There was this awesome thing back then, a Mac temp agency. Right up my alley. Granddaddy bought the first one, I know Mac’s… so I was consistently employed. I went everywhere, in agencies, one company that only did book translations so I sat and laid out books in multiple languages, books for C-pap machines and many others. They had someone from every country coming in there to translate so I was laying out books in languages in Pagemaker that I couldn’t even understand. No eastern languages, European and Spanish, I believe they all used our same alphabet. Anyway, talk about making something boring (catalog page layout) interesting. I learned a few foreign words, but forgot them. I was offered a full time job there later on but that was not where I was headed, desktop publishing. The manager was awesome, the environment, great people, one chick rolled in from weekends off of adventures and did the same as me, got the work done and ran out to go have fun.
It was smack downtown Pittsburgh so there was all of that… dang that commute digs into your free time for hiking and boating… (unless your friends keep their boat on the north side and you walk there after work… another true story, learned to water ski after work under the bridges in downtown Pittsburgh during the week when “no wake” hours were not enforced. We watched as people overhead walked on the bridges in their suits.)
I digress.. the quieter places, organized and efficient, the people weren’t stressed, those were the places I felt safe, most productive, and just useful in general.
One of those places included Robert Morris University’s marketing department. I worked there on site through a temp agency for many months. It was run by the most efficient manager that I’ve maybe ever worked with. She was respectful, organized beyond words, I got a lot done in a day, with no stress at all related to that job. At all. When my time there was up, she continued to hire me later on for assignments that I did from home as a freelancer. I have a box of things in the portfolio from just that one client…
Another place was a small printer, Pip Printing I think it was called, run by a husband and wife. We did all types of projects, it was a quick print place that did business cards, posters, you name it, and showing up there was actually like going to visit with family all day long, talking while being productive, nicest people ever, always offering me life advice as they were older and very happy together, which came through.
Many places the people were great, smart, “healthy”, the work was interesting enough, and when I left work I felt sufficiently whole, good about the work, balanced, as in I wasn’t spending my days working on the back of a pharmacy bag, written and re-written over and over for a large chain drug store; a waste of time in my big picture.
As an entrepreneur looking back on what used to feel like a “detriment” which is the inability to “play the game” whatever that is, (ok it’s where you have to kiss @$$ to people above you who are mean spirited, frankly stupid or just …. put up with other things… ) in order to keep your job. When you go home, your stomach hurts. Your dreams become violent, well that’s your gut. Mine came physically literally in the form of stomach aches which I can now say immediately disappeared (not just from a job from other things in life that needed to go, too). I follow my gut, and quickly get away from people who don’t understand that and try to move me another direction.
I really hated leaving my dog at home. Quite frankly, that was the reason.. the real reason. If I told anyone that they would think I was crazy. But I got a taste of it, at one full time job in Monroeville, the owner let me bring my dog to work. Another place on the strip, Electronic Images, the owner had me come in on a weekend, thanked me profusely for taking extra time (respect), said to bring my dog!! (yay!) and his wife even fell in love with my dog which I heard about for awhile and loved. I needed an animal with me all day long. Still do.
I walked away from loud environments, literally, with no support, because I “had a good job” what the heck was I doing?
The answer: Trying to get back my health. Balance. Integrity. My life.
Own your time or others will steal it. Own your voice or others will write for you. Follow your gut.
Turns out I’m an introverted empath. I could have actually worked in environments with others, if all of the stars had lined up. Some places, some people, brought out my “best self” and others didn’t. I already knew that my gut feelings were not to be ignored by then.
Maybe it’s good I didn’t fit. It forced me to do the hard thing, live on gig work. Project after project, they have beginnings and endings. Clients come and go, companies open and close, but through it all, you have met every type of person there is. Shared a dream with them and tried to help them get there.
And you were able to do it, maybe because being an empath gives you more powers than you realize.
