Do you like the industry you work in or do you actually hate it? What don’t you like? Can you do anything about it?
I have a couple of stories – mine!
I sold promotional products for about eight years in the 1990’s. These are items that have a logo such as t-shirts, pens and cups. I hated the industry.
I didn’t wear or use the imprinted items myself. Also, I didn’t care about getting you 1,000 pens to be given out at a trade show! It just didn’t seem like work that was very important in the world.
Also, my husband and I owned an independent auto repair shop for 20 years. I really hated that industry! Many people came in very skeptical, assuming that we might try to rip them off. That gets really old over time. It is hard to run an honest business in an industry with a bad reputation.
So, what did I do?
For the promotional products, I created an environmental division of our company that is still in place. The California Division of Recycling did a lot of public education. Remember this was the early 1990’s. But they were using “virgin” plastic for things like key chains and frisbees.
I introduced the new availability of items that were made from recycled materials. Then their public education message aligned with how they were doing it.
I figured out how to stay in the industry, but found a different way to work that was more fulfilling.
For the auto shop, there really wasn’t a way to get out of it because it was a family business. We could have gotten a divorce (not an option), but eventually we sold it.
The challenge was that I had to just suck it up and do my best to keep a good attitude over a long period of time. Ugh.
If you are in an industry that you don’t like, and you are not sure of what else you can do, schedule a free call with me and we can discuss. I can help you put together a plan.
