The Search

Throughout my career in business, I've done many different jobs trying to find my strengths and improve my weaknesses.

One of those jobs was retail sales.

I worked at a globally known Canadian clothing store.

When I applied, I had no experience, so I was hired as a stock person.

My job was to receive the merchandise, sort it, and bring it out onto the sales floor.

The problem was, every time I went onto the floor I'd end up talking to a customer and making a sale.

It came naturally.

In fact, it came so naturally that after only two weeks my manager promoted me to full-time sales.

You could say I had it.

To put it into perspective, after my first ten months the person closest to me was more than $90,000 behind me in sales.

My manager used to call me a guarantee because if a customer walked through the door, I was almost guaranteed to make the sale.

The part I enjoyed most wasn't selling.

It was talking to people.

We were in a tourist area, so I made it a point to learn a few words in every language I came across just so I could surprise the next customer from that country.

One day, a man walked in, picked up a leather backpack, tried it on, put it back, and continued looking around.

We started talking, and he told me a story.

Fifteen years earlier, while he was in England, he'd found a backpack that fit him perfectly.

It sat exactly where it should. There was no discomfort on his back.

The only problem was the price.

It was eighty pounds.

So he left it behind.

For the next fifteen years, he'd been searching for another backpack that fit the same way.

He said his aunt used to tell him, "You won't know where the money went a year from now."

I've thought about that conversation many times over the years.

At the time, I thought it was a story about a backpack.

Looking Back, I Think It Was Really About the Search

Looking back, I think it was really about the search.

Sometimes we spend so much time looking for the perfect answer that we never allow ourselves to stop looking.

And sometimes, the cost of the search is greater than the price we were trying to avoid paying.

He bought other things that day.

But he didn't buy the backpack.