zzzzzz! Bzzzzzz! Bzzzzzz! I reached over and silenced my alarm. I wasn’t looking forward to what I had to do. I was dreading it.
To catch you up, a couple of years ago, I (Doug) had a job as a door-to-door sales representative for T-Mobile. I’ve done a lot of hard things in life, but this job was on another level. I would dress in a suit every day and walk door-to-door, unannounced, and pitch T-Mobile’s cell phone service to business owners. We had no business cards to give out and no ID. If you wanted to call us, you couldn’t because we weren’t allowed to give out our cell phone numbers. Sounds insane right? How would anyone be able to sell anything with so many barriers like that?
Somehow, in some way, I was able to overcome all the objections and obstacles. There were multiple weeks where I placed in the Top 10 in the nation for sales. I got a $1,000 prize for placing second in a national sales contest. We bought a SUV with that prize money because my other car had died that same week. It was an amazing accomplishment. The success felt good. What didn’t feel good were the sleepless nights, the constant anxiety, and the unhealthy work-life balance.
About 5 months into the job I got sent out on a business trip to Orlando. The goal: T-Mob take over in O-Town! I was not very excited, but I had to do whatever it took to make money. For a whole week, I went door-to-door in Orlando and sold T-Mobile. I closed sales, but I wasn’t happy, especially after what happened one of the mornings.
We had just wrapped up our morning meeting and we were all heading out to our cars. I got on the elevator and as the doors were closing I heard the cutest little girl voice shout, “Hold the elevator!” A little girl got onto the elevator with her family. She had a princess dress on and Mickey ears. It was pretty cute. As the elevator went down, her dad asked her if she was excited to see a princess. The little girl giggled with excitement and the mom and dad looked at each other and smiled. It was a sweet family moment…for them.
I was screaming on the inside, hating the fact that I had to drive out to a crappy part of Orlando to try and sell cell phones and get thrown out of businesses all day long. At that moment, I remember saying to myself, “This is all going to be worth it. I’m doing this so that one day I can take my family to Disney World.” I had no idea when that day would happen, but I knew it would.
Fast forward three years and guys, my dream came true! We just got back from an epic five days of magic at Disney World. It was amazing. It is something that I will forever cherish. All the laughs, the hugs, the waking up too early because everyone is excited.
The whole point of this Real Talk blog is to show you that dreams do come true, as long as you never give up on them. I’m not here to tell you it’s easy to make dreams come true. It’s not. It’s hard as hell. You’ve got to make sacrifices. You’ve got to have tenacity. If you keep pushing and fighting for your dreams, I promise they will come true. It may not be tomorrow, next month, or even next year. Keep dreaming and keep going. As my daughter’s favorite princess sings, “No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.”
It’s Cinderella. Just in case you’re not up to date on your Disney princess lore.
