This is just neat.
An Indian engineer who fled Sikh persecution became a car salesman in Canada. He became so good at it that he ended up running a dealership, then owning multiple dealerships.
Now a millionaire, he’s the only NBA fan ever to receive a championship ring and to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
RELATED: I learned earlier this year that the salesman who told me he was a “translator for the government” was a Yale linguistics grad who escaped the Iranian Revolution by posing as a protestor.
He has since retired. But his coworkers in Eastern Kentucky tell me he conversed in the native tongues of every restaurant they visited with him: Spanish, Mandarin, etc.
You just never know the past, or the potential, of the retail employees around you.
A lot of my work as a coach involves helping people recognize, and even tell, their stories.
I promise you: There is always a story.
One more:
I know a man whose father met his mother when he got out of prison for manslaughter. The father abused and pimped out his wife, then later shot his son point-blank range. The son ran away from home and had more tragedy and adventures than there are words to this article. He ended up in Vietnam. To have the courage to do what he had to do there, he imagined his girlfriend at the time looking down at the battle from a nearby hill. That kept him from cowardice. And he heard “Unchained Melody” in his head. That kept him calm.
Years later he worked his way up to become a car dealer. At the National Automobile Dealers Association meeting in Vegas, he went to a Righteous Brothers concert. In line waiting for his limo, he noticed that one of the Righteous Brothers themselves was next in line. He had the pleasure of walking up to the man and explaining to the artist his role in helping him survive Vietnam. The dealer told me tears streamed down the singer’s face.
I say again: You don’t know that humble retail employee’s past or potential. Or your own.
Go out today and treat the people around you accordingly.