Imagine yourself working for 15 years, taking shit from everyone, working for assholes that feel threatened by gnat farts, politics that make you want to jump off a bridge while blowing yourself up at the same time, and working 90 hours a week.

Oh wait; that’s all of us.

Then, imagine, all of a sudden, after 15 years in the industry, someone calls you out of the blue, is everything you would ever want in a manager, has no threat issues, thinks that you can make a huge profit impact on their company, and wants to put you in a position where you have not only the responsibility, but the power to affect change.  Imagine it’s the job you always wanted, doing everything you always wanted to do, and takes advantage of all of your strengths.  And imagine that it’s someone else that recognized this in you, sight unseen.

Imagine that this person wants to take you from being a grunt at the bottom of the org chart of your professional life to the inner sanctum of the C-level arena in a global company spanning the US, South America, and EMEA.  Imagine that this person says to you, “If you can make money off of it, innovate and make it happen.  We will back you if the C/BA pans out. ”  Imagine this person telling you that your job is to not only do the cool stuff, but to innovate, develop relationships with other companies worldwide, come up with fantastic new and innovative solutions to provide customers, build those prototypes, and get them to market.  Then imagine that person telling you that if it sells, you run that division.  Imagine that person telling you that basically, you can do whatever you want as long as it makes money.

Then imagine that the company is legitimate.  It’s not one of those email scams that you get.  Imagine that this company has been around for a long time, has a proven track record, and this is a real opportunity; not a fake stupid email one.

Then you wake up.  And you realize that really happened. 

Then imagine that the company says, “What’s your dream compensation”?  And you tell them, and they make that happen, with commission on top of that…

Welcome to my world.  I think I am in bizzarro world.  For the last five weeks, this has been happening in my life, finally to come to fruition in a couple of weeks.  I didn’t even seek out this endeavor; I was sought.

For the first time in my life, I sit here telling myself, “I’m not that special.  Why did she pick me?  From 500 resumes, and I didn’t even submit?  How did this happen?  How did I go from grunt consultant to the inner sanctum, in one fell swoop?  Are people really wanting to listen to what I have to say?  What makes this woman so sure I have this much to offer?   DO I have this much to offer? ”

I have always been confident in my professional abilities my whole life.  Until now.  Now, I find myself scrambling again for the books.  Not the technical books this time, however.  The business books.  The books about the psychology of human behavior; reading body language; negotiation; sales (yes, sales.  I know.  Your eyes are bleeding, if you know me very well).  All of those things that I never studied in college.  My colleagues at this company went to Harvard for their BBAs and MBAs.  I went to 230 different universities during my moving constantly, and never graduated.  To boot, I have 90 hours toward software engineering; NOT business.

So, my question to you folk is; have you ever found yourself in a position professionally where you think to yourself, “Oh my god.  I finally got what I want.  Do I have what it takes?  Do they know something about me that I don’t know?  How do they know I will be able to do this?  How come they want to listen to me, when no one else wanted to listen to me?  How did this happen?  I got what I want.  What am I going to do now??? Shit.  I have to change my goals.  I reached them”.

Don’t worry.  I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and position.  I am ecstatic.  I am waiting for someone to pinch me and wake me up.  I can’t believe this is happening to me.  I fear failure.  But I am also a calculated risk-taker, and I have nothing to lose by busting my ass and proving them right about me.

BTW, have any of you had to have multiple business cards with different titles, because you do so many things that it can’t be summed up in one title?  I am going to have to have about four different cards… Not per me; per my boss.  And OMG, I am reporting directly to the SVP who oversees practically everyone in the entire company.  WTF?  How do you go from GRUNT to that?????

Thanks for reading.