The Look

As I began brainstorming  for this post, I found myself inexplicably grinning with a wide grin on my face. Inexplicably, because as you dear reader, can surely imagine, 5AM wake ups with Clooney get difficult with the Fall’s later daybreaks. So what’s with the smirk you ask?

Perhaps it is residual happiness from the fun time I had yesterday golfing with my Godfather who I shared many memorable times my Grandfather with, but I can’t help but think of a classic “Grampy” story right now. Working in a 3rd generation family business means many things. Obviously, it means my Parents are my bosses and that I’m now the 3rd Jim Scott to peddle pet food.  And while I wish working in the pet food industry, or in sales in general was a genetic skill which I just naturally had; I’ll save you the suspense…not so much!

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have good relationships with both my father and grandfather, or Grampy. While I was lucky to spend a lot of time with him because of our mutual love of golf and have many great memories of time on the course with my namesake, some of the times I got to work with Grampy remain impactful today. I’m often reminded of some of these teaching moments when I walk the aisles of retail pet supply stores or spending time with my Uncle Jack who seems to have inherited quite a few mannerisms. Come to think of it, a day rarely goes by without a memory that brings a smile to my face from the times I would go on sales calls with Grampy. Just the other day, when pulling in to the Chiropractor’s office of all places, one such vivid memory crossed my mind…

I’ll never forget that morning, I was on a “sabbatical” from college and was lucky that my grandfather offered me a job while I figured out what I wanted to do. As long as I could remember Grampy wanted me to get into sales so it wasn’t surprising that for my first day of training we were making sales calls to a few accounts. As I pulled into that first retailer, parked, and got out the driver’s door; seeing my grandfather frozen in the passenger seat with that patented look of disappointment on his face had me quickly turning around to ask what was wrong?

“You can’t park here! This spot is for paying customers, I’ll go in after you move the car over there”, said Grampy pointing to the far corner of the lot. It’s funny how almost 20 years later that memory of his gentle admonishment accompanied by “that look” came to mind. After the Doctor came out to greet me and asked ,“Why did you parked over there, I didn’t even see you?”, I mentioned that day with my grandfather. We both had to chuckle when the Dr. pointed out that, “It’s ok to park in front, you are a customer here!”