hip hop affirmation day 13

hip hop affirmation: there are no defeats, only lessons

Tweet This: “But I will not lose for even in defeat there’s a valuable lesson learned so it evens it up for me,” Jay-Z (Blueprint 2)

Rather listen than read?  Here you go:

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/204238462″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Imagine having a winning raffle ticket and only 24hrs to redeem it. During that same time you decide to upgrade your internet system so you never get the email that you are the winner.  You lost on a technicality.

Well here is my lost on technicality story and I hope it never happens to you.  In fact this should help to prevent it from happening to you… I hope.

Let me set the stage a little for you. 

I spent the first year of my son’s life at home with him.  I worked Freelance gigs to help bring in some dough but it wasn’t anything that was going to help me retire my wife or anything like that.  

While doing my work I’ve come to the realization that the community / audience I want to serve are college students and young professionals of color.  I have a program I’m building but I’m not opposed to working for a company who has the same audience. 

Mind you there are very few brands that have me say, “Hey, I’ll stop what I’m doing and jump on with you.”

A good buddy of mine, Andre Blackman, told me about a company and position that had me ready to say, “Hey, I’ll stop what I’m doing and jump on with you.”

It’s been years since I wrote a resume and cover letter but I pulled together the necessary resources to brush up on what was needed, got a second set of eyes to read it and applied for this position. 

A day later I get an email to set up the first interview on the phone.  We have the interview, everything goes well.  At least “I” think so and I’m told they will follow up with me by Friday (the interview was on a Tuesday).

A week goes by and I don’t hear from them so I follow-up.  Two weeks go by and I still don’t hear from them so I follow-up again.  All of this is by email.  Three weeks go by and I get a phone call that goes something like this,

“I’m giving you a call because I got your last message about wanting to know the status of the position.  I emailed you right away but could tell you didn’t get the message.

We emailed you the day after the first interview for a 2nd round interview but when we didn’t hear from you we figured you weren’t interested.  I also emailed you after I got your other message.  We considered you one of our top candidates.  I’m sorry, but the position has been filled.  We made an offer to someone else and they accepted.  We have your resume on file and we will be hiring for other positions in the future.”

Not a easy message to deliver or an easy one to receive.

Once we got off the phone I jumped into troubleshooting mode and started looking at the email chain between me and the company.

I checked the email address I sent message from and everything looked ok.

I checked the email address that received message from them in the pass and there lied the problem.  

You know how you are told to have a professional email address when it comes doing work or business (more so work).  Well, I thought my “Ambassador Bruny” email may not be professional enough so I created a “Mike Ambassador Bruny” email and linked it to my gmail account….or so I thought. 

The account was linked to my gmail alright, it allowed me to send messages from the account but all the emails that were sent to that address went into an independent inbox. 

You can imagine my horror when I checked that independent inbox to find the messages that were sent to me from the company.  Darn, I was beat by a technicality.  I fixed it now, but it cost me dearly.  

Here is what you can do so you don’t “f” up like me

1. Check, double check and triple check when you make a change to your usual routine.  Sending a couple of test messages would have told me that the account wasn’t set up correctly.
2. After you screw up, don’t give up.  Stay connected to the company and look for opportunities down the line. Yep, I’m gonna send them a handwritten note.
3. Get your mind right and remember that there is probably a reason why you didn’t get the gig.  Maybe there is something bigger coming your way or maybe this really wouldn’t have been a great fit.  Of course, you could think about it in a negative light, but how is that gonna help?

but wait there’s more

There is another part to this thing that I hesitate to write about.  That is to ride the wave of emotions.  Capture it on paper or in a blog post.  What’s true there?  What is your emotional state pushing you to do that otherwise would not be done in your sane and safe state of being.  I mean all of this is a positive way.  We are usually told not to do things when we are emotional.  I challenge you to look at what it there when you are emotional.  You may come up with some good stuff. 

Personally,  it’s about declaring my focus on working with college students and young professionals of color.  It’s bringing my framework to colleges and corporations to see who wants in, instead of just taking a position that is open.

That’s all for now and it’s probably enough for now.  

Remember the affirmation, there is no defeat, only lessons.

I got two last things for you:

1. Don’t just listen to music, leverage it and

2. Run the Point (take action) from where you are, with what you have.  What I got right now is a message to get it moving.  So do you. 

Want to keep the conversation going?  Let’s do it in the Facebook Group

Peace.