The Power of Your Words

Have you ever been in a job you didn’t like? I can relate.

After finishing graduate school at Johns Hopkins Graduate School of Business, even though I was working for the government in the greater Washington, D.C. area while going to school, I had little to no money. Graduate school was expensive and I was working part-time to accommodate my crazy schedule of completing a two-year Master’s degree program in one year (and during all of that I somehow wrote and published a book through a publisher, but because I was a newbie to the publishing process I didn’t know how to optimize my marketing spend. Good learning experience).

Right as I finished the degree, my contract role for the government came to a close. The contract role was a great fit for me and I had incredibly kind managers, but I needed a full-time role so I made the decision to return to my home state of Connecticut. On literally my last tank of gas, I landed a job working for a hedge fund in Greenwich, CT, considered to be the wealthiest town in the United States of America. Living the dream, right?

Far from it.

The Biggest Lie I’ve Ever Been Told

I’ve been lied to before. We all have at some point or another, haven’t we? But this tops them all. In the interview for the business analyst position at the hedge fund, they told me that I would be doing 90% analysis and 10% computer programming. I can handle 10% of a job being computer programming, but no more than that, because at heart I’m not a computer science guy.

I directly told them that in the interview. They looked me in the eyes and promised me the job would be no more than 10% computer programming.

Great, right?

Well, it would have been great, but I was full-out lied to. The job turned out to be all computer programming. Not 95%. Not 99%. Not 99.99%. It was 100% computer programming.

(Quick yet important sidebar: I learned the hard way that you are vetting out a company as much as a company is vetting out you. Don’t ever forget that you are weeding out potential companies just as much as companies are weeding out potential employees. The problem was that I was in a desperate financial position and needed money. But even given my finances, I wouldn’t have taken the job if they told me the truth in the interview).

A testament to the severity of the situation: my dad has been programming computers for more than thirty years and is a genius when it comes to robotics and medical devices. One weekend day, when I showed him what I was being asked to do, he looked at me with a crooked and disbelieving smile and said, “Jeff, even I don’t know how to program at the level that’s being asked of you.”

At first, I thought it was some kind of joke. But months rolled by and I was given task after task that I had no clue how to approach. I went to my boss multiple times, but he didn’t seem to think it was a big deal and the situation didn’t change. I did all I could to learn how to program but it wasn’t what I went to graduate school for! To this day, I have no idea why they hired me.

Why I Was Feeling Down

I’m not one to easily feel down. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, I’m a go-getter and everyone who knows me would say that about me. But you have to understand the whole point of me going to graduate school was to avoid having to take a job I didn’t like. So I decided to spend $80,000 on a Master’s degree in order to increase my value in the marketplace. Yet here I was in Connecticut at a job I disliked more than any other job I had in Maryland!

For the record, some of the jobs I had while in Maryland before going to graduate school (and not including the awesome contract role I already mentioned above) were fantastic stepping stones and I’m forever grateful for the job and life experience I was offered in addition to the friends I made. I’m speaking in terms of a general career progression to convey the setback I was experiencing.

Forget about two steps forward, one step back. I was experiencing one step forward, seven steps back.

I’m all for making a change when something isn’t working, but I was at a point in my working life where enough was enough. Working at this hedge fund, I got anxious and depressed. I wondered daily,

Is this all there is? Am I destined to work a job I’m miserable in for the rest of my life?

This real world stuff was harder than I initially thought it would be. I developed a newfound appreciation for both those who struggled and those who made it big.

Everyone knew me to be happy and energetic, but I was losing that spark that made me quintessentially Jeff Davis.

Desperate, close to giving up the search for something better, I read a blog post that changed my life.

An Excellent Blog Post

At lunch one day, feeling pretty morose, when my boss wasn’t looking I checked my email. In it was a post from Jeff Goins called The Biggest Lie We Believe About Influence. In this blog post Jeff makes a statement about throwing away “someday” and “if only” by deciding to stop waiting for permission and step into our greatness.

Here’s the blog post: The Biggest Lie We Believe About Influence.

My situation didn’t instantly change, but it did cause me to dramatically shift my mindset. And that made all the difference in the world. I decided to compete in the Toastmasters International Speech Competition when just the night before I’d made a firm resolution to not compete.

This contest gave my life meaning and purpose at a time when I felt all was lost. And I took Jeff’s words to heart – instead of waiting for a platform, I went out into the world and created one.

The Transformation

Guess what happened? I not only won at the club, area, and competitive division level, but I went head to head with the best speakers across Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts and won first place at the District Regional contest. From there, I was sent to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to speak in front of thousands (see picture above) and nearly became the youngest speaking champion in the history of the world.

On top of that, I took full and complete responsibility for my job search with renewed vigor and ended up finding my dream job working in digital analytics, a field that combines my skills in marketing and analytics. It also gave me important skills for my burgeoning career as an author, such as Facebook advertising, Google Adwords, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Quickly jumping down the rabbit hole, I’m now a paid professional speaker who has spoken internationally across three different continents. Amazing how one tiny decision can change your entire life, isn’t it?

“Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things.” – Bruce Barton

The Power of Your Words

There is enormous power in your words, in your ability to take action and inspire others. Even when you don’t think or feel like anyone is paying attention, you are making a difference. Even when you feel like no one is watching your YouTube videos, there are lives you are changing with your message. Even when you feel like your efforts are pointless, they are far from it. You are more powerful than you ever could have possibly imagined. Stop waiting. Take daily action and slowly but surely step into the life you are meant to live.

I get the grind. I get the struggle. I get feeling down. But even while unplanned, unexpected, and unfair things are happening to you, you can choose to take your power back by focusing on what’s under your control. You can find meaning and purpose even during really weird situations. Take it one day, one step at a time, and you will move mountains – I promise.

I’m consciously choosing to make progress. And at any day, any time, any moment, so can you.

See you at The Mountaintop.

Jeff Davis, CEO of Jeff Davis International, is an author, speaker, coach, consultant, philanthropist, and world traveler. Check out his book, Reach Your Mountaintop: 10 Keys to Finding the Hidden Opportunity in Your Setbacks, Flipping What You’ve Heard on Its Head, and Achieving Legendary Goals in which he features his discussions with more than twenty of the world’s greatest achievers.