On my old blog, I posted some stories about my old jobs and idiot bosses. I’ll bring them over here from time to time, because through them, you can see where I get my attitude regarding bosses and such, and why I choose to work for myself:

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Around 1994, I sold cars at this busy dealership. The sales manager was always setting sales goals, and they were always increasing. After awhile, he really started getting nuts with it. This one month, he set a goal for 200 cars. The dealership never sold 200 cars in a month, so he really pushed for this. He told us “come in on your day off, come in early, stay late, but we HAVE to beat 200!”

Well, I was young and dumb, so I bought into the BS. Like everyone else, I came in early, stayed late, and worked my day off. In fact, I worked 30 days in a row - we all did. And we sold 227 cars for the month!! Yay us!!

We got a nice catered lunch, and then we got down to business at the next sales meeting… this time it was “well, NOW we have to beat 227. So you need to come in early, stay late, and work your day off….”

At this point, sitting in the back of the meeting, I raised my hand. The sales manager says “what is it, Furman?” I replied, ever so meekly, “umm, when do we get to rest?”

Silence. Dead silence. Then, with a glare, my question was ignored.

Well, I stopped coming in early. And stopped staying late. And took my days off. I was fired about three weeks later because I wasn’t a “team player”.

Well, that’s because the team sucked.