My Grandma and Granny taught me great things about cooking,
sewing and practical domestic matters.
But my Grandpa taught me all those little things that keep me going in
life. Patience, perseverance, humility, kindness,
and gratitude come to mind. He always
had an old cliché ready when we needed it.
I credit him with a lot of my “man skills,” as well as having a large
impact on my drive and work ethic. It’s
always made me sad that he passed away before my son was born. He is the one person who had a large
influence in my life that I truly wish could have influenced my son’s life as
well.
My son is learning some of the great clichés that my
grandfather taught me from the most surprising of places – McDonald’s! Yesterday he went to the first job interview
of his life. And tomorrow he will be
attending the orientation for his new job.
In the last 24 hours I have watched my son suddenly understand so many
of the things that my husband and I have been telling him for years. I suppose that seeing really is believing.
Lesson #1 – You only
get one chance to make a first impression.
He didn’t understand why we wanted him to put on his dress clothes and
tie his hair back in a tight and tidy ponytail.
After all, he was only going to ask about when he might expect to hear
back about the application he filled out online. He made such a great first impression that
the manager took him to a table for an interview and hired him on the
spot.
Lesson #2 – If you
aren’t 10 minutes early, then you are late. He’s tolerated being early to
everything for most of his life because I insist that we need to “get going
now”. At bowling league, he always has
time to put on his shoes and get in a little extra coaching time before we officially
get started. Despite this, he’s never
really appreciated it – until his new boss told him that he always likes for
people to be about 10 minutes early for work in order to make the shift change
go smoother. He’s grateful that he has
already developed this habit in his life.
Lesson #3 - It never
hurts to ask. You just might be told “Yes!” He applied for the job and then
allowed 12 days to pass waiting for someone to contact him. We convinced him to go to the store and ask
the manager about it. Thirty minutes
later he had a job. Really! If there is something you want, then you
should step up and ask. (Within reason. Begging Mark Zuckerberg for a billion dollars
via Twitter is not what I’m talking about here.
There is a difference between standing up for your own interests and
demanding things that you have no business requesting.)
Lesson #4 - Attitude
is everything. People appreciate a
great attitude. You will make more
friends and get further in life from this one simple character trait than
anything else that you do. Be
positive. Show self confidence. Look a person in the eye and give them a firm
handshake. These seem like simple and
obvious pieces of advice, but they can make all the difference in the world –
especially if you don’t follow the advice.
Lesson #5 – Don’t let
other people make your decisions for you.
The moment that you search McDonald’s online; you will be bombarded by
people telling you how awful they are.
The food is unhealthy. The job is
hard work. The pay is lousy. The hours are long. The company doesn’t care about the employees. Listening to everything that the media tells
us about McDonald’s, my son was convinced that they would shackle him to the
register and beat him every time he got an order wrong. But he took a chance and applied. The manager who interviewed him started out
when he was 17 years old working on the counter just like my son is now. Today he is a manager and he loves his
job. He made my son feel comfortable and
welcome there. Additionally, all of the
employees in the store were very friendly to him while he was there. The atmosphere in this store is very positive
and I think that he will enjoy his first job at this McDonald’s.
Yes, the work probably will be hard. And he’s not going to make millions of
dollars working the register at the local McDonald’s. There will be days when he will be yelled at
by his boss, as well as his customers.
There will also be times when he just doesn’t want to get up and go to
work. He’s a 16 year old kid and these
are all lessons that he needs to learn.
And they will be true no matter what he chooses for his first job.
Life is actually pretty simple. There are basic things that we all need to do
in order to survive. Earning money is
one of those things. Certain life
lessons are going to lead us to be able to do that well. A good attitude and a strong work ethic are
two of the most important things that I can teach my son in life. And I firmly believe that McDonald’s has
already started teaching him those things even before his first day on the job.
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