Page 7 - Sacred Gift

I grew up feeling inadequate, yet I was smart, healthy and had a good personality. I was intensely curious. That state of mind that has followed me all my life.
When I graduated from high school, I was 6’ 2” and weighed in at 135 pounds. That’s pretty skinny. I had agreed with a close friend who was also skinny to go out for football if we could gain 20 pounds. Neither of us did. I was dressed as a string bean for one party.
Vermont summers and college set me free.
I spent most of my summers with a great aunt in Vermont. She gave me unconditional love and I thrived, made friends, and learned that I could fit in, at least there.
The saddest days of my young life were coming back to New Jersey at summer’s end. It also made me a bit schizophrenic – two lives, one full of love and fun and one full of inadequacy and loneliness.
I found that when I was away from my parents, I began to thrive.
College finally set me free. I made many friends that are still friends today, 60 years later.
Two years after college, I had a great job at UPS, was married and we had our first child. Life was good.
I thrived at UPS moving up the managerial ladder. I was trained as an industrial engineer. I was creative and was able to use that creativity and training to solve major problems.
One of those early solutions at UPS enabled the company years later to develop a national union contract with “pay for performance,” where drivers are paid for the delivery load, not the hours they worked. This was a major breakthrough in union-management relations.
I discovered another result of low self-esteem: No matter how much good I produced, it was never enough. I solved some major problems, but didn’t experience fulfillment. I was just lucky.
After eight years at UPS in Boston, upstate New York and Philadelphia, I decided to leave UPS and go into consulting in New York City.
Intuition: Your Sacred Gift 4