52 Cups of Coffee: Inspiring and insightful stories for navigating life’s uncertainties (8 page)

Denise Busley

Grand Traverse Pie Company in East Lansing, Michigan

Small brewed coffee

Instead of wallowing in the problem; look for a solution.

If you
’ve ever enjoyed the wonders of the pie at Grand Traverse Pie Company in Michigan, thank co-founder Denise Busley.

Her story, however,
is even better than the pie. Two years after graduating from Michigan State, Denise Busley found herself in a medical-sales job outside Los Angeles. Between student loans and the high cost of living, it was a constant struggle to make ends meet, and she and her husband Mike couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

She had a sales territory that had been abandoned for six months, and the sales forecasts she was expected to meet seemed impossible. When her sales numbers were meager at the end of the quarter, her manager walked in and warned her—she had 90 days to turn her territory around.

She was distraught and
angry. The expectations were unrealistic and unfair.

Then
, something happened. Right after that encounter with her manager, Denise attended the company’s national sales meeting. During the sessions, they made a big to-do about the sales representative with the highest sales of the year. They gave him a big award and displayed his sales numbers: he was making twice as much in commission as Denise was! What’s more, he was also from some sparsely populated “middle-of-nowhere” state.

Suddenly a huge mental barrier disappeared for Denise. She realized she was letting the situation pull her down. If this guy could make that kind of money in his state, there was no reason she couldn
’t match his numbers in LA, where, as she puts it, she “could trip over ten doctors on my way to work.”

It was a light-bulb moment.

After the meeting, she ran (literally) to catch up with the president of the company.
“I’m going to be the sales rep of the year next year,” she told him. Then (once the adrenalin wore off) she had a moment of panic and wondered what on earth she’d done. True to her word, though, a year later, she was sales rep of the year.

For Denise, the change happened because she shifted her mindset. Instead of thinking,
this isn’t fair, my territory was abandoned, there’s too much competition,
she accepted that she was in a tough situation and focused on the goal she had decided—very boldly—to achieve. Then she worked her hardest to achieve it.

Denise eventually left that job, but the lesson stayed with her:
accept a situation for what it is and change what you have the ability to change.

* * *

Two kids and 15 years later, it looked liked a job relocation was in store for her husband Mike, and neither Denise nor Mike could justify uprooting their kids and moving to a new state when neither of them were in love with their current jobs. During a trip back to Traverse City, they visited a small pie shop and an idea hit: they would leave their jobs and start a small 15-seat pie shop. Grand Traverse Pie Company was born.

* * *

In the past ten years, Grand Traverse Pie Company has expanded to over a dozen locations around Michigan, which has brought Denise great success in a career she never expected. Even better, her job gives her the resources to do what is most important to her: helping others. With the business running strong, Denise stepped away from daily operations at the pie shop to contribute her efforts to a group of people working to bring a Children’s Advocacy Center to Traverse City.

Her journey
has had its fair share of ups and down, but she is flourishing because she looks for the positive and focuses on doing her best in difficult situations. She approaches life with that same mentality she had when she decided, “I’m going to be the sales rep of the year,” instead of believing “this situation is unfair, and I’ll never make it.”

* * *

A few days after meeting with Denise, I was having a bad day; there was something I just couldn’t get off my mind. I spent all day dwelling on the bad situation, and by the end of the day, the negative thoughts had caught up to me.

Then I remembered what Denise had said: “Why label something as good or bad? Why can
’t we just accept the situation for what it is?”

That
’s when Denise’s words about acceptance sunk in. We often get stuck wallowing in situations we can’t control: the weather, genetics, the economy, the past, a bad sales territory—whatever it might be. And we let these situations drag us down. We focus on why it’s unfair, or we wish with all our might that we can snap our fingers and solve the problem. Why do we do this?

We do it
because acceptance is so damn hard. No one wants to face the reality that life has imperfections. So we default to denial. We either dwell on the problem or push it under the rug and pretend it’s not there. But that doesn’t work. Refusing to accept situations we cannot change leads to wasting significant emotional and mental energy trying to change a situation over which we have no control. We end up entrenching our thoughts in a negative cycle that starts off ineffective and becomes increasingly destructive.

But
, if we can find the strength to push through the emotion and pain necessary to accept reality, we can redirect our focus toward identifying the issues we
can
control. We start looking for solutions instead of wallowing in problems.

The process of acceptance has transformative effects. It
is the reason Denise became sales rep of the year, and one of the reasons she and Mike have succeeded in both the restaurant business and in their mission to support their community.

As I sat there in my bad mood, feeling the weight of the world on top of me, I thought about Denise and how
one sales meeting had changed her life. I realized then that when life is pushing down on me, I am just wasting energy trying to push back. As hard as it is to let go, the more efficient use of energy is finding a way to move forward.

Ruben Derderian

Michigan State University Technologies Office

Brewed coffee

The job you get is important, but it
’s what you do once you get there that truly matters.

Have you ever jumped off a high dive?
You start on the ground and inch your way up the ladder, each rung getting you closer to the impending moment when you must leave the safety of the board for the uncertainty of the air and the cool blue water below. You’ve been waiting for this moment, preparing for it, in some ways looking forward to it, but all the mental preparedness can’t mitigate the anticipation of the fall, and the unexpected outcome the water brings.

It
’s nerve-racking.

That’s what it can feel like figuring out what to do after college—jumping
off the diving board into the waters of real life.

Rung one: Write a resume.

Rung two: Job fair.

Rung three: Interview.

Rung four: Acceptance letter.

When
you reach the top of the ladder, you inch your way closer to the edge, knowing full well there’s no turning back. It’s only a matter of time before commencement rolls around and you’re on the edge of the board. Until then, the fear, excitement, and uncertainty mount.

Senior year
is fun, but man, can it be stressful. Fortunately, as Ruben Derderian told me, the anticipation is always worse than the jump. I believe him, because Ruben Derderian has had his fair share of successful dives.

* * *

Over his career of 30-plus years, Ruben has been the President of five companies, Vice President of two, an independent management consultant, and, at present, the Associate Director of Bioeconomics at Michigan State University.

That
’s an impressive track record.

After receiving a science degree from Michigan State in 1965, and then being wait-listed for the MSU Vet School two years in a row, Ruben and his wife decided to move to Baton Rouge so he could work on a
Master’s Degree at Louisiana State University.

When sales
at his brother’s retail store started to falter, Ruben decided to take a semester off and move back to Michigan to help out. While helping his brother get the store back in order (and sold), Ruben started working for a small medical device company, which was a rapidly growing industry at the time. He still fully intended to finish his degree at LSU; the job was just something to do in the meantime.

However,
he quickly discovered he was good in his new role. With his strong science background, he started going on calls with the salesmen. His ability to translate the mechanics of the medical device into terms doctors could understand made him a valuable asset. The problem was that he was making the sales, but the salesmen were earning the commissions. When a new sales territory opened up, he asked his boss if he could take it. His boss said no; he wasn’t about to invest in an employee who was just going to move back to Louisiana.

That
’s when Ruben decided it was time to switch plans and fully dive into medical sales. His Master’s degree would have to wait.

He stayed with the company for a while before joining a new one, where he became Rookie Salesman of the Year, then Most Improved Salesman the next year, and finally
, the company’s top salesman in his third year with the firm.

His success led to job promotions and work he enjoyed. That
’s when he set his sights on the ultimate goal: he saw himself as the CEO of a corporation.

That vision set the tone for his career.
He worked his way up through the company, learning as much as possible along the way. When he reached the point where he’d done all he could do within that enterprise, he looked for opportunities outside that corporation that would allow him to inch closer to his larger goal. Then he repeated the process.

The recipe clearly paid off: he achieved his goal of running a company (several of them) and enjoyed the successes along the way. He
loves his career so much that he keeps failing each time he tries to retire. He always finds a way to go back to work.

* * *

After telling me the long story of his successful career, Ruben turned the tables and asked me about my plans for the future. I didn’t like those tables being turned. Because it’s not much fun admitting that I don’t have a clue what my next step in life is going to be.

But I told him
what I
thought
my plans were, and how he responded was invaluable. He said I’d be just fine in the long run. While it is tough trying to find a job when you don’t have one, once you have a job, it isn’t too difficult to find a new one—especially if you’re building credibility and new skills along the way.

Tha
t insight, and his story in general, lifted a big weight off my shoulders. I, like many college students, had gotten caught up in the anticipation. I couldn’t shake the mindset that I had to find the
perfect
job. Had to! I mean this was going to be the first step of my career. If I made the wrong choice—if I set out on the wrong foot—I would jeopardize my long-term chances at success! Right?

Wrong.
It’s not the job that decides your potential; you decide your potential.

Ruben
didn’t succeed in business because he found the “perfect job,” he succeeded because he was determined to keep going until he accomplished what he had set out to achieve. I’d bet a lot of money Ruben would have been successful regardless of where he started.

That’s the lesson I learned from Cup 15:
The job you get is important, but it’s what you do once you get there that truly matters.

The reality is that it
’s scary jumping off the high dive—and that fear never fully disappears. But talking with Ruben reminded me that I had spent four years in college learning the skills necessary to survive in the waters of the real world.

I
know how to swim. I can be excited to jump.