Whether you are filling out an application for a trucking job or you already have a job, the one thing that will make or break that job offer is, “image”. Try it, I dare you, walk into a job interview looking like you are going to the beach and see what happens! If you look like a “bum” that is how you will get treated, if you look professional that is also how you will get treated. It’s all about image.
Image and goal setting equals your destiny. I know this because I’ve been chasing my destiny since I was eight years old. Sometimes I forgot about “image” and that’s exactly what I got, not the results I was looking for and instead got exactly what I was focusing on. Focus, that’s another subject. Image can pave the way for your destiny if you know what your own image is all about. Some people look good in black, others look good it white, find your own colour (image).
A job interview, using the 5 “A”s, is my advice, it’s all about image. How you speak? How you present yourself? What’s on your resume and what’s missing? How do you look and what are you selling? Is it the real you? Look in a mirror before a job interview and ask this question. Would you hire you? But most importantly if the answer is “no” then, why not?
After you have the job, now what? Clean truck, clean surroundings, and clean environment. Some people called this “image” and “taking pride” in all you do. Nothing worse than getting into a truck after somebody else has been driving it and they have left the truck in a mess. No fuel, dirty inside and out, garbage on the floor, windows dirty, mirrors dirty, most of all poor image of themselves and the company. There is no excuse and the reason for the state of affairs is that operator before you forgot or didn’t know what “image” was all about.
If you can get past “image” the sky is the limit. It’s all about what your goals and dreams are about and where your destiny is suppose to take you. The only thing stopping you now is your imagination of what you can be come. I keep saying to my wife “I am fifty-three years old and I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up”. I keep searching for my destiny, choosing my paths, right ones or wrong ones, but always knowing I am getting a little closer to what is that is meant for me.
Image in your company and image in yourself will take you and your company to the next level. Not holding image true to yourself and others will get you exactly what you expect. There is no such thing as failure, only results and it may not be the result you were looking for but it is still a result. Change your approach, try again and if that doesn’t work, try again. What would happen if you were digging for oil and you stopped two feet short of the “mother lode”?
What about home? What image do you promote at home, clean, friendly, safe and happy? Hope so. What messages are you sending to your kids or even for that matter your neighbours? Image is everywhere, it’s a part of everything we do and everything we are so why doesn’t everyone treat image with respect and the dignity it deserves? Why don’t we do the best at everything we take on or attempt so it turns out the way we want it to turn out?
Where does it begin, this thing called “image” and where does it end? I don’t have all the answers but what I do know is that I know when image began for me, a very long time ago and it has never stopped. It’s on a never ending journey. It can’t be stopped so why even try, as they say “when in Rome?” My advice to you is do the best you can at everything you take on or attempt in life. Don’t go to the “Golden Gates” saying “if only I had done this”.
I want to take this opportunity to say “thank you” to the staff and to Kim Richardson of Kim Richardson’s Transportation Specialist and The Rear View Mirror newspaper for having me back as one of their columnist. Even my journey has taken some different paths that I had to experience for myself before I realized it was a path not suited for my own journey.
I look to the future with opened eyes and the ability to make choices. Thank you God for that! It is what it is and you need to pursue your own paths. Take care and write to the editor if you agree with me or not, it’s part of the glory of writing that we can say pretty much what we feel. Until next time then, take care you yourself and each other.
David Brown
The Simple Truth