Antonella Milagros Benavides and her father, Sean Paul Benavides celebrating her Sweet 16. Courtesy photo
By Sean Paul Benavides
While working at the Domino’s Pizza store in East Lansing in 1985, Sundays were crazy as we would sell hundreds and hundreds of pizzas to Michigan State University (MSU) students. One particular day an older manager named Phil (name changed), would do the routing of the pizza deliveries which meant that he would send different orders on the same delivery with one driver. We would come back from the streets only to have another delivery waiting for us. Time after time, the driver before me would get 2-3 different orders to the same building on campus. I would get 3 different deliveries to 3 different buildings. Finally at the end of the night I would question Phil, why would you keep sending me to different buildings when most of the other drivers got to take deliveries that were pretty close to each other? Phil’s response: “Sein, you were the only one dumb enough to take them”.
At the end of the night I remember feeling like I had contributed by taking all those different deliveries and delivering them in 30 minutes or less. We were paid by the hour, in tips, and bonuses for a lot of deliveries. I made less then the rest of the drivers that night. On that night I parked illegally several times, ran thru the hallways of the dorms, almost got clotheslined by a student (but got an extra tip and seen him chastised by the ladies who witnessed it), and all and all had fun contributing to “The Team”.
Grinding out that day, busy at all times and yet at the end of the day was I really productive? I had less tips then the others and probably used more gas money then the rest in my beautiful Delta 88. My manager Phil meant well, but thank God he never became a Life Coach because he knew nothing about direction or making the most of his people. Or did he? He took advantage of one and utilized the rest of the team quite well. Ever feel like that? People you would think should care about your best interests, treat your friends/coworkers better then you and in the end they end up with more then you?
We all go about our daily lives and stay busy from dawn to dusk and for some of us, thru the night with our jobs. How many of us look back and say I wish I would have done this, or done that only to repeat the mistakes of the past and use the excuse that we are too busy to add something positive to our life or we wait on changing the direction of our life until “we get past this current drama”? I see it all the time on facebook and hear it in real life: “I am about to make some changes and some of you might not like it or be a part of it”. But yet six months later, the same things are being said because we get distracted by people or incidents and we are back at square one!
We all start off well for a few days or even a week but sure enough we are back at it with the the BF/GF or running with the same crowd on weekends. “Phil” influenced my day big time that ONE day, but not my whole life (Thank God!) Questions you need to ask is do you have someone like “Phil” directing your life? Who the heck is directing your “busy” life anyways? Are you truly believing that you deserve more then life has given you and if so, what will it take until you stick with the plan to take you there? So who is influencing your life?
The was printed in the October 20, 2013 – November 2, 2013 Edition
