Transition

Last April 2011, I made one of the biggest decisions in my life.

I resigned from my job of being a call center associate for 3 years. I did that for my career advancement. You might think that it would be easy letting go of the old and embracing the new but not for me.

It's never easy to come out of one's own comfort zone and go to the courage zone. But, I was able to do it. (Thank You daddy God for backing me up!)

As I let go of the old, that doesn't mean that I will also let go of the lessons that I learned during the time I was working in the call center industry. Here it goes:

1. "Respect begets respect." You cannot demand respect from other people just because you want them to respect you. It's not something that can be given easily, it needs to be earned.

2. "Just do it." I know this is already a famous tag line from the brand Nike but hey, I also learned this while I was at HGSL. There are times wherein you just have to do something, not because you want to, but because it is expected that you do it.

3. "Obey first before you complain." If you took ROTC (Reserved Officers' Training Corps.) in college or CAT in High School then you'd have heard of this already. And yes, I was able to apply it in my previous job most of the time. (I said most because sometimes I break this rule)

4. "Keep Calm." If you have a Tumblr account then you would also know about this one. Yes, one of the biggest lessons I've learned from my previous job is to keep calm. Hearing people shout and curse at you on the phone is not an easy job especially if it happens everyday. I'm not saying that every customer is an a-ho but let's just say there are days when you get unlucky and get all their crap on the phone. But hey, I chose that job so I have no right to complain. So this tagline in Tumblr is a very useful one every time I get an irate caller. (Though the real line is "Keep Calm and stfu)

5. "Always believe in yourself." This is one of my favorite quotes from one of my inspirations, Donald Trump Jr. He wrote this before in his book Trump 101 The Way to Success. His exact words were. "Believe in yourself. If you don't, no one else will." Which is true whenever I try to convince a customer to choose the program offered by our account instead of just go away and have their product repaired. I did notice that during the times I doubt myself, I get 0% success with the call.

6. "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it in a twisted kind of way." Ah yes, my favorite quote. I added the words, "in a twisted kind of way" because I really got what I wished for with my subconscious mind in a distorted way. So now, I am careful with everything that I wish for, whether it be consciously or subconsciously.

7. "Be responsible for your own actions." If something goes your way then go ahead and take credit for it. But if something goofs up, don't blame every person that you can blame for it will never solve the problem.

8. "Always think positive."

9. "Motivation starts from within." I see a lot of people come and go in the call center industry. Whether it be because they were terminated or they resigned. I observed that some were terminated because they lack the interest to go to work again and failed their stats. And some resigned because they also lack the will to carry on working in the said industry. Did you notice the similarity? They both lack the motivation. And like what Stephen R. Covey said, "Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fired under you, chances are it will burn very briefly."

10. "Ignorance is bliss." Sometimes, you're better off not knowing a lot of things rather than know everything and have it affect you.

11. "Never let your emotions get the best of you." Last lesson I learned before I left. It was entirely my fault when I let my emotions get to me. I failed my stats and almost got a citation because of this. Good thing I was able to control myself or else I would have had a record.