One For The Road...

This summer has been full of its pick-ups and hang-ups. For the last ten weeks I have spent my time contacting people that I had never heard of and had never heard of me. Most of which I will likely never speak with again. Some days were more productive than others but overall I can see results of my effort.

This summer began slowly, few people were quick to answer their phone and even less qualified. After two weeks when it was time to turn in my numbers I didn’t have anything to show. While numbers didn’t show the effort I had put in I still had a desire to make a difference. Week three resulted in the beginning of answered phone calls and more event filled days. During week four the clinic visits began with an impromptu trip on Sunday to a clinic for the homeless. I was beginning to burn out from the lack of success but energy from the people I was meeting gave me what I needed to keep going. Weeks five and six were much of the same with many meetings and more energized volunteers. As things began to slow at the end of week six and into week seven I was beginning to lose that desire I had as the summer began. The Thursday of week seven however I knew I was presenting to a group at a Donate Now Seminar and I devoted my time to getting ready for that day. I only had one person show up and while that didn’t lift my spirits the meeting that afternoon brought me back to that desire to help that I had when the summer began. The clinic I had the opportunity to visit was what I envisioned from week one, someone who truly desired the help I had to offer and was even interested in how she could help me. As my summer started coming to a close I had the opportunity to speak with this Executive Director many times all of which seemed to help me as much as she said it helped her. Needless to say when I had donated computers to deliver I knew who I was taking them to.

Failure is always a little easier for me to judge, I can always see how things don’t go the way I planned them. I feel my biggest failure this summer was not pushing the whole Donate Now program. From the beginning it seemed a little harder because I was pushing a program that I didn’t really know the people behind it. It didn’t help my progress in that area either when I only had one person show up to my Donate Now Seminar. The hardest thing for me to do was pursue people who acted like they didn’t have the time for me.

Success was small in numbers for me this summer but I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot in the way of self-discipline and getting up in the morning when I didn’t always feel like it. I also learned that cold calling isn’t that hard. The easiest thing for me to do as well as my favorite thing to do was just sitting down and meeting with people. Finding out why people did what they did and trying to help them the best I knew how.

Over all this summer was a great experience in learning what I want and don’t want to do. I also did what I wanted to this summer in that I helped people as I increased my skills for the future.