Lifeline There Are Points in Every Person\'s

Lifeline

There are points in every person's life where they might feel that things are quickly spiraling out of control. People must be self-confident and self-reliant in order to get ahead in this life. This understanding tends to create relationships where we push people away. When trouble comes, it is possible to find ourselves alone, so bent upon personal progress that we neglect interpersonal relationships. Sometimes it is simply impossible to keep going alone. It is necessary to find people that can be counted upon because no one completely succeeds without the help of others. In my life, it was within the business world where someone reached out and gave me a much needed lifeline and helped me overcome a situation which I simply was unable to deal with on my own.

After graduating from high school in the year 1988 I decided to attend a two-year college. At that time I was very immature for my age and unsure of what I wanted. While attending college in the fall of 1989, I was given too much personal freedom and it was easy for me to not attend classes and my grades reflected the lack of effort that I put into my studies. Now, faced with having to tell my parents the danger I was in academically, I sat in my bedroom with the lights out. I thought about what I would tell them and the fact that I let them down. Then, I thought about what I was going to do next for a career. I might join the Army or something like that. I did not know what to do. I told my Mom and Dad about my first semester's grades and they were at first very disappointed in me. They suggested that I call my uncle who was in the Philadelphia Electrical Union. I got the courage to call my uncle up and ask if he would help me out with getting into the Philadelphia Electrical Union Local #98 and employment. He told me the requirements of applying for the apprenticeship with the union and told me that everything was going to be okay. These kind words were the encouragement that I needed to hear at that time of my life. In the spring of 1990 I was accepted into the International Brotherhood of Electrical workers local # 98 and I was excited to start my new career as an electrical apprentice. After completing my apprenticeship, which took five years, my uncle and I went to dinner with our families and he told me the sky was the limit. The next step was to become a foreman and run a construction project. So after completing projects as a young foreman, the company that I still work for today asked me to become a Project Manager and I eagerly accepted the offer.

I was involved in a project with The Barnes Foundation Museum. I estimated, negotiated and received a purchase order in October of 2010 to work with this museum. The contract amount of the project was for $525,000, a large sum. It was my company's responsibility to install of the security system in the museum, including hardware. I felt very personally excited at the beginning of the project. Also, it was much needed important and purportedly profitable work for our company. After about a month, that feeling of excitement quickly turned to nervousness and constant beleaguered communication from the foreman of the project about the many problems. Another, month had gone by and the project that I had instigated was turning into the nightmare of my professional life. I had never experienced anything as dysfunctional as a project manager.