JetUNsetter

I have been notorious for my gaffes earlier in my career and still in life. I am careless by nature, can be naive or just unempathetic for the obvious…

I have two major gaffes, both a kind of lost in translation situation that any normal person would never have found themselves in my situation. As a young professional I have managed to unintentionally (you have to believe me) insult a colleague and irritate a client, both to the point that there was a phone call demanding my immediate lay off. I was saved only because of my age (we tend to pardon rookies) and in the client’s case, honestly, only because my lay off was asked by the client’s secretary and not by the client themselves. This was perceived as contemptuous by my boss who took it personally to defend me… I was saved by thin hair… It was the first time I chain smoked two full cigarettes and, fun fact, I am not a smoker.

Of course, anyone can argue that my traits are dangerous. They got me into situations where I flirted with professional disaster and even bankruptcy… (who would want to hire a person laid off for annoying a client?)

Having miraculously survived my predicament though, I realised a silver lining: my mishaps make great stories. To this day, I can share these stories and captivate an audience, cause sympathy, mentor or just entertain. My gaffes are funny, inspiring (on a what to avoid level) and bonding.

The bottomline of it all perhaps is to feel comfortable being stupid. Leaves plenty of room to failure but failure, especially early in a career when everyone tends to sympathise with a rookie, builds the resilience to survive it and the trauma of it, builds the skill to avoid repeating it.

Fairly enough, you don’t want a bunch of good stories and the unemployed benefit but even then, you might write a book or a memoir and god knows where that will take you…

Maybe there is no point consciously acting stupid but, the point is not to be intimidated, overwhelmed or over conscious of our failures. Our mistakes make the best stories, makes us interesting in the end! Even memorable and there is no such thing as bad publicity…. Please help me make sense of this one too…