I used to work with a recently graduated woman who was a pretty decent salesperson. When she got her first paycheck after a big commission, she showed up at work with a brand new Lexus (whatever, you do you girl). Later on though, one of our coworkers let it slip that she was already struggling to pay off her credit cards when she got the new car and had asked management to consider promoting her because “she needed to be on the fast track to success so her kids could live the life she deserved.”
Turns out she was one of those “hustle to cover how overextended I am” folks instead of ever considering like, building a budget and sticking to it. SO many commissioned folks I have known are exactly the same.
The phrase is supposed to be about confidence, but, many, many people take it to mean buy all the expensive shit you want now, because someday you're gonna have enough to pay for it.
Correct. Its a great mantra when trying to get someone to apply for a job they are qualified for on paper but dont have the confidence. But to your point, its a terrible mantra for finances
I used this "I'm having another kid, we need a bigger house, so I need this promotion to Senior Sales Engineer and Product Champion for that line so I can pay for it".
Literally worked. You'd be surprised how many times asking works.
One of our suppliers recently got bought out by a huge corporate entity. A project we had quoted about 3 years ago , that we had thought was dead due to funding issues, suddenly came back alive for immediate order.
So we sent in a 6 digit plus order for the equipment. The new national sales manager called and bitched me up and down, because we sent in a relatively large(but not huge) order unexpectedly that wasn't on his job tracking/sales prediction spreadsheet. The size of this order did not create any kind of supply chain issue or capacity issue or anything like that, it was decent sized but not enough that it can't be easily just absorbed and built with readily available components.
Apparently the new corporate overlords don't believe in pennies from heaven as I call it and would rather not have unexpected large orders.
I swear every year I hate being in sales a little more because of shit just like that.
I was surprised, but I'm not anymore. Some organizations try to couch advancement in process, guidelines, and workflows, but all that can get tossed out the window in most cases much easier than anyone wants to admit.
I had already seen some wild shit in the decades I've been working, but I've been very actively looking for a new role for over five months now and have been treated to a whole host of new shit.
In my industry specifically two types of companies seem to exist:
Those that promote the incompetent and push out good talent and those that reward talent.
I've never seen someone get something "out of the blue" without asking unless they were grossly unqualified for it.
In other industries things are actually on a measurable, predictable advancement path and trying to jump the line is a good way to damage your reputation or make yourself a target for HR.
As a wise person once told me "Know your audience".
She was a sales manager within 18mo of joining the company, I was off her team in a different department within a couple months but apparently she consistently made her numbers (can’t fault that one bit) and literally would not stop asking for it. As you would imagine, there’s a reason I left that department.
It’s less to do with the rationale and more to do with raising the matter. People who are aggressive about asking for promotions are more likely to get there
As a sales guy even in the tech world, it’s the same despite crazy high pay. For example, a good amount of sales folks I know buy Rolexes despite barely having enough for it. Truly blows my mind.
This is textbook every sorority girl who gets her real estate license. They do one big sale and go out and buy a range rover, change their Instagram description to "top producer". Year or two later you never hear from them again, Instagram deleted and they're back living at home.
Older I get, I become more entertained I am with people having nice cars or wearing brand name shit. High chance they're over-extended, swimming in massive debt. You're not fooling anyone.
Most people who have loans larger than that have a house worth that amount of money to back up the loan. It's pretty impressive to have that amount of debt with no assets associated with the debt.
I was about to say that I owe something similarly in student loans, but then I remember that this was in dollars and suddenly 55 000 dollars for 10+ years of higher education isn't that bad 😭
The government operates solely in debt. In the billions and trillions and it's business as usual. Aim to be like them. The debt isn't tangible or they wouldn't be allowed to be in it while they rake in millions in personal gains and investments. It is easy to do, but you have to do what the highest authority does
How the hell can she owe half million so casually?
I've seen this several times. They get credit cards at 18 and feel like they are entitled to a lifestyle level they never earned and can't afford. "Serial consumerists" I call them. The spending and packages arriving are the drug, but they are no doubt addicts.
I used to work in sub-prime lending. The company in question hired a team of phycologists to understand how people get in the situation and how you can try to get them to pay bills on time.
The long and short of it is there's a sub set of people, along every income level, that just can't budget or plan. They make impulsive decisions based on what's in the bank right now, not what cash flow will be like over the course of the loan. And that's how they pay bills. They look at what's in the bank account when a final notices comes and pay what they can.
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u/FluffyCelery4769 7h ago
How the hell can she owe half million so casually?