KINDNESS PAYS...

I was running late for the interview... My wife ensured this! Last night's 'Olympics', this morning's tea and bread, made sure I had just one hour and thirty minutes to get to God's Own Motor Corporation. They were the biggest car dealers in Upstate New-York and the post of General Manager had just opened as the former was retiring. With my experience as Junior Manager in my present company, I felt I was up to the task of this new challenge. I applied and February 3rd was chosen as interview date but my wife was directly or indirectly making sure it passed me. At 8am I was still at home... the interview was 9.30. As par principle I thought it wise to be there at least thirty minutes before hand to at least show some level of competence to my would-be employers.


God's Own Motor Corporation was owned by Henry Lee. The half-American half-Asian guy was born in Malaysia. At 16 his family and himself moved into the States and life could not be harder. I hear they had to get permission from the councils to scavenge refuse for most of what constituted their furniture at that time. That is not until Henry's path crossed those of an Evangelist. He accepted Christ Jesus into his and history has it that that same day, he told his Mum "ma, give me 20 years, I will take you to the President of the United States and you will shake his hands".
It’s some thirty something years after, GOMC are the biggest car dealers in the whole of New York. Cars went through their show-rooms like gas through a pipeline. All the Senators and Congressmen have at least two cars in their fleet from GOMC! In fact, if you wanted to be a 'who is who' in the society, all you had to do was buy a car from GOMC. With their golden emblem embedded on the top right on your windscreen, you could be identified from a mile away. Henry Lee gave the President an Escalade Limousine as first year anniversary gift. Of course, he had since fulfilled his promise to his mum!

Back to my interview, I quickly had some loaves of bread, gulped down the now warm cup of tea and headed straight to the garage. DAMM! I forgot the keys in the room... dashing back I quickly got it, gave my wife a kiss, she straightened out my blue shirt and I hurried straight to the car. I could not help but pray and pray. A job with GOMC came with so many benefits, staff who have been sacked in the past are known to sue and in some extreme cases kill themselves. Benefits of been a GM at any GOMC branch include an SUV of your choice, Mortgage for your own house, a six-zero figure every year plus six percent of your total salary if the company made good profits that year, all expenses paid holiday for you and your family every year.
It was now 8.50am. I had just turned into the street on which their New York branch was located. It looked all calm and quiet outside until I got to the gate and security told me to park my car outside. The multi storey car park was filled. Over 300 people had come over 1 hour ago all applying for the same position! I could not believe my ears!!! I hurriedly put the car in reverse, found a lucky space and placed my car there. I was in frenzy... DAMM IT! I am about 40 minutes early and 300 people have been waiting for one hour! This day didn't start well. I grabbed my portfolio and soon I was back at the gate. It was then I discovered I had left my suit jacket in the car were I hung it behind me. The car was a few hundred yards from me but in my rush, going back was not an option! I quickly registered myself at the security desk, collected the visitor's tag and bounded straight to the majestic building sitting atop its own hill of stairs. Up the stairs I went eager to not be the last. I ran straight past this old and quickly apologized for startling her. Still running like a man possessed, I got to the door. I opened it and the urge to dash straight into the interview office over whelmed me. I had heard Henry Lee himself will be here as he preferred to interview his GMs himself.

How would he be by the time he has interviewed over 300 people?! He will surely be exhausted by the time it's my turn, hence reducing my chances of getting the job. These and many more thoughts were running wild in my head, but the yearning to stay and hold the door open for this small old woman was more. I held the door open for her, and it took her a millennium to get to the door. By the time she got to the door, my patience was fully exhausted. She whispered a quiet, unconcerned "thank you" and strolled past me like neither my existence nor the fact that I was holding the door open for her mattered! Now fully in the building, I quickly closed the door behind me and bounded up some more stairs, following the directions pasted on the walls to the waiting room.

GOOD LORD! When I got there, it was either the security could not count or my eyes were seeing double, possibly triple! The waiting room as I estimated can hold 500 people in a sitting and those 500 people were sitting. Then another 200 plus were standing, hanging near window panes, talking to staff, it was crazy! Don't people sleep in New York anymore? It was like half the men in NYC were here. At this point I didn't see myself in that position. I just could not see it. Not with the sea of people before me and the fact that I seemed to have come in last. There were just a handful of guys coming up behind me, but at least I would surely be in the last batch to be interviewed. I gave up, but thank God it was my day off so I could sacrifice that day for the interview. I watched hundreds go in and come out of the interview room. I watched more people come after me. It all seemed so scenic so I just sank into the moment. Interview, break, interview, break, the committee and interview seemed to just go on and on till infinity. After 3 hours, it was my turn! How they interviewed 500+ people in 3 hours baffled me!
I went in with the least optimism. I just saw this as an opportunity to meet the great Henry Lee, not as an opportunity to work for him, talk less of become the General Manager of his New York branch.
To say the least, that is exactly what I am today. I have worked with GOMC for four years now and we getting stronger and stronger, bigger and better! I got the job that day!
To be honest, I have no clue why me, but all I know is,GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS! Read on...

Henry's P.A. will later tell me what happened in the conference room that day.
"Do you remember on the day of the interview, you ran past an old lady?" Of course I did, the smallish Asian woman. "Well you ran past Lucy Lee, Henry Lee's mother!" OMG!!! I could not bring myself to understand what I was hearing. He continued "to cut the long story short, when you opened the door for her, she walked straight to us in the interview room and told Henry "I don’t care who and what you interview today, but the young man in blue shirt and white tie gets the job!"
That explained how 500 people were interviewed in 3 hours! They weren't interviewing them. They were collecting their CVs. I was the only one interviewed that day! Three weeks later, I would get a mail inviting me to resume!

Dear reader, GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS & KINDNESS PAYS - two facts of life!!!

PLEASE CLICK THE 'SUBSCRIBE' BUTTON AT THE TOP-LEFT CORNER OF THE BLOG TO RECEIVE MORE AWESOME LIFE STORIES.