A car salesman

Brett has harassed me a number of ways (personal emails, polls on his blog, hatemail). I will try to give a little update.

I work at a Kearny Mesa Jimmy Johnson's Chevrolet (first part of the name is the area in San Diego County the second part refers to the race car driver who is part of the ownership). A car dealership. I am a car salesman, err consultant rather. I surprisingly really enjoy my job. Never thought I would say that about being a car salesman.

I work for a great organization. Hendrick Automotive Group. Owned by Rick Hendrick who also is the owner of Hendrick Motorsports, the organization that owns several successful NASCAR drivers (Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, Kyle Busch, and, next year, Dale Earnhardt Jr.). I'm am rather certain that Mr. Hendrick is a Christian and he conducts his business that way. My dealership is 100% honest and never cheats a customer, something that is illegal but still surprisingly prevalent. His top goals are happy customers and happy employees. Profits are secondary to that.

The Lord has clearly guided me here. I never thought I would be working for a domestic carmaker, especially not Chevrolet. But it was the only job offer I received and it has been confirmed in several ways that I am supposed to be here working. GM is making some really good product these days and I have met multiple Christian families (I'm even on the prayer list of one of them) who encourage me and bless me. It is a good way to have significant cash inflows and allows me to meet people from every profession, background, belief that I would have had no contact with otherwise. It is a witnessing opportunity. I shared parts of the gospel and my own spiritual journey multiple times in my first several days on the job.

God has blessed Tracy and I. I'm still discontent and have a tough time realizing that this is where I'm supposed to be. It's my ego, I'm sure. It's hard to say that I'm a car salesman. But, gee wiz... I enjoy what I'm doing. I just can't see two feet in front of me on my career path and that is hard. The normal path is car salesman, finance, sales manager, general sales manager, then general manager (he runs everything, the owner is his boss but isn't necessarily involved in the operations). That aforementioned path is a 20 year plus journey and i am not going to take 20 years to be somewhere i don' t want to be. General manager, maybe; ownership, most definitely; 20 years, forget it. God is teaching me a lot and it will be humiliatingly evident in the years to come.

Thanks for making me update Brett (are personal "shout outs" a no-no in blogging?)

Happy Bday Adam Thada


Other news:
-we're trying to buy a condo right now
-my younger brother Jon is living with my wife and I