Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!

I'm not a big fan of the show Friends but recently I stumbled across an episode that made me watch. It was the one where Ross, Chandler, and Rachel try to force a couch up a stairwell that is clearly too small. Ross keeps yelling “PIVOT! PIVOT! PIVOT!” while the couch wedges tighter and tighter until no one can move an inch.

I once had an interview in Scranton that I’ll never forget - not because it went well, but because it resulted in a pivot that changed my career trajectory.

I had accepted a role with a major national children’s apparel retailer the day before. Driving back from their NJ headquarters having met with their CEO. It would mean relocation (cool - I had not lived in AL), a salary that was obscene, responsibility for nine hundred, and a top 25 role within the organization.

The day before I had a call from a startup asking if I'd visit Scranton. It just so happened to be on my way home. So why not? If nothing else maybe I'd grab a short term consulting gig or maybe it would be a quick conversation to validate my choice. Simple, right?

Not even close.

The moment I walked in, it was clear the place was chaos. When I walked into the warehouse there was a guy holding onto a pallet jack handle (not moving). The dry storage area was a fire hazard. The picking team was staging a few dozen pallets to a refrigerated area by searching each pallet for specific items (mixed pallets). The pickers were making loops around the cooler searching for inventory. The packers were walking distances to get packaging and dry ice. It was chaos. And on my way back into the office, the guy with the pallet jack had not moved a foot in the twenty minutes that I was on the warehouse floor. The complete opposite of the well oiled machine that I had visited a week earlier in AL.

I remember thinking, “Nope! I’m not pivoting here.” And yes, in my head I absolutely heard Ross from Friends yelling “PIVOT!” as I mentally turned right back toward the path I had already chosen. I remember saying - "this is not for me but I'll decompress and send you some ideas on how to improve this operation."

As I drove home, I replayed the sights and sounds of what I had just witnessed. Something about it grabbed my attention. I stopped at a rest area and wrote an email outlining all that was wrong and how to fix it.

Then over the next four days, while consulting in Ohio, my phone rang over and over. It was the startup. While my brain was saying hell no - my heart said this is something that you can fix. Upon returning home, my wife knew - "we are going to Scranton!?!"

"Pivot!"

I could have went to my dream job and stared at productivity reports. But it would died a slow death. I'm the guy that calms chaos - that sees in others what they do not see in themselves - that solves big problems for companies that lack resources.

That pivot - best choice I ever made.

Do you have a pivot story?