“Surround yourself with good people. If you have good people working with you and for you, you are 90 percent of the way home. If you have bad people working for you, it doesn’t really matter what else you try to do. You’ll fail.”
When I was 20 years old, I accepted my first job as a manager in a hotel kitchen as a sous chef. The executive chef of the hotel had 45 years of experience in kitchens, restaurants and hotels all around the world. I still remember, almost word-for-word, the very first piece of advice he gave me about being successful.
On November 8, 2012, Street Sense lost one of our vendors, Tyrone Murray. Anyone who has bought a Street Sense newspaper in Tenleytown over the last couple of years probably met Tyrone, or his partner Edna. Many of the area shopkeepers knew him too. He spent a lot of time trying to make sure he stayed in the good graces of the community.
As the vendor manager at Street Sense, one of my primary tasks is to monitor the performance of our vendors. This can be quite challenging, since our vendors work over a wide area and I have yet to master the art of being in 130 places at one time all of the time. But, the fact remains, much of our success relies on the personal character of our vendors.
I was given a rare insight into the character of Tyrone one afternoon about three months ago. He often called in to the Street Sense office to leave a message, but he sometimes forgot to hang up his phone when he was done. More than once, after listening to a message from Tyrone, I found myself erasing an additional 10 minutes of static and ambient noise.
But on this occasion, I decided to listen to the whole message. I was curious to find out whether the Tyrone I saw in the office and the Tyrone I talked to on the phone was the same Tyrone distributing Street Sense newspapers. I also wondered if I might be privy to something I didn’t want to hear.
Then I listened for more than 20 minutes as Tyrone went about his business distributing the newspaper. The Tyrone I heard on the recorded message was far different from the Tyrone I had met. But, not in the way I expected. Tyrone had multiple conversations in those 20 minutes. Every single one was polite and courteous, even gracious at points. I could hear Tyrone opening doors for a couple of people going into a building. In part of the recording, Tyrone went into a convenience store to buy something to drink. He was even polite to the person ringing up his order.
Not only did I never hear any indications on the recording of bad behavior, I heard definitive evidence of the type of behavior that we hope all Street Sense vendors will exhibit through their involvement with our organization.
My lasting memory of Tyrone will always be tied to the advice I received from my first boss. Street Sense did not lose a good vendor; we all lost a good person whose actions when he didn’t know anyone was listening showed greater character than I sometimes show even when I know the whole world is paying attention.
