It was 1999, and I'd missed the first two days of my senior year because I was sick. What's there to miss? It's just going over the Code of Conduct. In every class. For two days.
I had signed up for an art class and in that first couple of days, the teacher had thrown a few pieces of popcorn on the table and told the students to sketch, no strings attached.
When I came into the class the following day, she threw the popcorn on the table and said plainly, to sketch. Slightly confused, but a type A rule follower, I sketched.
I thought my popcorn looked Awesome!
But there were no grades given and, I can admit, I was a bit agitated that I wasn't receiving top marks for a job well done. Young and dumb, I didn't realize the intention of the sketch until long after I'd graduated.
I'm now three months into my new job, nay career, at Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company, and I find that I take the popcorn lessons with me down each new path I decide to take in life. You see, when I begin something new, I've learned that it's just as important what you do on the first day, as it is what you do on the last.
I didn't think about what I was doing when I sketched that popcorn. I did what was required and turned in a complete project. But I didn't look outside of the frame of the paper.
If I'd looked outside the lines, I could have created something Magical.
If I'd looked outside the lines, I could have created something Magical.
I think when you enter into a new project, job, or even a room with people who you don't know, the fear of judgement holds us back from showing our true potential. We worry if our creative ideas, out of the box logic, and wild hair-brained schemes will intimidate or confuse others. Will they make sense? Can others see our vision?
What's more, am I now working at a company that will welcome those visions, rather than give them the corporate fly-by?
The answer is YES. Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company, and with Custom Plush, a brand of BHTB, allows me to see ideas come to fruition. From product design, to development, to production,, to holding something that has come to life in your hands, it is literally, seeing ideas come to life. Working alongside the Director of Special Markets, I feel truly blessed that I can throw ideas out, and they are not only heard, but they're appreciated. We discuss what could work and what the challenges might be. Then we push through the challenges as a team. It's refreshing and rewarding.
With that being said, I don't eat popcorn. But now, when I see popcorn in a bowl, I think about that art teacher. Sketching the popcorn was a way for her to assess our abilities for future grading. I never asked, but I suspect she saw the potential in my sketch. That it could have been so much more that just a few kernels. If I'd just brought all of that potential to the surface from day one...