A few weeks ago I was reminded of a conversation I had with someone about 5 years earlier. I was working within a large company and not enjoying it at all. I didn’t like what I was doing, I hated coming to work and knew I needed a change. But where was I going to go? At the time I said “I just want to find a company that I can stay at long term and grow in”. It turns out that being proactive would go a long way.
Thinking I would have to move to a capital city and work for one of the big guys like Coca Cola, Telstra or Myer. Now only a few weeks ago I was reminded that I’ve actually achieved that goal.
Not wanting to rush into a decision at the time, I decided to increase the amount of personal training I was doing and take up a part-time sales role at the Telstra Store in Helensvale, thus joining HTG in the process. What began as an interim role until I knew where I wanted to go has turned out to be a long term career path.
Though one thing I have learned is that the people who succeed are proactive and don’t just settle for what comes to them. Over my 4.5 years I have progressed from that sales role, to Store Manager in charge of a team of 24, to Sales Director of 3 Telstra Stores and now onto the General Manager of Vast Furniture & Homewares.
HTG has rewarded me with personal and professional improvement. The training provided especially in terms of people management is second to none and something those larger companies may offer but what you wouldn’t normally expect from a company based on the Gold Coast. The skills I’ve learned I use in all parts of my personal and professional life and continue to teach the learnings to my Managers and team.
I may not have even progressed to where I am today without being proactive. I was within HTG for a few months when I quickly realised this place could really be somewhere that I could grow. I knew that if I wanted to move up the ranks then I needed to get myself out there, let people know that I wanted to grow and work hard to show them what I could do.
People will often use the word ‘luck’ but instead I like to say ‘proactive’. It’s easy to think that certain people have just been lucky to get what they have but I know in this business if you work hard and strive to achieve then you will make your own luck.
Don’t just settle for what is given to you, go out there and make it happen. Be proactive!
Matt Ellems