The Roman historian Tacitus famously once said, “He who fights and runs away, may turn and fight another day. …”
I was talking with an old produce buddy friend of mine, who lived this quote in a roundabout way. As a young retail produce specialist and buyer, his path to the much sought-after director position at one time seemed near impossible.
When the rare opening came up, his company passed him over and promoted someone who had less time with the company and far less experience. My friend could see the writing on the wall: The produce director opportunity wasn’t going to happen — not with that company, anyway.
So, my friend did something not many would do in that situation.
Instead of just giving up, sulking and writing it off as fate, he left the company after decades of service. Many thought he was crazy for walking away from his seniority, ample weeks of vacation annually, a familiar territory and the job security of his specialist role. However, he had a plan.
He landed a position with a rival company, not as a director, but as a produce quality control inspector.
“It was a position I managed to skirt on my way up at the old company,” he said. “And I realized it wasn’t as high a position than I held before, and in fact paid less, but I saw it as a way to restructure my career.”
Sort of like a stuck mountain climber, I thought, when they are compelled to traverse downhill a little way from a given point so they can try a different path upwards — one that may prove a better route.
My friend said that the stretch as an inspector was tougher than he thought. He was fortunate to gain one-on-one USDA training in the role. He learned about the fresh produce business in much greater detail, getting familiar with things such as the different grades available, learning about shippers he wasn’t familiar with before, seeing new labels, learning firsthand about warehouse management and procedures and how every commodity is measured in terms of packs, sizing, Brix, acceptance tolerances, ripeness and much more.
Related: More insight from Armand Lobato
After that stint, he took another job selling produce for a brokerage firm for a couple of years.
“That was an even more painful experience,” he said. “Sales is tough row to hoe. When you sell two loads the boss asks, ‘Why isn’t it three loads?’ Then if you sell three, the pressure’s on to sell four. But I learned. I learned about different loading areas of the country, about building and nurturing relationships with both shippers and receivers. I saw how crop seasonality came together more clearly than even in my buying and specialist days. I learned about transportation, what it takes to cube out space, manage the weight and dispatch trucks, about how to minimize rejected loads, about fumigation and things like pre-cooling, pallet charges and loading berries with Tectrol, for just a few examples.”
He came across the same lesson that I had once learned and still hold onto today: After years of working in the produce industry, all I know for certain is how much I don’t know.
After that, my friend said he engaged with a headhunter. He still wanted the produce director spot. In many organizations, the position is something gained and promoted from within, but he managed to secure a couple of interviews.
“I was older and knew more about the produce business than ever,” he said. “I never managed to land the ideal director position with the elusive, independent chain I sought — even if I did have what all the years had groomed me for. However, without the added, sometimes painful, moves I had made, I wouldn’t have experienced everything with the same perspective, and I wouldn’t have met all the amazing people along the way. I was in produce. That was enough.”
Sometimes it takes such a retreat to attack a hill from a different direction, so to speak. And as the saying goes, if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger, right?
My friend didn’t end up where he thought he wanted, but he also stressed that it was that the journey that was the most rewarding.
“Not the quarry, but the chase. Not the trophy, but the race.” — Apples of Gold
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.