I knew him as Frankie the Forklift Guy.  He was a tornado of energy and a frenzied worker.  I have no idea where he is today.  But he taught me more about resiliency than anyone I have ever known.

Blue Collar Education

Many years ago, I was struggling to make it as a screenwriter in Hollywood.  My projects were tanking, my savings were dwindling, and my resilience was wearing thin.  I didn’t have much time left to make it in the Dream Factory.

Fortunately, a good friend was gracious enough to arrange a temporary job working in his beverage warehouse.  It provided just enough income to extend my dream.  But after a life of white-collar jobs, my blue-collar education was about to start!

I was assigned to the breakage room.  Here, my responsibilities included such glamourous tasks as picking through broken shards of glass, washing the bottles, and wielding smoking hot glue to secure new 12-pack containers.   Now that was maximizing my college education!

Hunker Down and Rise Above

At this point in my life, many of my goals were falling by the wayside.  I was toiling in the bowels of a warehouse and about as far away from the Oscar podium as one could imagine.  But I hunkered down, worked hard and traded in my dream of stardom for my dream of rising above my current position.  Baby steps back to the top!

After a few months, I finally got my big “break”.  No more sliced fingers and scalding burns.  I was called out of the breakage room into the brave ranks of the forklift fraternity!

In the hierarchy of the warehouse, the forklift operators are at the top of the pyramid. And among those chosen few, no one was more respected than Frankie.  He was fast.  He was efficient.  And he rarely took a break when he was on the clock.  If something needed to get done right, all eyes turned to Frankie.

A Bump In the Road

On my first assignment, Frankie and I were responsible for moving two pallets of beer from one side of the warehouse to the other.  I deftly maneuvered the giant tongs into place, lifted the wooden pallet, and sailed across the warehouse with pride.  If I could do this, I could do anything!

But suddenly, I hit a bump.  Crash! Pop! Boom!  24 cases of beer were now splayed across the concrete floor.  The horror! 

The depths of my despair were exponentially magnified in that moment.  My confidence crashed along with the beer as the negative thoughts flowed:

I had let my wife down by leading her on a wild goose chase out West.  I had let parents down by wasting my college education.  I had let myself down by not maximizing my talent.  I had let my friend down by ruining his merchandise.  Was I destined for a life in the breakage room?

Just then I felt a hand on my shoulder.  It was Frankie.

“Happens all the time, buddy”, he beamed.  “Don’t sweat it.  We’ve been meaning to get that bump fixed.”

In less than two minutes, he cleaned up the entire mess and sent the rest back to breakage for re-packing.  Life in the warehouse did not miss a beat and the “incident” did not even get a mention on lunch break.  Hope and optimism quickly replaced abject despair!

Frankie taught me two valuable lessons in that moment that can fuel resilience in all of us:

1) Things Are Rarely as Bad as They Seem

Accidents happen all the time and people make mistakes.  In difficult times, we become our own worst critics as negative thoughts can quickly cascade into despair.  We need to rise above the desperation in the moment and strive for much needed perspective.

In my case, I still had talent and a bright future ahead of me.  My wife and parents still supported me and no amount of broken glass was going to shatter that bond.  My friend was not going to lose his business over a few broken bottles.  It was a simple miscue and not a harbinger of disastrous things to come.

But would I ever have achieved that perspective without a simple act of compassion?

2) Compassion is a Powerful Choice

Everyone faces some type of challenge.  Perhaps a crisis in confidence.  Perhaps an unsettled home life.  Perhaps a recent mistake or tough loss.  At some point, everyone reaches a breaking point.  But the smallest act of compassion can have a major impact on someone’s life.

Frankie had a choice.  He could have whirled right past me and gone about his business.  He certainly didn’t know I was near a breaking point in my life and he didn’t need to offer support and consoling words.  But his simple act of compassion changed my life forever.

The Bottom Line

We all face setbacks at some point in our lives.

But we all have the ability to recover.  We all have the ability to come back stronger than ever.  We all have the ability to accomplish our dreams.

We simply need to maintain our perspective in difficult times and keep moving forward.

And we need to realize that a little compassion can go a long way in our lives and the lives of all those we touch. 

It doesn’t take much to make this world a better place.

Thank you, Frankie the Forklift Guy!