Wow, Eldon was a Junior at the University. He started working at age 17 and learned a lot about things that he didn't think would matter long term. Now his University Advisor had taken him to lunch and raved about his Market Research project focused on a fast food business serviced by his employer and owned by a high school friend.

Since getting married the prior year, his grades had improved, and he had been inspired by some older friends at school to study more. The professor had told him he should consider graduate school and offered to help. He gave the meeting much thought and made a decision. So he decided to go to his employer and quit so that he could devote full time to studying and getting straight A's until he graduated.

Decisions are the key to success.

He knew his employer depended on him to manage the loading processes. He had memorized the cost and sell prices of the warehouse inventory of a couple of thousand items. He knew the routes each truck should follow to be efficient and arrange the delivery of the daily invoices in the best order. He knew what item could usually be substituted if an item was out, which varied with different customers in many cases. No one had ever asked him to learn those things, and he didn't think about that in his overall decision to quit.

He met with one of the company's owners and told him of his plan and that he was quitting. Something unexpected happened. The owner thought studying more and getting all A's was a good goal and said he would like Eldon to stay and continue as the loading manager but that he could be off the crew loading. He said they would put a special desk in the office and that he could bring his books and study for the full shift each night but that the loading crew would still ask him to route the trucks, cost the invoices, and answer questions. He was also offered raise and told when he graduated that the company had a job in mind.

Since Eldon thought he had made a decision, he was surprised at the outcome. He agreed to stay. He originally had been hired to receive and load freight. He started taking out deliveries because they needed to be done, and he was available. He never asked to learn things to be able to do more in the company, but he eventually met most of the customers and learned about their businesses. He eventually drove most of the delivery routes and found out how the routes worked best. He often returned to an account he had delivered to fix their coffee machines and became the official service rep. Since that service work paid a mileage fee, that was a plus. Asked to cost out the invoices a few times led to him memorizing most of the costs and noticing how different salespeople priced things. He had always attended the sales meetings because he found it interesting to learn how the products were used, but no one had ever asked him to do that.

He had especially enjoyed taking various salespeople's sales routes in the summers when vacation times came up because he enjoyed that class at the universities business school and learning about how much psychology was a valuable skill to have in that work.

Eldon had learned a lot, but his plan now was to finish school, get A's in his remaining classes, interview through the University placement offices, and find a good-paying job with a promising future, but more surprises were ahead.