Are You Willing to Move Carts?

The real reasons why some people progress and others don't

I have been looking for years to separate out the reasons why some people progress in their careers and others don't. Trying to understand what causes some people to be successful by most definitions and others to stay stagnant in their lives. On this quest of over ten years, I of course had my break through revelation in the most logical and classiest of places; the WalMart Parking lot.

As much as I live for wally world shopping trips, I declined to go in and volunteered to stay with two of our three children in the car. My wife, Alyssa,  took our youngest son, Grayson into the store on a life or death mission for M & Ms, which all parents know are a necessity for potting training at least one of your children (whether you want to admit it or not.) While she spent a solid five minutes in our shopping destination of choice (or lack there of), I got down to serious high quality observation and research on success that would make Malcolm Gladwell jealous.

Naturally the one parking spot that was open had carts near the front of it. Two carts in fact, pushed haphazardly up against the gold Mitsubishi in front of me as I pulled into the space. My first thought was to get out and put the carts back in the cart return that was only two stalls over but just then the people who belonged to the vehicle next to the carts came out of the store and delicately tried to get into their car without touching nor moving the carts. This was challenging because one of the two was right in front of the passenger car door. They successfully found their way into the vehicle and eventually pulled away. At this point, I thought, I am going to sit here and just watch what happens.

Moments after the first car pulled away another car whisked quickly into the spot and almost hit the two carts. They at the last millisecond slammed on the breaks and then proceeded to back up and pull forward again and again until they had the passenger door at exactly the right location to avoid the carts...or so they thought. This first effort took nearly 30 or 45 seconds but then what came after that was painful to watch. The woman on the passenger side opened her door very slowly at first trying to feel through the door where exactly the carts were on the other side. She got it open about 16 inches or so and then tried to get out of the car. She was not the skinniest bean in the pole (or however that saying goes) and it was clear from the beginning that she was not going to get far. The woman in the drivers seat chose not to do anything to help her and simply looked on in horror like she had no control of the situation. 2-3 painful minutes later she somehow wormed her way out of the car.

At this same time the owner of the car in the adjoining space came out and I placed a bet in my mind. "He will be the one to at least move the carts away from the cars" because one of the two was resting up against his vehicle. No Dice. He looked for a second at the carts and got in the car and pulled straight out.

The next car that pulled in did so at an extremely awkward angle to avoid hitting the carts. Just like the other people getting in or out of their vehicles, he took way more time and effort, parking and re-parking and parking again than what it would have taken to simply get out and put the carts in the return 2 spaces over and then have an obstruction free parking space. At this point I couldn't take it anymore and decided to get the carts and put them away.

I realized that this is representative of the rest of life. There are people who will face obstacles head on, willing to get out of their comfortable (air conditioned) spaces in order to change their lives for the better (or even make it just a bit easier) and then there are those that don't or won't. This category of folks are those that will go out of their way to make their lives harder albeit unintentionally. These are the people who won't stop to realize that they can have an impact on the environment around them and in many cases just feel stuck in their circumstances. They also will be content to spend more time working up elaborate ways to avoid the obstacle rather than do something to change their circumstances entirely.

I often get the question "What do I need to do to progress in my career?" 

I now have a completely new answer to that question.

You have to be willing to move carts!