Clayton Sherrod was just 13 when his dad died of a heart
attack. Clayton was one of 10 children
living poverty in Alabama before the Civil Rights era gave blacks equal
rights. As a young black teenager, he
must have already felt like his opportunities for success were slim. After his father died, his mother told him he
needed to quit school to go to work to help support his family. That limited his opportunities even further.
Clayton’s older brother had a job as a golf caddy at an
all-white country club near their home.
When an opening came up for another caddy, Clayton applied and got
it. Only a few weeks later, a job as a
dishwasher opened up in the kitchen.
Although it was a pay cut with harder work, less prestige and longer
hours, Clayton learned that they offered free meals to the staff. Besides, it was a steady paycheck, unlike the
caddy job, which was more sporadic.
Clayton was soon eating gourmet foods in a fancy country
club; foods he had never seen or tasted before with expensive cuts of meat and
exotic ingredients. He was fascinated
with how the chef created these masterpieces and started watching him
cook. It looked like magic to him. He said, “I just wanted to learn. I would have paid them to learn.”
After a while, Clayton decided that he wanted to be the head
(executive) chef there someday. People
thought he was crazy, because there had never ever been a black head chef at
that country club before. Clayton said,
“but I saw something that everyone else didn’t see, that is me walking around
with that big tall hat on.” He counted
how many promotions it would take for him to become the executive chef and set
a goal to be promoted every 6 months.
Doing that would ensure that he became the head chef in 10 years. Clayton worked hard, stayed late and polished
the dishes to a shine. And he kept
watching closely as the chef cooked.
His hard work paid off; Clayton was promoted repeatedly over
the next few years. As he checked off
each promotion on a poster on his wall, he would dance in happiness, knowing
that his goal was getting closer.
When he reached the rank of ‘Sous chef,’ or the assistant to
the head chef, the head chef came to him and said, “I know what you’re
doing. Don’t even think about it. I will be the Executive Chef here for life. You can either keep working for me or go
somewhere else.” That didn’t deter
Clayton. He came up with a plan to allow
him to become head chef. It wasn’t a
mean plan, but it was sneaky.
Clayton wrote up a resume describing the perfect chef, put
the head chef’s name on the top and started applying for jobs all over the
country—for the head chef! Soon the head
chef was receiving job offers from everywhere.
That made him a bit proud—he was famous!
He started asking his boss for raises in pay, which his boss regularly
refused. After a time, the boss got
tired of the discussion and told him he could be replaced. The boss said turned to Clayton and said,
“Will you take over until we can find another chef?” Clayton was only too happy to fill in.
Clayton never looked back.
And he attained Executive Chef in just 6 years. He was only 19 years old! He ran that kitchen for many 13 years, taking
time off to attend formal culinary school in New York. He finally quit to start his own catering
business, which he has run successfully ever since.
Although Clayton’s situation seemed hopeless, he saw himself
as a future success. He worked hard and
studied with such determination that he reached his goal quickly.
Each of us can do the same if we keep our goal in mind while we work on the smaller goals that will bring us there.
To hear Clayton tell his story, http://storycorps.org/listen/clayton-sherrod/
I got the details from:
http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2007/08/20/focus8.html?page=all
Photo courtesy of Clayton Sherrod and NPR.
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