M.I. - Every Job Is A Stepping Stone

Most people want a better career, but they keep waiting for the perfect job to appear fully formed. I share a different approach: treat every job as a stepping stone and let each role pay you twice, once in money and once in skills. That mindset took me from turning my nose up at landscaping to realizing the work was quietly building the exact foundation I needed. 

I talk through watching someone close to me move from job to job with purpose, learning something new each time and raising her value along the way. Meanwhile, I tried to rely on loyalty and “sticking it out,” even when the role was not teaching me what I needed. Eventually I took the landscaping work I had resisted, ended up on hardscape crews, got corrected hard, and started learning the details that separate average work from professional work. That is where transferable skills got real: tools, timing, quality standards, irrigation basics, and how to handle pressure without folding. 

From there, the opportunities started stacking. I explain what changed when I began treating each site like it was my business, leading crews, keeping customers happy, and staying consistent even when COVID forced sudden changes. Then a facilities leader noticed the work and offered something I never expected: a chance to manage a whole department. The big takeaway is simple and hard at the same time: don’t fight the current. Learn everything you can where you are, carry it forward, and you might end up beyond where you thought you could go. 

If this helped you rethink your next move, subscribe, share it with a friend who feels stuck, and leave a quick review. What job turned out to be your biggest stepping stone?

Transcript

Welcome And The Core Idea

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning and welcome to Coolin's Morning Inspirations. This is your host, Michael Tarrell, and today I wanted to talk to you guys about every job is a stepping stone. Every job is a stepping stone to where you wanna be. Um I I I have a crazy, you know, a crazy up and down about

Loyalty Versus Leveraging Each Job

SPEAKER_00 0:19

that. I got to watch. Um I remember watching my daughter's mother go from job to job to job to job while you know I would try to stick it out with one job or you know, thinking being loyal to a job would get me where I need to be. But she used one job to get to the next job, to get to the next job. And every job that she was given, her price tag kept going up. But she was also taking the things that she would learn from one job and take it to the next job. It's something that I had to learn um, you know, the hard way because I remember I remember back when it was hard for me to find

Pride And Taking The Work

SPEAKER_00 0:57

a job. Like I said, I didn't I didn't go to nobody's fancy college to get any degree or anything like that. And I didn't have any, like I had a lot of skills, but I had nothing to show for it or no experience to say that I was with this or I was with that or anything like that. And I used to get so upset when she used to always say, you should just get a landscaping job. They're always hiring to do landscaping. And I was like, I don't want to be no yard boy, I don't want to be no landscaper, no yard boy cutting. Like, what do I look like? I got all the skills that I got, that's what you think I want to do. And I would instead of take those jobs. I kept on taking every other crappy job that would come my way. And I remember when I first started doing I took a landscaping

Hardscape Lessons And Setbacks

SPEAKER_00 1:48

job. Um, it was for a commercial landscape company, but they did high-end residential properties. And we were, you know, there's there's landscapers that do the cutting the grass and all that other stuff, and then there's hardscapes where you would um like kind of create the scenery, new house, create the scenery, or if they got a new project they want to do, and we would recreate it. And so I was with the hardscape team drag session. I mean, every day. And I'm the big guy, so everybody wants me to get the big boulder and they want me to lift and pull and push all the heavy stuff. So at the end of the day, I will be worn out. But the funny thing is, that was who hired me. It's funny when you, you know, they always say, you know, if you wanna make God laugh, tell him your plans. Because if he got a plan for you, no matter what, it's just gonna go his way, man. And so every time I got like a decent opportunity, I've I've had other jobs. I would try to, you know, leave. I left that job, tried to drive trucks, that was crap. I tried to do uh a lot of different things and ended up back at another landscape company. And I tried to, you know, it it was alright, but it didn't work out for me. I tried to, you know, work with somebody uh on that personal uh business and they tried to cheat me. And I remember while she was bouncing around, you know, you know, getting herself together, she ended up landing a job at a landscape company as a recruiter. And so she ended up getting me on at that job. I ended up being okay because of who I, you know, the crew that I was working with and the people that I was working with, they taught me a lot of stuff. You know, shout out to C Note, you know. Um,

Learning Fast Through Criticism

SPEAKER_00 3:38

it taught me a lot of things. And as I was at that company, because I was there for like almost 10 years, and a part of my, you know, I was uh on one of my other morning inspirations, I was talking about 30 days and 30 nights that you have to spend in the wilderness. And sometimes, you know, even though it says 30 days, 30 nights, it's not always 30 days, 30 nights. It could be sometimes shorter, sometimes way longer. And so mine was longer. And so I was with a company and I started off as a maintenance landscaper, and then I started to learn from the ground up there. You know, I was uh with a couple of Mexican guys, and then I also had uh, you know, C he was a black guy, and David, he was a white guy, and I just always was around these people that you know this is what they did. And so I was like, you know, at some point I just need to learn this. And so I remember the first time, I remember the first time that uh uh C had fussed at me, right? And I could take criticism. So somebody fussing at me, if you're teaching me something and you're aggressive with it, it doesn't bother me. You know, some people, I was I was I I had you know older folks in my life that was stern and and and taught me things while being stern. So being stern doesn't bother me. And so he's fussing at me because I'm cutting fescue grass. I don't know if you know grass or not. So fescue grass is fine grass that you can't cut low. If you cut low, you'll kill it. It's not like Bermuda grass, which is tropical grass where it's almost impossible to kill it. So I'm in and we're at this commercial building, and so it's very noticeable. I'm scalping the crap out of this grass, and he's running up, hey, this is fescue! What are you doing? What are you- and he's like, I thought you had experience, and da da da. He's just getting on me. But while getting on me, he's telling me what the difference is between the grasses. So I'm starting to learn all this stuff. I'm starting to pick up on how to do this, what can spray, what can do this, what can do that, and I'm learning different things from everybody else. Like I'm I'm helping the irrigation team, learning how to work sprinkler systems, and I ended up getting an opportunity as a private, uh, a private gardener for uh

Owning Sites And Leading Crews

SPEAKER_00 6:00

a place called Century Center. It's it's it's in Atlanta, uh towards the Doorville uh side of town. And while I'm there, I'm there every day, all day. And and now I'm starting to try to make this my own. It was like, this is my business, I'm making sure that it's right, I'm making sure everything goes good. And I started to learn how to maintain something and keep the customer happy because I had to interact with the customer continuously because they'll be asking me for different things, and I would have to go ahead and and and handle whatever they needed me to handle. And so, with that being said, you know, um COVID ended up happening, and when COVID happened, no, this is right before COVID, so hold up, I'm I'm moving too fast. So after that, I ended up being the gardener at the mall of Georgia. And the mall of Georgia was looking like poo when I first got there, and I wanted to make it look that, you know, make make it look that great. And so I still even have pictures of it. I was I was so proud of all the work that I did there. And so I always had a crew, and we would go and I would have to tell the crew how I wanted this thing to look. And from that point, I ended up getting from there, I ended

COVID Shift And A New Placement

SPEAKER_00 7:13

up getting uh, you know, then COVID happened. When COVID happened, a lot of things shut down, and so the mall shut down, so I no longer could work at the mall. I was still with the same company, but I had to go to a different business that was still operating. And so I ended up being at a college. And at that college, you know, I had like once again, I was working and had a crew. I wasn't, you know, a manager or anything like that, but more like you know, a supervisor for uh the crew that was going out there, and it's funny because it's another thing, another topic that I wanted to bring up is like always work like the CEO is looking at, uh is watching

Act Like The CEO Is Watching

SPEAKER_00 7:52

it. Because I'm going there every day, doing what I'm doing, not paying attention to anything. But I ended up getting a phone call from uh the manager of the college. Uh he worked for the facilities in, like, you know, making sure all the facility stuff goes good. And so he ended up, he ends up approaching me saying, Hey, I have an opportunity for you. How would you feel about managing a whole department? I've never managed the department before. I I never manage anything, you know. So me being nervous, but it's an opportunity, and everything that kept playing in the back of my head, like like if my daughter's if my daughter's mother can do it, I can do it. I can do it, I could do it, I could do it. Because I'm nervous, but that was my only example. And so I took it, and that opportunity changed

Offered A Department Manager Role

SPEAKER_00 8:40

my life. And if it wasn't for me going the path that God wanted me to go on, I would have never made it there to where like I really, you know, if if things go well, I could ride this out for I don't know how long. Like, this has made it to where I was able to buy a house for myself. I'm able to, you know, live financially comfortable. I started my own business uh with landscaping, and if I would not have took that first stepping stone, I would have never got to where I am today. And I know that I'm going way over my little seven minutes that I normally do. But I think that this story has to be told because sometimes we get so discouraged because we're not going down the path that we necessarily want. But if you ride the way, that's something my grandma, my mom's side used to always tell me is don't fight the current that God has you on. You supposed to be still, be still, and let him guide you to where you need to be. Not where you wanna be, but where you need to be. And I'm uh I feel blessed for it. But every opportunity that came, that failed, that that that that was a learning

Let The Current Carry You

SPEAKER_00 9:51

lesson, it got me to a point to where if all fails, I can make it on my own now. And sometimes you'll be surprised at where the end game is. You might go beyond where you thought that your life was gonna be. Let every job be a stepping stone. Learn as much as you can from wherever you are and take it with you. Job to job to job to job until you end up where you need to be. Have a good morning. I'm out.