Just keep it to your self!

Today I’m reminded of the story of Joseph in the bible (Genesis 37) when he told his brothers and his father about his dream and was thrown into the pit. I’m not convinced that Joseph was being mean or disrespectful. I just believe he was being naive and perhaps he was a little arrogant. He was possibly overly excited about his dream. I’m sure at the young age of 17 he didn’t fully understand the dream and the implications it would have for his brothers.

Here he was bragging about his brothers bowing down to him and serving him.

It was bad enough that his father favored Him. When his brothers were out doing hard work, Joseph was home chilling. The brothers despised him because of the favor that he received.

There are so many directions that I can go with this story but the part I want to highlight is the telling of the dream.

Sometimes we talk to much. We expect people to be happy for us but that’s not always the case. Sometimes we can be too honest or vulnerable with people and divulge to much information.

I remember being up for a promotion once. I was going from a restaurant manager to an above store leader. The search was narrowed down to me and another store manager.

I was pulled aside early in the process and assured that I had the position, this process was merely a formality. In my excitement for the position I told, my friend, another restaurant manager.

I was qualified for this position. I was an extremely hard worker. I was the best of the best. My results spoke volumes for me. I didn’t even flitch at the competition. I had trained dozens of internal promotes and the managers hired externally. I helped struggling store managers and not only that, I was a fixer. I took over terrible stores and turned them around. I was good and I knew it and I didn’t mind letting you know.

Do you know what my big mistake was? I told my friend my “good news”. My good friend got together with the other candidate and a few other people that wanted their person to be promoted and they started making plans. Long story short, I got a call and was told that I was miss informed that the process was far from over and a few weeks later, I ended up not getting the promotion.

I saw no lesson in this for years. I was deeply hurt and angry because this was one more thing that I earned that was taken for me. Joseph didn’t consider how his brothers would react to his unwelcomed “good news”. I didn’t consider how the other candidate must have felt when she heard ”my good news”.

I was offered other positions within the company, they paid me the same amount that they paid her, I was invited to above to leaders’ conferences and meetings and I was guaranteed a position the next time around but I could not shake the disappointment and the anger, so a month or so after I didn’t get the position, I quit.

I just walked out one day and stop answering calls from anyone. Sure I went on to find other employment but it took a while for me to bounce back from that bad decision and to give a job 100% of my efforts . I’ve always risen to the top of any organization easily but I really never gave that same effort again.

The moral of the story is “Just keep it to your self” until it’s permanent. As I just wrote that last statement, I am reminded of another time that I shared way to much after this incident and was put in another pit. So I still need to consider not telling to much too soon**