Career moments - In Memory of Jack

As a business professionals, we have people that we interact with and cross paths that have profound impacts on us and in our careers - and sometimes they don't even know it. I have to share this in memory of my old boss, Jack.

Six years into my career, our Virginia district merged with another district in Pennsylvania bringing me a new boss and new Director of Sales. His name was Jack Molitoris. Jack had a reputation as an old school, hard sales manager – I learned that lesson quickly - he was tough. But also, for the first time in my career he became someone who started mentoring me, and a lot because of him, I was ultimately given an opportunity for promotion. Without him I wouldn’t have taken this weird road to Marketing at UPS (that's another story). Jack was only my boss for about 4 months as he was finishing up his 37 year career.

Jack always wore a suit – always. One day he was riding with me in the summer heat in Fredericksburg, VA and it was well over 95 degrees and 90% humidity. My newest, largest, and most impactful customer called to say their AC was broken and we could wait to stop by another time – everything was OK but it was over 100 degrees in their warehouse. Jack was adamant we go visit them. When we pulled up, I took off my suit jacket. Jack shot me a look and said "we’re wearing our coats"…even though the customer just told me half their staff wasn’t wearing a shirt while picking orders. Mind you, this was also a time when suits were becoming extinct in field sales, so even wearing a suit that day was already special.

We had the tour and it was HOT. Jack and I were visibly sweating from every pore - just pouring like a faucet. Once we left, Jack said to me “You know why you wear your suit jacket in situations like this….you never want them to see you sweat.” It took me a minute to realize the lesson – they won’t see your sweaty shirt through your dark suit jacket. Jack and I talked about it for the next hour driving back to Richmond and he knew I was appreciative of the knowledge. But, I’ve still smiled since that day thinking about the sweat pouring from his forehead when he said it. Classic life moment.

Jack had driven down from PA to spend the day with me and that day wasn't about my customer, it was about those teachable moments. As a manager, we should live for those moments to teach and mentor. I'm so thankful to Jack for his willingness to teach. He was going to teach a lesson and he wanted you to live it while learning it.

And he was right, you should ALWAYS wear your jacket – not only because it looks good – but also because you never want them to see you sweat. Rest in peace, Jack.  

 https://obits.pennlive.com/obituaries/pennlive/obituary.aspx?n=jacob-molitoris&pid=197720071&fhid=28178