Becoming Eric Forman

Ever since I was young I always had a thing for German cars. I can remember my grandfather telling me stories of the German automotive technology he saw when he was in the country fighting WWII. These stories led me on a path that began my love affair for German cars. Yes everybody loves Ferrari's and Lamborghini's, but the only Italian I would bring home is a girl, not a car, for that I stick with Germans.

So as time went on in my childhood I became obsessed with one brand of automobile, BMW. The company just had a "German" way of doing things, very organized and understated but massively capable. By the time 16 came around I had my license to drive and wanted a job, particularly one that involved BMW. I went to the local dealership a half hour away from my house and asked if they had any openings. They seemed tentative but after speaking with me they quickly realized I would work hard for them as I actually cared about the brand. They offered me a job working the parts department after school and on the weekends, I immediately said yes.

The job wasn't half bad but it lacked customer interaction and the use of my brain. I simply pulled a part from stock and took it to the mechanics who were a quarter mile away in the shop. It was beyond easy, but so boring. I would stare at a printer until a piece of paper came out and told me what part was needed. A oil filter would say "328001248. B12. 1. Tyler". This meant grab one of this bar code from row B12 and take it to the mechanic named Tyler. It was so repetitive but in the end I actually gained a lot of knowledge about the cars that would be useful in the future. It was in the parts department that I felt like Rabin working at Blockbuster. I was working in the automotive industry like he was in the entertainment, but it wasn't the real thing and what I had imagined.

So after a year in parts BMW moved me to the new car department and made me a lot-tech. I would be making more money, speaking with customers and getting paid to drive all the products BMW offered. It was such a great job to have during high school. While my friends went to work at Pizza Hut I would be picking up a $90,000 M5 from a customers house to bring in for service. It was from here that the dealership management realized I had good potential in the automotive industry. I think they looked at me as their little prodigy, grooming me from a young age to sell cars for them.

As graduation from high school came closer, the store asked me if I would be interested in working full time for them. I had always thought college was what I would do after graduation, not going straight into the "real world" of 9 to 5. I gave it some thought, and as a couple major tragedies in my family happened during this time period, staying close to home rather than moving away for school became a real possibility in my mind.

I met with the manager again and decided I would work for them rather than go to college. I made by choice because not only because I needed to be close to home for family reasons, but because they offered me an amazing opportunity. To be an assistant client advisor in the new car department. BMW refers to car salesman as client advisors, the German's think it's classier or something. I would be working under the guidance of the best client advisor in the 25 year history of the dealership, Ed. He became almost like a father to me, I spent more time with him than my mother it seemed. He sold and still is, even with this recession, selling 50+ BMW's a month. It was crazy, I was 18 years old dealing with the CEO's of Kroger and P&G. I was allowed to do anything I wanted with the Ed's customers except talk about numbers. I would drive them to and from their houses, teach them everything about their new purchase, and answer and questions they had, but money (i.e. lease payments) was off limits for an assistant to talk about.

It was a few months into my new job that we got a new boss in the new car department. Our old boss gave me no problems, he loved the product and was really passionate about BMW and what it stands for. He also treated me well, he knew that I was doing this instead of going to college and always seemed proud of me. He moved on though and took a BMW corporate job that paid the big bucks but required a transfer to New Jersey. It was adios to him and hola to the worst boss of all time, who we will refer to as Red Forman from, "That 70's Show".

We all knew he was awful from the get-go, he didn't seem to care about the product or the company and only focused on the number of units we were selling per month. It was during his "reign" of the store at this time that I began to feel like Eric Forman. It was just like the TV show's relationship between Eric and Red, no matter what Eric did, it was never good enough for Red. My new boss instantly seemed to have a grudge for me, maybe it was the age or maybe he was threatened that Ed seemed to have more power at the dealership than he did and I was a part of Ed's team more than the dealerships. I only answered to Ed, anything he needed I did, we didn't ask permission from the dealership. He was keeping that place alive, outselling every other client advisor 3 to 1.

Red Forman decided this way of doing business, having an assistant on the sales floor and out doing customer deliveries when nobody else had one didn't make sense. His hard-hardheadedness like Red Forman's was so easy to see. He saw me as a waste, not realizing how much more productive Ed was with me than without. Over time he seemed to grow a hatred of me. I felt like Eric Forman even more when say, I would come back late from lunch because of traffic and he would shout out me, making himself look way worse than he was making me look. Eric always tries to defend himself but it somehow just gets him in more trouble and that is exactly how it was with me. I would rationalize why I was doing what I was and he would get even more angry. Ed and I found it comical after awhile.

The whole dynamic of boss and co-worker is so much like Eric and Red's relationship on the sitcom. You always know that any minor issue is going to be dealt with one sided and you will be talked down to like Eric always is. It is ridiculous in a way because it creates bad harmony which profits nobody.

Red Forman ended up making me so unhappy that I decided to put an application in the mail for Ohio University. Once I was accepted I came to the school in beautiful Athens and loved it. I think looking back on everything it all worked out for the best. I was working 50 hours a week at BMW so 18 credit hours was cake to me. A lot of people say you should take a couple years off before you go to university because it will make you appreciate it more. I agree completely with this theory after living it from 2004-06 and I thank Red Forman for making me hate him so much it gave me a lot of motivation to go from the sales floor to the classroom.