I have an elderly boss. I run a small sales department, and of course I would like to be as successful as possible. To that end, I transferred to a new firm to "grow". I have taken sales trainings, and "successful success", I know the latest sales techniques. When I saw my supervisor, my hands dropped. He's elderly! That's it, he doesn't know the latest in sales. I don't know how I'm going to work. I shared my frustration with my wife and she said maybe I could explain to him how salespeople work now. When I went into his office to meet him, I brought my training certificates. I told him that I was going to coach my subordinates to optimize them. The boss was silent, and in response I voiced the main tasks of my department. He, of course, did not appreciate me! Oh well, I'll show him how things work after training. When I started to delve into the tasks, they seemed fantastic. I was already boiling with anger. The boss told me to go and bring a concrete plan to accomplish them. And that was it. No advice, no guidance. I couldn't think of anything, and only came up with the beginning of where to start. This is wrong, you have to think through the whole logic of the work, but I couldn't do it. The plan was unrealistic. I felt like a deceived child, as I was told that this firm fosters strong leaders. And they didn't say anything to me. I decided to have a constructive conversation. I went to my supervisor and listed the problems that prevented me from accomplishing my task. The supervisor listened in silence and then said "go and work". I came out very angry! Well, what about "problem analysis", "brainstorming" and all the other tricks of "successful success"? I ran the department all the next day, adrift as I didn't know what else I could do. In the morning, my boss briefly asked me what decisions I had made on the new goals. What do you mean, decisions? I had voiced the problems yesterday. The supervisor said he didn't need problems voiced, he needed solutions. I got tired of thinking about solutions. went to the boss again with my resume, and said that I couldn't do what he wanted me to do because I didn't have enough experience. The supervisor took a quick look at my resume and said very sternly and firmly, "You've done this before! Remember!". After which the conversation was over. I don't even know how to describe my feelings after everything. I cried. Then I called my wife to "whine". My wife confidently said: "Well, if the boss thinks you've done it before, then remember." So I started remembering when I could do it and when I could do it. I remembered that the sales trainer said that if you're stumped, "Call a friend." So I called a buddy from my last job and asked "do you remember when I could do this?". The buddy, to my surprise replied "Yeah, was it when we sold this?". And I remembered. Yes, I had done this before and achieved big goals in one of my projects with this method. I quickly wrote a work plan and took it to my boss. The supervisor read it and for the first time honored me with a more welcoming look. "Good for you. Next time, focus on solutions instead of problems," he said. I walked out happy. Yeah, the old man was right. Realizing I had a lot of problems always got in my way.