If You Need To Kick Some A_s, You Need the Right Shoes
November 15, 2009
Here’s the deal that no one ever told you, well no one ever told me anyway – if you need to kick some ass in this world, you need the right shoes.
Years ago I was doing some consulting work for a small family trucking business. Boy that was tough! It was a predominantly male environment and as you can imagine, my more female style of doing business didn’t really fit in. I a fish out of water! But I am feisty, fiery and oh did I mention hard headed? So I persisted.
One day I was running a meeting for the major players in the business which consisted of about eight men and two women. We were having a meeting, which I was supposedly leading, when all of a sudden a shouting match erupted between the CEO and his head salesman.
Like two bull walruses, they stood up and started tusking each other full force with their words. They were shouting and screaming and I thought, “Oh my god, what am I supposed to do about this?” I had never encountered this before in my work.
One thing you should know behind the scenes is that before this fight had broken out, I had taken off my shoes under the table. I am 4 ft, 11 inches small and in order to look more like an adult than a child when I sit in a chair, I usually take off my shoes and sit with my feet up. Most of the time no one knows about this. It’s my own personal secret to success. But this day being shoeless was not to my advantage.
When the fight broke out I was furious. I thought to myself, “How dare these two idiots interrupt my meeting!” Who do they think they are? One of them was the owner of the company, but I didn’t care. I was pissed.
Before my logical brain could give me advice, I jumped up and screamed at the top of my lungs, “Shuuuutt Up!” There was dead silence in the room and then everyone turned to look at me. The CEO and the salesman stopped fighting for a minute, then the meeting went on. But less than five minutes later, the fighting broke out again.
Now I was beyond fury, I was in the kick-butt zone. I jumped up out of my seat and ran towards the two fighting men. I put my tiny frame body right in front of Mr. CEO and faced off with Mr. Salesman and shouted at the top of my lungs, “If you don’t stop fighting right now, I’m leaving.”
The only problem was that if I left, I would be walking out without my shoes. I had left them under the table! Thank god they stopped fighting and I was able to go back to my seat and continue the meeting. Later someone in the group that had noticed that I was shoeless said to me, “Were you really going to leave without your shoes?” Yes I was gonna walk out, but boy would my feet have been cold!
So here’s the learning particularly for women – If you’re out there working in the world and times get tough….when you know you need to cut the crap and kick some you know what….then you really need to have the right shoes.
Later several of the men sidled up to me on their own and said, “Wow, you’re tough.” I knew that was my sign that as a small but feisty woman, I had proved my metal. But next time I need to break up a fight, I’m going to be prepared. I’m going to wear a nice spike heel, just in case. If you need to kick some “you-know-what” in this world, you definitely need the right pair of shoes!
Let me know what you think about these. :>)
I’m Annie Hart and I tell stories that change the world and I tell them raw and real because that’s not only what the world needs, but what the world is ready to hear.
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