Creativity ✅. Desperation ✅. Awful smell ✅.
I’m still not 100% sure who “they” are, but “they” say that you don’t really have a sense as to who you are, how you think, and what you’re capable of until you find yourself in an unforeseen predicament that requires immediate action. That need to act quickly, decisively, and independently is telling, and can put anyone to the test.
It’s good to find yourself in those situations every once in a while because they’re the best indicators of the who, how, and what I mentioned above. It forces you to remove any qualifiers and really get to the core of your abilities and mindset.
The rub, though, is that the more stressful these situations are, the more they’ll show and, let’s be honest, sometimes we don’t like what we see.
Sorry mom, it actually happened
I was recently telling my 4YO the story of when I was driving and actually ran out of gas. No, not the “almost empty so I better get to a gas station soon” kind of empty, I’m talking about the “had to pull off the road because my car completely stopped” kind of empty. It was the one and only time it’s ever happened to me and it was so, so, so stupid, you guys.
I admit, that the “low gas” light was on for probably about two days. There was absolutely no reason why I didn’t fill up besides me being 22 years old at the time, stupid, and kind of forgetful.
I was working as a child care worker at a children’s home at the time and it was the night of our holiday party. I was giving a ride to a woman with which I worked and she needed to drop something off to her daughter at the mall before we headed to the party. There was a gas station across the street from the mall so I dropped her off and said I’d be back in 5 minutes.
Nope.
As I was getting close to the gas station, it happened. My car died. Done. Dunzo. Empty. No gas.
I was able to pull off the road a block away from the gas station as my car slowly came to a pathetic halt. I tried to start it. Nope. Tried again. Nope.
F**k.
Time to get into “gametime” mode
It’s times like this when you realize that not knowing what to do doesn’t mean you don’t do anything. Shit needs to happen and you need to make that shit happen.
I ran to the gas station and asked them for a gas can to fill up. They didn’t have a gas can. Read that sentence again. For real. They didn’t have a gas can to lend me. What in the actual hell?
Screw it. I ran behind the gas station and saw a bucket randomly laying on the ground. I grabbed it and ran to a gas pump to fill it up which is where I learned three things here really quickly:
- When you are using the pump, there’s a sleeve-like thing that you need to pull up in order for the gas to come out of the dispenser. Usually, it’s automatically pulled back when it’s in your car, or in an actual gas can, but when you’re using a random bucket that you just found over there on the ground behind that thing, you need to manually hold it back while you pump and it’s harder than it sounds.
- When you finally do get the gas to come out, it f***ing sprays E_V_E_R_Y_W_H_E_R_E. It doesn’t come out in a nice little controlled stream, it’s everywhere. Spraying. I put $10 of gas on my card and I’d estimate $3 worth went into the bucket and the other $7 worth ended up all over my pants and shoes. Awesome.
- Last but not least, filling up a random bucket with gasoline at a gas station is super illegal.
I ignored all the weird looks I was getting and ran back to my car to put the gas in it. I got there — with illegal random bucket containing gas — and realized that my co-worker was probably waiting and wondering where the hell I was. FYI…this was before I had a cell phone so yeah, my “back in 5 minutes” was about 20 minutes ago. I felt awful.
Focus. I was almost done.
I just needed to pour this gas into my tank and then I’ll be all…aww sonofabitch!
How can I get this gas into my tank? I had a random bucket with some gas in it and had no way to get it into my tank.
I needed a funnel. I didn’t have a funnel.
Think quickly.
Well, no time to think, either. So I ran into the Burger King that was immediately between my car and the gas station and asked for four large cups. The lady started ringing me up for four large drinks and I said, “No no…just the empty cups, please.” She looked at me weird, handed me a stack of large paper cups, and probably wondered what the hell smelled like gas as I was running out the door.
MacGyver was a pansy
I ripped up the four Burger King cups and put them together to make a funnel that would fit into my gas tank and open it up. I then poured half of the gas in the bucket into my tank. The other half decided to join the rest of the gas on my pants and shoes.
Please work. Please work. Please work. Holy shit my car started. I drove around and made it to the gas station. I filled up and checked the time. I’ve been gone for over 40 minutes. I bet she thought I forgot her. Yeah…she definitely thought I forgot her.
When I got back across the street, she was there waiting and to this day, I have no idea why she wasn’t pissed at me, but I told her the whole story. She knew I wasn’t lying because lying is stupid, but also because I reeked of gasoline and it was so gross.
We drove to the party with the windows down. It was December.
At the party, I told the story over and over (kind of out of necessity when someone asked what smelled like gas) and it was a hit, which allowed me to get away with smelling like gas. Now that I think back about it, I worked with some damn good people back then.
The who, how, and what.
It’s hard to answer those questions subjectively about yourself unless you have an experience where you had to act on instinct and gut.
I look back at this particular instance and am happy to see that I was someone who could think coherently and rely on creativity to do what needed to be done.
It’s a fun story to tell because, to be honest, I’m proud of it. As dumb as running out of gas is these days, I was able to overcome a few barriers and accomplish what needed to be done with whatever I had access to.
That kind of mentality comes in handy no matter what you do in life, but I’ve seen it manifest everyday in my work of starting an e-commerce brand from scratch.
You’re usually not going to have everything you need to get something done and shortcuts are rarely the answer. Difficult things can be made even more so when you don’t have access to the right tools, so rely on your gut and creativity to get you where you need to be. You might surprise yourself.
And also maybe bring a change of pants.
#bewhatyoumake
