Back in August 2020, I posted a blog about SOAR stories. SOAR stories are a fantastic way to reflect on Situations that seemed challenging at the time because of certain Obstacles. In order to succeed, you took Action and the Result was something you can be proud of, and which contributed to who you are today. It built character.
You many think that these stories mean nothing. After all, they are just stories. However, ALL stories have a meaning; ALL stories disclose something about the characters in them. The character-traits are what keep people interested and yearning for more.
The story is only one part of what makes doing this exercise valuable. The more important part is rediscovering who you are at your core and what attributes distinguish you from others when faced with challenges.
I'd like to continue sharing some of my personal SOAR stories and the characteristics that they exhibit.
What are some of your SOAR stories? If you can't see your inner #basass, we can work together to rediscover it! I'd love to hear them and publish them on this blog!
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With the success of the Japanese-language Graphix Advantage™, I was pushing for GSP to develop Chinese-language software for the China market, but was coming up against roadblocks, including the insinuation that the Japanese-language software was "good enough" for all of Asia.
This meant that Chinese sign shops could buy our product in English or in Japanese. In the early 90’s, outside of Hong Kong, English was not commonly used in China.
Aside from wanting to make a huge impact in China, I was also set on climbing the corporate ladder. However, the fact that this was the early 90’s, and GSP was an engineering company run by men, I quickly realized that my goals were not going to be achieved any time soon.
I planned my departure.
Along with my colleagues, over an in-house lunch meeting, we presented the potential financial and business opportunities for the Asian market (outside of Japan) to the corporation’s VPs and President. If we had other 2-byte language features to support other Asian countries, the business could expand exponentially. At that time, we offered roman-language and Japanese-language systems only.
For the meeting, we ordered Chinese takeout and only provided chopsticks.
Inevitably, one of the VPs asked for a fork.
Our response: “We're sorry. We have no forks. You will need to make do with the tools available.”
*Mic drop*