The Ordinary and God’s Will

Olivia was ordinary. That would be the world’s definition of Olivia. Her brother’s athleticism earned him a full-ride scholarship; her older sister’s academic prowess consistently ranked her at the top of her class and her younger sister’s beauty and personality earned her the title of Homecoming Queen.

And then there was Olivia. She stood out because there was nothing special about her.

She wasn’t gifted with athleticism. All throughout high school she suffered the humiliation of being picked last for any team sport in gym class. No mystery here as to why she hated gym class.

Olivia’s academic success depended largely on the teacher who was assigned to her class in grade school. The same academic success depended on the assigned instructor teaching required subjects in junior high and high school. So, her success with grades were hit or miss.

According to culture’s definition of beauty—Olivia didn’t meet the standard. She tried to achieve the flawless complexion promised her if she used the right skin products and the luxurious mane of long hair, like the model photographed enjoying a night out with friends, if she used the right hair products. And she was convinced that with the right figure-toning exercise she’d look like the bikini clad woman with the hour-glass figure attracting the life guard’s attention.

But that wasn’t Olivia. She wasn’t born with flawless skin; her fine textured hair, sabotaged by split ends, never became the luxurious mane of long hair she hoped for and the round figure shape inherited from her paternal grandmother could never be transformed to an hour-glass.

And then there was Olivia’s personality. She was shy. She enjoyed one on one conversations but didn’t feel comfortable in a crowd of people. She would watch her younger sister mix and mingle with confidence in these gatherings and wish she could do the same. But she couldn’t. Ordinary would be the world’s definition of Olivia.

Olivia and her parents knew the importance of a college education. But unlike her scholarship assisted siblings her education path was different; she attended a community college and transferred to a state university with a work-study program and federal loans to help with tuition. She studied and worked hard to earn her bachelor’s degree in two years.

With student loans nipping at her heels, she began a job search after graduation. She soon found employment at a company known to recruit from the pool of young and hungry college graduates. On the flip side, it was also known for its revolving door of new hires entering and the fired and disgruntled exiting. It was a tough, fast paced environment.

Upon completion of her company’s new employee orientation program, Olivia was assigned a boss. But there was a problem. The working relationship between Olivia and her new boss was like fire and ice.

The boss dished out a daily load of intimidation and criticism and handed marketing campaign leads to his favored employee. He spent most of the workday sequestered in his office engaging in information sharing (gossip) with his tight band of confidants. And through the office grapevine Olivia learned her boss said, “she won’t last another month.”

Olivia had a strong work ethic but her motivation was crushed because she felt like she’d fallen into a pit. Outside her boss’s office was a display board that tracked the existing customer and new customer sales and ranked the team members achieving these numbers—Olivia’s name was ranked last. It didn’t look like it would be long before the revolving door would spit her onto the street.

But things changed with the office grapevine’s latest news. Her boss broke a corporate policy exposing the company to lawsuits and he was fired. The revolving door spit him onto the street.

Olivia was reassigned to a new boss. But this boss was different; he didn’t see Olivia as ordinary. He wasn’t asked to take on the role of mentor—he just did it.

Under the guidance, discipline and protection of her mentor Olivia climbed out of the pit that had crushed her motivation and was transformed. It was as though she was a tightly shut flower bud that with the right sunlight, water and care opened its tightly closed petals and blossomed into a magnificent flower.  Who knew this transformation was possible? Olivia would never have known this was possible but her mentor knew.

Was it easy along the way? No. She stumbled and made mistakes. There were conflicts with customers, conflicts with co-workers, conflicts with employees in other corporate divisions. But Olivia persisted under the watchful eye of her mentor. He was like a father letting his child grow in independence but ready to intervene should the consequence of his child’s action cause harm to the child or others.

Olivia flourished under the watchful eye of her mentor. Her attributes, once seen only by her mentor, began to rise to the surface. She was entrepreneurial and a strategist. She could see what could be done to improve a process and create and carry-out strategies to respond to the shifting economic picture her employer faced. It was these attributes that made her work extraordinary.

Olivia’s mentor didn’t keep her on a short leash—he let her run free. And that’s what she did. She ran free to create and implement what was conceived in her strategic and entrepreneurial mind. He gave her work assignments that involved interaction with other branches, regional offices and corporate offices. She took on these assignments and became well known and respected throughout the company.

Time passed and her employer restructured the company. With the eyes of an entrepreneur Olivia saw a way to create a “business within a business” that had the potential of creating a profitable new division and received the financial backing and confidence of the management leadership team to create and run it.  

And that’s what she did.  All because one person saw in Olivia what others could not. The world would define her as ordinary but she achieved the extraordinary.