The Obsession | Edition - 047
I’ve mentioned before that growing up I used to caddy at a country club near my house. I started at 15 and did it all through high school and summers home from college.
I believe it was and still is the greatest job a young teenager could have.
Here are three things I learned.
Talk to people older than you.
Talking to people is a fundamental skill that has to be learned and practiced. It becomes much harder when you don’t have a lot in common with the person standing next to you.
When you’re caddying at a young age, you’re spending four to five hours with people who are older and inherently more successful than you. I think that’s one of the best environments to learn how to approach people and hold a conversation.
Now that I’m in the real world, it’s pretty much more of the same. Talking to clients who are older and more successful than me. The difference is I’ve been practicing since I was 15.
Through caddying you learn how to present yourself, how to start a conversation, and how to offer up your own thoughts. All things that can be uncomfortable at first. All things that have to be learned through experience.
Exceed expectations.
When you first start to caddy you are focused on two things. Stay ahead of the golfer and get the yardage. We had three tiers - A, B, and H. As a B caddy, that’s all you were expected to do.
But if you wanted to get promoted and make more money per round, you had to do more. You learn to read greens, remember members’ names, remember what clubs they use, remember pin placements, their favorite drink, how much they like to be talked to, how many kids they have, etc.
They end up becoming your clients because you see them over and over. And with that, you start to form an impression. Until one day a member is impressed enough to tell the caddy master that he should consider promoting you.
Hate to break it to you, but in my experience, that’s how the real world works too. Caddying taught me this at a young age and it’s still something I try to do to this day.
Show up.
When we caddied growing up we were never obligated to show up unless there was a tournament. But you also knew that whoever showed up first and most often would get better loops and more loops. Which meant more pay.
When 7 AM rolled around I always made sure I was at the club. Didn’t matter if I had 10 or 2 hours of sleep. You show up and figure it out.
Like I’ve mentioned before, that’s where a lot of the workforce is today. Show up every day, be proactive, and you will stand out. Caddying became the foundation for that in me.
What was your first job and what did it teach you?
