"All the best business takes place in a bar."
Did you know that Southwest Airlines was started on a bar napkin between a businessman and a lawyer?
Me neither. Chris had us sit at a small table by the balcony window in the tavern on the second floor of his building. He proceeded to tell me about how Southwest Airlines was born from the idea that there needed to be a small airport system that flew between Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio. Drawn out on a bar napkin, a plan was hatched by a businessman and a lawyer.
"What are your expectations?" Chris asked me. "...I'm not really sure. I don't want to be the girl that you send across the street to get coffee and make copies, but I don't want be left to do tasks that I can't do."
"Don't worry. I won't send you to get coffee, but you will do things that you know you can't do and I know you can't do. But when I do ask you to do something that you have no idea what you're doing, just ask for help. We're both here to learn. I'm here to learn from you and you from me. But this is not a cookie cutter situation. This is a place where you sort of fly by the seat of your pants. There is no schedule, there are no rules. It is chaos. Are you ready to work in an environment like that?"
"Oh yeah!" I replied with excitement and a smile.
"Then we are going to take off our glasses and look deep into each others eyes and promise that no matter how crazy, scary, intense, hard, or overwhelming this gets, we will stick it out together until the bitter end. This whole internship thing is just between us. You are not my intern. As far as I'm concerned, and as far as my staff will know, you are one of my team members, part of my staff, an extension of me. Welcome to GX Creative."
And so begins this journey...
Me neither. Chris had us sit at a small table by the balcony window in the tavern on the second floor of his building. He proceeded to tell me about how Southwest Airlines was born from the idea that there needed to be a small airport system that flew between Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio. Drawn out on a bar napkin, a plan was hatched by a businessman and a lawyer.
"What are your expectations?" Chris asked me. "...I'm not really sure. I don't want to be the girl that you send across the street to get coffee and make copies, but I don't want be left to do tasks that I can't do."
"Don't worry. I won't send you to get coffee, but you will do things that you know you can't do and I know you can't do. But when I do ask you to do something that you have no idea what you're doing, just ask for help. We're both here to learn. I'm here to learn from you and you from me. But this is not a cookie cutter situation. This is a place where you sort of fly by the seat of your pants. There is no schedule, there are no rules. It is chaos. Are you ready to work in an environment like that?"
"Oh yeah!" I replied with excitement and a smile.
"Then we are going to take off our glasses and look deep into each others eyes and promise that no matter how crazy, scary, intense, hard, or overwhelming this gets, we will stick it out together until the bitter end. This whole internship thing is just between us. You are not my intern. As far as I'm concerned, and as far as my staff will know, you are one of my team members, part of my staff, an extension of me. Welcome to GX Creative."
And so begins this journey...