Appreciation of circumstance

No job is perfect. There are plusses and minuses to all work situations.

Consider yourself lucky if you’re working at a restaurant that has continuous staff wine training (beyond sales pitches by sales reps), and encourages or invests in outside education.

Consider yourself lucky if you’re working at a retailer that encourages the whole staff to taste the wines (together, ideally), explore at wholesaler events, and works hard at making a team out of the employees.

Consider yourself lucky if you’re working for a wholesaler that isn’t trying to sell wine to every single account around (the “no stone unturned” mentality) and instead supports you in announcing that you’re going to sell less wine, intentionally, to one account in order to focus your energy into another, more deserving, account.

Consider yourself lucky if you work for a winery that trusts your instincts and approach, instead of giving you a script and a quota.

No job is perfect, but basic questions like these, a litmus test of sorts, can help put appreciation of circumstance in place on a tough day.

But also never forget: if you don’t have these basic things, there’s always someplace else that does.

The goal is to feel lucky every day. Every single day.