No Doesn't Always Mean No or The Cider House Rules!

No Doesn't Always Mean No or The Cider House Rules!

I want to tell you a true story about a guy I knew from School, Bob, who used the word "Desire" like I have never seen before.

He was an average student but was always keen on trying new business ideas, selling comics, football cards and sweets at break time. Quite industrious really.





He was one of life's guys who looked at everything with an upbeat and positive slant.

Anyhow, I bumped into him a while back and we had a drink together.

The usual chat about what we were both doing now ensued a I told him I had been working for myself for a few years now on line and offline and he nodded in an attentive way.

I said "So, what are you up to then?"

"Do you remember that summer work experience job I had at The Cider Farm, near where I lived?" He asked

"Yes....great Cider!" I replied

"Oh, yes it is....well I started working at The Cider Farm when I left school. I didn't really want to go to college so I got a job there. Been there ever since."

The Cider Farm has always been a very difficult place to get a job as you know. If you came from a non-farming background it was unheard of locally. 
They only ever employed family or very close friends. They had a workforce of about 45 and it was an old family firm that had been doing business locally and throughout the county for around 75 years.

Well "since" is about 30 years now and he has risen to quite a senior position in the company. In fact he travels all over the world with his job now.

"That's great" I said...."But how did you manage that then? You hated the idea of working for a firm..you wanted to work for yourself when we were at school..so how come you ended up taking a job?"

"Well,leaving school with no qualifications my folks told me that I'd better get a job as College was out..plus they said I needed to earn my keep now. They were not too impressed that I got no qualifications and certainly let me know about it.I knew I wasn't stupid..just lacked the interest to knuckle down at school I preferred the wheeling and dealing. 

Well Mum and Dad said that there was "NO WAY" are you going to live under this roof and do that. I had to get a job."

I anticipated that this was going to be a good story, so I said "Well..go on, what did you do?"

"I like a drink as you know, so i decided I needed to work in a business that was pretty much always going to be in need. Food and drink is pretty important, so I chose that!"

"I rang up and got an application form for the farm and filled it in and sent it back thinking that was all I needed to do. I waited for about 10 days and then rang them up"

"Oh, sorry..we are not taking anybody on at the moment" and that was that. My Dad said "Oh..so that's it then is it? What's next then?" I didn't have an answer.

"You will have to try a bit harder than that Son if you want a job. Quite a bit harder in fact"

Bob told me the main reason he wanted to work at the farm boiled down to the fact he had yet learnt to drive and as the farm was only a couple of miles from his home, he could either walk or cycle each day thus costing him no transport costs.

Bob needed a plan. So this is what he did. He rang up every other day and asked the same question. And got the same answer. "We are not taking anyone on...and also, can you please stop ringing in..it's getting very annoying"!

I laughed "Ha...Bob..what are you like?"

He then said something that I thought was genius. Bob said "Well, there was no way that secretary was going to look at any more applications from me..so I had to try something else. 

By this time I had found out who the big boss was at the firm and also his second and third person in charge. The decision makers. 
I had the overall owner, his production manager and also the factory-farm manager. I knew all of their names but I had never met any of them. 


I got out three sheets of paper and three envelopes and wrote the following letter:

"Dear xyz

Thank you very much for seeing me today. I know you are a very busy person and your time is important, but I was totally overwhelmed by the fact you took time out of your busy schedule to advise me about employment opportunities at the farm.

I have wanted to work at the farm for a long time and feel I would be a great asset as I would happily do any job deemed suitable for me.

I am quick learner and hard worker. I live locally and can either walk or cycle to work, so transport and weather conditions are never going to be an issue.

My family and I use your products and to get the chance to be part of the business would be great opportunity for me as I am young and keen to learn.

Thank you once again for taking the time to see me.

Yours sincerely
Bob Green"


Bob then took the three letters with him and went down to the farm and went into the human resources office block. 

He knew that if he saw the secretary she would recognise his name and not let him in, so he had to be a bit smarter than that.

Bob said he hovered around outside for a bit and then asked several different workers where he could find each one of the three main people, the decision makers at the farm complex.

 Luckily, they were all in different office blocks spread out all over the site. 
This was great because Bob figured they all controlled different parts with the the owner obviously over seeing the total running of the business.

Over the next 3 days Bob managed to get to see each one of them, independently of each other. He hung around in the car park each day at around 5pm and approached the three men with the same story "Hello Mr xyz, I am Bob Green, sorry to bother you, but I did some work experience here last summer and I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of quick questions about the business?"

He said each one was more than happy to spend a couple of minutes answering bulk standard questions about their favourite product, why their business was so good and what about the future. Bob said that he made the questions positive as business owners and people high up in a firm like to talk about their business. they love it in fact.

After they had finished with his tiny interview, Bob handed them the pre-written envelope and letter. Inside was all of Bob's contact details including 2 telephone numbers (this was before cell phones and email) and home address.

Bob thanked them for their time and left.

After 3 days Bob got a telephone call from the secretary asking him to come to the Farm Office at 2pm the following day.

Bob was met by the Owner who after a pleasant chat and tour, offered him a job as a junior plant operator.

His said the reason was that Bob had showed great desire to work at the farm and great initiative in going about getting a job that didn't really exist, but needed to be made before someone else snapped him up!

He said both the Farm manager and the Production manager were equally impressed and they had all chatted about this lad who had interviewed them in the car park!

And that really is the point of this. You have to desire what you want. Maybe sometimes backward engineer it too. The secretary who kept saying "NO" wasn't the decision maker. The Boss was and that's how Bob got his job.

He didn't take no for an answer. He found a great way to work around the problem. And you can too.

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