Griffs Jobs

My end at Typecraft was nearing due to my restlessness which I felt in
a job I was not passionate about. I started to look for another job and
saw an ad for a printer I knew nothing about. Being curious I went on an
interview and was hired.
Celebrating my
30th Birthday
with a surprise
cake from the
staff at Typecraft
1985
Job #9 Westform Industries 1987 - Print Salesman
The new job at Westform Industries was very different and I enjoyed
the change but the problem was the same. I was in an Industry that I
was not passionate about and was doing it for the money. The companies
that hired me I felt wanted to get my account base and knowledge
so It was a use use relationship which was horrible. Probably my favorite
experience at Westform Industries was the company summer party at
Carpinteria State Beach. I had taken up the sport of surfing and surfing
at Carp was a new adventure for me. Kind of a weird twist to the
job was one of the salesman I worked with at the company had been a
student of mine when I taught classes at the Printing Industries of So
Cal called “How to Sell Printing”. At our weekly sales meeting at Westform
the owner would go around the room and ask all the salespeople
to announce their sales dollars on the books for the week. Out of all of
us John my former Student would always say the highest numbers and
sometimes numbers hard to believe. Well John had a huge account that
was giving him all the printing business
which allowed John to sell over
5 million a year. A huge amount for
one salesperson for a small printing
company. It was not until I had left
the company and heard years later
that John and the Print Buyer for
that company went to prison as the
buyer was getting kickbacks from
the salesperson. I know one thing for sure that being I never taught my
students to take bribes or offer kickbacks to get business since it could
cause you to go to jail. Well Westform was not my best job career choice
since I learned pretty quickly that my accounts did not follow me to my
new employer. The hard work in getting and growing accounts at Typecraft
was demolished when I switched employers. Hard lesson learned as
a salesperson in an Industry that sucked your accounts from you when
you left…
53