Remembering Paul Sorvino...

I was sad to hear that Paul Sorvino died this week. Like many of us, I was a big fan. Plus, hearing his name always makes me think of my first job out of college, where he was once a customer of mine. It was a job I didn’t think much of at the time. Only later would I realize how much of an impact it truly had on me.

Like most college graduates, I was pretty unprepared for the actual business world, even though I’d earned a degree in business. I’d gotten a job working for (and ultimately managing) a very busy Dollar Rent-A-Car branch in Beverly Hills, CA. Every day, after the door unlocked and the phones turned on at 7:30am sharp, it was non-stop — and I mean NON-STOP — for the next 10+ hours. I literally wore through the soles of a pair of shoes at that job.

Along the way, I learned about meeting and exceeding customer expectations. I learned to balance books at the end of every exhausting 11 hour-day. I learned what it took to onboard and develop new employees. I learned to stand there patiently when an employee wanted to review his submitted time card for total accuracy at the end of the week.

It was also my first foray into marketing, which mostly consisted of slapping Dollar Rent-A-Car stickers onto the boxes of bagels and pizzas and delivering them to hotel concierges, car dealership service departments and (sometimes shady) body shop owners around LA and Hollywood, trying to convince them to refer us when customers needed cars.

Then one day, I’m in the office and in walks…Paul Sorvino. Paulie. From Goodfellas. Standing in front of me wanting to rent a car.

I was 22 years old and don’t recall much, but I do remember that he was a tall, nice guy and I got him out the door (most likely in a Cadillac) in maybe five minutes. I also recall trying to be at my very best because, well, it was Paulie from Goodfellas! After all, he had taught me the importance of slicing garlic really thin (a critical life skill)!

Other celebrities came in as well. Halle Berry (twice), before she became too famous to need to rent her own car. RuPaul (“You know that was RuPaul, right?” “No it wasn’t. Hey, wait a second…”). Jamaal Wilkes of the LA Lakers. I saw Rodney Dangerfield while in the lobby of a Hollywood hotel talking to a group of friends- and he was talking just like Rodney Dangerfield always did! And the not-so-famous but no less memorable. I once delivered a car to an elderly woman who made me tea and chatted with me in her living room for probably an hour.

Nearby branches would have friendly competitions over who could have the most “cars on rent” or secure the highest per-day rental rates (the guys at the Bonaventure Hotel location downtown renting to businessmen in town from Asia always won that one). I learned how to negotiate with those other offices and our rental fleet manager for more cars when we were really busy. How to stay cool and stall for time while renting a car to someone, knowing full well there were no cars left in the parking lot behind me. (Yes, it’s true: Sometimes you take the reservation but have trouble holding the reservation.)

We started renting these new things called cell phones to tourists who wanted the full “LA experience” of driving a convertible while talking on a car phone that came in a bag. Multiple times I reported cars stolen at the Beverly Hills Police Department (yes, it was really nice and fancy like in Beverly Hills Cop). Once, a car that two girls from the Netherlands rented just disappeared, so I found their phone number and called them overseas. As one of them explained to me, “You told me I could return the car to the airport. So I did.” She had left it in a parking garage at LAX with the keys in it.

There was that night I drove by the office after seeing Forrest Gump and spied a shadowy figure inside and, for some reason, our bathroom toilet sitting out on the sidewalk. I stopped around the corner, called the Beverly Hills Police on a pay phone, and before I knew it was crouched behind one of their cars as several officers burst into the front and back entrances of the office with shotguns.

Minutes later, one of cops emerged from the building.

“The guy says he was hired to replace the carpeting and bathroom tile? He’s terrified.”

Oh, right…that call the other day from Operations about the floor guy coming in... My bad. 

I really should have written a book about that job…

I was only in that job for less than two years, but now, more than 25 years later, I think back on it and realize how much I actually learned from it. It was a crash course in sales, customer service, marketing, finance and operations, talent development and more.  I learned how to diffuse irate customers. (I also learned how to wash and vacuum a car by hand in just minutes while wearing a shirt and tie, which, you never know, could come in handy.)

Not every job is a career-defining highlight or (at the time) seems like a clear stepping-stone to where you might end up later. But every job should give you something you can take with you to the next one and the next one. Seeing Paul Sorvino on screen always reminded me of that job and all the crazy stories and, most importantly, how much I really did learn, whether I realized I was learning anything at the time or not.

No matter where you are professionally and for how long, if you learn something you can take with you later in your career, it’s been worth your while.

Oh, and always slice the garlic thin. Rest in peace, Mr. Sorvino.