Apologia for a debt collector

Some variation of this will be the beginning of the book:

"If you walk into a kindergarten and ask the kids what they want to be when they grow up, none of them are going to say, 'I want to be a bill collector.' You're going to hear 'astronaut', 'firefighter', 'teacher' - none of them are going to say 'I want to sit on the phone all day and call people to tell them they need to pay me money.'"

Mark Hendsbee, the managing director, had just cracked open the door to the training room, and told the trainers he 'just wanted to say a few words' to the training class. So far, he's the only guy I've seen around the office who wears a tie. He also caught the rapt attention of everyone the moment he started speaking, including the trainers, who must have heard this speech dozens of times by now.

"This is nobody's dream job - no one has their heart set on being a bill collector. It's a job that people fall into - maybe you have a friend who works here and told you it's a decent place to work. Did anyone here get recommended by someone who works here?"

One hand went up in the back. "Yeah, my cousin Jim."

Mark smiled. "You do know he gets recruitment bonus for that, right?"

"Yep."

"Good - tell him he owes you dinner." Laughter.

"Because in the end - that's why people are here. They've either heard from friends or advertising or some other way that this is a place where you can work and make really good money. And that's why you're here - to make money, to provide for your family, to get the sports car or whatever other stuff you want. And, like with the referral bonus, there are an insane number of ways to make money here."

He paused for a moment, then smiled. "Let me ask you another question - how many of you have gotten grief from a friend or a family member when you told them you're working here?"

A few hands went up. He nodded. "Okay, how many of you haven't told friends or family where you're working yet because you know they're going to give you a hard time about it?"

A few more hands went up, including mine. "Let me let you in on a little secret - 90% of people in this country are working for a paycheck. If they won the lottery and didn't need that paycheck, they would walk off the job the next day. Anybody who works in sales is working for the commission check. Anybody who does factory work is doing it for the check at the end of the week. Waitresses are working for the tips at the end of the night. For 90% of people, at the end of the day, it comes down to the paycheck and nothing else.

"There is a need for what we do - there is no shame in being an ethical member of this profession. If everyone paid their bills, we wouldn't be here. Every person we are trying to collect from signed a piece of paper promising to pay back money that they borrowed, and now for some reason are choosing not to pay it back. And that's always been kind of my mentality when trying to collect. Now, part of that may be my nature - as you may have noticed, I'm a short guy. I may have a bit of a 'Napoleon complex' about having to always be the best at what I do.

"But if I get someone on the phone, and he's refusing to pay on this just debt that he owes, he is taking the food off my family's table. And that mentality is no different than the car salesman who is trying to talk you into the premium sound system, because he knows if he doesn't, he may not be going to Cancun next month.

"So if someone asks me why I do what I do for a living, I tell them I do it to feed my family and provide them with the highest standard of living I can. Why do you do what YOU do? Are you curing cancer? Are you saving the world? I didn't think so."

"This job is not for everybody. It is high stress. You will deal with a lot of angry people who will call you all sorts of names. You will hear every sob story imaginable for why they can't pay this bill. If you can't take it, there are a lot easier ways to make the base salary we offer."

"But if you can, there is money to be made. There are collectors who routinely bring home thousands of dollars in bonus money every month. You look in that parking lot, you will see Mustangs, Lexuses, Mercedes, Harley-Davidsons - and I'll tell you what, they don't all belong to upper management. They belong to people who come in, work their forty hours, and get the job done."

"Every single one of you is capable of doing that. If we didn't think you were, you wouldn't be sitting here. And if you didn't think you were capable of it, you wouldn't still be sitting here either." He turned to the trainer. "Have they done any live calls yet?"

She shook her head. "No, they start with that tomorrow."

He laughed. "Perfect timing then. You'll get to see what you can do. And if you find you can do it, I look forward to seeing your pictures up on that top performers wall. Good luck."