Under the Wire

I’m talking talent here

 


Like most of you, over the years I have worked at a variety of jobs. At an early age I worked as a carpenter’s clean up boy, moved up (or down) to irrigating for a farmer, then found what I thought was my true calling as a ranch hand/ cowboy. An odd twist of that job landed me a job at a livestock auction. I was 14 years old and totally hooked by the excitement of the sale barn business. It became my passion.

My career started on the very lowest end of the business, sorting, feeding, chopping ice and driving cattle into the sale ring. A little twelve year diversion of college and a vocational agriculture teacher’s job interrupted my calling. All in one day, a not so nice man fired me from a teaching job I wasn’t really enjoying and another nice man offered me a job at my first love, the auction business. Ever since, I have worked for, in or around the livestock auction industry. Still love the business. I have done just about everything there is to do around those places, except for one. I have never actually auctioned or “sold” from the auction block.

While privately trying to figure out how to auction, I never took that final step. The problem was, I have always been surrounded by some of the best livestock auctioneers in the business. Their talents intimidated me so I stayed a closet auctioneer.

A world class auctioneer is the most amazing man you will ever meet. From the chaos of the auction block he can read the minds of dozens of potential buyers, knowing when to “push” a bit and when to declare “sold.” How do they get so good? Some are self-taught. One told me he practiced while driving down the road, taking a bid every time he passed a power pole on either side of the road. Some are taught by parents or mentors. Thousands more go to schools to learn the skills. Honestly, few succeed. I used to wonder if there were enough talented fast talkers coming along to replace the aging masters. Not everyone can conduct business while talking a mile a minute. Where will the next generation of world class auctioneers come from?

Don’t worry, I have found an unlikely industry turning them out by the dozens, if not hundreds. Where? Drive up windows of nearly every fast food stop along the highway has them. Even I, whom has spent much of my life listening to, working with, even wanting to be, an auctioneer can hardly understand what these motor mouths are saying. One at a fast food establishment encountered recently must also practice while driving and taking bids. She, however doesn’t use power poles to trigger a bid increase. Nope. She must use the dotted lines on the highway.

This auctioneer in waiting could rattle off an entire order in eight seconds. The problem is, no one can understand anything. Gotta make trying to get bids kind of tough. Maybe she could go to school and work on that. I’m talking talent here, although I suspect she could work a little harder at doing the job where she is at the moment.

 

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