Personal experience. How a successful TV reporter engaged in the delivery of bread in New York

Photo by the author

Be careful not to dream, to dream come true. The validity of these words I happened to check on my own life experience. Once upon a time I dreamed of driving a car in New York. Enter Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge. With the breeze, zip along the FDR highway, catching the windshield reflections of shop windows and windows of skyscrapers. Casually park at Starbucks and get a coffee and a “go go” bagel. Lean back in the driver's seat, switch the radio station and feel it all over - I'm in New York! This is my city! I integrated into its complex, but wonderful mechanism.

For the past year 2, I do it day after day. I meet the sunrise over the East River, greet each other in a friendly way at coffee shops and know all my free car parks below Canal Street. All this was given to me by my new profession. Profession sales representative bread company. What is it and what it is eaten with - read on.

In the US, it is very easy to make money. Not in the sense of becoming a millionaire, but just making a living. The state is going to meet those who want to have a small but permanent piece of the American pie, providing enterprising people with numerous business opportunities. Garbage collection, repairs and construction. Trade and services - you can find your niche everywhere, which, though not taking you to the top of the Forbes rating, will provide you with a permanent job.

Bread business is one of the proofs of this rule. So, there is a large company that has been baking bread for many years. It is in demand, sells well and makes a company profit. The company is satisfied with the profit and does not mind giving money on its product to others. Therefore, it delegates the authority to distribute its products to the so-called independent operators. These are people who buy bread from a company and then sell it to stores. Of which, in fact, a loaf of white or wholegrain and falls on the table of an ordinary American. In this chain there was a place for me. But first things first.

Photo by the author

My first acquaintance with the "grain work" was unsuccessful. In the early autumn morning I set off on a route with my acquaintance. Then I did not think to engage in this business. Rather, I went for general development. I did not understand very well what was going on, and the dull rain did not at all give charm to the Brooklyn shops, which, moreover, were mostly seen from the rear. It is not surprising that from the middle of the route I “jumped off”, having gone to wander through the alleys of the famous Brooklyn cemetery of Greenwood. Cozy crypts and well-groomed lawns in the desolate kingdom of the dead brought melancholy and thoughts to the fact that recently I, a successful Ukrainian journalist, could not even think about looking for work not related to the mass media. But the truth, as they say, is more strange than any fiction. Therefore, I was soon able to return to the bread warehouse.

Tell me how your working day begins, and I will tell you who you are. There is no such saying, but it would be worth coming up with.

My work day begins with the smell of freshly baked bread. It is actually one of the best smells in the world. Everything in it is the awakening from a dream, the beginning of a new day, the anticipation of a sip of strong morning coffee. If fresh bread is baked, it means that life goes on, the pendulum of the universal clock continues its go-ahead, and the heart beats, filling blood with blood vessels.

Fresh loaves are immersed in the truck - and still dark streets and bridges it rushes to the store shelves. To which soon sleepy New Yorkers will rush. Fresh bread should be in stores as early as possible. This is one of the main rules of the bread business.

Photo by the author

I was lucky that I always got up quite easily early. Probably helped by fishing hobbies, and maybe grandma's bedroom, in which I woke up as a child. Her window looked out exactly to the east, and the very first ray of the sun always made its way through the curtains to wake me up and start counting the next day of a happy childhood. It was more difficult to learn to drive a truck through the narrow streets of Manhattan and park it in such a way as not to receive fines and get to the store no further than two blocks. It took time to remember that representatives of different ethnic groups prefer different types of bread, and on certain holidays they do not eat it at all.

But on the background of this, it was not at all difficult to stop thinking about the fact that recently I worked as a reporter on television, rarely bought bread, and didn’t hold anything heavier than a microphone at work. To master a new one, let it be, and not such a prestigious profession at the age of forty - for me it became a kind of challenge.

A good reporter should be good amateurs in a variety of issues. After making a report from the steel plant, you need at least in general terms to understand what is happening there. And removing the story about heart surgery, it is necessary to imagine what is coronary artery bypass surgery.

Probably for the first time I wanted to understand my new profession thoroughly - at all stages. Learn to do a good job. It’s like filming a story on the same topic every day – but it’s getting better and more masterful. A kind of quest. A reality show starring yourself. The price for “messing up” in which is a low rating of one’s own earnings and the threat of being left without “ether” - that is, without work. Today I can say for sure that I succeeded. I’m even thinking about becoming the owner of one of the bread routes, although I’ve never had a craving for business in my life. But two years in exile changed me. And they convinced us that providing people with freshly baked bread is certainly no worse than fried facts. No offense, fellow journalists. I don’t say former, because there are no former in this profession.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Work is not a wolf: why in America there are no shameful lessons

How to find a good job in the USA: stories and advice of our people

10 steps to take immediately after moving to the USA

How to get a state job in the US, and why it is profitable

Three promising professions that you can learn without fluent English

As a Russian journalist working in the American McDonalds

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.