Fuck micro stakes

So I finally solved sales. I have it all figured out. There is nothing left to learn. Women want me, men want to be me. In all seriousness, all I’m trying to say is that I’ve finally begun making some money at it. I’m up $ 27k this year, with my best month being $9200. No shadiness, all pure ethical sales. I found my niche: building value in the product. Just eloquently explaining what makes XYZ car a good car to the point my customers get excited. It’s their #1 compliment about me, saying things like “I’ve never had a salesman like you before, that was really different”.

I’ve also dipped my toes back into the poker scene again. We’re playing 1/3 this time, but I’m up $2800 or so with about a $50/hourly over a meaningless sample. I have a 17k liferoll, so needless to say, it definitely feels better to play overrolled than under. The hours at the dealership are long, and I keep fantasizing about the freedom poker would give me, but I’m also self-aware enough to realize I stand a good chance of being irresponsible with that freedom just like last time.

The last bit of good news is I’ve finally left the motel and have a legitimate apartment. Since I lost everything, furnishings are sparse, and I’m going to make a good faith effort not to blow it all on anything extravagant. For instance, I picked up a mattress from Walmart today to give you an example of my frugality. Everything else will be piecemealed together from Facebook Marketplace. The neighborhood I landed in is like something out of a storybook. The street is encapsulated under a giant canopy of trees, creating stunning vistas and sounds of nature. The whole area just smells so green. Walking around at night, you are surrounded by the hiss of dimly lit gas lanterns burning away, casting an orange glow from afar. It’s enchanting. I live in one of the most primier areas of town that is literally walking distance to everything. It’s insane being able to just casually stroll about the neighborhood and stumble upon hidden coffee shops and bistros.

And the women, my god. There is so much eye candy I don’t know what to do with myself. It’s almost depressing in an odd way because I am surrounded by that which I cannot have, or at least probably won’t have. Nonetheless, I’ll find someone eventually, but for now I’m strictly focused on getting my apartment furnished and life back on track.

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I cant remember where I left off but I quit my stockboy job at the clothing store in favor of a car sales job to improve my earnings potential. I had visions of wearing plaid pants while smoking a cigar telling people "aint she a beaut!" wondering if I would be able to look myself in the mirror every night after ripping customers off and selling them that TrueCoat protectant. Turns out it really hasnt been that at all. It has pretty much just been product knowledge, building rapport and hoping they like me enough to just buy the car since ya know they came here for a reason.

However my results so far have been dismal. First month I sold 3 cars. Then 4, then 6, and last month I sold 10. So I'm proud of the upward trend but being 100% commission based this isnt exactly sustainable. In fact most people have said they'll fire your ass if you arent selling 16 cars within 3 months, so why have I been spared? Turns out I'm a pretty likable guy I guess. For some reason they see potential in me and keep giving me 2nd shots.

Personally I think my biggest hurdle hasnt so much been selling cars but rather being exploited.... by my own goddamn coworkers. You see part of being a likable person is being agreeable, you know a "nice guy". Not the incel kind who hates women, but just extremely customer service oriented. My IT background has baked this into me. I am always willing to help and automatically say yes to anything anyone asks. My coworkers have picked up on this and it has become a running joke that they can just sweep their deplorables my way to free up their own schedules for legitimate buying customers. So I get all the morons, the broke degens, the tire kickers and other jackasses who strangely visit car dealerships just to pretend to buy a car with no intention of moving forward.

In fact every sale I do make is a direct result of me sourcing my own leads. And EVEN THEN I still get screwed because some coworkers will find ways to steal my deals. They'll deliberately engage with the customer behind my back so that they establish an audit trail that acts as 'proof' they deserve half the deal. They'll pretend they didnt know it was my customer but "it's too late now" because they've done so much work with them not to be credited. Or they'll try to gain retroactive credit by using an orphaned client that they failed to sell a month ago but that I managed to pull through when the customer actually came back and act like it belongs to them as some sort of deep origin story. These are all just examples of the cutthroat side of the industry that I didnt know existed internally.

Anyway since my earnings have been so poor my living situation isnt much improved. I currently stay in a roach motel in the ghetto. Lots of weirdos around, obvious drug addicts, cops have showed up a few times, fights and yelling in the parking lot, etc. Surprisingly it’s very quiet late at night though so I’m having no problem sleeping. I definitely got supremely lucky on the unit # I’m staying in away from the crowded areas. Climate control works well and I have plenty of hot water to take a shower so all of my needs are met. Sure it smells musty like cigarettes and safety will always be a concern but so far so good. The dilapidated appearance of everything makes living here somewhat depressing but I just try to keep chanting to myself “it’s only temporary, it’s only temporary”.

Thing is my earnings has some serious potential here. Several coworkers have shown me their paystubs as people are rather open about it here. 7k months are considered standard. Couple of guys routinely pull in 10. I have been shown end of year W2’s from 98k to 157k, all just selling cars. They have bluntly told me “your desk is worth $100,000”. If I can reliably make that kind of money I think I’d give up poker for good since it’s certainly better than I ever made as a helpdesk tech. The sales managers (my direct supervisors) make about 20k/month along with the finance guys. The GM of the store has a base salary of 500k/year + 2% of all sales, so probably over 1MM. The people that work here are certainly an interesting bunch; at minimum they seem unhirable in any other industry. I cant imagine any of them wearing suits, working in coporate america, generally getting along with anyone about anything without being a complete dick and facing termination by the end of the week. They all gravitated towards this industry because it was a natural fit and a culture that tolerates them if not downright encourages their behavior. I’ve had so many deals locked up that I had to punt because my managers wanted me to squeeze the customer with extreme lowballs on their trade or refusing to budge over trivial amounts of money to the point they got offended and just left. But I guess they are going for max EV so the risk is worth it if the customer caves and takes the offer. To be fair sales would obviously be easy if I just gave everyone what they wanted.

So with that being said my earning so far isnt really giving me any room to get back into poker. I mean I might be able to bring like 1 or 2 fucking bullets tops if I want to play deep, or just chop it up into 8 or 9 minbuys and try to build with that. But if things dont change soon the only logical move will be to get back into IT with consistent and meaninful pay, something I should have obviously done long ago.

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bit of an overshare

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