Supply Chain Saturday

I almost didn't walk up to that booth.

It was a career fair at Kansas State. I was a management and entrepreneurship major, and honestly, I thought I was going into sales. Every internship I'd done up to that point was sales-related. Supply chain wasn't even on my radar.

But Amazon had a table, and something about it caught my attention. So I walked over, started talking, and that one conversation changed my entire career trajectory.

I didn't have supply chain experience. I didn't have certifications. I didn't have a perfect plan. I just showed up, and I was willing to learn.

That role at Amazon put me in operations, managing a fulfillment center, learning inventory control, quality assurance, all of it in real time. From there I moved to CHEP, where I've spent the last eight years rotating through operations, project management, continuous improvement, logistics, and now commercial sales.

None of that was mapped out in advance. Every single move came from the same thing: raising my hand and figuring it out on the way.

Here's what I want you to take from this.

But the people who actually land roles? They're not the most qualified. They're the ones who started before they were ready. They learned how to learn, they showed up with energy, and they let the reps teach them the rest.

You don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to get in the game.

Until next Saturday,
– Mark