Achieving Fulfillment. And Redemption.

He would come to perform a miracle, and we would be privileged to witness it.

This is the true story of someone who, given the right opportunity, would pull himself out of hopeless circumstances and get his life on track to success.

Fulfillment, in the sense that I’m using it, is the business practice of warehousing others’ goods, controlling inventory, filling orders, and shipping those goods to the consumer. In our case, it also involved shipping sales and marketing materials to retailers across the US and Canada.

Our largest customer is a major auto parts retail chain that hired us to produce and manage an inventory of marketing materials, including window signs, counter mats, promotional flyers, and advertising specialties, which we would ship, in various combinations, to stores nationwide.

The first time we were tasked with this, we advertised for day laborers to work for two or three days sorting and packing items. They would receive an hourly wage until the orders were complete. We required each one to fill out a simple form so we could capture the information needed for tax purposes.

One applicant, whom we’ll call Mario, revealed that he might occasionally be late if it was raining heavily because his driver’s license was suspended due to a DUI, and that he would need to ride a bicycle to work. We were impressed that someone would exhibit such candor for a gig that might last three days, perhaps never to be repeated.

He was broke, in a twelve-step program, living at his son’s home, seriously behind on child support, and had pretty grim prospects, but as he would soon demonstrate, he had the capacity to overcome those setbacks and build anew. Mario would come to perform a miracle, and we would be privileged to witness it.

As this was our first opportunity to include fulfillment in our service offerings, we wanted to ensure we were fast, accurate, and timely. We hired six day-workers for the project and expected to need to keep a close eye on them because, well, they answered a Craigslist ad. Our expectations were correct that they would be inconsistent workers— with one exception.

Mario was the only group member to show up on time, focus on the work, and ensure that the orders were correct. Others would show up late or not at all, yap incessantly with one another, smoke pot during the breaks, or perform sloppy work.

Mario took it upon himself to monitor the group's output, and because of this, we shipped many hundreds of packages, on time, with very few errors. In fact, our customer was so happy with our performance that we were awarded similar work for over five years.

We were quickly able to make fulfillment a significant part of our business, and before long, Mario was working five days a week. He was no longer packing orders but overseeing other workers, performing quality assurance, and managing the inventory of boxes, envelopes, and other packing materials. He was key to our success.

Typically, the fulfillment work consisted of many, often hundreds, identical packages containing the same items. Each package would contain perhaps ten items, although one big job included sixteen.

Often, the jobs included several variations with slight differences in the content, with separate mailing lists for each type. Mario would keep track of all the variables and ensure they were shipped appropriately.

He kept sober, except for two hiccups, during his employment with us.

The largest job we completed consisted of the aforementioned sixteen items, in several configurations, packed in overpack cartons in different quantities, that needed to be shipped to various parts of the customer’s distribution system, including regional distribution centers, retail stores, and major store customers. We brick-stacked and stretch-wrapped the cartons to a height of six feet, on pallets, filling a 53-foot semi-trailer to the rear doors. This is over 2,500 cubic feet of material, and Mario managed it all— with no reported errors.

By this time, we also owned an online chocolate business, and he oversaw thousands of different small web orders while managing the packaging inventory for these products..

Mario had become a most-trusted employee and almost like a family member.

He kept to himself most of the time, often listening to the Rockies games while working. He was so respectful that he asked permission to use the radio before turning it on for the first time.

Years later, we were underbid on the fulfillment work and also decided to close the chocolate business. We wanted to downsize our operation and go into semi-retirement. Most of our employees had moved on, and we no longer needed a 4,800-square-foot facility.

We gave him time off for job interviews when needed, and he always stayed late to make up the time. Meanwhile, he continued to be employed helping with the company drawdown. Eventually, he found a new full-time job with good benefits.

When he answered our Craigslist ad seven years before, he was penniless and dependent on his family.

At the time of our downsizing, Mario held a full-time, salaried managerial position with health benefits and a 401k. He was out of debt, current on child support, in great standing with his family, and owned a townhouse. All due to his diligence, hard work, and his ability to recognize an opportunity when it presented itself.

It was an amazing redemption to witness.