The good in a bad resume

In the “What’s Trending” segment on The Today Show last Friday, July 24, Savannah Guthrie reported on an advertising executive who sent out two resumes. The first was your typical resume showing successes and accomplishments.

But the second resume highlighted his failures. For example, under “experience” he wrote: “Worked on three losing pitches; Failed to produce anything worthwhile in my first year here.” Beneath “non-skills” he put: “Could be more punctual.” And under “missed honors” he wrote: “Have yet to finish a book I started writing years ago.” He even listed “bad references” and gave their names and emails.

Guess which resume got the most responses? The “bad one.”

When Guthrie referred to the second resume as the “bad one,” The Today Show’s host, Matt Lauer echoed, “the honest one.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be honest on a resume?” Guthrie then asked, to which Lauer sarcastically replied, “When was the last time anyone was honest on a resume?”

As Billy Joel sang years ago, “Honesty is such a lonely word.”

Why do we try so hard to hide our failures or at least make them appear better than what they are? A football coach once gave this advice on dealing with failures: “When they’re about to run you out of town, get out in front and make it look like you’re leading a parade.”

But most mistakes eventually get uncovered, and sooner or later, they find out you’re the goat and not the leader of the parade.

We fear the consequences of revealing the truth about ourselves. As leadership expert John Maxwell observed, too many people live by the dictum, “If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all the evidence that you’ve tried.” Maxwell says of failure: “We hide it, deny it, fear it, ignore it, and hate it.”

But there is something admirable about people who are secure enough with themselves to be honest about their shortcomings.

In the Seinfeld episode, “The Opposite,” George Constanza (Jason Alexander), decides to do the opposite of what he has always done, which often involved a lot lying about himself. The Seinfeld characters are hanging out in their favorite diner, when George notices an attractive young lady looking his way. So he does the opposite, and instead of being his usual cowardly self and doing nothing, he boldly approaches her and says, “Hi, my name is George.  I’m unemployed, and I live with my parents.” Rather than telling him to get lost like George expected, she seems pleasantly surprised and in an inviting voice says, “I’m Victoria. Hi.” George raises is eyebrows, shrugging his shoulders with an “I can’t believe this is working,” look as he glances back at his friends.

It may not work exactly like that in real life, but being honest about yourself has advantages. As political commentator, Randi Rhodes, said, “It takes two seconds to tell the truth and it costs nothing. A lie takes time and it costs everything.”

Of course, we don’t need to share all our deep, dark secrets. Too many people could get hurt if we recklessly share what would be better left unsaid.

So what to do about those failures? Charles Kettering, the great inventor, maintained that we should learn how to fail forward. He gave three suggestions for doing that: (1) Honestly face defeat; never fake success. (2) Exploit the failure; don’t waste it. Learn all you can from it. (3) Never use failure as an excuse for not trying again.

I would add a fourth suggestion to Kettering’s list: Turn your mess into your message. No matter how bad your resume, your story, your life history, God is not through with you.

After all, the Bible is filled with people with bad resumes. Moses had a crime record (murder), a physical handicap (speech impediment), and a bad temper, which had something to do with his crime record.

What would Joshua put on his resume?  Under “leadership,” he could have written, “Stretched what should have been an 11 day hike into a 40 year journey to the Promise Land.”

David’s resume would have included murder, adultery, and being a negligent father.

Simon Peter? Violent crime (Slashed off a Roman soldier’s ear); Failed in a stressful leadership situation by denying his Lord three times.

What about the Apostle Paul? A felon (as an accomplice to murder); had little patience with the young disciple John Mark, refusing to include him in a missionary journey.

What about the Lord Jesus Christ himself? Had someone written his resume from the scene at the cross, it could have read, “Failed to defeat the enemy; only a handful of his followers remained with him; lost everything.”

And the resume would have been honest.

But incomplete.

And so is yours.

If you don’t give up hope.