I started working for an international sweepstakes company as a graphic designer.
Just between you and I... my graphic design skills were terrible in 2008!!
I didn't have a bed to sleep on, nor did I have covers to sleep with, so for the first few months, I slept on the floor with a blow up mattress and used my clothes to cover up with. I survived by eating $1 slices of pizza every day, and after a few months... I finally made enough money to buy a bed.
After six months of working for this company, I was promoted to Creative Director and began managing the team that I had started working with just a few months prior.
At that point in time, the company was going through a massive overhaul in the way they did business, and I was able to step in to recreate the business model, setup all new systems, and proved that my marketing strategies were superior through extensive testing and reporting.
Towards the end of my career with the company, the CEO said in a meeting:
"If it wasn't for the efforts that Matt has put into this company, we would have gone out of business."