Written by Dennis Harvell
The Work That Built My Rise
My rise didn’t start in an office. It started in the South Bronx, where work wasn’t optional — it was survival. My first job was as a bag boy, the kind of work where you learn quickly that effort matters more than pride. From there, I took whatever opportunities came my way. Summer youth programs, part‑time shifts, odd jobs — anything that kept me moving and kept money in my pocket.
Those early jobs taught me how to show up, how to work under pressure, and how to stay focused even when the environment around me pushed in the opposite direction. I wasn’t trying to build a career back then. I was trying to stay ahead of the circumstances I was born into.
As the years passed, the environments changed but the grind didn’t. I worked in retail, security, customer service — roles that demanded patience, discipline, and the ability to deal with people from every angle. None of it was glamorous, but every job added another layer to my work ethic. I learned how to adapt, how to read a room, how to stay steady when everything around me was chaotic.
Eventually, I found myself in office environments through temp assignments. Those roles were unpredictable — one week here, one week there — but they exposed me to a different world. I learned how systems worked, how departments connected, how decisions were made. I paid attention. I learned fast. I made myself useful.
That’s how I eventually found myself in the mailroom — not by chance, but by momentum. It wasn’t a promotion; it was an opportunity. And I treated it like one. I learned the flow of the building, the people, the processes. I worked my way up to supervising the mailroom, not because someone handed me the role, but because I showed I could handle responsibility.
From there, the climb continued — slowly, steadily, one role at a time. Administrative work. Operations. Team support. Project coordination. Each step brought more responsibility, more visibility, and more chances to prove myself. I didn’t skip levels. I didn’t get fast‑tracked. I earned every inch of the rise.
By the time I reached senior leadership — eventually becoming a VP — it wasn’t because I had the perfect résumé. It was because I had decades of discipline behind me. I had learned how to work, how to lead, how to stay calm under pressure, and how to carry weight without dropping it.
My trajectory wasn’t a straight line. It was a climb — from bag boy to youth programs to retail to temp work to mailroom supervisor to corporate leadership. Every job, every setback, every shift played a part in how I got there.
This is how I rose: through work, resilience, and the refusal to let my environment decide my future. And that foundation has shaped every step I’ve taken since.
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