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The company had grown and flourished beyond imagination in those 40 years, so to celebrate the big event, all the Managers and Distributors from all over Australia and New Zealand headed to Melbourne for a huge celebratory convention.
The top executives from the US came with tons of gifts for all of us and it was an amazing event.
A few months prior to the event, we were all given challenges to achieve in order to receive exclusive gifts and excursions around Melbourne..including a visit to the Tupperware plant where they manufacture the metal mouldings for Tupperware containers which are sent all over the world to form the plastic containers. That was something really fascinating and interesting.
My wonderful team helped me achieve all the challenges and more.
One of the nicest things we got to do is, Tupperware HQ decided to do a time-capsule...to be opened on their 50th anniversary.
All of us got to put together a little package of our own stuff...like photos of our teams, photos of our top achievers, and lots of little current pieces of tupperware knick knacks like the little toys and gifts you hand out at parties.
I included a copy of our daily newspaper and the current tupperware catalogue and lots of photos from Disneyland. I had a studio photo done of myself with all my girls, including the(10)teams I had promoted out, with our name "Serendipity" in hot pink letters on a white banner.
(Next year 2010 will be the 50th and if I'm in Aus I will try to attend the convention, I'm sure Linda (my ex-distributor) will be happy to take me as her guest, so when they open the capsule, I will be able to get my package and hopefully take it home with me).
At the 40th Anniversary convention, they announced another Incentive trip, this time to Hong Kong. Tupperware management decided the Disneyland challenge was way too easy, so the Hong Kong one was stepped-up....this one was going to be very difficult to achieve, but I love challenges, so my team and I decided we would go for it.
By this time, I was making lots of money, not only from my own sales but at the end of each month, managers received a cheque from Tupperware based on the sales you and your team achieved in that month. The biggest cheque I ever received was a little over $6,000 when my team hit the Diamond level...but it was only ever that one month where we made it to Diamond.
But we were always only two or three levels below and that was a good achievement in any case. This particular month I made it to Diamond because once a year, we have what we call "Record Breaker" week.
Tupperware Australia issues a challenge with amazing rewards for all managers and dealers to break their own sales records.
This one week, I broke my own record and sold well over $10,000 worth of tupperware...in one week!!....and many dealers in my team achieved their own personal record breaking sales too.
I did 14 parties in that one week, and also sold Tupperware at a school fete and a Saturday morning stall I had outside of a hardware store...with free hot dogs for anyone who placed an order...that got the hubbies to my stall....it worked for me!!!
14 parties in one week sounds a lot....but it is only two parties a day...each party takes no more than 2-1/2 hours, maybe three at the most...and the rest of the day is still free to do whatever you want.
The distributorship has its own warehouse that packs all your orders of Tupperware in boxes and gets them delivered to your house.
When the delivery truck arrived at my home, my whole patio was stacked to the ceiling with boxes and boxes of Tupperware.
From these boxes, I had to individually pack each persons order in Tupperware plastic bags...and I tied up each bag with pink curling ribbon...and included an extra little gift to thank my customer for her purchase.
It took two days to do this...with Allan's help....and another 3 days to deliver my customer's orders, again with Allan's help.
My ladies (customers) enjoyed getting their delivery from Allan more than they did from me....lol.
He'd call them up and say he was popping in at such and such a time and to put the kettle on. Sure enough, he always got a cup of coffee and a piece of cake or some cookies when he delivered their Tupperware.
I'm sure some of those ladies flirted with him too....because he used to come home with a big beaming smile...and his ego seriously over-blown...lol.
I never got to make it to Executive Manager, maybe if I had stayed longer I might have reached that next level.
When you make it to that level, you get a luxury car to drive around in.
Carolyn (the mean Executive Manager) was driving around in a nice little red BMW and she didnt have to have the Tupperware decal and logo on her car.
You also get a fuel card valid for one year...that means you get to buy your fuel at Tupperware's expense. You're supposed to share that with your team...your top achievers....I was one of her top achievers but I never received one single tank of fuel from her....maybe I shouldnt have been so stubborn...or defensive with her....lol.
We had until September 2001 to achieve the Hong Kong challenge...and at the end of July, I was well on target and I could see myself going on that trip.
Unfortunately, on the 3rd of August 2001, my wonderful, supportive, terrific, lovely, gorgeous husband Allan, suffered a massive heart attack at the age of 34 (two months short of his 35th birthday) and died.
He had a congenital heart defect which was never picked up or diagnosed...the autopsy explained it but I havent really read it and I probably wont for a very long time.
I wrote about his death in an article I posted back in August...I'm not sure if I posted it here....but its too tragic anyway, so it doesnt really matter.
Needless to say, my whole world collapsed and I couldnt continue. I had days and weeks following his death, where I refused to get out of bed.
All my friends...the other Managers, Linda...all tried to get me to go back to work, my team suffered without my managership, and in the end it was decided they (my girls)Â needed to be distributed to other managers and so my Tupperware career ended.
And this was THE VERY BEST, MOST REWARDING JOB I've ever had in my entire life.
I was at the right place, at the right time in my life (my early 30's) with the best supportive husband any Tupperware lady could ever have....and for that I will always be grateful.
THE END....WHEW!!!!!