The Elevator Shaft
Governor’s Office • Tallahassee, Florida • 2000
Some business lessons are learned in conference rooms.
Others happen in the middle of the night…
Standing on a loading dock…
With six executive offices worth of solid-wood furniture…
That will not fit in the elevator.
Every story in this series is true.
Every lesson was earned.
This is one of them.
Everything Had Gone Perfectly
In 2000, we were deep into facility-services work for the State of Florida when I was awarded an opportunity I was incredibly proud of: refurbishing an executive suite for the Governor’s Office in downtown Tallahassee.
This was a big project for us.
And I treated every detail like it was a big project.
There were six executive offices, along with the offices for their executive assistants.
I selected the finishes.
The carpet.
Paint.
Wall coverings.
Window treatments.
Systems furniture.
And beautiful solid-wood executive desk suites for each of the six offices.
I wanted everything to be right.
For approximately four weeks, it was.
Carpet went in.
Painters completed their work.
Wall and window coverings were installed.
Even the bulky systems furniture made its way upstairs without a problem.
Everything was coming together exactly as planned.
Until the final phase.
The One Thing I Didn’t Measure
At approximately 7:00 p.m., the truck carrying the executive furniture met us at the loading dock in downtown Tallahassee.
These weren’t small desks.
Each executive suite included a large solid-wood desk, bridge, credenza, and hutch that would ultimately be assembled into a beautiful executive U configuration.
Six offices.
A tremendous amount of furniture.
And then we discovered something.
It wouldn’t fit in the freight elevator.
Not by an inch.
Not by six inches.
We were approximately three feet short.
I had measured and planned virtually everything on that project with great precision.
Except the freight elevator.
And now that one missed measurement had the potential to stop the entire project.
And Then the Truck Driver Left
The driver had another delivery to make in Tampa.
He couldn’t stay.
So the furniture came off the truck.
And the truck left.
There we were.
Four women.
A loading dock.
Approximately a ton of beautiful executive furniture.
Twelve floors between us and where it needed to be.
And an elevator that wouldn’t cooperate.
We spent the next several hours looking at the problem from every possible direction.
There was no returning the furniture.
We couldn’t leave it on the loading dock.
And there certainly wasn’t going to be an explanation the next morning that six executive offices weren’t finished because I forgot to measure the elevator.
We needed another plan.
I knew exactly who to call.
Bring in the Big Guns
I called two women I trusted completely:
Kojam and Rachel.
They were my rugby teammates.
They were U.S. players, and I played with them for Florida State.
Both had worked their way up through UPS—from the warehouse into management—and they also had a house-moving company.
These women knew how to move things.
More importantly, I knew them.
I knew how they thought.
I knew how they worked under pressure.
And I knew that when things got difficult, they didn’t panic.
They figured it out.
I had trusted these women on the field.
That night, I trusted them with my business.
As soon as I called, they came.
They looked at the furniture.
They looked at the elevator.
They assessed the situation.
And then they gave us the plan.
We’re Going Under the Elevator
The furniture wouldn’t fit inside the elevator.
So we weren’t going to put it inside.
We were going to put it underneath it.
Each piece would be carefully unboxed.
Blanket-wrapped.
Securely tied off beneath the elevator.
Then the elevator would travel to the 14th floor.
That would position the furniture in the shaft where our team could pull it into the building on the 12th floor.
Piece by piece.
Desk by desk.
Credenza by credenza.
Hutch by hutch.
Six complete executive offices.
Was this Plan A?
Absolutely not.
There wasn’t even a Plan B.
But now we had a plan.
And it had to work.
The Rugby Team Took Over
My installation team that night already included three of my rugby teammates and me.
Now Kojam and Rachel had arrived.
The big guns were officially on the field.
And they led the mission.
Everyone had a role.
Everyone worked.
Everyone stayed.
And no one went home.
All night long, we moved those executive furniture pieces through that building.
What started as a furniture installation became a full-team operation involving an elevator shaft, rigging, blankets, muscle, trust, and a group of women determined to finish what we had started.
By the next morning, the furniture was upstairs.
All of it.
And Then We Became Normal Installers Again
This may be my favorite part of the story.
Morning arrived.
People began coming into the building.
And there we were inside the executive suite…
Looking like perfectly normal furniture installers.
No elevator-shaft drama.
No all-night rescue mission.
No evidence that these beautiful solid-wood desks had taken a rather unconventional route to the 12th floor.
We were simply connecting each executive suite into its final U configuration.
Kojam and Rachel left in time to report to their jobs at UPS.
The rest of us kept working.
By noon, we had finalized everything.
The executive suite was complete.
And no one walking into those offices that morning had any idea what had happened the night before.
I kept it to myself.
The project was finished.
The client had the offices I had promised.
And my team had done something I would never forget.
What Stayed With Me
It would be easy to say the lesson was:
Measure the elevator.
And believe me…
I learned that lesson.
But that’s not what stayed with me most.
What stayed with me was the people.
Business teaches you very quickly that you cannot do everything alone.
There will be moments when your knowledge isn’t enough.
Your plan isn’t enough.
Your preparation isn’t enough.
And sometimes your freight elevator definitely isn’t big enough.
In those moments, the people you’ve built relationships with matter.
I knew who to call because these weren’t simply people I knew professionally.
They were women I had stood beside on a rugby field.
I knew their strength.
I knew their character.
I knew how they handled pressure.
And when I called, they came.
No excuses.
No drama.
They assessed the problem, developed a plan, took the lead, and helped us finish the job.
That experience reinforced principles I’ve carried throughout my career:
- Measure everything. Especially the elevator.
- Don’t panic simply because Plan A is gone.
- Surround yourself with people who know things you don’t.
- Trust expertise when it enters the room.
- When someone you trust takes the lead, let them lead.
- Never underestimate the strength of a team.
- Finish what you started.
- And never forget the people who showed up when you needed them.
Looking Back
When I think about that project today, I don’t remember the carpet color.
I don’t remember the wall covering.
I don’t remember which finish I selected for those beautiful executive desks.
I remember the loading dock.
I remember looking at furniture that was three feet too long for the elevator.
And I remember making that phone call.
Kojam and Rachel were instrumental in my life in ways that went far beyond this one night.
But this story captures something about them that I’ve never forgotten.
They showed up.
They knew what to do.
And they helped me get the job done.
When the project was officially over, I took my team to the beach for the weekend.
After that night, they had earned it.
And somewhere in Tallahassee, six executives walked into beautiful new offices without ever knowing that their furniture had spent part of the previous night hanging underneath an elevator.
Sometimes life teaches lessons no business school ever could.
This was definitely one of them.
And you truly…
Can’t make this stuff up.
Until Next Time…
Thank you for reading.
Over the past four decades, I’ve collected hundreds of stories that shaped my career, my businesses, and ultimately the values behind DERMAGLOVE®.
Some will make you laugh.
Some will surprise you.
Some still make me shake my head.
I hope you’ll come back for the next chapter.
Because I promise you,
Lisa Turner Levison
Founder, DERMAGLOVE®
Sometimes life teaches lessons no business school ever could.
This was one of them.
— Lisa
About the Series
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up is a collection of true stories from Lisa Turner Levison’s career beginning in 1989. Each story documents the decisions, mistakes, recoveries, relationships, and unexpected moments that shaped the woman behind DERMAGLOVE® and the values behind the brand.
