A FAMILY LEAPS INTO THE UNKNOWN 1994 – CANADA

After 16 years of travel around the world in the pursuit of work and adventure. The time had come to return to Canada and try to re-establish some roots. The decision to make this move came at a time, where the company I worked with did not have an assignment for us that we were interested in. And at the same time, we had always wondered what it would be like having a business of our own. I must say the decision was not taken easily. But came with a lot of soul searching, second guessing and gnashing of teeth.

It was Deysi who kept the family pointed on the straight and narrow. I would go from highs, where I was so excited to branch out on my own. To lows where my confidence ebbed and my mind constantly told me, “you cannot do this you fool, you are not clever enough”. When I would fall into this dark mood, Deysi would grab hold, shake me, kick my butt and tell me to quit being so weak. “Get on with it”, she would say, “the girls and I still have a lot more shopping to do”. “And before we are finished, and we will need money to do it with”. She was my greatest, and only, source of support. I had a feeling, that many others would not mind seeing me fail, a bit.

Seems like, along with periods of depression, came the nagging worm of paranoia. At times, I was so excited and couldn’t wait. At others I was full of self doubt and had visions of people conspiring against me. After a winter drive thru the states, (see a post of a few days ago) we arrived in Calgary in early January. We only picked Calgary because it seemed a bit milder than Edmonton. We had been gone so long, that we didn’t really have any place to return to. It could have been anywhere from the maritimes to the west coast. We didn’t have any preference. Calgary seemed like a business hub, so we stopped there. Immediately, Deysi took charge.

She started out scouting areas of the city, and, quickly secured housing in a well established, affluent area. Then got the girls enrolled in great schools and brought our life back to normality. She kicked my butt out on the street and said, “ok bud, you are here now.” “Go make us some money, and don’t waste time about it, you hear me?” You may ask why we didn’t go to Edmonton where all of Deysi’s family resided? Having been thousands and thousands of miles away for years, moving to Calgary, for us, was like moving down the street. It felt very close. The girls settled in quickly and now it was my turn to perform.

I had little idea of what I would do or how I would do it. One thing,I knew was, that working at home, for me was not going to “fly”. I was too easily distracted, and would not have been able to ignore Desyi flitting around. Also, there could only be one president of this new company. If I worked from home I knew that there would have been two; in a two man company. I took to the streets and the first task was to find an office to work from. Also, a place where I could mount my “shingle”. All of my work life revolved around the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Industry, so that was probably where I should start.

At this point, I had an unformed interest in computers. So had decided that whatever I did would have a large component of modern technology involved. In a very short time, I had secured an office, in a new business park, had bought some office furniture, selected a computer and printed some business cards. My company was named EPC Project Services LLC. (my brother registered it for me). I was offering consulting services, and felt somewhat qualified in each aspect of that business line. I had spent equal time in each of the disciplines, and coupled with some significant overseas experience I felt well prepared to consult on EPC Projects of an International flavour.

That was my plan, in any event. I spent the first few days organizing the office, finding supplies, printing brochures and studying local industries to see where my services might be useful. One of my biggest break-throughs in my first days was mastering the art of business accounting. To me this was overwhelming and I felt completely unqualified to enter the sacred ground of accountancy. Full of trepidation, I take out a clean notebook and decide that I must create a ledger to track my progress. Nervously, I drew a line down the middle of the page and divided it into two columns.

I titled one side of the page, earnings and the other side spendings. On the side of each column, I entered a sub-column, titled, date. At the bottom of the page I added a “total” to each column and at the bottom. Then I made a place for the subtraction of spendings from earnings. I couldn’t think of anything else to add, so I just sat there admiring it. Along about this time enters my brother, a lawyer in Calgary, to see how my office is progressing. We have a chat, and I show him my “ledger” handiwork. I ask, “what else do I need to add?” He looks at it and says “you have now just completed the equivalent of fourth year accounting! That is really all there is to it”. He just laughs and adds, “you want to become a CPA, then add a third column to track taxes, and then you are there.”

All of the sudden, one of my biggest fears evaporated, I was again riding a “high”. I had now spent about four days, puttering around my new office. I truly enjoyed the freedom of not having someone trying to tell me what to do, or how to do it (well I still had Deysi). Now, I would take an hour and a half for lunch, if I felt like it, or conversely go into my office at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. It was fun. But now on my fifth day I decided to somehow drum up some business. Deysi’s words about getting her some money, were still ringing in my ears.

I wrote a business plan from a model in the computer. Once I got stuck in, it was not difficult. After all, I had just finished authoring a two hundred page execution plan for a $700 million dollar project with my former company. All of the sudden, I felt well qualified to write something around a small consultancy where I wanted to make a couple of hundred thousand dollars. By the end of the first week, I had just about everything in place and as I was putting my marketing strategy together for the next week, my phone rang. “what the hell”, I thought, the only ones that knew my number, at this point, were Deysi and my brother. I picked it up and with a confidant “EPC Project Services”, I answered. “JimboRed”.

On the other end, a voice enquired, “I understand, from a friend, you are back in town and that you might be able to assist our company in an overseas startup”. At first I think it is a prank, but then he introduces himself, his company and asks if we could meet”. With my steely calm nerves, I respond, “Perhaps I can, let me just check my schedule and see when I have the next opening”. All of you that know me, can smell bullshit already. It went more like this. “Yes, yes, yes I can help you, do you want to meet now? I can be there in 30 minutes, or anytime you want!” I’m basically grovelling, slobbering and giggling. I can hardly hear his response, but he does say, “we’re probably not going overseas this weekend, so sometime next week will be fine.”

I have now just met the second most sarcastic person I ever knew, after Deysi. How about Tuesday for lunch? Come pick me up at my office”. He then hangs up and I am exhausted. “Geezus”, I think, “Jimbo you are a bloody marketing genius!” I then realize, that I have not asked anything about the work, where it was, what was the fee, or conditions, or any of the basic questions one might ask when running a business. Crap, I did not even take his phone number! I could not sleep that weekend, and after rehearsing my sales pitch all day Monday, I am finally ready to step into the world of business.

Tuesday comes and Deysi, dresses me up in my finest and with the encouraging words, “don’t you screw this up, you hear me”, kicks my ass out of the door. The rest is history, that first meeting led to a string of EPC Projects with this company and ultimately to a Vice President’s position with them, a few years later. Luck you might say! To which I can only reply “No Shit!”