This is an early draft.
But better done than perfect and I don’t believe I reach perfection at all. Getting better and giving my best provides good and great results.
I’m fine with that.
Alright lets dive in and have fun.
So, there we sat… my mum and I… Going through some scenarios about how we could get out of this misery. Keeping the business afloat and not get kicked out of our home.
Still waiting for the confirmation from the bank…
While this should be a great day…
The university had accepted me. But I couldn’t afford to go there in this situation… The timing was terrible. The economy took a big hit. We had no clue how much this will affect us.
.
.
.
Everything started as my dad passed away and I had to run our family business now. The one I already wanted to leave for over 5 years.
We’ve built a few years earlier another business facility because we needed the space.
This changed within this year…
The Great Financial Crisis reached our region and we were now too big.
This was very visible at the end of the year. Our revenue has declined since then every year, like clockwork.
Conversations with the bank were always unpleasant. I needed to come up with a plan and had to find a solution. The major issue in this situation was that the business connects to our home. Which had my granddad built himself.
That meant that our entire family could have lost everything within a short period.
This is a very terrible feeling to experience…
I was getting trained as an insurance agent and financial planner. That I had to give up because of the business and the fact that the rules had changed in the financial world.
I promised my mom to help her run the business until she can retire. The first big decision we had to make, was to fire my brother and my sister, as we couldn’t afford them anymore.
But the hardest part of all was to go back to work…
…where my dad spent his last moments.
If didn’t went back the next day… I would never have…
A few days after the shock and crisis management, I got an email from my buddy at the bank. There was a possibility to get an MBA degree without the classic requirements.
This was a special program, and I had a slim chance to get in. Although I never went long enough to school to study anything.
I chose the one profession that is always needed, a salesperson. That grew into becoming a merchant and business manager.
Getting a higher degree was always a dream of mine.
Time was ticking because there would be a change in the law that would make it impossible for me to study under these conditions.
I got busy and barely reached the requirements and got accepted. One of the best days of this tough year. But working and studying at the same time was a double chore.
The first step at the campus was majestic and imitating at the same time. I did not know what they wanted from me. What I had to do, or what performance I had to deliver…
With worries on my mind from the business at home that had to run without me…
My mission for the next time was simple… earning money to save the business and study to get the degree…
24 hours can be very short.
Still remembering this day like it was yesterday.
But this was just the start of some stressful times. Countless sleepless nights after way to much coffee and long discussions and debates.