Until we meet again – Unknown.
I was busy doing my assignments on a regular basis and seeking feedback constantly. I was also able to go to LA to spend some time with my adviser who was quite happy with my work.
At the same time, I was consumed with the office politics which was unavoidable.
The last few months working for ATB were trying. They created an ordeal that was extremely annoying, difficult, and straining my patience every minute. At the same time, unfortunately, I wasn’t coming up with any logical solutions to the problems I was faced with.
Nonetheless, I had convinced Lynda that I really would like to try to go into the consulting business, but I didn’t have much money left in our savings account. We both realized that I might not get any consulting contracts for a while, and we needed enough money to pay the bills.
We were lucky in a way that our mortgage was subsidized by the bank. It bothered me that if I left the bank without any plans, my monthly mortgage payments would go up substantially.
I was also thinking that I might have to consider liquidating my pension plan, which had been transferred from the Government of New Brunswick. However, the total number of years that I had contributed into my pension plan would be only six years (2 Years with the Government of New Brunswick plus 4 years with the Government of Alberta) which couldn’t be that much.
The other thing that bothered me a lot was that Gerry didn’t last more than a couple of months. Once he decided to get out, he made a deal with the management. They would lend him a certain amount as he wanted to go into the business of making donuts, which was kind of an unusual move for a man who spent his entire career in the banking world. He was given a “Callable Loan”. That meant the bank could call the loan whenever they felt like it, without any logical reason, and they could demand full payment of the remainder of the loan immediately. He should have realized that was a risky move, but he was obviously desperate enough to accept the deal.
Gerry invited us to go and taste his donuts, which we thought were very good.
After just a couple of months, when he started doing better, the bank called the loan. That put Gerry out of business right away.
The other thing that was also bothering me a lot was the fact that John was trying to make things difficult in the office – mostly procedural things, which started getting on my nerves.
When I mentioned the current situation, Lynda said why don’t you make up your mind instead of continuing to postpone and giving that creep the opportunity to aggravate and humiliate you.
First thing on the next Monday, I asked John to have coffee with me. He liked that idea and it appeared to me as if he was waiting for the moment.
I told John that I was thinking of going into the consulting business, and planning to leave the bank soon. He said it sounded like an excellent plan, as he believed that I would be an excellent consultant – his way of saying that he would be happy to see me gone.
I said John, let me cut the bull and call this what it is? He said go right ahead, Mir. I said we both know that you will be delighted to see me gone and I don’t blame you, simply because you were totally disappointed with Gerry. You expected him to be under your “thumb” because you helped him get into the bank. You never realized that whatever we accomplished here in the bank in terms of automation, Gerry was directly responsible for and he should have been given credit.
He said, you misunderstood me, Mir. Whatever happened to Gerry wasn’t my doing.
I said the bottom line is – would it be acceptable if I decided to give you folks a month’s notice.
He said that should be alright and knowing you, you will not leave us in any mess. If you think one month’s good enough for us, that will be acceptable to us, too.
I said I will draft a note notifying you this morning to make it official. Thanks for your time, John.
I called Lynda in the afternoon and suggested we go out for supper somewhere other than Jim’s Place to celebrate something. She said do we have anything to celebrate. I said I will brief you, my darling.
We ended up in a nice restaurant for supper. Lynda was anxious to know what was going on but I said let’s order first. As soon as we finished ordering, I said I met with John this morning to discuss my options and decided to resign in the afternoon, allowing 30 days to wrap it up.
Lynda wasn’t surprised with the news but Adam started looking at me expecting some explanation. I said to Adam everything is under control, son. I am making arrangements to go to Toronto myself and you and mom will stay in Calgary until your school is over and our house is sold.
I said I have a plan to start our own consulting practice in Toronto, which is the heart of banking. Knowing that I had been working with various banks for the last four years, I was hoping that some of them might be interested in talking to me.
Lynda said are you sure that there’s nothing here in Calgary for you?
I said it’s only logical to be in Toronto if I want to start a consulting practice, but I could be wrong. Nonetheless, I need to give it a try. I said believe me when I say this. I also like living in Calgary, a nice clean city; but I need to try Toronto. I am sure we will find some nice place in Toronto to live.
I also explained that I was liquidating my pension and whatever I could get, as we needed cash. I would make sure that they had enough cash in the account in Calgary to cover their expenses.
I said to Adam I am so sorry that I have to disturb your schooling again, as I know that you have good teachers here and you made some friends, but this is something I didn’t ask for, son. This should provide you with another example if you ever run into some kind of challenges dealing with the people you work with. Sometimes life is not that easy, son.
Poor Adam didn’t know what to say. Lynda jumped in to help me out by saying to Adam that we would be better off in Toronto, plus he would get to see his nana more frequently.
We continued our conversation on the same subject even after finishing our supper, and after getting home.
When Adam went to bed, Lynda wanted to know more details about my plan in Toronto.
I explained to her that I didn’t have a solid step by step plan to follow. Roughly speaking, it all depended upon what kind of response I got from the people in various banks whom I had worked with. I said the first thing I needed to do in Toronto was to register a company to allow me to do business in Ontario. That shouldn’t take too long.
Lynda asked if I would be using a lawyer for that.
I said I don’t think so.
She said have you thought about the name of the company.
I said I came up with a name – Systematic Solutions. She said it sounds like a good name for the kind of services you are planning to offer. I said I don’t exactly know what kind of services I will be providing but I have an idea. Perhaps the best place to start is to help clients with their computer problems. That might lead me to some other work.
I said, however, I need to tell you this, babe. For the last several years I have been focusing on managing resources, including people, without getting into any details about the technicalities. That means that my technical skills are outdated.
One thing I remember clearly, Gord always wanted me to be a manager, to manage people and resources without being a top-notch technical person, which I used to be. I said I currently have almost 200 people working for me here. Everybody is there to take care of technical tasks. I was focusing on providing the necessary guidelines for doing their jobs and I continued to monitor their performance accordingly.
Lynda said it wouldn’t take too long for you to get back to the technicalities, because that’s how you started your career and you were good at it.
I said thanks for your confidence. You have always been my cheerleader.
She said now that you have decided what to do you can count on me and Adam to support you. She said if I have to go back to working fulltime to support your idea of having your own business, I will do so.
Before I resigned, I had a meeting with my managers and secretaries, explaining to them the reason for resigning–which wasn’t surprising to them. I asked them to call a meeting of their staff right away and explain to them, before they found out from some other source.
I had the same response from all of them in the meeting which I appreciated very much. I told them that we all have to look after ourselves and I wished them a good future. I also thanked them for being my friends and told them that I appreciated their loyalty.
Adam was too young to understand the reason for my resigning. He was terribly upset as he had his friends in school as well as the friends he played hockey with. He was also upset with me that I was leaving them in Calgary, as he wanted to be with me. I was pleasantly surprised with his reaction as I always thought he was so busy with his school and hockey that he didn’t care whether I was there or not. The fact of the matter was that I used to travel a lot those days. Lynda was the person who drove him all over the map for his early morning hockey games.
Lynda suggested we should sit down with Adam and try to explain the situation to him. He was already in grade seven and was smart enough to comprehend the situation. Nevertheless, he kept asking me why he couldn’t go with me. I said to him if it is okay with your mom, as soon as your school’s over, I will arrange for you to come to Toronto and stay with me, regardless of whether our house in Calgary is sold. He said do you mean it, dad. I said absolutely.
My very first day in Toronto, I went to City Hall and registered “Systematic Solutions” as an Ontario company. The next thing I did was rent a mailbox in a prestigious building with the address 1 Young Street in downtown Toronto.
I remember how I spent my first week in Toronto – making telephone calls to those I thought were my friends in the banking industry. Almost everybody was busy doing something more important than having lunch with me. I thought with friends like them, who needs enemies.
I also realized that I desperately needed a car to move around in Toronto. Almost every day I used to go to my office (Post-box), hoping that there would be something for me. I couldn’t possibly depend upon public transportation or expect friends or relatives to give me rides every day. I ended up buying a Chrysler 5th Avenue 1986 model: a beautiful black car.
After giving my company car back to Mrs. Benda in Toronto, we had bought a Ford Thunderbird, which we took with us to Fredericton. That car was transported to Calgary and then we had traded it for a Chrysler Lebaron which Lynda used to drive. We lived close to the Anderson LRT station which dropped me off right in the front of our office; so we had decided we didn’t need a second car.
When I called Lynda to tell her about the car that I bought, she said why am I not surprised. She said I recognize the need for a car in Toronto, but did it have to be that expensive. I said I know. I don’t even have a contract yet and I spent that kind of money for a car, but I am sure you will love it. She said I know you always liked expensive cars. I am hoping that you will find a contract soon.
Perhaps the more important thing for me was to never stop working on assignments, regardless of how frustrated I was with my new venture finding a consulting contract in Toronto.
I spoke to Lynda on the phone and expressed my frustration. She said maybe you were expecting too much from those guys you used to do business with.
I said but I gave them contracts and they made money out of me in ATB. She said you should move on my darling. There are more opportunities waiting for you in Toronto. It’s just a matter of time. Furthermore, she said, do you know what your problem is? I said I guess you’re going to tell me, aren’t you babe? She said, indeed. She said you were spoiled by Gord. I said what do you mean? She said he was the only person who ever knew your real talents and he also knew how to challenge you. You accomplished a great many things working with Gord. I bet you, if you called him today, he would tell you to just come over, whether or not he had an appropriate position open for you. He’s quite capable of creating a new position for you in his organization just to get you there, and he knows how to justify that. He knows that you will never disappoint him.
I said you may be right but we don’t go back to Fredericton, do we? She said definitely not.
One day I was having lunch in a fast-food restaurant and the people sitting next to my table were chatting so loudly that I couldn’t help but listen to their problems. One was asking the other if he knew anyone knowledgeable about computers. He wanted to know having a computer could help them with their problems. The other voice said even that would cost them a lot of money.
I got up from my chair and went to their table. I said sorry I couldn’t help but hear your frustration, and I wondered if I could be of any help to you folks. First of all they were surprised. One of them said we are sorry that we disturbed you.
I said no problem.
The other guy said, are you a consultant?
I said I am new to this consulting business, but I do have extensive experience with computers as well as with their business applications. You were right in asking whether computers could solve your business problems.
I said, unfortunately, computers aren’t intelligent enough to solve your problems automatically. They need to be told what to do by writing programs designed specifically to focus on the business problems. Just the idea of having a computer itself is not going to solve your business problems, my friends.
Furthermore, it doesn’t make any sense to go ahead and spend money without knowing whether you need a computer, and just create more problems. I said how about if I come to your office and take a look at your “so called” problems and tell you whether or not you need a computer.
One of them said how much is that going to cost us.
I said maybe a cup of coffee.
He said are you real?
I said if I feel that I need to spend a significant amount of time, I will tell you how much that’s going to cost. Otherwise you will have an answer to the things you have been discussing for the last 30 minutes.
One of them whom I thought was the boss said, okay my friend. You made me very curious with your proposal. I am prepared to accept your offer. He took his business card from his pocket and said here’s our address.
I took his card and said how about if I showed up at 2:00 this afternoon?
He said are you kidding?
I said no. I have nothing else to do this afternoon or tomorrow. I would be happy to come to your office this afternoon.
To make a long story short, I went to their office and spent almost three hours asking them questions and watching their workflow to get everything done.
I drew all their tasks in a logical sequence and supported those with a couple of control sheets, which they needed to maintain regularly to confirm certain things.
The bottom line was that they didn’t need a computer at this stage. However, they would have to make some changes to their workflow and also eliminate a couple of tasks that they had been performing for no obvious reason.
The guy said I just cannot believe that we were so stupid to do things without any reason.
I said you must have created each process independently whenever you needed to do something more. However you never got around to looking at the overall flow of those processes in the total picture so that you could understand the impact of each process. That is not unusual. Consequently, you have created some clumsiness.
He said it makes perfect sense to me. I am the one who established this business 10 years ago. He said what really bothers me is that you were here only three hours and never knew anything about our business. but now you are telling us what to do and what not to do. While unquestionably it makes sense, it also makes me feel stupid and shameful. I said I am sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. I have an analytical mind and I am known for solving business problems. I am not going to apologize for that.
He said I am sorry. I don’t even know your name and you already have helped me a great deal. Now please tell me how much do I owe you?
I said nothing. I said I spent most of the time trying to understand your business and spent very little making changes which I thought would help you. He said, are you sure? I said I am positive. He said where can I find you if we need help again.
I said I don’t have any business cards yet. I gave them the post office box number as well as the address together with my telephone number again. He said I will always remember your kindness and professionalism. Maybe I can buy you a lunch sometime. I said that would be wonderful.
I felt like I had done something that afternoon.
After a week or so somebody I knew who was an accountant, asked me if I would like to go and see one of his clients who was having problems with their computer. That company became my first client.
After a couple of weeks, I had a telephone call from the guy I had helped. He said, Mir, a friend of mine has never stopped talking to me about his computer problems for a while. He has a bigger business than mine. He said all those consultants are stupid. They don’t know anything about his business, and they are charging him a lot to solve some imaginary problems. So I said to him, if he is really interested in getting problems resolved, he should talk to you.
I told him what you did for us and he never believed that such a thing exists in the business world anymore. He wants to meet you and promised to buy you and me lunch in a nice restaurant right downtown. I said he doesn’t have to buy my lunch and I am flattered that you told your friend about me.
He said, I also told him that if you decided to do business with him, you might not do what you did for me. I said you never charged me a penny. My friend said he’s prepared to pay whatever it takes.
This was an excellent start for me and I ended up helping them and getting paid.
By now I had been away from my family for a while so I decided to go visit them for a couple of days. The house was still for sale but not too many offers came along. I had a really good time with my family. However, when I was returning to Toronto, Adam was really upset. He wanted to come with me. It was very upsetting for me, too.
When I came back to Toronto, I kept working with the couple of contracts that I had. It kept me busy for a while until I got another contract. It was amazing how quickly I got used to doing things by myself, instead of depending upon all the kinds of help that I had available to me for a long time.
Lynda was right when she said it wouldn’t take too long for me to get back to technicalities. I found it hilarious that it took so long for me to strip off my technical knowledge, as Gord always insisted that I was a better manager than a technician. But when I needed to depend upon my technical knowledge, it didn’t take that long to regain it.
When I spoke to Lynda on the phone she said she got an offer on the house but it wasn’t what we had expected, and they wanted 30 days for closing. I was upset as she loved that house and had decorated exactly the way she wanted. I didn’t know what to say.
She said did you realize that the move to Toronto would be our 9th move since we started living together almost 14 years ago. I knew that we owned (mortgaged) five of those houses and rented three and definitely that was too many moves.
She said poor Adam has already been in 5 schools and he’s only 12 years old.
I said speaking about our son, I was thinking as soon as Adam is done with school for the year, perhaps he should fly down to Toronto. He would stay with me and help me find a place for us to live. Probably I should fly to Calgary to do the closing of the house and we can drive back in your car to Toronto. I said what do you think?
She said, it sounds like a plan and I am assuming that Adam’s okay with staying with his cousins for a few days. I said he’s excited to spend some time with them.
I reassured Lynda not to worry about not making money, and getting rid of her favourite house. I would find a nice place in Toronto for us.
She said just promise me that you will not buy a house. I am sick and tired of looking after the houses when you venture out to seek new opportunities.
I said I promise you that I will find a house to rent. I hope you understand that I don’t just take off and leave you behind, that my main objective is to provide you and Adam a comfortable living regardless of where we live.
She said Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! (Thanks to the Rolling Stones).
