[TheForge] Celebration! - Long and Way OT

[Jerry Smith]

Bruce,

Congratulations!

Jerry
--- Bruce Freeman <freemab222 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Well, gang, we share our ups and downs here, so I
> decided I'd share my latest good news.
> 
> After MANY years of trying, I've finally managed to
> qu
> it my d e a d - e n d j o b and go to work in a
> field
> of very great interest to me.  (The field is so
> esoteric that it isn't worth describing here.  Let
> it
> suffice that it is a form of chromatography - which
> you all know about through Quincy.  Until I settle
> into this thing, I won't be mentioning the name of
> the
> company - which you will never have heard of
> anyway.)
> 
> This is after negotiations of increasing pace and
> seriousness over a period of about six months,
> involving hiring a CPA and an attorney working for
> me.
>  I am now the CEO (translation: "chief cook and
> bottle
> washer") of a division I'll refer to as "CI" of the
> aforementioned company, and I will soon be elected
> to
> the board of directors of the parent company. 
> (Currently, CI has one employee - namely me!  The
> parent company has a total of five shareholders. 
> This
> is NOT h i g h  f i n a n c e s!)
> 
> I have Andy Vida to thank for this, because without
> his interest and enthusiasm, I might never have
> looked
> into the possibility again.  Andy has been in on
> this
> from the start, and we are now both shareholders in
> the company in question.
> 
> My first interest in this field was twenty years ago
> or so.  I met and became friends with a fellow who
> ran
> his own company doing business in the field, and it
> wasn't long before I broached the subject of jo in
> ing
> his firm.  But his finan cial situation (which I
> have
> always been convinced I could have turned around)
> was
> so poor that he simply couldn't h i r e me.  
> 
> He and I went through several serious negotiations
> over the years, trying to figure out how to get me
> "aboard."  The last of these was in 2004.  Later
> that
> year, he died!  I thought that was the end of all
> possibility for me to get into this field!  This,
> and
> other downturns in my life, pushed me into therapy
> for
> the next year.
> 
> But around the middle of 2007, I was discussing the
> field of my interest with Andy, who'd just got his
> MBA.  IIRC, I was trying to encourage Andy into
> going
> into business, and presented several ideas for
> business to him.  
> 
> For some reason, this field just clicked with him. 
> He
> saw the growth potential I did, and saw what needed
> to
> be done to achieve it the same way I did.  Over the
> next month or so, we started drawing up business
> plans
> and doing market research.  
> 
> In the course of this we quickly stumbled onto a
> group
> in another state that was doing the exact same
> thing! 
> We met them, and practically found ourselves ending
> each others' sentences, our ideas meshed so well. 
> What followed was the negotiations culminating in my
> writing my own employment agreement (!). 
> 
> The big catch?  No salary.  I will be paid when
> there
> is money to pay me.  In fact, this has cost money so
> far, as I've paid an attorney and a CPA and
> purchased
> stock.  But my confidence in the field, in this
> company, and in myself is such that I don't consider
> this an excessive risk.   (This is helped by the
> fact
> that I have determined I've been earning at least
> twice what I've been spending for the past few
> years. 
> My retirment accounts are well nourished, so I can
> spend some of my savings on living expenses without
> fear of where my next meal will come from.)
> 
> Last Friday I walked into my boss's office, handed
> him
> my resig nation letter, extended my hand and told
> him,
> "You can be the first to congratulate me on my
> retirement."  Despite my differences with him and
> the
> manager, I wasn't curt or rude ONCE!  (The
> temptation
> to say, "Take this  j o b  and  s h o v e  it." or
> "F
> u c k you very much." was certainly present.  I'm
> proud of myself for surpressing it.  I don't think
> I'll regret the missed opportunity TOO much! ;^)
> 
> I spent much of the rest of the day saying goodbye
> to
> people, some of whom I've know nearly 20 years.  I
> spent the whole day smiling.  THAT was no effort at
> all!  The goodbyes I received were very warm and
> heart-felt.  I got hugs from three of the ladies! 
> Perhaps the most moving goodbye was from a collegue
> of
> foreign birth with whom I'd worked for a year on a
> difficult, challenging assignment.  He was obviously
> upset I was leaving, probably because I'd taught him
> some tricks of the trade and had been of some
> support
> to him with the boss(es) when there were problems. 
> I
> told him (and only him) that he could phone me at
> home
> (my new "office") any time  he needed help or
> advice.
> 
> The truly amazing thing was how screwed up HR was
> through all this.  Thursday, I requested a
> 'retirement
> package' as instructed to do on the website.  They
> had
> no clue what I was talking about.  (Turns out that
> the
> folks who man the phone know it only by several
> names,
> like "pension package" and "401k package".)  I'd
> printed off a procedure I'd found on line for
> handling
> the resignation of an employee, and my boss and the
> HR
> man were working from a xerox of MY copy of this for
> the entire day!  I still haven't got all the
> information I need, and I'll have to follow up with
> HR
> on Monday.
> 
> With 20-20 hindsight, I see I should have done this
> years ago, risk be damned.  I'd have been a hell of
> a
> lot happier!
> 
> Aside from being a shareholder, Andy has not yet
> officially joined the company.  Once this becomes
> profitable, I expect he'll be joining me (unless he
> comes across something else he'd rather do) in
> running
> this firm out of New Jersey. There's going to be a
> LOT
> of work to do. 
> 
> Thanks for listening.
> 
> Bruce
> NJ
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>      
>
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