It was a Friday morning in late November 1997 when I got called in to the newly appointed MD’s office. The owner of the company, who I’d worked side by side with for 6 years, had set in motion his exit strategy. I did not know that at the time, but I was soon to find out.
I’d helped him build the company from 12 to 120 staff, and from £400,000 turnover to over £6m. I had, in turn, gone from £20,000 salary to £97,000 during those six years. I had also studied for, and passed, a Master’s in Business Administration with the Open University Business School (MBA OUBS).
Despite this I’d not spotted the ‘writing on the wall.’ I was therefore totally thrown when I entered the office of the new MD and found him sitting behind his large executive desk totally cleared of any papers. There was just one sheet of paper in front of him. Alongside him sat a complete stranger, who I was later to discover was his lawyer from London.
He beckoned me to sit down. I did as I was told. He leant across the desk, slid the piece of paper across to me and said, “You need to read this, Keith.”
I read the first few lines and tears started to well in my eyes. It was a compromise agreement. My services were being dispensed with. I was being made redundant. I was being sacked. Six years of dedication and commitment counted for nothing. All those years of the owner telling me he’d give me an equity stake in the business to repay my loyalty. All, gone forever.
He told me I needed to speak with my solicitor. That I was expected to clear my personal belongings from my desk and leave the building immediately. He told me the Operations Manager (someone I had recruited the year before) was standing outside ready to escort me from the building.
I collected my belongings, though the emotions I was going through meant I forgot some stuff which I never saw again, then left the building. I sat in my company car (one of the few things I could keep for a while) and just cried. That 50-mile journey home was a fog of emotion. I got home, shut myself in the bedroom, sat in a ball on the floor in the corner of the room, and cried uncontrollably.
By the time all the legal stuff was finalised (and believe me that was painful with a lot of mud-slinging) I was officially made redundant on 23rd December. Yes, two days before Christmas and a week before my daughter’s first birthday. It doesn’t get any better, or worse.
In over 30 years at work, this was the first time I had been made redundant. Little did I know at the time that over the coming 18 years I would be made redundant a further 5 times.
Yes, life has been something of a roller coaster ride since then and I’m sure a lesser person may have given up by now.
But I’ve always been a ‘glass half full’ person, I’ve always believed that around the next corner is the next opportunity. After all Thomas Edison never gave up!
It is retaining a positive mental attitude that is paramount to surviving whatever life should throw at you. And often this is after those around you have themselves given up on you.
Yes, I think it was around redundancy #4 that I lost the support of my close family. That’s a pretty distressing situation. Everyone close to me started to say “It can’t all be down to bad luck, you must be doing something wrong that you are not telling us.”
Fortunately, my network of business friends was very supportive and fully understood the fragility of the market sectors I was working in.
Nevertheless, I did start to doubt myself. When all the people around you, including your loved ones, are pointing the finger of blame at you and not providing the support you desperately need, you do wonder if it is you that’s at fault.
I’d always adopted a philosophy in my sales career (spanning some 30 years) that it is full of highs and lows, peaks and troughs. However you want to phrase it.
My philosophy was that you need the troughs, the low points, to appreciate just how good the highs are.
It’s only then you fully appreciate how good they are. I guess it’s a bit like the weather. After we have had a few wet, cloudy, gloomy days, the first sunny day that comes along seems fantastic.
But you know I always say to people who are having a bad day “It doesn’t matter how cloudy and gloomy it is, if you raise yourself high enough, above the clouds the sun is always shining.”
So, things had gotten bad. I had a scheduled appointment with my doctor (strange how these things turn out to be perfectly timed) and she suggested I try their new computer-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme. They were rather proud of this new service.
One lesson I’ve learnt in life is that if there is help on hand – TAKE IT! Even though I’ve always been a self-motivated, self-starter (probably a result of being an only child and often having to amuse myself), it’s good now and then to get a bit of an external boost.
This is a sample of a chapter taken from The Book of Amazing People Phoenix Edition.
The Book of Amazing People is a groundbreaking project that honors and showcases individual success and achievement. In the chapters of this book you will read inspiring and motivating real-life stories of ordinary people making their lives truly extraordinary.
Some of our contributors have overcome loss, serious illness and heartache. Many have transformed their lives through physical and emotional change while others have established successful businesses against the odds.
By reading this book you will have an insight into what success means to you and how to achieve it.
