I forgot to mention that I have found one activity I really enjoy and that is acting. I responded to an ad on craigslist for a part in an indie film. The director, Thierry Pasquiou has a company called Itchy Movies (www.itchiemovie.com) and they are pretty low budget but he does a good job.
Anyway, the movie I auditioned for is called "a Simple Smile" and it is about a woman who loses her job and the impact it has on her life -- both positively and negatively. I play the "bad" guy as I am the boss who fires her! It is a pretty traumatic scene and was very interesting as it was filmed from multiple camera angles. We repeated it six or seven times for each angle. Its a challenge to maintain the intensity when doing it over and over again. Kelly Jo Horton, a professional actress, plays the lead role of Ruth. She did an excellent job and I found it relatively easy to play off her. i.e. she reacted well to what I said. Hopefully she felt the same way. The director seemed pretty happy with my performance as he complemented me the next day when I played my second role -- this time as a down-and-out sleeping off a drunken binge! Of course you can only see my back as it would be a bit ironic (although perhaps poetic justice) to have the "boss" from the previous day suddenly out sleeping on the street.
One aspect of the "boss" role that was a bit awkward was that the real Ruth, the subject of the movie was at the shoot. She was sitting in the seat across from me as they shot the first part of my doing the "firing". She couldn't leave as there were lights and tripods blocking her exit. After a couple of takes I finally asked her if it felt uncomfortable for her to be sitting there where I had to focus. She said it was a bit painful. She was able to escape shortly thereafter.
My scenes are done now so I am looking forward to seeing the final product.
Monday, October 24, 2005
For the next few weeks I spent time investigating a variety of options. I first thought that perhaps buying a company was the best way to go so I started looking at the companies for sale locally. I wasn't quite sure where to start so, of course, began with a google search on the web. What I found was a bit of a mess. There are a number of brokers on the web and a few in Portland but the listings are not organized very well. The websites are poorly designed for the most part and of course they are cryptic at times. I suppose it has to be that way to protect the identity of the company that is being listed. It could be quite unfortunate if employees and competitors know a company is for sale.
Eventually I contacted a broker and started looking at companies. At first it was quite exciting but I then I realized that few of the companies were suitable. For one thing with many of them you can't be a generalist or a marketing person like me. For example, take a wood manufacturing company or an electronics component company. In both of these, the owner was also the production manager. No owner -- no production. And these are not trades you can learn in a few weeks. Interestingly, in the electronics company the owner had not been able to take a holiday in years. If he took vacation, the company would come to a halt.
The only way around this problem would be to hire a production manager -- except that these companies could not really afford to do so. They would have to grow their sales quite substantially to create enough income to be able to hire the right people. A catch 22 for a potential buyer unless already skilled in those specific professions.
The other companies available were in sectors I wasn't too interested in. For example, part of me would love a restaurant, I like my weekends and that is not very practical with a restaurant or a store for that matter. There seemed to be an oddly high number of spray-on liner companies for sale too. Not interested in that really.
Anyway, after a number of months of looking I have pretty much come to the conclusion that buying a business is not going to be a very rapid process and my need for cash flow is going to increase in importance over the next few months.
The next option is to start my own business.
Eventually I contacted a broker and started looking at companies. At first it was quite exciting but I then I realized that few of the companies were suitable. For one thing with many of them you can't be a generalist or a marketing person like me. For example, take a wood manufacturing company or an electronics component company. In both of these, the owner was also the production manager. No owner -- no production. And these are not trades you can learn in a few weeks. Interestingly, in the electronics company the owner had not been able to take a holiday in years. If he took vacation, the company would come to a halt.
The only way around this problem would be to hire a production manager -- except that these companies could not really afford to do so. They would have to grow their sales quite substantially to create enough income to be able to hire the right people. A catch 22 for a potential buyer unless already skilled in those specific professions.
The other companies available were in sectors I wasn't too interested in. For example, part of me would love a restaurant, I like my weekends and that is not very practical with a restaurant or a store for that matter. There seemed to be an oddly high number of spray-on liner companies for sale too. Not interested in that really.
Anyway, after a number of months of looking I have pretty much come to the conclusion that buying a business is not going to be a very rapid process and my need for cash flow is going to increase in importance over the next few months.
The next option is to start my own business.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
It happened suddenly. At the beginning of the week I had a successful career at a multinational high-tech company. By Friday I had decided to leave and chase a dream. I must have been nuts.
I should explain that I have always wanted to have my own company but it was one of those dreams that remained comfortably in some indefinite future. I could always rationalize why now wasn't a good time to start my own business. I had a family to support, bills to pay and it was nice to have those corporate walls to keep me cozy. But it was the sort of cozy that the slowly boiling frog finds cozy.
In reality, life in the corporate world was sapping my soul. I am a person that likes to feel I have accomplished something. I take great pride in a job well done but constant reorganizations and changes in corporate direction made it very difficult to make progress. No sooner had I got into the groove of a project than the world changed and the project was either cancelled or radically changed. It was a criminal shame as many of these projects had a lot of merit but the company had just lost its direction and didn't really know what it wanted any more. It felt as if strategy was replaced with a "we'll know it when we see it" sort of attitude. Unfortunately we never did see it.
Anyway, on Monday afternoon, we received the news that the latest project we were working on was to be cancelled. I truly grieved that cancellation. It had seemed that at long last we had traction and were making good progress. The project looked to be a money maker and achievable in a reasonable time frame. Nonetheless, the powers-that-be decided to place their investments elsewhere and we were all to find new projects to work on. For me it was the last straw.
About a month previously the company had announced that it needed to reduce staff and was offering everyone a fairly generous severence package. Previously I had not considered taking it but after the project cancellation, it suddenly looked very attractive. I know you might be thinking that this sounds like one of those incredibly stupid emotional decisions but it really wasn't. For me, it was as if a cloud had fallen from my eyes and I could see that I was wasting my life. Heck, I am in my mid-forties and time is ticking. Did I really want to have a shot at running my own company or not? If I did, this was perhaps the best opportunity I would ever get. I have had years of extensive worldwide marketing experience and with the severence money I could potentially buy a company or set up my own.
It was time to really examine myself; to look at my motivations, my personality and capabilities to see where I could go. It was also time to talk about dreams and the future with my wife and my kids about what we really wanted from life. It was time to take back control of the future that I had ceded to my employer. I was also hoping that in diving from the high board into the pool -- that the pool actually had some water in it!
To be continued....
I should explain that I have always wanted to have my own company but it was one of those dreams that remained comfortably in some indefinite future. I could always rationalize why now wasn't a good time to start my own business. I had a family to support, bills to pay and it was nice to have those corporate walls to keep me cozy. But it was the sort of cozy that the slowly boiling frog finds cozy.
In reality, life in the corporate world was sapping my soul. I am a person that likes to feel I have accomplished something. I take great pride in a job well done but constant reorganizations and changes in corporate direction made it very difficult to make progress. No sooner had I got into the groove of a project than the world changed and the project was either cancelled or radically changed. It was a criminal shame as many of these projects had a lot of merit but the company had just lost its direction and didn't really know what it wanted any more. It felt as if strategy was replaced with a "we'll know it when we see it" sort of attitude. Unfortunately we never did see it.
Anyway, on Monday afternoon, we received the news that the latest project we were working on was to be cancelled. I truly grieved that cancellation. It had seemed that at long last we had traction and were making good progress. The project looked to be a money maker and achievable in a reasonable time frame. Nonetheless, the powers-that-be decided to place their investments elsewhere and we were all to find new projects to work on. For me it was the last straw.
About a month previously the company had announced that it needed to reduce staff and was offering everyone a fairly generous severence package. Previously I had not considered taking it but after the project cancellation, it suddenly looked very attractive. I know you might be thinking that this sounds like one of those incredibly stupid emotional decisions but it really wasn't. For me, it was as if a cloud had fallen from my eyes and I could see that I was wasting my life. Heck, I am in my mid-forties and time is ticking. Did I really want to have a shot at running my own company or not? If I did, this was perhaps the best opportunity I would ever get. I have had years of extensive worldwide marketing experience and with the severence money I could potentially buy a company or set up my own.
It was time to really examine myself; to look at my motivations, my personality and capabilities to see where I could go. It was also time to talk about dreams and the future with my wife and my kids about what we really wanted from life. It was time to take back control of the future that I had ceded to my employer. I was also hoping that in diving from the high board into the pool -- that the pool actually had some water in it!
To be continued....
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