I’m not doing hard time, but it’s true that an attempted murder kicked off my business. How so?
After completing a Masters degree, then 18 months at TEQSA writing registration reports, I knew the career change into regulation wasn’t going to work out for me. Sometimes you just know when a job isn’t a good fit and hitting your (or anyone else’s) head against the wall is not a good idea.
I wanted my writing to make a bigger contribution to others. I wanted excellence. I wanted variety. I wanted to celebrate the wins. I decided it was time to pursue writing seriously and swing out of my comfort zone. As an accomplished grant writer for several decades across most academic fields, both inside and outside universities, I knew there was work out there I would enjoy. In recent year’s I’d developed a unit on grant writing for Torrens Uni.
Initially I planned on taking the “safe” option, thinking I’d go work for someone else. Learn the ropes, give it a few years, then leap in to set myself up.
I secured a job with a successful and well known Academic editing company to gain further experience.
Frequent emails were exchanged with my new employers who were keen for me to start asap. In all honesty, so was I!
A bit of hustle here and there to set up my ABN and suddenly I was ready – I looked my husband in the eye and said: here goes! The email was finally sent, telling them: “I’m all set up and ready to onboard – so excited, can’t wait”. But wait is exactly what happened. I was met with silence. Crickets. Nada.
A day went past. Two. And by Friday night I said, “This is weird. Something is off”. I googled the editing company, only to find out there was breaking news: the Directors had been arrested within hours of sending my email. A man and a woman, ex-lovers, were being extradited to Adelaide: one from Brisbane and one from a tiny pacific island! The article mentioned interpol, hit men, extradition arrangements with other Asia Pacific companies and a real life sting.
Have you ever had one of those moments that is just genuinely surreal?
Like: I am about to start a contracting business with a fabulous, well-known and respected editing company but the Directors just both got arrested for attempted murder? And their business (with a 14-year track record) shut down overnight? It was a relief to find out why my email met no response, but such unimaginable news I couldn’t begin to fathom.
Jokes aside (like a good friend saying – “now you can write your book about the time you nearly worked for an axe murderer”) another good friend said “Well, I guess there’s a brand new opening in the Australian editing market for you”.
This was literally my “one door closes, another one opens” moment. Or perhaps the sliding door moment where you realise you might have (literally) dodged the bullet. Or the message from the Universe: stop fluffing around and go work for yourself!
I needed to brand and market myself and a great website. I knew exactly who I wanted to do that: Ming Johanson from Marketing Jumpstart. But I needed funds and was facing a very typical entrepreneur’s chicken and egg scenario: “work to pay for the socials, socials to bring in the work”.
In a startingly short space of time, I landed a contract in Broken Hill. There are a few things in life I love. One of them is country Australia (it’s in my genes) and my career as a librarian which has literally taken me all over the world. But when I invariably got taken out by the GFC or the Dot Com crash, or nearly working for would-be murderers, it’s the library career that charges in like my knight-in-shining-armour and sustains me for another round in the ring. Lucky I love being a librarian.
So now I am living my best life.
Winter in Broken Hill has been stunning. The Mundi Mundi Bash is about to hit the big red plain and rock the socks off the kangaroos. And in the months I have been here, working with Ming on my business website has been a regular Friday night creative joy.
Life doesn’t always go the way you plan – and I am learning that’s a good thing. In the middle of the 13th Century, my favourite mystic and poet wrote:
“Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead, let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?” ― Rumi
If Sufi’s saying still works after 700 years, it’s good enough for me. Here’s to landing the sunny side up.
