Easy Come Easy Go

EASY COME EASY GO

It had been almost two months since we got married. Everything happening around us seemed new, we were getting used to the changes. We moved to a new house and set up a new life for ourselves. It felt different being away from mom, my sisters and brother after all those years. We weren’t living far away, so we could see each other at the weekends when possible. Apart from all the fun parts, marriage was a big responsibility, it needed a lot of effort. I got used to my new role quickly, so did my wife. After all, we were aware of our responsibilities and were doing our best.

Almost every month I was away from home for couple of days for the past few years.   

Travelling, visiting different companies doing different businesses, their successes and failures helped me improve myself along the journey. I got the opportunity to transfer experiences from their gains and losses. I visited many different cities all over the country and learned about their cultures as well; what they were doing to earn their living, their favorite food, their famous restaurants or the famous places to be seen. Travelling was also an opportunity for me to develop my general culture. 

My next trip was to Adana, actually my wife’s hometown. I was only going to stay for one night this time so she didn’t come with me to see her sisters who were living there. 

I had a meeting organised for 10:00 o’clok and before the meeting I had extra time to go over the information about the company I planned to visit. My final note on the report was that it was a company which was not doing so well lately and was probably on the verge of bankruptcy. 

As the senior consultant in charge, I had to understand their troubles very well in order to write a thorough report. In order to do that, I needed to ask the right questions and let them do the talking. My team and I, our mission was to put everything down on the table. We were responsible to find out their problems and to suggest what they should do better or what they should give up on, basically. We also searched the family history to give us an idea about how the company was run generally. I had to be fully equiped and ready for the meeting and I was ready, at least I felt that way. It needed a lot of effort but after three months of hard work, we got almost all the necessary information we needed. 

From what we gathered, the family was well known in the city. They were in entertainment business and owned a couple of restaurants. The chairman of the company came to that position after his father died almost two year ago. He wasn’t really a working type, he was raised in comfort and enjoyed luxury living. Running a company was something very new to him. He didn’t care much, he thought that the job was done by others anyway. Afterall he was paying a lot of money to people to run things. He left everything to professional employees who had been actually working for the company for years and years. Most of them were relatives or close family friends and this was really the case in most of the family companies. They were loyal and always listened to what their boss said if and whenever they had the chance to see him. 

He rarely came to work, board meetings were the only times they saw him actually. Normally this system would work, he could control things without being seen much but not in this case because as a chairman he was not at his mastery stage, he was actually an apprentice, he needed to work from scratch, he had to put a lot of effort to deserve to be the boss.   

Companies were not easily established after all. All efforts done before would be wasted if some things didn’t change. The first thing to do was to change the management system, in this case.This young man inherited his father’s company, came to the top management very easily. For the company’s total benefit and for everyone who was doing business with the company and working for the company, for eveyone’s sake, this had to change. He had to start learning from the very beginning, put a lot of effort and pay the price to reach to the top level.  

I always remembered what my father used to say before he died. After our Sunday morning breakfast rituals, sitting in his rocking chair, sipping his coffee, he’d give lessons from life and I would listen to him with all ears. 

“Look son, life really needs a lot of effort to be happy and successful. Prices should be paid in everything we wish to accomplish. The results are not in our hands, we are responsible for the causes. Things are hard at the beginning as it should be and that’s how we really learn things in life and climb up the stairs. For our total benefit, it’s the rule of the game actually; pay a lot of price, put a lot of effort in things and be patient. But our ego wants everything easily and quickly with little effort done and with almost no price paid if possible. Whatever comes easily, goes easily son, don’t forget. Think of it as a guest, it doesn’t stay for long, it leaves eventually.’’ 

This was the situation within this company actually. This young man, he became the chairman of the company with no effort. He came there very easily and now he had to leave where he was. He actually had to deserve to be at the top when the right time came. He had to pay the price, put a lot of effort to climb up the stairs, basically.  

The next morning after our meeting, I was going back home so I didn’t want to delay writing my report, thinking about what happened when we delayed things.The rules of the game are not that  difficult I thought while finishing my report. I had a plane to catch early in the morning so it was time to go to sleep. 

People learn from their mistakes, my father also used to say. The important thing was not to do the same mistakes over over again. When needed, asking for help was the smartest thing to do and that’s what this company did before it was too late. The next day, after I sent my report, the board members agreed to make the necessary changes and invited me to Adana, this time to sign our contract. 

That evening before going to bed, I remembered once again my father saying that going up the stairs was not easy. Life had rules in every role we took, in every step on the way up. We had to be aware of those rules and following those rules required serious effort…