Work, life and things in between – Day 101 – Like a tunnel!
I was in Montreal. I always feel I need to specify because after all, it is a highly volatile piece of data.
I had a 9 am appointment with a former colleague from when he and I were on a Board together a few years back. Today he is well established and very successful in the coaching arena in Montreal.
I wanted to understand how coaching was alive and well in Montreal, who pulled the strings, who was heavy, how many independents there were you know…all that stuff you need to know before entering a market. I was trying to focus on what he was saying but was distracted by the luxury of the offices around me. I was trying to listen to what the paintings on the walls, the smell of leather furniture, the echo from the marble floors were telling me as much as I was trying to listen to him.
The place reminded me of my former CEO’s Corner office in Chicago. Wow! Could coaching be this lucrative?
In the end though, I must say that I was more intrigued by the decor than the host….not that he was not interesting but mostly because he was telling me about his story, his experience, his view of the world….and I was getting used to it by then. Somehow, it all felt like a long tunnel leading nowhere else than to closed doors.
People like to describe their world as unique and inaccessible…somehow they make it look like they got in just on time because this, that which they have, is no longer available. Somewhat like the limited offers only or better yet, the low fare seats on Air Canada.
I had already decided that I would create my own world. This visit convinced me even more. No sense trying to get a piece of theirs. For the most part, they are not sharing.
No hard feeling. No one is malicious here. What we have built is ours. I get it. Some people believe that it gets better by sharing it, others think it gets safer by protecting it.
Our visit was friendly, interesting and informative. As always, there are 2 sides to every coin and he confirmed what I suspected. There is a price for everything. Increased comfort, facility to clients’ access and reputation would equate for me in decreased flexibility, time availability and income (potentially) if I agreed to tag along with someone else. I could explain the formula, but basically, to join a big firm , in my mind, still comes with giving a pound of flesh and a chunk of your life.
Somehow I was still thinking that I wanted to be a free agent in this world. My own clients, my own schedule, my own business. Could be that this would mean flipping burgers on week-ends to make ends meet as well…not sure…I would at least give it a try before calling it quits.
That’s for sure! To day 102.