Opening
I wanted to do something that would give me personal satisfaction, so I entered into a sales career.From the age of 16 I was employed and trained as a motor mechanic. I considered this to be a dirty dead end profession with poor pay and no prospect of advancement. At 28 years old I was thoroughly fed up with my career I wanted to do something that would give me personal satisfaction, so I entered into a sales career. I had to go through 35 interviews before successfully getting a sales position. I had to start at the bottom the ‘commission only’ terms of this employment was a draw of £60 per week repayable after 90 days from commission from sales. I thought it was going to be easy but it was very difficult and completive.
About 2 months later I was called into the MD’s office and asked why I had not made any sales. I explained to him that no-one was interested in purchasing the product. I was consequently told that if I did not make any sales within 14 days I was to return the company car and seek other employment.
I visited my customers and informed them that I would not be visiting them again as I was soon to become unemployed, but in fact one client was about to place an order and during the next two weeks I had amassed a considerable volume of sales.
I went into the MD’s office put the orders on his desk and waited for the response, he was very surprised and impressed with the volume of orders, I was on my way to being a success in a profession I liked, no more dirty hands and smelling of used motor oil. I was happy. Dressed in a suit with a nice car and good commission, I had cracked it. I loved the challenge and I really felt good about myself. In my spare time I would go to the Post House Hotel in Manchester and sit at the rear of the room where sales managers and reps had their sales meetings. I learned a lot by just listening. After that there was no stopping me. I was hungry for success, and high volume of sales meant excellent commissions.
...the UK economy was quite bad, inflation was high and many companies were going out of business...I joined another company selling fasteners, then another company selling auto diagnostic test equipment. My client base was Mercedes, BMW and Porsche.
My next venture was import export and then currency exchange, I was building a professional career for myself. I then went into business with no funding and it was successful.
Margaret Thatcher was in government and the UK economy was quite bad, inflation was high and many companies were going out of business there was a considerable amount of unemployment. My marriage had broken up after 11 years, which was inevitable, and I eventually became unemployed and I got divorced. Life wasn't all that good. I had two children who were living with me at home, Philip aged 5 and Samantha aged 13.
Two years later I met and became involved in a relationship with a beautiful woman and it was going very, well but I was getting a lot of hassle from my ex-wife and eventually the relationship broke down and the woman left. My daughter Samantha said “Let's leave dad and go somewhere else”, and I said “we've got a home here, so where are we going to go?”. I had a brother in Australia, but she wanted to go to America and I wasn't too keen on the idea. I had been to America before in 1975 as my first wife wanted to go there, I hated it and I cut short the holiday and came home. Sam wanted to further her education because she was a very intelligent individual and she felt she could have opportunities for a better education in America. My main concern at that time was looking after my two children; my son was now 7 years old and my daughter was 15. We discussed it for some time, and eventually we decided we would go to America. I was closely involved with Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche so I investigated what line of work I could do in America as a vehicle technician. We packed three suitcases and went to Heathrow bought some airline tickets and jumped on a TWA bound for New York.