First Contact

It was a Thursday in late May; so in honour, I was late for work...

From memory, I had been out the night before and although I wasn't ridiculously hung-over I was tired enough that my alarm was going to struggle to persuade me into work. Again, as is often the way when you gamble on an extra snooze, London’s buses and tubes conspired to make me even later than I could have been. I was uncomfortably unshaven and dressed in the slackest and laziest of clothing choices I could get away with. I caught a look at myself in the lift in my block and recall thinking that I looked and felt like a sack of shit.

Not the best preparation for an interview.

I was anticipating a busy day, trying to kick start a week where I had singularly failed to motivate or enthuse myself to deliver basic work expectations. This was not unusual and - to differing degrees - I had had the same feelings and reactions for over nine months.

I arrived at close on 9:15. I was 45 minutes late but only slightly embarrassed. I appreciated that I should have been a better role model to my team (I honestly do) but that day I didn’t waste my limited energy worrying about it. When I arrived, a colleague from a different team was in the office working. Again, I should have been more concerned than I was. We chatted.

I had a coffee to drink and genuinely tried to shake life into my body and focus on tasks to hand. That’s when I received the phone call.

I rarely speak with K. We’ve known each other for fifteen plus years and catch up once, maybe twice a year. But K has always been there with a keen ear and the most generous advice and support when it’s needed. He and his wife, W, are two of the most honest, straight forward, relaxed and warm people I know. Each time I get a call, I get a twinge of regret that says; “why haven’t I spoken with K for so long?”. All our conversations start with garbled apologies about the time between our catch ups. That Thursday was no different except that, this time, K was in town, around the corner, at a loose end and offering me a coffee. Tardy arrivals at work and a bulging workload were not going to stop me, so I agreed to meet in Starbucks on Cavendish Square.

With hindsight, it was an appropriate venue to meet. It was only the second time that I had visited. The first was with an old work colleague. We met for lunch before going to a shop on Oxford Street where she supported me with a SWAT analysis for interview preparation. The interview resulted in a job offer and just over seven years later I was established into a consistent routine at this same Oxford Street store of tardy time keeping, ill discipline and a lack of coherent motivation and direction in my role. The conversation that panned out with K put this sharply into focus and offered me a way out.

Aside general chit chat about family, friends, house moves, holidays, births and deaths, we concentrated on K’s business’ exponential growth in the Middle East. Within minutes, K was provisionally offering me a role in Saudi Arabia.

It was wildly different to my experience and located so far outside my comfort zone that my head was immediately telling me that it was the most stupid thing in the World to get drawn into and/or excited about. I have no idea whether K believed my initial interest was genuine or just a dream to get lost in to mask the unhappiness of my work situation. We agreed that K would send me some basic details about Saudi Arabia, links to websites that spoke of the realities of living in the kingdom and warned about the isolation and loneliness that would be associated with the role.

K undersold the role and highlighted the potential downside to me to such a degree that I found it hard to resist. We agreed to catch up the following Tuesday.

I returned to work and - immediately - all attempts to focus on work were forgotten. I spent the next couple of hours emailing, calling and texting all the folk that I thought could help me for advice on what to do.

Just about everyone told me the same thing. Just accept the offer, gamble and run with it!