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HIGHS &
LOWS
The pattern of my life has been one of highs and lows; where, fortunately, though the lows were depressing (sometimes quite literally so), the highs were very high indeed and more than balanced those lows. link bar Indeed the pattern of it played to the manic depressive elements of my psyche. But, overall, it was a thrilling rollercoaster ride; or, as the title of the overall collection suggests, a dance through the fires of time.
LOWS
Though I was not - until the Sixth Form - the highest of high academic fliers, I was still very much a high achiever. All this changed, however, at Imperial College; where my performance for once gradually diminished until I barely scraped a Third, and I found myself almost totally out of my depth in the more theoretical (mathematical) subjects.
0186 Imperial College -- Physics First Year
0152 Physics Second Year
0148 Physics Third Year
With this failure behind me, I then entered on my working life. This had many highs, but also lows; usually as I was fired from my job! The first of these, the most traumatic (since, unlike later ones, I was unprepared for it) was from PST, when I applied for my own job!
0135 Jobhunting in 1966 & Westons Biscuits
But being fired from Cussons, albeit as one of the political assassinations being undertaken by a malicious CEO in his campaign to remove the Cussons family and its supporters, was almost as bad:
As, indeed, was being fired from BTR, though in that case the impossibility of my role, and the debilitating politics which preceded the event, made it even more depressing even if the ultimate trigger was my failure to recognize that I was next in the line of sacrificial offerings.
0158 BTR politics and no hope
0118 Burton job-hunting
Understandably, the turmoil which accompanied these failures to get on with my bosses caused me to question my own identity.
0194 Psychoanalysis
0230 Sexuality and Gender
0228 Aspergers
In many respects IBM which followed - was, as we will see, full of highs but it also produced its own troubles. Paradoxically, one of these due to a poor manager - was in the marketing group where I should have excelled.
But my final exit from the company, albeit only after 15 years and as the result of the wild actions of an especially incompetent manager, was as traumatic as ever.
0299 IBM Defamation and Departure
0211 IBM Constructive Dismissal Claim
Around the same times, of course, my family life was also suffering.
0249 Seduction of Miles
9159 Miles's Seduction 2
9144
Sarah Grown-Up
But the worst was yet to come. Along with many of my peers, I had always hankered after running my own business. In reality my Computerland venture proved as did most of the dreams of my peers - to be a pure, unadulterated disaster!
0184 Computerland Sales Force
0269 ComputerLand Salesmen
0222
Computerland - the Road to Bankruptcy
And this pitched me in years of debilitating haggling with the Inland Revenue about my compensation on leaving IBM.
9220 Litigation
0353 Complaint to the Treasury
0342 Tax Ombudsman
And, in the necessity to make some form of living, to one of the worst jobs I ever had; though this time I wasnt fired!
9178 Mentor 1 - Consultancy after ComputerLand
9121 Mentor 2 - Mentor
The outcome was the generally marvelous time at the OU. Even so, although most of my work at the Open University was a dream come true, the political battles which I spectacularly lost in later years did pose major problems.
0310 OUBS 1 - Top & Bottom of the Popularity Stakes
(0310T*)
0326 OUBS 2 - Roland Kaye
(0326T*)
0319 FBA Early Death
The resulting stresses even in the earlier days put my marriage into question as well as affecting my health.
9137 Me & Pat - Divorce or (Perhaps) Not?
9302 Illness & Fate
Of course, the ultimate end of my love affair with the OU was just about the worst time of my life.
0331 OUBS - Breakdown & Depression/Anxiety
2020 Destroyed in Court
It didnt seem so at the time, but this was in a sense - a suitable cut-off to a career which had been so tumultuous.
HIGHS
The good news is that the lows were more than balanced by the highs. Thus the first time my life clearly changed for the better was when I moved from Bromborough Prep School, which I hated, to Birkenhead Prep.
0057- Birkenhead Prep School (0057T*)
The next came a decade later, when I sat my A levels and achieved 90% for my new love Economics - which set the pattern for my working life.
0014 The Sixth Form
0568 Upper Sixth
Although at Imperial College my academic progress, or rather the lack of it, was a low point, my introduction to political life was very much a high.
0180 International Relations Club
0147 Anti-Apartheid
The next highs occurred, as did the corresponding lows, during my rapid climb up the career ladder. I loved marketing, and especially brand management.
0136 Graduate Recruitment & FCB
(0136T*)
0157 Brand Management at PST
In particular, my two years at Gallaher's was the happiest time (social as well as business) of my commercial career.
0197 Condor to brand leader
0161 Gallahers -- social life
Though, in terms of power and status, in the commercial arena the high came at BTR.
0151 BTR -- British Tyre and Rubber
The next decade, at IBM, at last allowed me to develop some form of satisfactory home life. Indeed, these times were probably the happiest, in this respect at least, of my whole life.
0238 Hurst Park Social Activities
9173 - Entertaining - Parties
9184 Entertaining 2 Food
9163 Entertaining3 Wine
I made more friends there than in the whole of the rest of my life after university.
0159 Hurst Park Friends (0159T*)
And, of course, it was also the time when I entered on my successful career in local politics.
0215 Molesey Residents Association
(0215T*)
9182 Canvassing and Winning
0235 Elmbridge Borough Council
(0235T*)
0294 Elmbridge Council and Status
9199 Elmbridge Northern Area Planning Committee
My work at that time, with IBM, was also some of the most satisfying I have ever experienced.
0143 The Advantages of Working There
I even loved my training on joining it.
And, even though I hated the pressures which were an inevitable part of selling, I loved working with my accounts.
0187 Cinzano
0120 Hitachi
0144 George Meyer and other accounts
And I actually developed my own, enjoyable, approach to selling.
0138 Idiosyncratic Selling
0114 Sales Detective Work
The best high in my career at IBM was, though, my time working with the London Business School. I enjoyed this so much that this was the time when I decided my ultimate objective was, against all my earlier ambitions, to become a university academic.
0244 GSD Education
0220 GSD Business School
(0220T*)
9120 LBS Teaching
Although my subsequent time in GSDs marketing group was marred by the poor management, I loved working on the superb architecture of its major new system and then running, by myself, the launch of one of the precursors to the PC.
Although my life in IBM Biomedical was something of a curates egg, I loved the promotional work.
0125 IBM (Biomedical) promotion
0232 Biomedical Seminars and Symposia
As well as the international dimensions, including the HPC (Hundred Percent Clubs) in the US:
0221 International Meetings of Biomedical
0185 Hundred Per Cent Clubs
But above all, I was fascinated by medical research working, for example at the leading edge of stem cell research where I believe this work eventually led to the saving of thousands of lives.
9181 Biomedical - Medical experience
0131 Biomedical Research
Although it only lasted six weeks, on the ground, my best high of all was the time I spent working on IBMs travelling exhibition. It was pure theatre, and played to all my loves of the dramatic.
0193 Exhibit 2
9131 Exhibit -- Corporate Entertainment
The only good thing to come out of my exit from IBM was the advice from its group personnel director to write about my experiences. Following this advice, I have never looked back; and writing became the best part of my life indeed almost all of my life.
9104 Author 1 Publishing
9165 Author 2 - Writing
The most satisfying, the most fulfilling, part of my life started when I joined the Open University Business School.
9180 OU 1 - Starting at the Open University
9124 OU4 - The OBS Family
(9124T*)
9179 OU14 - Head of Centre -- Strategy and Policy
(9179T*)
0310 OUBS 1 - Top & Bottom of the Popularity Stakes
(0310T*)
I just loved the work, managing existing courses with hundreds of students - and creating new ones in the process making significant impacts on the performance of British industry..
9119 OU 2 - Marketing Courses in Maintenance
9132 OU 3 - The New Marketing Course B732
The best high, in this context, was the creation of my, highly successful, contribution to the MBA programme. I have lost track of the number of my students I have since met who have told me about how it affected their lives.
9128 OU5 - The Start of B885
9192 OU12 - Writing B885
9112 OU6 - Filming with the BBC
Eventually, though, the climax of my academic career came in the internationally recognized research which was run under the umbrella of the Futures Observatory.
0387 Future Observatory 1 - The UK Millennium
7227 - Proposal - Futures Observatory
And, in particular, my work advising international organizations at the highest level.
9109 Futures Observatory 2 - And the European Commission
9118 Future Observatory 3 The US Millennium Project and
WFS
9106 Future Observatory 4 United Nations and others
And taking my message to literally millions of the general public.
9200 Future Observatory 5 Media Relations
9172 Television and Radio
9238 PR1 Press Cuttings
Even so, the highest point of my whole career had come rather earlier in Ethiopia. There I was able to participate, at the highest level possible, in the creation of a new country; in the process as per my brief from the FCO successfully moving its government from Marxism to social democracy.
9149 OU16 - Ethiopia The Dinner Party
And building very real friendships with the new leaders of that country:
9157 OU17 - Ethiopia - The Minister of Defence
9122 OU22 - Ethiopia- The Triumvirate
9164 OU24 - Ethiopia The Tigrayan Family in Government
Whilst carrying out a role as go-between, almost as a double agent, between the two governments:
9105 OU26 - Ethiopia -- Go-Between
0388 Report to Ambassador
9167 OU35 - Ethiopia SIS/MI6
0374 - SIS 2 Secret Intelligence Services - Ethiopia
And, in the process, saving tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands - of lives.
9146 OU27 - Ethiopia - Civil War Again
9161 OU29 - Ethiopia -- The New Famine
All the while successfully teaching the MBA to some of the most powerful people in the world!
9169 OU34 - Ethiopia -- Graduation
That, along with the international impact of the Futures Observatory, was indeed, a suitable way to bow out of a dramatically successful career - much more successful than I could ever have hoped for in the bad times.
As this roller coaster career, a true dance through the
fires of time, has demonstrated I am perhaps something of a manic depressive
possibly a family trait though this has never proved to be a major problem. On the
other hand, my whole life has seemed to be rather like this writ very large!
hits