As
the result of this we also had to hide the fact that we’ll try to sneak out of
the country so I was prohibited from telling anyone that I might be leaving the
country for the fear that my own mother is going to discover that we are
leaving and try to stop it.
It
was a difficult thing to comprehend for a 15 year old. The only two people whom
I told a day before leaving Russia were one neighbor who acted as an adopted
mother to me and my girlfriend at the time. And precisely what I told them was
that I’m going tomorrow and I might or might not come back. I think it was the
biggest shock for my girlfriend who I’ve been seeing for 9 months. Essentially
she thought I was joking...
The
next day we packed and went to airport. We deposited our luggage and then it
came turn to the airport immigration. The official asked where my mom’s permission
for me to leave the country is. My dad sunk.., I thought to myself, this is a
deciding moment of my life, which it really was. On one side I get turned back
and return to my previous life and the prospect of being drafted into Russian
army in the coming years. On the other hand there was an exciting prospective
of going to Canada and starting anew. We wouldn’t get second chance to try. All
of these things passed through my mind in an instant and I said “mother is just
outside terminal, she brought us here and will be joining us in Canada later”. The officer gave me a mean look and after checking with her superior gave us a nod. And off we went to Canada.
Canada
didn’t seem real for the first while I was there. The fact that my dad up to
the last minute didn’t believe that we had a chance to get out without my mom’s
permission resulted in me not having a chance to prepare myself, which
complicated matters. I would dream that I’m still in Moscow and that move to
Canada was indeed the dream. I would dream of army drafters knocking on my door
and wake up in cold sweat. The language and cultural barriers were quite
significant too. I would have a feeling that everyone around me can speak
Russian and just pretending that they can only speak English to make my life
difficult. Guess perception is a funny thing when you are younger.
Think
we invent shortcut in mind to make life more logical and easier to comprehend.
Those ideas came under a lot of pressure when we moved to Canada. It was really
a big challenge to adapt and again I stood up to it and faced it. Or did I?
I
realized that a lot of times what I was actually doing is absorbing the
challenge and moving on, thinking that a passive response is the easiest. I saw
the very same approach from my dad when he struggled to find application for
his experience and who university masters degrees from Russia. He took it in
stride and went for the available choice of a laborer. I saw disappointment in
his eyes as he moved to Canada thinking that it’s a land of opportunities and
instead discovered that it was precisely the opposite for him, more like a step
back.
I
went back to last grade of high school in Canada as I was too young for
university and to improve my English. Then as my grades were all A’s my dad
told me to follow in his footsteps and become an Engineer. The following four
years are an absolute blur, I don’t remember much from university. I found it
completely uninteresting and not engaging, repeating my Russian high school
experience. I kept on thinking to myself, why am I doing this? I cruised along
taking as many courses at a time to finish it faster, having an idea that
there’s going to be a good job waiting for me at the end…
The
wake up came when I graduated from university and discovered that no one
actually was interested in hiring and average engineering student without any
work experience. I reacted in my normal way, retreating and waiting for the job
to come. I started sleeping late and waking up late. I lasted for three months
just sending around resumes and waiting for people to reply. At which point I
realized that I’m pretty screwed.
I
also realized that I’m at a crossroads. I thought of my dad. I respected a lot
the fact that he sacrificed his business in Moscow to move me to Canada. At the
same time reflecting on his and my experience I saw similarities. All of a
sudden I come to realization that if I was to continue cruising along I was
going to end up average and struggle through life. I started reading
biographies of successful people trying to understand what was going through
the minds and learn from them. I didn’t have any role models or mentors and
therefore I was seeking the advice indirectly from those books. I found that
what differentiated majority of those people is that they tried and were not
afraid to fail. The definition of success of course can be argued, but I
believe having comfortable conditions in which you don’t worry about food is
essential.
With
that idea I decided to try get out of the conundrum I got myself into by
getting experience and since no one was willing to pay me to get that
experience I had to get it for free = volunteer my time in return for
experience. I went around looking for volunteering jobs, and to my surprise
couldn’t find any neither. Nobody was keen to take a recent grad.
At
that point I started to get quite irritated; I came to the local Chamber of
commerce and asked for a volunteering job. They said they had nothing… I said I
could sort paper clips for all that matters as my only other alternative would
be to pay somebody to give me work. Fortunately they were encouraged by my
enthusiasm and called me the next day and said that they actually had lots of
things I can help them with. That’s how my full time three months stint with
them started. I ended up doing quite a bit of interesting work with them,
including public policy design and negotiation and membership drives. On top of
that I’ve got loads of local business contacts from the Chamber and was able to
land a couple of decent jobs as the result. I was on fire and continued getting
involved in more and more stuff. Doing projects with government and local non
for profits, participating in community leadership programs and speaking about
immigration issues to college and high school students. I felt alive again. I
was the youngest among all these groups and people looked at me with amazement
and that I thrived on that energy and recognition in addition to feeling good
about the things I was involved in.
The
city we moved to is in mid-Canada, relatively quiet and remote place and I
quickly felt like I was outgrowing it. And despite people telling me it’s
better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond I made
a decision that there’s something more than the city and I need to make the
move sooner than later.
The
MBA was my ticket out. I studied really hard for GMAT and surprised myself and
people who knew me from university with the result. I then spend time
diligently researching schools and choosing the one that appealed to me
carefully. In the mean time I started writing a blog about the whole
experience. To my surprise I started getting a lot of readers. I was excited
again, even though I have never thought that writing has been my strength I
found myself really drawn to writing and spending countless hours reading other
blogs for ideas and style. My writing gradually improved and I started getting
even more readers. At the end I was getting more than thousand people from all
over world reading my blog monthly. I was on a cloud 9.
The
MBA experience was more interesting than my prior educational experience and I
came out more confident. Thinking that I want to do consulting or finance in
Toronto. Apparently life had added a slight twist to that plan and I ended
moving to Hong Kong instead. I felt energized again, trying something
completely different, moving away from small Canadian city to an exciting place
in Asia. I didn’t even think twice about moving. I just packed and said bye to
my dad, who I think was slightly surprised that I didn’t hesitate to move so
far.
Since
moving to Hong Kong with Prudential though I feel like I lost the thread. The job was going all
well and I’m paid a multiple of what I was paid in Canada. I should be happy as
I can now afford majority of things that I dreamed off before.
I’ve
been in Hong Kong for a year plus and after that moved to Singapore, where I’ve
been for a two years. Looking back I feel like life kinda stood still
since I left Canada. Like a hamster in a wheel I move my legs, sometimes even
run, but looking back the progress has slowed down.
The things have a potential to change though, and since three months ago I've joined AXA. There has been a multitude of new challenges awaiting me there and I'm hopeful that I can accelerate my learning and make a positive impact on the business. More on this later..
Hope you have enjoyed this little trip down my memory lane!
Till next time,
George
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