One of the most exciting calls I got during the summer was from a businessman in Los Angeles who had come cross my story in the New York Times. He claimed he was one of the founders of Qualcomm and had several businesses in which I might fit. I Googled him and learned that he was worth about $900 million dollars.
Cindy and I started to get excited. It was unbelievable. The publicity was working. We anticipated I would soon have a great job. Our white knight had arrived. Suddenly, the possibilities seemed endless. Knowing what I knew about him, I was more open to change and opportunity than ever before.
It took a few weeks to set up a meeting with my contact’s colleagues in New York—but then I spent a week with a high frequency trading start-up and learned a bit about the competitive and secretive world of high frequency "black box" stock trading. I also helped the CEO with his business plan and advised him regarding strategic business decisions.
The group I met with had invested millions of dollars and two years developing their micro-second trading platform. They had made many mistakes with their infrastructure and business strategy and were convinced they were on the verge of making it big—or they would go bankrupt within a few months.
It was an intriguing opportunity.
Although I very much wanted it to work out, I could not come to a mutually beneficial agreement with the CEO and we decided to part ways.
As a gesture of good will, he paid me for my time and efforts as a consultant—but the fact that the opportunity did not work was one of several huge disappointments I experienced during my long and frustrating job search.
To make matters worse, my white knight did not follow through with any other opportunities or contacts—and our communication fizzled out.
Sometimes you can be open to change, but change is not open to you.
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