Confessions of a Tightrope Walker: Decisions

Rick Kanary
The Silhouette

I have been fortunate enough to work with my father in further developing his business around the world, doing ‘techie’ jobs and some simple contract-based work. He is a renowned motivational speaker and life coach who has helped many successful corporations increase their performance.

Recently, we got a lead through a connection in Malaysia. The largest life insurance company in the country was restructuring their Research & Development department and my dad’s name was thrown around to develop one of the many programs required in this multi-million dollar project. Their VP, whom my father has watched grow into the position, contacted their facilitator and asked her to ask my father to get involved.

She asked if he could forward them a proposal, which he did, but unfortunately he wasn’t fully aware of the scope of the project and the evolved training techniques that were expected. The company asked for a revision, which he did, but not to their satisfaction. Frustrated and confused, he asked me to help.

I contacted the facilitator and their lead project developer, in order to get a better understanding of their expectations. Confident that I understood, I created a proposal, which was accepted with some minor revisions, and the ball began to roll. My dad gave me the lead hand on the deal, asking me to write the training manuals. viagra best online store canada The project turned into a long and arduous series of revisions, but the end resulted in a 12-day session where my father trained their leaders on how to implement this experiential, competency-based program into their corporate infrastructure.

The end result is one-thousand or so pages of material.  He’s heading over to Malaysia today and, because I am the only one of us with a full understanding of the program, he’s paid for my flight and I’m leaving Monday morning to assist him in the process.

I was faced with a difficult decision and needed to prioritize. At first, he asked me to leave three days earlier, and I was concerned at how this would conflict with my schooling and my family time, as I only get to see my boys on the weekends and leaving any earlier would mean that I would miss two full weekends with them. Thanks to McMaster’s e-learning mechanisms, I will be able to keep up with my schoolwork online while I am away. One point for ‘going’. I was completely unwilling to sacrifice two straight weekends with my family. One point for ‘not going’. I told my dad he would have to fumble through his first days, that I would catch up with him, and that I would have to leave earlier than expected. He was disappointed, and made that known. I was unwavering in my commitment to my family. He relented and we booked a flight that would allow me to miss only one weekend. One more point for ‘going’.

Thus, Monday morning at 1:00 a.m. my flight will leave for the other side of the world. I will be ‘attending’ Mac while in Malaysia, missing my fiancée, her daughter, and my two boys. Hopefully it will be a great bonding experience for my father and me. I’m doing everything in my power to keep my eyes focused on the potential benefits of this distraction from my current momentum. Thankfully, there is a good amount of money in it for us and, while that certainly helps candy-coat it, it certainly doesn’t make up for the potential time I lose focused on my studies or cuddling with my kids. There really are some things that money just can’t buy, and while it is influential in my decision to go, I find that helping my father perform his self-proclaimed ‘swan song’ is a much more worthy motivator.