“I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” Jerome K. Jerome
Getting my first job
When I graduated in 1993 armed with my degree in Marketing, I went to work for Old Mutual. I felt very "grown up." Old Mutual is South Africa's largest financial services company and although it is not exactly the most dynamic company in the world (Old Mutual and dinosaur have occasionally been used in the same sentence), I saw it as reliable and "solid" which was important to me in those days.
One of the reasons I got the job at Old Mutual is that I did my my final year university thesis for them to find out why young adults choose one mutual fund over another.
As part of the thesis, I sent out 10,000 questionnaires to Old Mutual clients. I wrote a pleading, beseeching covering letter saying that I was a poor student desperate to pass my thesis and I would likely fail if they didn't respond. My contacts at Old Mutual "poo pooed" the letter and said people weren't that gullible or likely to be influenced by such a "begging tone." We sent it out anyway and there were over 4000 responses!! We had to hire someone full time for 5 days just to enter in the data. Just goes to show, begging does sometimes work as long as you don't make a habit of it.
Being a "trainee"
I spent my first two years with Old Mutual on a special "management development" training program. Sounds very fancy doesn't it? I was certainly impressed at the time. There were three of us on this program (Pippa, Bulelwa and I) and it involved two years of working for each and every department within the marketing division - including a stint out in the branches selling insurance!
Although the pay was really lousy (so much so, that Bulelwa left after only 3 months), it was a great opportunity. It brought us into close contact with the senior management team as we had to do regular presentations to them.
The presentations we did that I remember most vividly were "How can we sell more life insurance to farmers?" ( truly riveting it was!) and "How can we make better use of technology in Marketing." The latter presentation touched briefly on the Internet (relatively visionary being early 1994) but unfortunately we didn't predict it meteoric rise - or maybe they would have given us a pay rise.
Being a management trainee meant we had to do the Financial Services "ILPA" exams and there was a high expectation on us to pass first go (as we were regularly reminded by the previous year's trainees who had all managed to do so), so there was quite a bit of pressure and the need for lots of late night studying after work.
Final project
For the last three months of the course, Pippa and I were allowed to work on a "sizeable project of our choice." We chose the topic: "How can we improve the retention of our newly employed sales representatives?" - chosen because at the time, 80% of new reps left the industry within 2 years.
The project involved travelling to Old Mutual branches all over South Africa and doing interviews with branch managers and new reps. It was a fun project and I really enjoyed collecting all the information and putting the report together at the end of it.
I am proud to say the report was very well received by the management team and Pippa and I were mini "rock Gods" for a (short) while. But I'm sorry to say our report didn't cause immediate action that led to a massive spike in the retention of new sales reps. But we did argue strongly for more salaried (not commissioned) sales reps and that did happen a few years later - maybe in an infinitesimally small degree due to us. Who knows?
One of the reasons I got the job at Old Mutual is that I did my my final year university thesis for them to find out why young adults choose one mutual fund over another.
As part of the thesis, I sent out 10,000 questionnaires to Old Mutual clients. I wrote a pleading, beseeching covering letter saying that I was a poor student desperate to pass my thesis and I would likely fail if they didn't respond. My contacts at Old Mutual "poo pooed" the letter and said people weren't that gullible or likely to be influenced by such a "begging tone." We sent it out anyway and there were over 4000 responses!! We had to hire someone full time for 5 days just to enter in the data. Just goes to show, begging does sometimes work as long as you don't make a habit of it.
Being a "trainee"
I spent my first two years with Old Mutual on a special "management development" training program. Sounds very fancy doesn't it? I was certainly impressed at the time. There were three of us on this program (Pippa, Bulelwa and I) and it involved two years of working for each and every department within the marketing division - including a stint out in the branches selling insurance!
Although the pay was really lousy (so much so, that Bulelwa left after only 3 months), it was a great opportunity. It brought us into close contact with the senior management team as we had to do regular presentations to them.
The presentations we did that I remember most vividly were "How can we sell more life insurance to farmers?" ( truly riveting it was!) and "How can we make better use of technology in Marketing." The latter presentation touched briefly on the Internet (relatively visionary being early 1994) but unfortunately we didn't predict it meteoric rise - or maybe they would have given us a pay rise.
Being a management trainee meant we had to do the Financial Services "ILPA" exams and there was a high expectation on us to pass first go (as we were regularly reminded by the previous year's trainees who had all managed to do so), so there was quite a bit of pressure and the need for lots of late night studying after work.
Final project
For the last three months of the course, Pippa and I were allowed to work on a "sizeable project of our choice." We chose the topic: "How can we improve the retention of our newly employed sales representatives?" - chosen because at the time, 80% of new reps left the industry within 2 years.
The project involved travelling to Old Mutual branches all over South Africa and doing interviews with branch managers and new reps. It was a fun project and I really enjoyed collecting all the information and putting the report together at the end of it.
I am proud to say the report was very well received by the management team and Pippa and I were mini "rock Gods" for a (short) while. But I'm sorry to say our report didn't cause immediate action that led to a massive spike in the retention of new sales reps. But we did argue strongly for more salaried (not commissioned) sales reps and that did happen a few years later - maybe in an infinitesimally small degree due to us. Who knows?
After our two year course, I became a proper "Marketing Consultant" and I worked on various projects but nothing that really stands out. Well maybe one thing; "a survival pack" for new sales reps with lots of motivational "pep up" quotes and a step by step guide on targeting your market and then "penetrating" it. God it sounds pretty cheesy now, but I was proud of it at the time.
Free time in Cape Town
Free time in Cape Town
I worked long hours but there was plenty of fun in-between. Highlights of life outside work included:
- Braais on the balcony at Willow Road
- At one time or another having Shirley, Russell, Colleen and Rory to stay with us
- Sleeping out on the balcony under the stars on warm nights
- Camping with friends out at Palmiet River where Ally and I originally met - including Eleda (100 kg's of pure fun) and Peter
- Camping at Baines Kloof with Russell and Roger. On one night, we arrived back at the camp site late after swimming to find the gates closed. We managed to adventurously climb over the gate with all our bags in tow only to then discover that the gate was not in fact locked
- On one occasion, playing Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love" loudly from the car and then dancing out in the street to the music with Roger and Russell (Infantile I know, but God, we had fun)
- Playing volleyball on Clifton Beach on Friday evenings, then watching the sun set
- Fencing with Russell with bamboo canes and knocking the hell out of each other
- Watching South Africa win the 1994 world cup with friends in our lounge at Willow Road and feeling pure ecstasy
- Watching South Africa losing to the Australians in the world cup cricket semi final on the final ball (run Donald, run!) - and feeling pure despair
- Walking in the forest above our house and enjoying the view down onto the city
- Playing furniture Olympics with Russell - for example doing long jumps over the coach (again, infantile I know, but great fun and pretty dangerous. Maybe this was the precursor to our now famous Myburghian leaps.)
- Doing The Otter Trail with Rory for the first time - unforgettable scenery and lots of laughs
- Taking Meg, who I inherited after dad died, for walks
- Reading two books that had a big influence on me: Stephen Covey's "7 Secrets of Highly Effective People" and Deepak Chopra's "7 Spiritual Laws of Success" What is it about the number 7?
Family Events
During this time, there were two big family events - one happy, one very sad. In 1995, Dad passed away very suddenly and tragically. The following year, my sister Jo, married Anthony - a wonderful guy with a great sense of humour who we all loved. I was lucky enough to do the speech at their wedding.
Ally moves to London
In 1996, Ally decided she wanted to work and live overseas for a while so she moved to London while I stayed at Old Mutual in South Africa. I was a bit of a "fuddy duddy" and didn't like the idea of uprooting and moving to a strange place. Ah, how that would change with time - once I'd got a taste for it!!
Before Ally left, we spent an idyllic week at Paradise Island in Mozambique at a ruined hotel that used to he opulent before the civil war. We lazed on the beach and drank coconut milk and read by candle light in our room - only to discover on the last day that the room actually had an electrical light. Still, candles were more romantic.
Ally and I managed to keep a long distance relationship going. We did see each other for a month in October 1996 when I joined her in the UK for a holiday. We had a wonderful time exploring the Lake District and Scotland for 10 days or so. The we went on an organised tour of Italy for two weeks. We passed through Switzerland on the way and had our first experience of snow.
1997 - A year of travels
In early 1997, I decided that the world of Old Mutual was overrated and it was time for me to see the world! But ever the cautious one in those years, I didn't resign - I organised a year of unpaid leave.
I flew to London in April to be re-united with Ally and then I focused on ticking off all the London sights. I was very much a "driven" tourist at first - the more laid back but adventurous "traveller" would emerge later.
Ally was working at Ernst and Young and she was happy there and not keen to resign, so I did a solo trip of South East England, Whales and Scotland. Then together, we spent an idyllic two weeks driving around Ireland.
Ally went back to work and I, still rather timid, decided to set my sights on Holland! Why Holland? I'm really not sure, maybe because I had heard raucous stories of Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a bit disappointing except for my experience of the Van Gogh museum while "high" on a marijuana cookie. But the highlight of my trip by far was watching a Michael Jackson concert - I feel very privileged to have seen him live.
Emboldened by my solo tour of Holland, I set my sights on Israel and Jordan and Egypt. Needless to say, I found these countries to be more chaotic, hotter, less predicable and a whole lot cheaper than Europe - and I absolutely loved every minute of it. My love of more adventurous travel had been born. The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly Petra - I had no prior knowledge of it or any expectations - and the huge, soaring temples carved into the rock face and the gorgeous red canyons totally blew my mind.
From Egypt, I flew to Greece because I had heard it was beautiful - and this time it was Meteora that really captured my imagination - monasteries perched on the top of "mountainessly" high boulders. Another highlight was my 3 day climb up Mount Olympus with Russell and Kate, two wonderful people I met at the legendary Pink Palace on the Island of Corfu.
From Greece, I headed over to to the western parts of Turkey and then Ally joined me in Istanbul and we did the rest of our travels together - a chaotic and exhilarating four weeks in India, followed by a far more relaxed and laid back six weeks in Thailand.
A taste of London working life
After Thailand, we were due to travel around Indonesia but civil unrest broke out just before we flew there. Added to this, we were a bit jaded after all our travels, so we decided to head back to London in order for me to experience working life there for a a few months.
I ended up getting a job working for the Ministry of Agriculture based close to Whitehall - putting together brochures which included marketing British beef to the French. Given that there was a massive outbreak of foot and mouth disease, this was something of a challenge!
Settling back into Cape Town life
In April 1988, Ally and I returned to Cape Town and I went back to Old Mutual and sat behind the same desk with the same manager doing the same things - and I felt very deflated. I felt I had experienced and learned so much during my travels (I almost felt like a new person) and here I was stuck where I started. I clearly needed a work change.
I had always had a love for technology and the Internet was becoming a key business tool, so I wrangled a position in the e-commerce department. I was responsible for helping business areas to use the Internet to market their products. And what did I know? In fact what did anyone know? It was still a relatively new medium and a lot of it was trial and error at first. But it was great fun and I felt stimulated and challenged.
The highlights of my work life during the next year and a bit was creating a dedicated web site for Old Mutuals sales force which provided a one stop shop for all the resources they needed to market and sell financial products. It involved persuading business areas to do away with their hotchpotch of different sites with different designs and passwords and to create one seamless site. Needless to say, there was a lot of corporate politics involved because many of the business areas were very attached to their sites. There was also a lot of technical challenges to overcome. It wasn't easy but I learned a tremendous amount.
Life outside work
Here are some of the highlights:
I flew to London in April to be re-united with Ally and then I focused on ticking off all the London sights. I was very much a "driven" tourist at first - the more laid back but adventurous "traveller" would emerge later.
Ally was working at Ernst and Young and she was happy there and not keen to resign, so I did a solo trip of South East England, Whales and Scotland. Then together, we spent an idyllic two weeks driving around Ireland.
Ally went back to work and I, still rather timid, decided to set my sights on Holland! Why Holland? I'm really not sure, maybe because I had heard raucous stories of Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a bit disappointing except for my experience of the Van Gogh museum while "high" on a marijuana cookie. But the highlight of my trip by far was watching a Michael Jackson concert - I feel very privileged to have seen him live.
Emboldened by my solo tour of Holland, I set my sights on Israel and Jordan and Egypt. Needless to say, I found these countries to be more chaotic, hotter, less predicable and a whole lot cheaper than Europe - and I absolutely loved every minute of it. My love of more adventurous travel had been born. The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly Petra - I had no prior knowledge of it or any expectations - and the huge, soaring temples carved into the rock face and the gorgeous red canyons totally blew my mind.
From Egypt, I flew to Greece because I had heard it was beautiful - and this time it was Meteora that really captured my imagination - monasteries perched on the top of "mountainessly" high boulders. Another highlight was my 3 day climb up Mount Olympus with Russell and Kate, two wonderful people I met at the legendary Pink Palace on the Island of Corfu.
From Greece, I headed over to to the western parts of Turkey and then Ally joined me in Istanbul and we did the rest of our travels together - a chaotic and exhilarating four weeks in India, followed by a far more relaxed and laid back six weeks in Thailand.
A taste of London working life
After Thailand, we were due to travel around Indonesia but civil unrest broke out just before we flew there. Added to this, we were a bit jaded after all our travels, so we decided to head back to London in order for me to experience working life there for a a few months.
I ended up getting a job working for the Ministry of Agriculture based close to Whitehall - putting together brochures which included marketing British beef to the French. Given that there was a massive outbreak of foot and mouth disease, this was something of a challenge!
Settling back into Cape Town life
In April 1988, Ally and I returned to Cape Town and I went back to Old Mutual and sat behind the same desk with the same manager doing the same things - and I felt very deflated. I felt I had experienced and learned so much during my travels (I almost felt like a new person) and here I was stuck where I started. I clearly needed a work change.
I had always had a love for technology and the Internet was becoming a key business tool, so I wrangled a position in the e-commerce department. I was responsible for helping business areas to use the Internet to market their products. And what did I know? In fact what did anyone know? It was still a relatively new medium and a lot of it was trial and error at first. But it was great fun and I felt stimulated and challenged.
The highlights of my work life during the next year and a bit was creating a dedicated web site for Old Mutuals sales force which provided a one stop shop for all the resources they needed to market and sell financial products. It involved persuading business areas to do away with their hotchpotch of different sites with different designs and passwords and to create one seamless site. Needless to say, there was a lot of corporate politics involved because many of the business areas were very attached to their sites. There was also a lot of technical challenges to overcome. It wasn't easy but I learned a tremendous amount.
Life outside work
Here are some of the highlights:
- Doing up Willow Road - we knocked an archway from the kitchen to the dining room and bought new furniture and gorgeous curtains.
- I went on the amazing 5 day Fish River hike where I got to meet the legendary James Wynne
- We adopted Feta, our cute cat
- We joined the "Hardcore Hiking Club" and spent some wonderful hiking weekends away with plenty of laughter
- Ten pin bowling and table soccer with Russell
- Paddle skiing with Dorian and his brother
- Some fun days at Rotanga Junction where we did some silly antics
- Playing tennis at work with my Dutch friend
- More volleyball on Clifton after work and watching the sunset
- Playing tennis with Mike and Russell at the UCT courts
- Playing paintball and breaking the record for number of shots fired in a game
- An amazing summer spent with Colleen, Mike and Russel, including the unforgettable day that the sea at Clifton Beach turned warm (usually icy) and we swam out to the yachts
- A hike to Hoar Hut
- Some special family Xmases in 1998 and 1999
- Doing the Otter Trail with Mike and Colleen and going nude
- An amazing time spent at Buckaneer's Backpackers in Cintsa
- More Willow Road memories
Deciding to move to London
After a year and a half back in Cape Town, Ally and I developed itchy feet with our 1997 travels fresh in our minds. We had really enjoyed our couple of months living and working in London in early 1998, so we decided to try it out for a longer period. The Internet industry was in a massive boom by early 2000 and there were jobs galore in Europe. And so our London Years began. But first there was a wedding.
Proposal and Wedding
To celebrate the start of the new century (year 2000), Ally and I went to a party in Swellendam in Cape Town. On the count of midnight, I proposed. We had been together for exactly 7 years - what better way to scratch a 7 year itch!
We got married 6 weeks later on 20th February so there was not a long time to organise the wedding. We were married in the garden of a lovely old hotel in Constantia. One of the memorable moments was when I fluffed my lines and asked Ally to be my "wedded husband." Needless to say, much laughter ensued. We had a short honeymoon in the beautiful winelands of Franschhoek. It was a very special time.
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