...or something like that.
Life has seen many, many changes since I last posted. And I don't mean the every day changes that are inevitable over the course of eleven months, but rather some major life changes. No, no one died or the like, but there have been significant changes in my life culminating in me just finishing my first day at a new job.
The first major change was that, after waiting for more than 18 months, the company I used to work for decided to make me an owner. A minority shareholder, but still an owner no less. One half of one percent is the share I could call my own. Although there had been talk about me having to buy in with personal funds in the end the company gave me a large year-end bonus earmarked to be used to purchase the stock. They even included another 70% to cover the income taxes so I didn't have to pay those either. So, per the company customary procedures I became an owner on December 31st, 2007, at midnight.
The reason they made me wait so long was due to the fact that I still was not a US citizen. According to some the tax structure of the company was a hurdle as it supposedly prevented foreign ownership, according to others it had to do with government contracts and foreign ownership of the company. whatever the reason, I had to wait until I was a US citizen.
Which leads me to the second big change in my life. Back in May of 2007 I had filled out the application to become a US citizen. The biggest drive to do so was to be able to vote. And no, not because of the presidential race this year, but because of the fact that non-citizen can't vote in local (think school board) elections. In order to have a say in the educational environment of my kids I decided to apply for citizenship. Since The Netherlands now allows dual citizenship, if you adopt citizenship of the your spouse's country, while still married and living in that country, and the US government doesn't really care there was nothing preventing me from becoming a US citizen. Other than the fact that traveling on a US passport may be less desirable than on a Dutch passport nowadays. But I still have a Dutch passport.
The application process is somewhat lengthy. In June 2007 I received confirmation that my application was received and being processed. Early July I had to go in for fingerprinting, and then there was the big nothing. No letters, no progress emails, I couldn't even use the online tracking tools. But sometime in November I received a letter stating I had to show up on January 10th, 2008 for my interview with the Immigration Officer.
Flashback to my company and ownership. I asked the President of the company if I had to wait another year before I could become and owner since my interview was ten days past the customary date for stock transfers. He said he was willing to take the risk as I had shown real motivation to become a US citizen. Just before the end of the year I received my review copy of the stock transfer agreement and on December 31st a large bonus payment showed up in my bank account. Which I had to immediately turn around to pay for the stock.
Even though I had not signed the transfer agreement I had payed for the stock going into the new year. Signing the agreement was just a formality that could wait until later. One of my projects was about to be ready to commission so on January 2nd, 2008 I was boarding an airplane to Vancouver, BC. The plane developed some technical difficulties and had to turn around to Portland. Later that day we got onto another plane to head for Vancouver again. Just as I sat down my cell phone rang.
It was a blast from the past. The owner of the company I used to work for called me to see if I was available to talk. His current company was doing well and was planning to expand operations into Europe. The first step was to exhibit at a large trade show in Germany and he thought that with my European background I would be a perfect candidate to strengthen his organization. I told him I would be out of town for a couple of days but that we could always talk when I came back.
Fast forward to January 10th. The day of my interview had arrived. It was a foggy day in Portland and I barely made it in time to the Immigration Office. With just minutes to spare I entered the waiting room and figured out I had to drop off my appointment letter in the bin at the door. I stuck it in there and as I walked back into the waiting room someone came in behind me. It was the Immigration Officer with a pile of appointment letters in his hand. Mine happened to be on top so he called my name first. The interview was a breeze and within twenty minutes I was back on the street with a form in hand. This form I had been given by the Officer after he approved my application. To my astonishment he told me to be back by two PM for the ceremony. I had never expected to be done in one day. But that's the way it was.
The ceremony was lots of propaganda on how great it is to be a US citizen and a short session of taking the Oath. All in all it took about forty-five minutes total. From assembling in the waiting room to leaving the building afterwards. So now I was a US citizen. It didn't feel much different than in the morning. But I had a official looking certificate in hand that proves I am one.
So now I was a US citizen AND an owner of a company. All in just ten days. How soon this all would change....
The next day I met my previous employer for dinner to talk about his plans for European expansion and the role he had in mind for me. I informed him of my status changes (citizenship and ownership) and that my ownership would not prevent me from leaving the company. He thought about it for a little bit and then made me very generous offer.
A couple of days later I sat down with the President of my (then) current company and told him I had been offered another job. This resulted in a week of back and forth between a number of owners on whether or not they would offer me more to stay with the company. The offers ranged from a extra hundred bucks to ten percent more plus an extra week of vacation. But for some reason they couldn't all seem to get on the same page and in the end (after I had made my decision to split, but before I told them) they retracted all offers altogether. Oh well,.....
We did agree on a six week transition period so I could either finish up my open projects, or hand them off in a controlled manner. Which I did, but only after three rush trips to Alabama in the span of those six weeks. One trip doing nothing as the system wasn't even wired up yet. One where, on the way back to the airport, I hit a fox after dark and spent over an hour at the police station of a small Alabama town for a police report (Thank you, Officer Bryant). And the last trip where, again on the way to the airport, I nearly get run over by a tanker truck doing seventy in a fifty-five mile zone on a two-lane rural highway. He just started passing while I was next to him and plainly ignored my honking.
So today I started at my new company. Trying to figure out why two systems don't want to communicate right causing the systems to lock up under certain conditions.
Oh, and I still am an owner in the previous company as they are trying to slip in a blanket non-disclosure clause in the stock redemption agreement. Not only a far reaching non-disclosure clause, but also a penalty clause for breach of the non-disclosure that allows them to assign any amount in damages without having to show a financial loss. So were still working on that one....
Ok, enough for now.
