What a great sleep. I can officially conquer the world after resting 10 hours last night. Laura is gone and this makes me sort of sad since she is the only kind of friend I have made in Sydney since I got here. Oh well, no time for being sad as I get dressed and make my way to Market city for breakfast. I want to eat a big meal this morning since it will take me about an hour to bike to my meeting with my new boss and I want to have lots of energy to show him that I am ready for whatever tasks he gives me.
It is a little overcast, but doesn’t smell like rain as I walk towards the market. There is only one spot open for breakfast at 7:30 AM. I order the all-day “big breakfast”. This consists of two eggs, ham, sausage, toast and tomatoes. While ordering I ask one of the locals here how long it takes to get to Eastgardens. He claims it is near Maroubra and by bike it will take me maybe 45 minutes tops. The best route, as I’ve already figured out, is Botany Road. After asking him about the weather he says it won’t rain until after noon so I might have to take the bus or train to get back to my hostel. I thank him as I finish eating my breakfast and make my way back to my hostel.
The sky is very dark and ominous as I make my way toward Eastgardens. The local also mentioned the area I’m headed has a great shopping mall. I’m wearing my red City Sightseeing windbreaker and a pair of jeans. Subsequently I will need to grab some black pants before my meeting to impress my new boss. Don’t want to make any bad impressions yet with someone I am relying on so much to give me a job. This ride is fun because I have no idea what kind of areas I am going through and I figure it is a good way to get my bearing of the southern suburbs of Sydney. School must still be in full effect as all the children are in their uniforms, something I’m glad I didn’t have to wear when I was growing up in Toronto. Locals are more than happy to give me directions when I can’t figure out how to get to my destination. They seem to always comment on my “American” accent and I just politely concur with them instead of getting upset. Some of the areas I go through are very run down and not maintained whatsoever. Trash and debris is littered all over their lawns and porches. Many of the people sitting on the porches, watching me as I pass, appear as though they could not rub two dimes together, let alone nickels. Hard to believe this is a first world country and it reminds me of some of the poorer areas I’ve visited in the United States. The birds and vegetation in Australia give it a unique as well as tropical vibe that reminds me a lot of Florida. As I get closer and closer to my target, the houses seem to become larger and appear well maintained almost resembling parts of Ontario such as Barrie or Georgetown. There is clearly money in these hills. Finally I find Baker street after asking a local who states, “Mate… you’re on Baker street!” Serendipity.
My bike is locked on near the west entrance of the mall next to the Library. Since it’s only just after 9 AM I find Eastgardens mall and see if there is a Westpac bank located within the mall. I need to open an account there and since all of my drafts can only be deposited there anyways, it seems like a logical choice to do so. Unfortunately, this specific branch does not open until 9:30 so instead I go to K-Mart and grab some long black pants for $19. I leave my biked locked up at the mall and walk back over to Baker street. I need to find 13 Meadow way and my new boss Miles has told me it’s just off of Baker. This area is very industrial and blue collar. All the workers here are wearing their dirty fluorescent green work shirts and I have learned that this is a shirt you wear if you are a labourer or city worker or security guard. There are tons of scrap metal plants around me as well as junkyards.
I find my address after a few minutes of confusion amongst the mislabelled numbers. It is still only just before 10 AM so I locate a coffee shop just down the road at 10 Meadow way. The coffee system here is quite complicated and I still don’t understand how to order and what I just ordered. All I know is that this is the BEST COFFEE I have ever tasted. I love Timothy’s private blend, but this is better than that stuff. It was 3 AUD so it had better be fucking good. I can see double decker busses now in the parking lot of 13 meadow way and since the doors are locked I make my way to the back of the building since I can see from the reflection in the mirrors that there is movement. A mechanic asks me in a deep tone what I’m doing and I tell him I am here to talk to Miles. He’s like you had better see Dale first. Dale quickly shows me into the office building.
My heart stops for a brief second as I hold out my hand. I am greeted by Miles with a smile and a very strong, but not bone breaking handshake. He tells me he has heard a lot about me. I don’t know who told him about me since I am the only person who contacted him to get a job here, but ok. We go upstairs to his office. There are pictures of employees posted on the walls as well as miniature busses with cut out roofs which have the CSST logos decaled on the side. There is a massive 18 cylinder engine in the lobby of the building and looks like it is for one of the massive busses that I have just seen out back in the yard. Miles lets me know quickly that I have a job no matter what and this isn’t an interview. He also gives me a brief history of himself and the company in an English accent:
“I started City Sighseeing Worlwide when I was 18 years old with colleague named Neil, who runs other businesses now. My goal at the time was to make this the biggest double decker bus company in the world. I used to have your exact job in London when there were only 2 companies. Now there are 11 and ours is the biggest. You know Grayline in Toronto? In 1996 I helped a fellow named Lawrence start that company. Unfortunately as you have noticed here and in your city they just don’t compete. I have helped setup almost every single location worldwide and could live in any city I want to but I choose to live here because of the weather. As well my wife is from here and I have three children who all attend private schools in this area. I don’t do this for the money. I love to work and enjoy what I do so deeply and with so much passion that I could never do anything else.”
For a moment I almost have to pinch myself. This is person I have wanted to meet since I first got my BIG IDEA over a year ago. He is so easy to talk to. We discuss sales tactics and he quickly shows me how much different it is from in Toronto where I can actually solicit and hand out flyers. Here I can’t even say the words sightseeing or bus tour, but I can say hello as loud as I want to people and explain the tour on my booklet which has a map laminated to the front and back covers of the book (a learning curve I truly look forward to challenging myself with).
Finally… someone who gets and has truly mastered the art of selling. Sure my old boss Ben Stewart got it, but he is a selfish egomaniacal tyrant. None of the managers or owners in Toronto get it (not to put them down but they haven’t read the literature or studied it the way WE have). They don’t understand that you are in the trenches every day, elbows in the mud, calibrating your energy when the time is right and dealing with rejection as it comes. Miles is just as enthusiastic about selling as I am, well as I used to be. I lost my passion this past summer after I broke the company sales record. Last year it was $5500, held by Barbara and Roland. This past summer my friend Theo and this guy Cal reset the record at $6700.
At the time I was listening to a self-development audio series by Kevin Trudeau called “You wish is your command”, for the second time around. Look what I’m about to discuss to some people sounds crazy and if you don’t believe any of it… DON’T! In this system he discusses how your mind is a transimitter of frequencies and if you really focus strongly enoug on what you want it will come to you. Your mind is like a radio tuner sending messages into the Universe and what you send out, positive or negative, will come back to you. Even if you don’t have a logical path or direction or money or any way of seeing what you want, just send out the frequency and it will come back. Pretty fucking delusional right? CALL THE PSYCH WARD! In early 2009 I told started to tell myself I will break the record…I will break the record…I WILL BREAK THE RECORD! It was all that I thought about for months and once I started selling again I kept getting closer and closer. When Theo and Cal broke the record on July 12th I was so upset. I was like Vegeta in Dragonball Z when he couldn’t turn Super-saiyan whilst Goku and even his son Gohan could. All alone between a rock and a hard place (if you know DBZ, than you know that Vegeta was literally stuck under a planet).
At the time I was listening to a self-development audio series by Kevin Trudeau called “You wish is your command”, for the second time around. Look what I’m about to discuss to some people sounds crazy and if you don’t believe any of it… DON’T! In this system he discusses how your mind is a transimitter of frequencies and if you really focus strongly enoug on what you want it will come to you. Your mind is like a radio tuner sending messages into the Universe and what you send out, positive or negative, will come back to you. Even if you don’t have a logical path or direction or money or any way of seeing what you want, just send out the frequency and it will come back. Pretty fucking delusional right? CALL THE PSYCH WARD! In early 2009 I told started to tell myself I will break the record…I will break the record…I WILL BREAK THE RECORD! It was all that I thought about for months and once I started selling again I kept getting closer and closer. When Theo and Cal broke the record on July 12th I was so upset. I was like Vegeta in Dragonball Z when he couldn’t turn Super-saiyan whilst Goku and even his son Gohan could. All alone between a rock and a hard place (if you know DBZ, than you know that Vegeta was literally stuck under a planet).
At this point I stopped caring like Vegeta and stopped being attached to the outcome… but the voice in my head kept telling me BREAK THAT FUCKING RECORD! On Friday July 17th I was prospecting the hardest I had ever before and was enjoying the art of selling the most I had ever enjoyed EVER. Had no involvement in the outcome, but I had full intent to close. Next thing I know out of nowhere one of the workers I know from the CN tower, Lisa, comes out and tells me that she has a gentleman that wants to buy over 150 tickets. I was calm as if I knew this was coming. When I meet this guy, a Dutch guy named Jakob, he tells he is with 300 people from the One day Foundation in the Netherlands and wants 150 tickets. My response was, “Only 150 for 300 people?” He takes a minute to make a phone call and in the meantime I decided to call for a shuttle since it’s illegal to sell tickets in the streets. This guy ends up buying 230 tickets and I sell over $8100 in one day. Game. Set. Matty.
I didn’t impress Miles with this story but will casually drop it at some point. I’ve told this story a lot since it happened trying to impress people, but have realised recently that I don’t need to impress people anymore…only myself. I don’t need people to know everything about me. From now on I just assume every person I meet KNOWS I’m cool. Self-fulfilling prophecy. I did however let Miles know that one day I will own a franchise of his company. His eyes lit up when I told him this. I didn’t state is as a maybe or it might happen. I was like I am going to own that shit…POINT BLANK PERIOD. Miles smiles at me and says, “Do it! I will help you with get whatever you need when the time comes. Selling is the most important aspect of this or any business and clearly you know that. When you get back to Toronto you need to get a bus license.”
Miles is quite a busy man and he has only an hour to spend with me and I am thankful for any time in general. I start work on the 27thof November and I will have to give his assistant all my personal information before I start work. After I finish talking to Miles, my next task is to get back to the mall and open a bank account with Westpac. It has started spitting rain a little bit at this point while I walk back towards the mall. I feel like a million dollars right now: unstoppable. If I were to die right now I wouldn’t care. For the first time in my entire life I feel like all the bullshit I have had to deal with had a purpose to toughen me up. Sure I dropped out of university, but it would have just been another trap that society set for me to fall into. Sure I don’t fit what society typically considers being a “good looking guy”. And sure I might not be a millionaire. I’m glad for my shortcomings and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
A local man of Indonesian descent, with no teeth, and his wife, with no teeth, smile and nod hello at me a block away from the mall. Being this at ease clearly makes me more approachable and I take it as a good omen. At the bank, the teller is extremely helpful and I am treated better than I would usually be at home with TD bank. I decided after opening my account that I will treat myself to an upscale lunch: a 7 dollar sub from subway and a bottle of coke zero. It starts pouring rain while I am eating lunch and I can easily tell by all the people entering the mall either rocking some wet clothing or simply carrying a damp umbrella. I walk around the mall and check out some stores for about an hour until I realise the rain isn’t going to let up. Am I afraid of a little rain? What a joke that would be: me a guy who has run door-to-door in storms selling aeration and driveway sealing afraid of getting wet. While I’m unlocking my bike a one eyed man marks that is it not going to let up and I concur with this now obvious fate. When he turns his head I notice he only has one eye. His right eye is discoloured for whatever reason but we have a 15 minute conversation about Canadian vs. Australian weather. He lets me know that I am brave for attempting to bike in this rain. I smirk in a very cocky way and slowly make my way home.
I am getting drenched as I pedal down Botany Road, smiling and laughing to myself about what a weird existence this is. My jeans are becoming completely soaked and my hands are clammy and wrinkly from the constant precipitation for a moment of clarity and self reflection. I stop under an awning to rest for a minute and hear a mother ask her son if he stole 10 dollars from her wallet. He denies it, but you can tell by his demeanour that he is lying. I used to steal money from my mother growing up and to this day it eats a hole inside of me. One of the only regrets I have and a strong fact I will always be ashamed of. I’m listening to the new Celph titled and Buckwild album entitled Nineteen Ninety Now. Many onlookers from passing cars appear to be frightened and marvel in awe that I am biking in this weather. They have been brainwashed by society though into believing what they are watching should be terrifying. It’s like watching a movie from their car and I’m the main character struggling to bike towards my goal: I am in the scene and they are just a passive onlookers munching on their popcorn before the credits roll. After the film they will forget everything they have seen and go back to their mundane and overly comfortable existence.
As I make my way back to the hostel I grab some chicken wings to cook and I soon realise that my hostel doesn’t have an oven and being the creative person that I am I figure out that I can use a pan. Takes me a long time too but I’m patient. After eating the wings and cucumber that I’ve carefully sliced, it’s time for some more reading and writing. Fatigued from a long day and still on a natural high from meeting Miles, I am stunned that I am even here in Sydney. It almost doesn’t feel real! I had this idea just over a year ago to come here , had no idea how it would happen and focused on it so much that it came to fruition. Just like Kevin Trudeau said… Your Wish is Your Command. I guess it’s not so farfetched after all huh?
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