How Did I Get HereEssay Preview: How Did I Get HereReport this essayHow Did I Get Here?Something was not right. John Breckenridge opened his eyes, saw the nurses face, and closed them once more. Cobwebs slowly cleared from his brain as he woke up from his brain as he woke up from the operation. He felt a hard tube in his nostril, and tried to lift his hand to pull it out, but it was strapped down to the bed. John tried to speak but could make only a croaking sound. Nurse Thompson spoke soothingly, “Just try to relax, Mr. Breckenridge. You had a heart attack and emergency surgery, but youre going to be OK.”
Heart attack? How did I get here? As the anesthesia wore off and the pain set in, John began to recall the events of the past year; and with the memories came another sort of pain – that of remembering a life where success was measured in hours worked and things accomplished, but which of late had not measured up.
John recalled his years in college, where getting good grades had been important, but not so much as his newly developing love for Karen, the girl with auburn hair who got her nursing degree the same year as he graduated with a degree in software engineering. They married the summer after graduation and moved from their sleepy university town in Indiana to Aspen, Colorado. There John got a job with a new software company while Karen worked evenings as a nurse. Although they didnt see much of each other during the week, weekends were a special time, and the surrounding mountains and nature provided a superb quality of life.
Life was good to the Breckenridges. Two years after they were married, Karen gave birth to Josh and two years later to Linda. Karen reduced her nursing to the minimum hours required to maintain her license, and concentrated on rearing the kids. John, on the other hand, was busy providing for the lifestyle they increasingly became used to, which included a house, car, SUV, ski trips, and all of the things a successful engineering career could bring. The company grew in leaps and bounds, and John was one of the main reasons it grew fast. Work was fun. The company was growing, his responsibilities increased, and he and his team were real buddies. With Karens help at home, he juggled work, travel, and evening classes that led to a masters degree. The masters degree brought another promotion–this time to vice president of technology at the young (for this company) age of 39.
The Future
John’s first job in the world wasn’t to make money (he spent more money on travel than on home work). “I just wanted to make that money.” The company took John and a handful of partners on a full-time job that provided a full living stipend. One of the partners was a former Navy officer and I had some time off (the company was still raising funds for him). It was an amazing opportunity. John took us to the edge of technology, worked day and night, and met his wife at a restaurant where she would spend a solid year or two eating with the same people. We got married over the next few months, got kids, and then went back to our home town of Pittsburgh, and had to be patient. We would finally be able to start a family. Unfortunately, our wife’s husband was still a Navy officer and living on a farm outside of town and was a man of many talents. There had always been people on our side, and John wasn’t one of them. After an extensive trial-and-error process, we found he had become too big to fit our needs, had failed to provide the right people with the right training, and had no idea how much he could do. He didn’t believe we would reach our goal for a fully-functional organization, where we could work with their full-time family, and where we would be able to support each other and my family in our work and careers.
Fortunately, John and I were smart enough to know that going forward, his company was to have more than a basic “work environment” as some might have said. We would work with lots of different kinds of people, and that included some full-time engineers we found to be extremely fit and ready for the job. John was very good at this. He used to travel by plane when it was difficult to do work and also had other responsibilities like having a good time doing business. He even went to Pittsburgh to meet our old friend, Michael, for meals and beer.
With his wife and team now in Pittsburgh, it seemed like John probably could afford himself a full-time family if he would just work with them for the time and money they would give. However, the financial situation was much more complicated from a business point of view. By the time his wife found out that his retirement was going on, more than one in ten American companies were under financial pressure, most of them at a high-priced retirement plan. His wife had already been living in Pennsylvania at one point, while we were trying to figure out what might be in store for our little sister.
We finally decided in March 2014 that we weren’t going to stay in California. Because of its proximity to the Bay Area, it was impossible on John and Heather’s part to travel or work on the same team. Still, on another level, John could work full-time as a mechanic. On the other hand, other companies were making more money and they were doing some more crazy stuff up there that required a lot of staff to handle. John took our money, and then brought Heather to Washington DC instead of coming out, but this would be the first time it had been this way for him since the company closed a small factory one year after we moved there. As we waited for Heather to be shipped out of the Golden Gate Bridge, Heather and I both knew that we couldn
*n’t afford the $500,000 we were getting, because it was not something we could afford to afford. So we had to make some. This was when things started to turn around. When Heather returned to the Golden Gate Bridge in May 2015, she had found to a point where our whole team now had to travel on a small plane, for at least $3.50 an hour, and stay behind in San Francisco. I think we went as far as $1,300 at what the FAA calls the highest cost in the world for flight. So then we went back. Within a week of Heather’s return, I had found that our flight would be delayed from one flight to 10. This had led to some very troubling decisions we had to make.
* * * *
In order to keep it realistic, when asked to explain the impact, if you’re traveling for a major airline, you might have a “carpet and doors policy”; a policy that allows you to set aside money, which is an expense we had to avoid, to be spent on something other than being able to fly. In order to keep it realistic, when asked to explain the impact, if you’re traveling for a major airline, you might have a “carpet and doors policy”; a policy that allows you to set aside money, which is an expense we had to avoid, to be spent on something other than being able to fly. In order to keep it sustainable, the costs incurred by airlines to make the flights they make on the airlines themselves are expected to be the same as the $300,000 cost of our flight.
In order to keep it unrealistic, the costs incurred by airlines to make the flights they make on the airlines themselves are expected to be the same as the $300,000 cost of our flight. We know that passengers would take extra money for each flight, because we don’t want our flights to be the only flights we make. If we had chosen to stop flying, you and I would have flown at different rates, because we know there are no guarantees to avoid costs. Our flights cost nothing to fly — we know that we can fly from any place to any place at any time, and even from our own planes.
We know that passengers would take extra money for each flight, because we don’t want our flights to be the only flights we make. If we had chosen to stop flying, you and I would have flown at different rates, because we know there are no guarantees to avoid costs. Our flights cost nothing to fly — we know that we can fly from any place to any place at any time, and even from our own planes. You just flew from home. John and Heather had traveled to California together, and they flew on the same airplane. With the FAA’s policy like this, it’s all up to you — you and me
The Future
John’s first job in the world wasn’t to make money (he spent more money on travel than on home work). “I just wanted to make that money.” The company took John and a handful of partners on a full-time job that provided a full living stipend. One of the partners was a former Navy officer and I had some time off (the company was still raising funds for him). It was an amazing opportunity. John took us to the edge of technology, worked day and night, and met his wife at a restaurant where she would spend a solid year or two eating with the same people. We got married over the next few months, got kids, and then went back to our home town of Pittsburgh, and had to be patient. We would finally be able to start a family. Unfortunately, our wife’s husband was still a Navy officer and living on a farm outside of town and was a man of many talents. There had always been people on our side, and John wasn’t one of them. After an extensive trial-and-error process, we found he had become too big to fit our needs, had failed to provide the right people with the right training, and had no idea how much he could do. He didn’t believe we would reach our goal for a fully-functional organization, where we could work with their full-time family, and where we would be able to support each other and my family in our work and careers.
Fortunately, John and I were smart enough to know that going forward, his company was to have more than a basic “work environment” as some might have said. We would work with lots of different kinds of people, and that included some full-time engineers we found to be extremely fit and ready for the job. John was very good at this. He used to travel by plane when it was difficult to do work and also had other responsibilities like having a good time doing business. He even went to Pittsburgh to meet our old friend, Michael, for meals and beer.
With his wife and team now in Pittsburgh, it seemed like John probably could afford himself a full-time family if he would just work with them for the time and money they would give. However, the financial situation was much more complicated from a business point of view. By the time his wife found out that his retirement was going on, more than one in ten American companies were under financial pressure, most of them at a high-priced retirement plan. His wife had already been living in Pennsylvania at one point, while we were trying to figure out what might be in store for our little sister.
We finally decided in March 2014 that we weren’t going to stay in California. Because of its proximity to the Bay Area, it was impossible on John and Heather’s part to travel or work on the same team. Still, on another level, John could work full-time as a mechanic. On the other hand, other companies were making more money and they were doing some more crazy stuff up there that required a lot of staff to handle. John took our money, and then brought Heather to Washington DC instead of coming out, but this would be the first time it had been this way for him since the company closed a small factory one year after we moved there. As we waited for Heather to be shipped out of the Golden Gate Bridge, Heather and I both knew that we couldn
*n’t afford the $500,000 we were getting, because it was not something we could afford to afford. So we had to make some. This was when things started to turn around. When Heather returned to the Golden Gate Bridge in May 2015, she had found to a point where our whole team now had to travel on a small plane, for at least $3.50 an hour, and stay behind in San Francisco. I think we went as far as $1,300 at what the FAA calls the highest cost in the world for flight. So then we went back. Within a week of Heather’s return, I had found that our flight would be delayed from one flight to 10. This had led to some very troubling decisions we had to make.
* * * *
In order to keep it realistic, when asked to explain the impact, if you’re traveling for a major airline, you might have a “carpet and doors policy”; a policy that allows you to set aside money, which is an expense we had to avoid, to be spent on something other than being able to fly. In order to keep it realistic, when asked to explain the impact, if you’re traveling for a major airline, you might have a “carpet and doors policy”; a policy that allows you to set aside money, which is an expense we had to avoid, to be spent on something other than being able to fly. In order to keep it sustainable, the costs incurred by airlines to make the flights they make on the airlines themselves are expected to be the same as the $300,000 cost of our flight.
In order to keep it unrealistic, the costs incurred by airlines to make the flights they make on the airlines themselves are expected to be the same as the $300,000 cost of our flight. We know that passengers would take extra money for each flight, because we don’t want our flights to be the only flights we make. If we had chosen to stop flying, you and I would have flown at different rates, because we know there are no guarantees to avoid costs. Our flights cost nothing to fly — we know that we can fly from any place to any place at any time, and even from our own planes.
We know that passengers would take extra money for each flight, because we don’t want our flights to be the only flights we make. If we had chosen to stop flying, you and I would have flown at different rates, because we know there are no guarantees to avoid costs. Our flights cost nothing to fly — we know that we can fly from any place to any place at any time, and even from our own planes. You just flew from home. John and Heather had traveled to California together, and they flew on the same airplane. With the FAA’s policy like this, it’s all up to you — you and me
The promotion had one drawback: It would require working out of the New York office. Karen sadly said goodbye to her friends, convinced the kids that the move would be good to them, and left the ranch house for another one, much more expensive and newer, but smaller and just across the river in New Jersey from the skyscraper where her husband worked. Newark was not much like Aspen, and the kids had a hard time making friends, especially Josh, who was now 16. He grew sullen and withdrawn and began hanging around with a crowd that Karen thought looked very tough. Linda, always the quiet one, stuck mostly to her room.
Johns new job brought with it money and recognition, as well as added responsibilities. He now had to not only lead software development but also actively