Mr Labunski spoke English with a strong German accent, came from Belgium and had been running a publishing house from London’s Old Street studios. He liked wearing green velvet hat with furthers struck on one side and loved piling paper files on top of my desk.
This is a story of open doors and how knocking at them can open more than wooden doors.
It was my first week in London and I was desperate for jobs. I found a handwritten note stuck on the notice board at the International Students House, “Looking for a part-time office manager with excellent computer skills and office experience to join a busy
publishing house”. There was a number on the note so I rang from the payphone that was inside the building. After spending all of my change talking through the pay phone I have figured out that the man on the other side of the line had requested a copy of my CV to be faxed (yes, people did fax back then) to the office. I said OK, but instead of faxing the CV I took a London Underground and 25 minutes later I found myself knocking at the door really hard. The man who answered the door was first confused about who I was, then he became visibly annoyed I’d just turned up in his office instead of faxing the CV, but in the end said: “wait here I might as well interview you”. After 20 minutes of conversation and another 20 minutes of computer skill checks, I left the building. That was around noon, at around 4PM Mr. Labunki’s assistant called me to say I got a job, “can you start on Monday?”
For me at the time, it was more than a job. Through working next to Mr. Labunski I discovered the business of publications and the process of direct marketing and subscription services. When I desperately needed a letter of recommendation from the workplace to be accepted in business school in London, Mr. Labunki wrote me an excellent reference letter. I, of course, used my experience of working in the publishing house to find other, better jobs, until
I found myself to exactly were I needed to be.
Fast forward and skipping other open doors, I found myself having dinner with the man with whom we were both engaged in mild flirtations for over 12 months. At the end of the dinner, we walked out into the fresh air together, then we said goodbye. I went back to my studio apartment, next to Regent’s Park and he went back to his hotel at Paddington… remember opening my studio door, sat on the chair for exactly 2 minutes before I picked up my bag from the floor that I’d dropped near the door, to find myself in exactly 25 minutes knocking at the door. Alan opened the door, and in exactly 4 years and 8 months later, we were married, of course with many wonderful life events and experiences in between.
The morale of the story? When there is an opportunity, a gut feeling, or you are plain nosy, always knock at the door, who knows where will it lead to! 😉
Open door policy at Yoga Business Academy. Our Collective home of all that we do opens it’s doors May 1st. Make sure you knock at the door. You never know what you will discover! 😉
2nd Floor, 213 Ashley rd, Hale, South Manchester in Cheshire, is the new home for Yoga Business Academy. This is the space where ideas become reality. We are designing the space to be old school, walk in, real people, less technology, and more coffee and green juice across a table for smart aspiring entrepreneurs, creatives, artists, conscious businesses.
Check-out and check-in.
Look forward to opening new doors to your yoga and holistic practice
Love, Tamara Machavariani Forrest-Smith
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