Hero story help needed

[Ed Troy]

Hi, I have outlined my hero story, but I’m not sure if it is good or appropriate. There is a lot more I could add about flying and other topics, but I wanted to start with what I have put together. The big question is can, or should, I put this information in it? I don’t want to get sued. I did not use real names, and I did not identify the actual companies, but my employment history is on LinkedIn, so it would be easy enough for anyone to access. It is also on my web sites and has been for decades. Plus, some of my contacts worked with me at previous employers, so they could figure things out.

Here is what I have so far:

Who is my hero? (Yourself or another character):	Myself. I changed radically in what I wanted in life and how I would go about it.
Where is my hero just before beginning his/her journey? [Setup]:	Growing up, and as an undergraduate student, and even for a few years after starting to work, I thought that I wanted to climb the corporate ladder. But, then I discovered that I wanted to stay highly technical and make it on my own as an independent consultant working for myself.
Why will my audience care about my hero? [Empathy]:	Many people learn after their 20’s or even 30’s that they want something totally different from what they thought they wanted earlier in life. Not many follow through on that discovery, which they are often afraid to admit to.
What crisis or wish started my hero on this journey? [Opportunity]:	After getting laid off from my second job, I had no trouble finding a new job. (I, like other employees of that company, was offered a new job, at the same pay, in Hartford, Connecticut. I had recently bought my first home for $42,000 and had a 6.25% mortgage. Jimmy Carter was then president when I was told that if I wanted to keep my job, I had to move and mortgage rates were 17%. Plus, the same home in the Hartford area was about $85,000. So, my mortgage would go up by 600%, which I clearly could not afford, especially since the company was emphatic that I would have the same job at the same rate. Unsurprisingly, out of over 150 people who were offered that “opportunity”, only 3 took it. But, right before I was to start my new job, the company I worked for said that they needed me to stay on for a few months as a consultant because everyone else had left while I was on a long vacation. That got me started in consulting.
How did your hero react to that opportunity? [New Situation]:	I asked to be made a consultant to the company, but they said that would take too long because it was a huge, very bureaucratic company. So, they told me to just come in 2 or maybe 3 days a week. They would call when they needed me. But, I would keep my regular salary. At the same time, I found a couple of other companies that I could consult for with my free time.
What visible goal is my hero desperate to achieve? [Pursuit]:	I realized that I really liked the intellectual challenge and diversity offered by consulting. And, my new employer said that they had no problem with me consulting as long as I was doing it on my own time and not with a competitor, which were both not problems.
How does my hero plan to achieve this goal? [Plan]:	The plan, originally, was to just expand my part-time consulting business until I had enough money saved up to buy the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of software and test equipment that was needed to go into consulting in that field of RF and microwave and antenna design and development. After getting laid off from my third job when the large corporation decided that our small division was not a good fit for the company and they sold it off to a company in some other state. Unlike most people, I was offered another job in another division of the company, but I would have to move to Delaware to take that job and they were not willing to give me a raise or pay for the transfer. So, I took a job at a startup. But, they failed after about 6 months and I got laid off. Fortunately, I got laid off because the company was going completely into bankruptcy and if I had not been laid off, I would have been told that I had to move to California, which was something that I would never do, under any circumstances. But, because I was laid off rather than transferred, I was given a very generous severance package that I used to buy some of the software and test equipment that I needed, and I was then a full-time consultant.
Who is the hero’s ally [Reflection]:	I would be my own ally. I did help some young companies that were startups and who needed my expertise.
What are the external obstacles does the hero face and how does the hero overcome them? [Outer conflict]:	The biggest obstacles were always a lack of money to buy the necessary test equipment and software, at least for the first 12 to 15 years of the full-time consulting business.
Who stands in my hero’s way? [Nemesis]:	The nemesis was generally financial lack, although I had an early boss (not the person who hired me at the first company I worked at as an employee) who wanted to fire me. I found out from the head of personnel. So, I went out and got a new job. After accepting the job, I went into my bosses office and said “Hey, Don, I have some good news for you.” “What”, he said. “I quit”, I replied. He then said “Why do you say that is good news, but maybe it would be better if you got additional experience elsewhere.” He was a miserable person whose idea of a good day was if he could get at least 3 or 4 of his female employees crying in the bathroom at the same time. He eventually divorced his wife and married one of his female employees. Later, at the next company I worked, my boss’s boss called me into his office and said “Your old buddy Don was in for a job interview today. I think we are going to hire him.” I replied “My old buddy?” “Don said you and he were very close and he really enjoyed working with you.” I replied “Please tell me what day he is starting because that will be my last day!” I never heard about Don again.
How was my hero hurt in the past? [Wound]:	At my third company, the one that tried to get me to take the same job at the same pay in Delaware, I had a very interesting conversation with a VP, or even higher-level employee, who was interviewing me for the job and trying to get me to accept the same job at the same pay, but in Delaware. He said we were really impressed with your job and initiative. I did not know the full story, and he proceeded to tell me. I was employed as a senior engineer. But, I was on a tour of companies on the West Coast to try to find a company to manufacture something for us. I was really impressed by one company and wrote a memo to corporate headquarters stating that if they were looking to acquire a company, they should consider one of the companies that I had visited. (Remember, my job was as an engineer and had nothing to do with acquisitions.) Anyway, about 6 months after sending out that memo, I got a basket of cheer and a magnum of champagne in the company mail. An attached note thanked me for identifying the company, which the company acquired. But, during this job interview, this official told me that they were looking for acquisitions and had retained someone to look at various candidate companies. They told him to check out the company that I had identified, but he came back and said that it was not appropriate. But, this corporate official decided to check it out himself and decided that it was perfect. When the consultant told him that he was owed a $25,000 bonus because the company had purchased a company that he had visited and analyzed, the consultant was advised that he would not get the bonus because he specifically said the company was not a good fit. But, the consultant reminded him that the contract did not specify that the company had to buy a company that he recommended; he only had to visit the company that they purchased. So, he got the $25,000 bonus and I got a bottle of champagne. Not a good thing to do to someone like me who wanted a higher income and to become independent!!
What fears must my hero now overcome? [Inner conflict]:	I had no inner conflict. This convinced me that life working for a large corporation was simply not something I wanted and this action proved it. I really could not believe that he told me the whole story.
What is my hero’s moment of greatest courage? [Transformation]:	When I was laid off from my 3rd (out of 4) corporate job, which is typical in engineering, I decided to not only go out on my own, but to return to Lehigh to get my master’s and PhD degrees. I ran out of calendar time to finish the PhD because I was going to school while running my consulting business, but at least I got the master’s degree, and performed a lot of PhD level research, which has been very valuable to many of my clients.
What is the exact moment my hero achieves the visible goal? [Climax]:	Eventually, through many financial hardships, I got all of the software and test equipment that I need to perform virtually any product design and development for virtually any client.
How does my hero’s life change by completing this journey? [Aftermath]:	Over more than 30 years of full-time consulting, I have worked on dozens of interesting projects, from various avionics and telemetry products, to supporting patent and other technical lawsuit, to helping to design a body scanning radar system similar to the product used for airport security scanning, but the product I worked on was for the clothing industry. It was shown on Good Morning America, Time, Newsweek, and just about every popular magazine. It also won 1st place in the Technology 100 awards in the early 2000’s.

[n d]

@ed-troy, I actually think Kent would be the PERFECT person to talk to about this on the Thursday live call. He’s detailed loads of personal information in his Hero Story but the way he went about it was fewer name specifics and more taking his readers through his struggles. I don’t see a problem with what you have written!

If the names are changed and so are the company names, you shouldn’t run into any issues. Additionally, great job on taking action! Do your best to take your readers through your journey. Read it out loud and see which parts are exciting and which parts need some more love.

Join the live call and we’d be happy to assist!

 

[Author]

Posts