About twenty years ago, near the end of January when we were finishing December Financials so that I could complete returns, one of my clients gave me a call. We’d been trying to reach him for a couple of days.
When I got him on the phone he said, “I see you’ve been trying to reach me. I’ve had a rough couple of days. I tried to kill myself yesterday.”
At first I was taken aback, but then said, “I’m on my way.” I snatched my coat out of the office, and hopped in my car without even telling my wife where I was going.
A trip that normally would have taken me half an hour was completed in twenty minutes. I ran into his office and sat down on one of the chairs in front of his desk, and just looked at him with a question on my face.
He said, “Chris, you don’t have to worry. I’m fine now.”
My response was simply, “Bullshit.”
“No Chris, really I’m fine. You don’t have to be here. I’ll be okay,” he said. But I didn’t go anywhere.
I just sat there for about an hour as we bantered back and forth. He was doing everything he could to avoid the issue.
Lunchtime rolled around and there was a greasy spoon on the corner that accepted orders over a fax line. So we ordered a couple of burgers that a busboy brought over and we washed them down with a couple of bottles of homebrew that I luckily had in the trunk of my car.
Once the booze started working, the tears and the story soon followed.
He’d gone to the bank to make a deposit and to beg one of the bankers to cover his overdrawn checks that day. They had refused. He had a small business and several buildings and things weren’t going well.
There was a train stop not far from the bank so he went there, bought a ticket, and went up on the platform. He was going to jump in front of a train when he opened his wallet, took out a picture of his little girl, and decided not to end his life.
And he called me the next day.
Let’s not act like I had any idea what to do. Of all the people a person could call, I’d probably be near the bottom of anyone’s list, but there I was.
A couple of hours later, he agreed to see a therapist, so I called one of my clients who cleared her schedule to see him right away. When we got to her office, he refused to see her without me being present.
Somehow I’d become his lifeline.
So we sat there and we talked for another couple of hours. She prescribed him some medicine and made one thing very clear.
If he was going to get past this he was going to need to talk to his wife about it. If he continued to hide it from her, there was a chance that this would never be resolved.
At that point, it could resurface again and that time the result could be fatal.
Once again, he refused to talk to his wife unless I was there. So we went to a Walgreens and got his prescription filled. I made sure that he took the first dose, and we went to his house.
We walked in, sat down at his kitchen table, and his wife was immediately defensive. She asked, “Chris, why are you here?”
I responded that I should let her husband answer that question, so he asked his children to go downstairs, and told her what had happened. Her response was one of anger rather than compassion.
To this day, I still can’t believe her response. Why he stayed with that woman is beyond understanding.
An hour later things had calmed down somewhat, so I went home. But he agreed to meet me at my offices the next day to come up with a plan to solve his money issues.
When he came in the next day, he agreed that he should sell everything and get a job somewhere else, doing something that made him happy.
Nine months later, the business, the buildings, and his home had been sold. He moved his family to South Florida and got a job in hotel management.
Let me leave you with this…
I always remember that story this time of year because it happened on the last day of January.
We’ve stayed in touch over the years. I spoke to him last Christmas, and he sounded fine. The most important thing is that his children still have a Father.
Not everyone is cut out for the life of an entrepreneur. Many are called. Few have the temperament it takes to succeed.
He’s told me on more than one occasion, that I was his hero. I continue to tell him that he’s the hero, not me.
He’s the one who faced his problems and created solutions rather than taking a coward’s way out.
But there’s another thing that’s also certain.
Being an entrepreneur isn’t about doing what’s easy. Many could have taken that call on that cold January morning and just laughed it off. How was any of that in my job description?
Being an entrepreneur isn’t about easy. It’s about doing what’s right.
If any of you are having any feelings whatsoever about ending it all, for the sake of whatever God you pray to, SEEK HELP NOW. Don’t wait. Don’t think about it.
Go to the mental health professional of your choice and handle your problems. Leaving this life and asking your loved ones to deal with your problems is no way to handle anything.
If you need me, I’m here.
We’re all going to get through this. Let’s get through it together.
Accounting Solutions Ltd. stands ready to complete our mission and purpose of protecting you, your family, and your business. Whether you need Payroll Services, or Accounting and Tax Work, you have but to ask. I’m here and I remain,
Sincerely yours,
Chris Amundson
President
Accounting Solutions Ltd.
773-267-7500
888-310-0300
www.AccountingSolutionsLtd.com
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