9a Downe Street
Bridport
Dorset
DT6 3JR
11/12/03
YZ100717D
Dear Mark
Thank you for your letter of the 10th December. I look forward to our appointment arranged for Tuesday 23rd of December 03.
Before that meeting, I want to offer you an insight into how I view the challenge of returning back to part time or full employment – and enlighten you of particular aspects that I am having serious difficulty with.
I also wish to lay out a storyboard, a series of experiences connected with my personal and career history. Hopefully, by presenting such a scenario, you (or colleagues you recommend) may understand “the bigger picture”.
I’ve kept each topic to one page – to spare you too much detail – but there is detail that I can’t avoid, hence an accompanying sheet of “bullet-points” as well.
Certain aspects of my character have been untouched by the “events” I will relate in the following pages and even today, I have little difficulty in presenting or “selling myself” as a dynamic, imaginative and / or worthy potential employee.
But I have a series of problems that cannot speedily be resolved. Problems more complex and taxing than just regaining confidence or self esteem.
Over the following pages, I will attempt to describe them.
——————–
Already, in reading these opening paragraphs, I assume you recognise that I am articulate, intelligent and more than able to present myself, either in person or via the written word.
Regarding my past career history, I would add that up until recently, it has been impressive – some would say extra-ordinary.
Unfortunately, the consequence of that extra-ordinary success has much to do with the predicament I now find myself in.
Anyway, please browse through the following information. It should, at least prime you for our meeting of the 23rd.
Yours sincerely
Chris Goodland
Index
Love Story, Children and a Desire to “Get On”. Page 3
I fall in love and events in my life take on a new purpose.
Ambitions Realised.
In less than 5 years, I go from building site Labourer to Finishing Foreman / Site Agent on a £20M construction project. I’m responsible for 250 contractors on Europe’ largest “Design and Build” office / warehouse facility.
1991 – 1994. A Perfect Life.
Local Government Officer / Work’s Inspector.
1994 – 1998. “That Thing!”
My Revolutionary Technology (The Gravity Venture) brings Fame and International Recognition – and I raise £250,000 to bring my products to market.
1999
Boardroom Dispute. They stop my salary and halt the venture. Marriage Failure Follows. …. And then a Mental Breakdown.
2000
Thoughts of “Self Harm”, Reactive Depression and a life threatening DVT.
2001
Panic Anxiety, Disassociation, Night Terror and Heartbreak…… but I locate a potential new investor AND take a modest job. I attempt to save the business. Homeless, I sleep in my office. PS. In mid year, a slipped disc paralyses me from toes to waist down my right side. It takes 8 months to regain 90% of feeling back in my limbs. In the scheme of things, that illness was / is minor – although it means I ca no longer return to manual work.
2002
Battling mental illness, I make slow but positive progress. I discover the new investor is in league with my troublesome Board. With the support of loyal share-holders, I decide to instigate legal proceedings.
2003
Despite “being entitled”, I have survived for nearly 4 years without asking “the state” for support or financial aid. However, homelessness forces me to finally address the issue.
The Local Authority provides me with a town flat. I sign myself off with the doctor. I sign on as a Job Seeker. Despite several serious issues still in the frame, I WANT to return to some normal life.
The good news?
I UNDERSTAND what has happened to me.
1980 – 1988
Love Story, Children and
a Desire to “Get on!”
I met Jackie, a stunningly beautiful Dorset girl, in 1980 and our mutual attraction for each other slammed right off the scales. Within months, our relationship turned into a full blown love story and for us, the sun shone from both sides. Friends used to joke about our love for each other and turn to their own partners and say, “Why can’t we be like Chris and Jackie?”
Jackie energised me and in her aura, the world took on a crisp, vibrant air.
I was a lucky man.
In 1994, we were expecting our first child. Oliver was born in the September of that year and that’s when a strange thing happened to me……..All of a sudden, I felt some primeval need to “get on”.
Before Oliver’s birth, work and employment had been a routine affair. I had worked here and there, as an electrician, a bar person or even as a ground-worker on a building site. I was 27, life was simple. I had “my girl”, my fishing tackle, my metal detector (I collect Roman artifacts) and I had a good life.
After Oliver’s birth, I recognised I had some new emotion manifesting itself in my heart. A desire to improve things for my family.
Over the months that followed, that feeling grew and grew and eventually led me to a construction site in the town. Contractor’s were upgrading Key Markets, a local supermarket. (Now Somerfields).
I took a job on site as a labourer…… but a labourer with a difference!
As a former electrician, I had a comprehensive array of tools AND an intimate understanding of the hierarchy of construction. (ie. Which trades did what, where and when…. within the scheme of things).
Within weeks, my talents were recognised by the general foreman and I soon found myself in charge of a small team of fellow ground-workers. By the end of that particular contract (1995), I had earned the title of “Leading Hand”, a kind of right hand man to a General Foreman.
By 1996, I had joined Monk’s Construction and was part of the team building Bridport’s new £6M bypass. Again, within a matter of a few months, my talents were recognised and I found myself deputising for the General Foreman. By the end of that year I was responsible for all quality control and the hiring and firing of contractors.
I eventually took over as General Foreman.
The following year, I took work in Poole acting as a freelance Finishing Foreman on a £10M “Design and Build” project for Davey Magee, a huge manufacturing / construction company.
Looking after 80 men, my job was to oil the construction machinery. Ie Liase with all contractors and management on site and get the job finished on time, in budget and to the highest possible standard.
1990 –
Finishing Foreman / Site Agent
Career wise, a Finishing Foreman usually straddles the role between a General Foreman and a Site Agent. The role is regarded as one of the most taxing and responsible roles in construction because a Finishing Foreman has several responsibilities.
- To liase with all on site.
- To ensure deadlines are met.
- To ensure all works are to a high finished standard
- To report up and down the management chain.
In short, the Finishing Foreman is the guy who gallops up and down the trail, making sure every part of the wagon train is where it aught to be! And guess what? I absolutely adored the role.
As that contract came to a close, I realised I wanted to pursue a full time career as a Finishing Foreman…. and it took me only a matter of weeks to realise that ambition.
Finishing Foreman – Stansell Builders.
I beat 50 other applicants for the role – despite being up against time served Site Agents and several highly qualified academic types.
And what greeted me on my first day on site?
A £20M project FIVE TIMES the size of Wembley.
Several gangs of chippies, painters, brickies and plumbers.
250 contractors pouring over the half finished project like soldier ants exploring a jungle floor.
The Argos Office / Distribution centre was MASSIVE – and it was now my responsibility to see the project finished on time and to the highest of standards……I excelled and was REWARDED by my company for delivering the completed project on time.
And the reward? I was promoted to Site Agent and given my own building project at Chard, Somerset. (60 sheltered housing dwellings).
Oliver was not even 5 years old.
In that time, I had gone from labourer to Site Agent, hop skipping and jumping the roles of Leading Hand, Concrete Finisher, General Foreman and Finishing Foreman along the way!
To put that in perspective, I remember walking through Bridport one afternoon noticing a man at the bottom of a freshly dug hole in the road.
“Hi Jimmy, how you doing?” I said cheerfully, noticing the sweat on his brow.
“Hiya Chris. Up to my knees in muck as usual”, came the happy reply. I laughed, wished Jimmy well and walked on. Jimmy had been the guy who had encouraged me to go for the labouring job just a few years before.
Nothing against Jimmy but, over that time, he had probably dug a thousand holes – and would probably go on to dig another thousand – without ever experiencing or realising a flicker of ambition
Over that same time period, I had “got on” and eventually found myself responsible for “The biggest building project of its type in Europe!”
Local Government Officer
/ Works Inspector
In 1990, I applied for the post of Work’s Inspector in West Dorset District Council’s Environmental Health Department.
There was a shortlist of 12 applicants….. and I got it!
I supervised contracts / contractors across 420 sq. miles of West Dorset. I monitored street cleansing, convenience maintenance, land management, policy enforcement. I investigated covertly, prosecuted litter infringement, attended to abandon cars, promoted trade services and personally took responsibility for projects and contributing to new council and contract policy.
I was a roaming ambassador attending and dealing with enquiries and complaints from the public.
It was a fantastic, all consuming role and a job that demanded diplomacy – and a tough skin!
I developed, refined and applied a broad range of skills relating to the fascinating experience of dealing with PEOPLE! (Smile).
I was “The man from the Council…… but a man determined to smash the negative myth that all council officers were either incompetent or “Jobsworths!”
And I achieved that.
A steady stream of “Thank you” letters materialised. (From members of the public and councillors).
One said, “In a time when we are keen to knock council services, isn’t it a delight to meet a man who listens, acts and resolves a (streetcleansing) problem – in hours, not weeks or months”.
Chairman of Council Pengelly once wrote to me direct. “I have had letters from councillors and the public, telling me what a fine job you have been doing in the West. (The West of the County)…….Chris, you are a credit to your profession”.
Des Derrion, Director of WDDC once stated, “If you’ve got a problem you can’t solve – give it to Chris Goodland!”
At this point, somewhere around August 1994, I wish I could have realised just how wonderful and rewarding my life had become.
A beautiful wife who loved me, a daughter (Sophie) to add to my family, a fantastically rewarding and well paid job with WDDC and a new home that we had recently moved into.
Family weekends out, romantic evenings in, days pottering about in the shed, creating a rockery garden feature, fussing over the rabbits, guinea pigs and cats…… a company car, mobile phone……….
A man who had achieved everything he had set out to achieve.
But things were to change….. and something profoundly disturbing was about to make itself known to the little family at 29 Rivervale.
And the “hard working man” who had strived so hard to improve the lives of his family was about to……..“die”.
“That THING!”
How perverse. One of my greatest achievements – and something I created partly to “show off” my own ingenuity now conspires to keep those same talents from resurfacing again.
Let me explain briefly. In 1994, I filed a patent for a security (Anchoring) system.
It is too painful to go over the story here but, in a nutshell, the “idea” did good! (I currently have live patents in Europe and the U.S.A)
It has been described as “An entirely new engineering principle” and has attracted massive interest from all around the world. Hoever, it has also destroyed my personal life, my marriage, my relationship with my children, my physical health, my mental health and my
I won every show, exhibition and or accolade I pointed it at….. and easily raised, first £20,000, then £50,000 and then £250,000 to get my idea into production.
I met MP’s Billionaires, other famous people….. and experienced a certain celebrity myself by becoming Engineering Inventor of the Year 1997 and later INTERNATIONAL INVENTOR OF THE YEAR 1998.
I enjoyed radio, TV and other appearances, opened invention shows in the capital and managed scores of press and magazine articles.
I presented lectures, enjoyed public speaking and, all along the way, promoted a particular personal philosophy that for me, melted every obstacle that ever got in my way.
Such was the power and genius of my own brand of “self promotion”, it was quoted at the opening of the International Invention Fair in London – where I had become a “role model” to others who attended that event.
So what was that philosophy?
It was something I know you people in the disability services team will appreciate.
Quite simply, despite official figures of less than 0.05 percent chance of ever getting my invention off the ground, I made a pledge to my local community.
I said that if I were successful, I would wish to keep my venture local and make sure I brought jobs and industry to my own community here in West Dorset.
It was that sentiment that earned me an international COMMUNITY award at the 97 London inventions fair.
And I was successful…. And I did keep the venture local.
In 1997, I raised over £200,000 by accepting an investment from a local West Dorset company…. And I did make sure all Research and Development, Prototyping, Mould Making, Tooling and Marketing contracts were awarded to locally based companies.
However, not everything was progressing so well in my personal life.
I had made my family pay the price for my “fame” and “success”.
First financially, then emotionally….. as the venture seduced me away from “real” life.
Winning massive international awards were great for my venture (and my own ego) but they merely reinforced my own belief that I should press on to “finish” the job of securing local big investment. I adamantly refused to give up “That Thing”, as Jackie described it.
About the Author
