The Wily Trout-Fred

So, I purchased this run down bar for a reasonable price, a bit of work needed, a designers challenge, but I must say the designer rose to the challenge and I was very satisfied with the results.

Now for the hiring, I figured the most important person in a bar was the bar manager, the quarterback of the team so to speak, so I sent out enquiries and was rewarded with 86 resumes.

My eyes glazed over reading the resumes each a carbon copy of itself, I resorted to vodka, which didn’t help the cause, but my word, one resume did eventually stand out, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and a degree in philosophy to boot.

So in stepped Fred for an interview, tall at 6’4”, long grey hair tied in a ponytail at the nape of his neck with a hoop dangling from his left ear, an interesting background, a portfolio manager for a major investment company, liked to party, succumbed to alcohol, lost his job, lost his wife and children, lost his house and ended up on the streets.

His resume recorded his work history to 2011 and then nothing, so I asked the obvious question, what have you been doing for the last 15 years, and he was very honest, he bought a tent, lived under a railway arch, spent his remaining money on alcohol, fell into despair, and then received his Damascus moment in the form of a young woman from a Christian outreach program.

A group from a local community church were engaged in outreach tending to the homeless, and a fervent young woman of 20, Kayleigh, visited him every day with a cup of coffee and a sandwich continually repeating Jesus loves you, you know Jesus loves you, and finally the penny dropped and he believed, joined Alcoholics Anonymous and decided to move forward with his life, and he looked sincere enough so I took a chance and hired him.