Lucky it happened

There are several instances over the course of my life where I feel I was so very lucky when something bad happened to me.

I am sure I am not the only person who ever experienced a terrible moment or time in life that actually turned out to be a great thing in the end.

It has definitely happened to me, on a few occasions.

A situation that comes to mind first and stands out is when I left my restaurant/bar business in Taiwan back in the late 2000s..

The name of the venue was my ex-brother-in-laws first initial (Fred) and my first initial (Mike). Fred had pointed out, “We should just call it fM, since everyone is probably going to say Fred and Mike’s place anyway.”

fM was born. 

The little f was there on purpose because he had been my younger brother, once.

The city where we founded the place was, at the time, the third largest in Taiwan, now it is second. There were very few Western venues when I first arrived. The establishments that were there were Italian or English. At most there were only about half a dozen.

Taichung back in the 1970s was a rest and recreation (R&R) stop for the U.S. military when the Vietnam war was raging. In the 1980’s and until the mid 1990’s, it was called the “Shoe Capital’’ of Asia. All major shoe companies like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok and Sketchers had their manufacturing and design headquarters were in this city.

When it became cheaper to manufacture in China, only the designers stayed in Taichung.

The Western population in Taichung dwindled to just a few hundred by the 1990’s and most of those were students or English teachers at a nearby University.

I came to Taichung in the mid 90’s.

It was so crazy then. 

To give an example; because of the few Westerners and very few Americans in the city, I was stopped on the streets almost daily. I would get questions on where I was from or sometimes people would offer me a job to teach English on the spot or do modeling of some sort. This happened because there were so few Westerners and advertising/marketing agencies just about took anyone who were European looking. They just wanted a Western face.

Anyway, like I said, it was crazy.

I also lucked out being one of the first Western bartenders to be employed all over the city. I got a great reputation as someone who knew how to make excellent drinks at any event. I was making money and my profile was raised more and more.

I was tailor made to open a bar someday.

Westerners started flocking to the city and by the year 2002, when our restaurant opened, there were tens of thousands. Because Taichung was growing by leaps and bounds, our place enjoyed a bit of success.

Taiwan was getting really democratic too. It was hard to believe martial law had just ended a couple years before I moved there. Sure, I knew there were hundreds–if not thousands of missiles pointed at the island, but China and Taiwan were almost friendly to each other.

While I was Jim Beam’s Brand Ambassador to Taiwan (we sold a lot of Jim Beam in my bar), Jim Beam sent me to Nanjing and Shanghai to explain their product. There was so much cooperation between the two places.

It is a lot different now.

Which brings me to the point of how something so bad can actually be a good thing.

Living in Taiwan for almost 12 years and owning a business, I began to wonder if I would really ever go back to the USA. 

I had my home in Wyoming, but there was a time while living in Taichung and running the restaurant, I did not see my house in Hanna for five years.

I started to feel Taiwan was going to be my home.

Then a terrible thing happened to the restaurant.

I won’t go into it other than to say a contract, written in Chinese, needs to be looked at incredibly closely. There was little I could do to stop what happened as I found myself being aced out of everything I had worked so hard for.

Fred had left the venue a few years before, so he had nothing to do with my demise at fM.

I walked away with nothing, but a few valuable life lessons.

Heading back to the States and my house in Carbon County felt like the right thing to do after the debacle at fM. Once back in the USA, my life too me down another cool road. 

It is sad to say, but I find myself grateful I am not living in Taiwan. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still have a real attachment to the place, but the island has an unstable feel about what is happening between the Mainland and Taiwan.

I have friends who are raising families and running businesses, some are even buying homes. However, I am not convinced buying real estate in Taiwan is a great idea right now. My friends hope no military action will take place.

I hope so too.

I will say now, I think my bad luck with the restaurant turned out to be good luck ultimately–it got me off the island and I never looked back.

I like where I live. Well, the wind could be less intense, but I feel fairly confident no missile is going to hit my town which is a good thing.

Sadly, I can’t say that about Taichung now.