Thursday Showcase: James Moran

Don’t be afraid of change” – James Moran

I’ve known the guy for some time now, in fact we work together. I remember the first time I met him; it was during a job interview. I was nervous; I didn’t know what to expect from the job or him.

What I can tell you is that the moment I stepped into that interview room with him, I realized he has a knack with people. I’d say he is quite charming and his accent is awesome. He’s very relaxed and formal, which helps for the nervous newbie’s around him. He likes to see the good in people. He says his grandma would tell him “treat people, as if they are good and they’ll be better, If you treat people badly, then they’ll be bad”.

He believes he is far too trusting sometimes and gives people chances, maybe more than what he should. As he has grown, he has been more cautious in regards to this.

I find myself nearly two years later from that moment, and this time the one interviewing the other is me. He is currently 42, born in Scotland 1971. He is one of three children, born to a school teacher and a publican, (pub owner). He was brought up in a small town. James academically wise wasn’t the star student, ended up studying business administration in a tech school. He had no clue what he really wanted in life, but he managed to find his way after college into a job center. His first job, believe it or not, was at a smelly, dirty, rotting flesh, meat factory. It’s hard to imagine young James in a place like that. He was able to bring good business in dealing with the customer service area. His boss found it amusing how he was able to charm people to end up doing and ordering things his way.

A charmer from the start apparently. Unfortunately the economy was bad; the butcher factory had to close. A new company came in. The call center business wasn’t big in 1989, but that was when the concept of call centers began. Before they had offices where people would come in and write up their complains or concerns. The telephones didn’t work like they do nowadays. It started with a team of 50 people. He worked there for four years, the company had 3000 people by then, and he had ten different jobs.

At the age of 23 he needed to expand his horizons. He felt he had a hard time being himself in his small town was tough. He found himself going to London, and went into the internet industry as a salesman. Once hitting 30 he managed to grow and became a high level manager, a director. The 90’s flew by fast on him, he even met his partner and that changed his life.

After working ten years in London, he set up his own business as a consultant for call centers. It was very successful until 2007. Moved to Spain, kept the consulting business and got into the property market, which collapsed in 2008 and he lost all his money. He had to make a decision and he ended up in Dublin for two years until the next recession in 2010 when the economy collapsed again. Work was hard to find, but eventually he got three job offers, one in Honduras, one in the Caribbean, and South Africa.

He took the Caribbean which eventually led him to Honduras.

Personally I find him and his views in life admirable because they are quite head on positive oriented. He has had his shares of difficult times, and doesn’t seem to regret his choices. Even when he lost all his investment, it was the best thing that ever happened according to him. Everything positive or negative that happened in his life taught him a lesson, made him stronger, made him who he is. Money easy come and easy goes, that’s what he said, and it’s very true.

To him, connecting to people is the key to gaining respect. Once respect is acquired, performance will be followed.