Today the Part of Herman Will Be Played By Tom Cruise. Seriously.

What happened when Herman left Quest Education Systems on Friday:

Okay.  Not really.  It was actually a nice, pleasant exit -- no drama, no tears.  But still . . . it's crazy to believe it, but today we walked away from the business we helped to create five years ago, ready to start a new chapter in our lives.  

Five years ago Herman was working as an assistant principal at East Elementary, and we had enjoyed our time working for the Waynesville schools.  Herman had been wanting to get involved in creating his own business, but I was super nervous about leaving the security that is offered through working for the school district.  I liked our retirement.  I liked our health insurance.  I liked our predictable schedule that matched the kids' schedules.  But I really do believe that the Lord really did want for Herman to take the path he chose that year, so circumstances worked out in such a way that I was willing to take any amount of risk to start a company and leave the school employment.  So we cashed in our retirement credits and used the money as we began Quest Education Systems with our friends Mark and Sheryl Eagleburger.  This company used Herman's expertise in education as Herman set out across the country, putting on inspiring and instructional workshops for teachers.  Things got started pretty slowly, and at one point it was even looking like we were going to have to close shop and try something else.  But in the midst of those early difficulties Herman felt as if he received some direct revelation inspiring him to change their business model.  The company became an industry leader in helping schools and teachers navigate the ridiculous minefield that is the standardized testing that has become so important as the government has tried to implement the No Child Left Behind policy.  Herman started out as the original presenter for the company, and he would be gone all week every week putting on these workshops all around the country.  Mark would be in charge of scheduling, and we had one other worker who worked on billing.  We would have our family stage some folding parties as we got all of the flyers ready to send out to the school districts, hoping to fill up our workshops.  Well, it was a grand success.  The company flourished, and soon we added several presenters to put on Herman's workshops.  Herman published a book based on his workshop.  He was able to stay home more as more and more of the work of the office and the presentations was done by others.  It was really nice and rewarding in so many ways.  

Well, things have been changing with the business model that we had developed.  It hasn't been anything bad, but as the last year progressed it became obvious that Herman and Mark had very different ideas about how they wanted the company to proceed.  These weren't angry disagreements or anything like that, but they were the type of differences in opinion that was keeping the company from progressing at all.  Neither Mark nor Herman could take the company exactly where they wanted it to go.  

For a few months we have been wondering how this situation would resolve itself, and it just seemed impossible to fix.  But we have tremendous faith that everything was going to work out exactly how it needed to be.  I have no doubt that Heavenly Father has our back.  He has the power to make things happen to our good if we can just trust Him.  And so we did.  About a month ago Herman decided that he needed to be more active as a presenter.  He has amazing presentation skills, and he wasn't doing himself any favors by hanging out around the house and hoping that things turned up rosy.  But he also decided that he was going to change his model again.  Now, instead of doing public workshops where the teachers would travel to see him present in a hotel or community college or something like that he would instead go right to the teachers.  He decided to set up programs with school districts to consult with their personnel in small group sessions where he could help them develop effective plans to raise test scores in their content areas.  In addition he also gave schools the opportunity to hire him as a consultant to work with struggling teachers or teachers in their first year of teaching.  This consulting worked with Herman's natural talents of interacting with people and inspiring them to reach their full potential.  He started out by calling a few districts in our area, and before the week was out he had his entire schedule packed for the next two months.  Hurray!  Now we knew that there was a market for this new type of consulting.  He did this work through our Spotlight Assemblies company that works under the banner of our Great Educators company.  That gave us a revenue stream with the new consulting.

A few weeks ago when trying to determine the next direction that Quest was going to take Mark approached Herman and asked if he might just buy out Herman's and my ownership shares in the company. This would allow Mark to continue to work with Quest and take the company in the direction he wanted it to go.  Then Herman could use our other company to create a similar company that would be set up more in the way that Herman wanted it to go.  It seemed like the perfect solution to our dilemma.  We sat on the idea for a while, prayed about it, and then made our decision to go ahead and split ties with Quest.  I never had one bit of doubt in my mind about everything.  It just felt right, and I really feel as if the Lord was just setting things up in the past year to make this happen.  Herman also felt right about things, but he did feel a certain amount of sadness in leaving the company that he first founded five years ago.  But Mark drew up the papers for the transfer of ownership, and we headed to sign them, knowing that everything would work out in the end.

So last Friday Herman and I headed over to the Quest office to sign the papers with Mark.  I walked with Herman as he circled the office, visiting the various cubicles and offices inhabited by the various Quest employees.  I just quietly tagged along, because that's what I do.  It was just so surreal to be making our last rounds as owners of the company.  It has grown so much since the beginning, and it was been a great blessing to our family.  I just couldn't believe we were finishing things up today.  I sort of felt the same way when Herman left his job as asst. principal at East.  It might have been a bit harder leaving the school, though, because there were so many people there who Herman had interacted with daily.  And he was super sad to leave the kids.  But anyway, we made the slow round through the office and ended up at Mark's office where he had the papers ready for us to sign.  It seemed like I should have been a bit more apprehensive about the whole thing, but I just felt calm about everything.  It almost felt as if a weight was being lifted from my shoulders.  It just seemed crazy that we could sign away five years of our lives with a couple of minutes of signing papers.  And yet we did it.

So now we head off to make the best of our new adventure, devoting our time and energy to building Herman's education consulting through Spotlight Assemblies and Great Educators.  It is kind of exciting to start things over from scratch.  We'll either make it or we'll fall flat on our faces, but we'll be doing it together.  I believe that we'll be able to make enough to provide for our family.  Herman is definitely a man full of enthusiasm and hope, and I have faith that he'll make it work.  So far the schools who have had him come to work with them have really loved the work he has done.  There are so many school districts in just Missouri alone, so I think he could keep busy in this state without having to do any crazy traveling.  That will be a huge blessing.  

On Monday we begin our new adventure running things solo for most of our companies.  Herman is headed out to another school district to consult with some teachers.  It seems like I should be a bit nervous about starting things over, but I'm not.  Heavenly Father has taken care of us in the past, and I know He'll take care of us into the future.  I kind of feel like Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade movie when he was standing at the precipice and had to show faith by stepping into the void, hoping that there would be something there to catch him.  I never quite understood why he didn't just throw some pebbles out into the void to see if there was something there.  I would have totally checked things out first.  But sometimes you just know, I guess.  And in this case I just know.  I know this is what we are supposed to do.  I don't quite know why yet, but it'll become apparent soon enough.  For now we'll just go along for the ride and do the best we can.  

On Friday night Herman and I decided that we needed to head to El Sombrero's Mexican restaurant to celebrate this new chapter in our life.  We began Quest as a company at El Sombrero's five years ago.  Now we went back there to celebrate our good memories of Quest and to celebrate our new beginning once again.  I never thought when I was younger that I would ever be the type of girl who could patiently sit back and celebrate forming new companies every few years or so.  I was (and still am in some respects) a girl who valued consistency and security in jobs.  But here we are, beginning again.  Here's to the future!  

Who's coming with me?

At El Sombrero