15 years on from the crash...the lessons I've learnt

As you might know, if you have followed me before, I had a major car accident 15 years ago which changed my life.? 5 years ago I wrote a piece of writing that shared my story, my lessons and my understanding of that time.? I thought it best to share that now on the 15-year anniversary.

I wanted to write about how my business life before the accident and when the accident happened, how I dealt with the accident from a business and personal standpoint, and finally what I have learned lost accident in order to rebuild.?

Before my car accident, I had built a good foundation for success. I was 27 and owned two Bakers Delight bakeries. Bakers Delight was my family. I started with them when I was 16. I became the youngest franchise at 21 years old. I was very proud but it was so tough. I bought a bakery, which I believed would turn around if I worked hard and put in the hours. I was working 100 hours a week. There was a period when I worked every day for three months as I was in much trouble financially. Even though Bakers Delight didn’t like me doing it I built up a wholesale arm of the business by knocking on doors of businesses and promising better bread, service and price than their current supplier. And I promised to make want they wanted. It worked and I signed up for 8 pubs and restaurants?in two weeks. Some accounts were worth $200 a week and the major one was $500 per week. But it got me out of trouble and allowed me to hire another baker and buy a branded second-hand red transit van. (This was also my personal car now, probably not to the liking of my former girlfriend!)

I actually had a structure in the business now; I had more self-worth and going well overall. There unfortunately for him, a franchisee that owned 4 Bakers Delight sites lost everything. Bakers Delight Holdings then offered up all those sites at very competitive prices to other franchises in order for them to remain open. They offered me a site for 50-60% lower than market expectation.?

I talked to my accountant and he said go for it. I went to my bank in ANZ and they refused to refinance me as they felt I’d be over-leveraged. I knew it was the only option to get me out of trouble in the long term. I went to NAB and I managed to do a deal with them. They saw my vision and want to drive my life and business forward. I signed in the main head office in Adelaide with the business loan manager and a ‘trainee’ business loan manager (please note her, as she is very important later in part 2).?

So I was 26 at this stage, the youngest multi-site franchisee in the company and creating structure in the business. I actually had a day off a week now, hired sales and bakery managers, formulated weekly meetings with my teams, and worked on how we would communicate as bakeries between the two sites.?

The problem was I had gone from very hardworking, which never stopped, to being arrogant. Because I had a bit of breathing room now I felt I deserved a break now. I was more reckless and took things for granted. I cheated on my former partner of 5 years after I was feeling insecure and taking more risks to inflate my ego. I lost her friendship and love and I will forever be annoyed at myself for my foolish actions and for allowing it to end that way.?

Now the real issues happened. Because she was out of my life I acted like I was ‘free’ but I was dead inside. I used alcohol to numb my pain. On days off from baking, I would get blind drunk, nearly to the point of throwing up. I felt it was the only way to subdue the pain I was feeling from my actions.?

Then there was a really bad period in mid-July 2007 when I had an argument with my ex-partner after she called me out on something from our past. I internalised everything and started to ramp up my drinking. That led to the car accident night.?

It was?Thursday the 2nd of August?and I got asked by my friend to go to a bar/club that we went to the?Thursday?night before because we had a lot of fun. We tried to take a couple of friends from work who had also come the week before, but they couldn’t go so it was just the two of us. I thank god they decided not to go as I felt they would have been in the crash too.?

So my friend and I were in the club together, having drinks and trying to get the girls' attention and from what I remember the venue was a bit quiet and we got bored. We were buying drinks for each other and I felt he was making his more heavy-handed. This bar would do triple shots which was obviously an issue for making smart decisions.?

We had both driven to the venue that night, so I don’t know why we left but for some reason, I was a front seat passenger in his car. I don’t remember leaving the venue, where we were going or why I got in. I had never been in his car as it was new.?

We then drove from the venue, and our crash site was on the way to the city, so I can only imagine we were going to a city bar.?

It was a rainy night and the car launched at speed (approx. 120kms per hour) off a median strip at a major roundabout. The car launched about 3-4 metres off the ground and hit a tree that was 5 metres wide.?

The trajectory of the car meant I took 60-70% of the crash on my front seat passenger side. I was wearing a seatbelt. A bruise reminded me of this for two weeks after. An airbag was thankfully deployed. I was told if I was wearing my glasses that night I’d surely be blind.?

The fire department took 40 minutes to cut me out of the crash. After I met them?three months later?to thank them they said I was conscious at the scene and also said it was hands down the worst crash they’d seen.?

The driver and I were both alive. My parents were rung to come to the hospital and not told what had happened. This is my biggest guilt of all, and they had to take that call because of my actions. I was sent to the operating room straight away. I woke up to my parents above my head as the nurse was taking my contact lenses out of my eyes. I saw them both crying but I couldn’t move. I was numb everywhere. At that point, I thought I could die.?

I broke both arms, shoulder blade, right foot, about 10 ribs had a fractured face. I had major reconstruction needed of both arms, and my right hand couldn’t move from ulnar nerve damage. I was in a bad spot. My hands were everything as a baker. My livelihood. I knew if I could not die, it would take a long time to get my hands back to a point they could bake again.?

The first week of my three weeks in hospital I was in ICU. I didn’t see many people during this time, I was simply too ‘out of it’ most of the time. I was in enormous pain. By the second week, I was in a less intense ward in the hospital. I was there for two weeks.?

I wasn’t able to move very much, but I was able to see more visitors and this lifted my spirits a lot.

A lot of crying happened in those two weeks. It was tough for everyone.?

My bakeries were running without me, some other franchisees had helped out with staff which I was exceptionally grateful for.? After I got back home in late August I started having weekly meetings with my team where they would come to my parent's house to see me. I couldn’t walk well or use my arms, but I could still think clearly and work on a strategy for the two sites.?

My team did an exceptional job in that first month. I am forever grateful. After seeing my doctor and knowing I had to have yet another operation I’m late September I asked him how long it would be until I could get back to baking in my bakeries. He told me not till late February of the following year at the earliest. Therefore that meant I would not have been baking for nearly 7 months by the time I got back. I went from being physically in them 80 hours a week to nothing overnight. I was very worried about our money situation. I was doing better having the second bakery but I wasn’t taking home much money.?

I made the decision to hire another full-time baker to replace me. We needed this at the very least to cover the holidays. This was a major cost to a small business of this size and pretty much wiped out my profit.?

I was getting therapy for my hands twice a week to allow them to function again after not moving for a long time. I was in a lot of pain but I had to push through. Coming into Xmas I felt the team was really tired and they were starting to get restless. It was tough as I wasn’t in the bakeries and couldn’t bring much change. We just got through Xmas. Sales were down. Early in the new year, I was able to drive again as long as I didn’t overdo it. I started to visit the bakeries 3 times a week to make sure I could add some influence. By late January I would do short sales shifts so my hands would get used to manual labour, and in early February I went back to baking. I needed to as I was going stir crazy. I had also met a great new woman. She would later become my wife in years to come.?

Financially we were in trouble. It was March and about to head into Easter. With my presence back in the bakeries, we did very well, having our best Easter sales yet in both bakeries. I went to NAB yo restructure my loan as I knew I soon wouldn’t be able to make repayments.?

It wasn’t enough to make me feel like things could get better about the longevity of my businesses though. I was the sole director of the businesses and I had personal guarantees with 6 of my 7 suppliers. I also owed NAB $240k and my parents nearly $80k.?

On the 3rd of August, exactly a year after my car accident, I put the bakeries into voluntary liquidation. Bakers Delight Holdings was told first, and then my lawyers rang everyone down the list who was owed money.?

Bakers Delight offered me the following deal 2 hours after I informed them of the news. Start up a new company name and keep the higher trading bakery. Close the smaller bakery and sell the equipment to pay some of the creditors. That’s exactly what we did. I formed a new company the next day. We closed all sites for two days. The smaller revenue bakery remained permanently closed, we found jobs for all staff who we didn’t add into the bigger bakery, and paid any super and wages owing to leaving staff. Bakers Delight Holdings would allow me to trade the restaurant until December that year and then I would depart for a franchisee to take my place. The one thing that franchisors have over franchisees Is that they can take them back and resell them. But you know that going in.?

I traded that bakery till December and paid 60-80% of the debt owed to the smaller creditors. They all agreed not to pursue me for the remaining debt having seen what I’d gone through. There was still the NAB though who hadn’t made a decision on the remaining $240k I owed them. It was now December when I was exiting and waiting for a response.?

I then got a phone call from the lady who was the business loan manager. She had now taken over from the initial manager when I first signed with NAB. You may remember me pointing her out in the story as training at the time. She had helped me refinance earlier in the year to try and save the business also.?

When she rang me she said ‘Shaun, it’s the decision of myself and NAB to forgive you off your debt’ Not fully understanding what that meant and wanting to clarify I said ‘what do you mean?’ She said that it meant that NAB would never pursue me for the debt I had incurred with them. Shocked and confused I asked her why. She told me quite simply that it was because of a few reasons.

Largely that I went to them to refinance knowing I was in trouble, that I told them of the liquidation before I wound up the business, and that the reasons for my situation were not my fault and whilst she had the power to make that decision, she would always make a right personal choice.?

I learnt so much from just this part of my experience alone?

1. Always be upfront about your situation as it will eat away at you if you aren’t?

2. Always be honest. It will eventually catch up if you don’t.?

3. Be nice to everyone you meet. Not only is it the right thing to do, but you never know when certain people could be important in your life.?

I always talk about that story as I think it’s really powerful and it always teaches the value of doing the right thing and being honest.?

Just before I wound up the bakeries completely I had secured a job with Bakers Delight In Vancouver (called COBS BREAD) opening bakeries for them there. I would then become an area manager after I opened progressive sites.?

I flew over to start work in January the following year. My partner was waiting on a working visa for Canada and remained in Australia. I was in Vancouver for around 8-10 weeks when it became apparent that because of my partner’s British heritage and non-citizenship in Australia she would be unable to get a Canadian work visa for a very long time. On this news, I decided to come back to Adelaide.?

It took me a while to get another job, but I finally got a cafe manager position at a large cafe company. It was a very tough 3 months. I improved the sales, and lowered all costs but was let go on my last day of probation for reasons I still don’t understand and nearly went to FairWork Australia about.?

With my self-esteem at an all-time low, I asked my partner if she wanted to look at jobs interstate. She agreed and we decided on Brisbane. I got three job offers?in one week.

I met with the CEO Simon Crowe in one of his Grill’d restaurants in Crows Nest, Sydney. We spent three hours together.?

I decided to join Grill’d. Something about Simon reflected in the man I wanted to be 5 years before but never was. I came on as a ‘Restaurant Manager in waiting’ as they didn’t have any sites ready for me to take over. I think they had about 15 nationally at this point.

It would be 18 months before I got my own site to manage. It was the first CBD site in the country and I still haven’t been put under so much pressure in a small time frame.?

I think I had everyone from the support office visit in the first month, I lost 95% of my team within the first 6 months. This included all my managers. It taught me so much about how I was managing venues under extreme stress and how you need to trust your team. I would place people at the same station every day so that service times wouldn’t get out of control. Whilst it did that, staff would get so fed up with the repetition and bad culture and leave.?

I finally got my restaurant together, largely because we hired an exceptional restaurant manager in Jamie who stabilised a lot of systems and integrated well with the team.?

I got promoted to an Area Manager soon after for QLD and things were looking up. My state manager got to let go and I was running the state for a few months. Then a new state manager appointment was made and I was slowly pushed back into a restaurant manager role with a buy-in capacity. Being just married and wanting stability for the next three years I took it. I took on Grill’d Emporium as a partner.?

It was not the best decision financially but it did show me how to be a great people manager. I became more open, got much more out of my team, and built a friendship with them that lasts till today. I use this experience as the blueprint for how I give advice to clients on managing any food venues. I got married and separated within a year and was struggling in Brisbane. Grill’d offered me an opportunity to work in Perth which I took. I did that and turned around a restaurant?in 4 months that was struggling. Let go of 75% of the team?in 2 months, recruited a whole new team and had record sales. A great effort. I was moved to another restaurant to do the same thing. I really struggled there. I was there for two months and after doing well there but not enjoying it, I decided to pull the pin 3 months before the contract was to end. I learned that running away from my personal problems wasn’t the best idea.?

I found a job in Melbourne with a brand called Jimmy Grants, struggled with depression and decided to leave. I joined a high-end bakery brand called Baler D, Chirico shortly after when an investor invited me in. They wanted to expand.?

It was here that I learnt about quality and high-end service in retail. I saw how much customers would pay for the right product, and with the right branding and attention to detail, you can really make something different in the food industry.?

After a year of being the production and logistics manager at Baker D., I decided to leave as I felt it was the right thing for the business. It was probably my hardest and happiest 12 months in the industry. I will always be grateful for their trust.?

In the last month of being at Baker D., I had a friend of a friend who was starting up a burger restaurant in outer Melbourne and asked if I wanted to consult and help. So I started a business and decided to give it a go. I had a really good time and thought I’d put some real effort into trying to get clients for the business. I was reaching out and starting to do small work for some clients when The Australian director of a fried chicken brand from Singapore, 4 fingers, got in touch with me to see if I can help with their launch In Australia. I said yes and it was a great decision. We opened 3 venues?In 24 days?in two different cities. It was extremely challenging, to say the least, but we executed it very successfully at the time.

So that brings me to now where I have built a brand in advisory which I know will be scaled in the next 5 years to be a very strong voice in the hospitality industry. The reason I started it is I wanted to ‘make hospitality better’ by being more humble in the market and listening to owners' issues honestly. Since I founded it 7 years ago we have worked with dozens of businesses and created real value.

I am now lucky to co-found a popular hospitality podcast, have a successful hospitality advisory business with Open Pantry Co, and start to scale 42-Days which lends to my want to create real change in how we recruit, onboard and show genuine pathways for people in the hospitality industry.

In a way, I am very glad that the car accident happened. It stopped me on a very bad trajectory I was on at the time of taking things for granted.?

Even though I’ve had some very tough times since it taught me to be patient and thankful every day as if it could be my last.?

I am now even more honest, humble, giving and practical. I rarely sweat the small things and always think about long-term strategy.?

I hope you have enjoyed this story and feel it has given you some good advice.?

Here is also a video we recorded over 10 years ago which explains the whole accident and the importance of not drink driving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PBGX6f8dbc