I thought Wednesday was my rock-bottom kind of day but I was wrong, today was. When we called the building management regarding getting the go ahead for our building, they refused our request.
"I say hell no to their no!" Snickers told me.
The honest truth is that we have no plan B. There is only a plan A because we're got our heart set on this particular building and to go for any kind of plan B would just mean settling for something less that what we really have already invested our mind, body and soul into.
I was heartbroken; we both were.
"I say no to their no!!!" Snickers repeated again to me and with that he called the management crew again to talk to them. When their "no" still hadn't changed to a "yes", Snickers and I then jumped on the computer and emailed them. We emailed them our business proposal again, links to newspaper articles, interviews and TV documentary clips of us. The problem isn't that they don't want our business, two of the five-man crew already on our side and are pulling for us. The problem is that the main man is set on his no. Rezoning is no longer a problem, we have the funds, our business proposal is solid, and there's no real conflict with the other businesses running their shop out of this particular building because, well, only two of the five floors are even occupied. I think it all comes down to complications and the fact that it's easier for them to say no and not have to deal with any kind of rezoning issue or remodeling issues.
They argued that perhaps us setting up a boxing club there will discourage other offices from wanting to set up office but we argued that perhaps the opposite will be true. You've got us, a boxing club bringing in a strong following of foreigners to a building that's basically vacant, so maybe this might spark the interest of other related businesses. Take for instance UP Boxing Club. During my time there, I've seen a total of three exercise equipment shops set up shop across the street of it. All because a successful boxing club attracted it them to that specific site. It's so frustrating, so very frustrating because the fact of the matter is there hasn't been anything steady in this building for about three years so even if we're only there one single day, they'll still make more money than the zero dollars they're making right now. I could understand if they had a flood of interest in their building but they don't so they're not really in a position to be so picky. At this point, their choices are make money by granting us the third floor or make no money by saying no to us.
Snickers is convinced he's going to change their "no" to "yes" so he's refusing to give up.
We've been waiting three weeks, more than three weeks actually, for their answer but this isn't the answer we're accepting. Snickers and I have been emotionally dragged through hell and back, and that's just in this past week, so if they think this is the last of us then they've got another thing coming.
We believe in what we're doing, we're passionate about it, and we're more than willing and more than expecting to fight, plea and beg for what we feel we deserve. "Tears are power", Snickers told me. He's always telling me that beauty and tears are power so when I started crying at the end of the phone conversation, he told me to save my tears for when we meet up with them.
Bring on the waterworks!
I come from a long line of very tough, very stubborn Polish/Austrian people, all of which fought their way to success and have always been clearly goal-driven. My father comes from a family of nine kids so he knows about hardship and struggle. And my mother, she came to Canada with her father. The plan was to meet up with her mother and brother who had also made the journey over but when that didn't happen, her and her father had to make it on their own. Then, when she was 16 and her father died, she instantly had to grown up and figure out how to survive on her own. When my parents got married and wanted to settle down so to start a family, things didn't get any easier. Banks denied them the loan they needed but when one bank did grant them a loan, the bank was convinced my parents would never in a million years be able to pay them back. Well, a couple of years later and they did the unthinkable; they paid off their entire load, proving everyone wrong.
And then there's the family I married into -- the Kim family. Snickers' immediate family are all entrepreneurs.
His father runs his own business of making Korean traditional natural medicine.
His younger sister runs her own very successful English study room.
His older sister runs her own nursery school that's quite well known and has a yearly lengthy waiting list.
Stubborness, drive and focus run in my family -- my immediate family, extended family and in-laws.
The other day the Cheonan Trump and Top Notch called me, totally out of the blue. They're both very influential within Cheonan and are quite the powerhouse duo to be associated with. I approached Snickers about pulling "the Trump Card" on the business management and he smiled. The last time I've ever used "The Trump Card" was when immigration showed up on my doorstep after Dankook University told them I was illegally boxing on an E2 visa. The trump Card is a last-resort, in-emergencies-only tactic but it may be my only option, either that or make a plan B.
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