Early Sunday morning I’ve got a call from Andrii. He was brief. He made his decision to leave the country, and I have a couple of days — but actually I’m better to decide within a day — to think whether I’m up to running the farm myself.
It all happened out of the blue, unexpectedly.
Solomia was against it. It would distract me from any job search (and it did). However, since I see the world very differently, I knew all along that I would join the adventure.
My Way#
While interacting with Andrii, I never pushed him to do things my way. To the point, I allowed him to decide on the designs, even when I knew they’re less aesthetically pleasing and would presumably work less effectively. It’s his business, his decisions. I did know that at that point there was very little difference — no A/B testing required — which font we’d choose or the exact words we’d use for his materials. (And frankly, at that point in life, I did barely speak Ukrainian, not to say write.)
But upon interacting with him, and I think it’s fair to say, upon interacting with any business, I constantly reflecting on things. How would I run the same business? I’d do things very differently, for sure.
I have a few close friends who created a successful businesses. And I happened to be close during the early years. I had helped, but I was also analysing what would I do differently.
Most things, of course. But, I have no active business at this point, and I’m not a businessman myself. So that does not mean they did things wrongly. It was their businesses after all.
Here, I’ve got my chance to try running this business how I see it. It was a unique opportunity of a settled business. Or, it would be fair to say, a running entity. It was far from a business that runs on its own, so I would get it and reap its success.
I persuaded my wife, it’s a solid opportunity for the next months, because I am not involved with any company now, and I’d quickly explore what’s in here, and then return to my primary specialisation. Probably, I’d be able to prepare all the things needed for my job hunt.
When it’s about speed, I am usually wrong. It’s difficult to evaluate the effort needed, and I underestimate things easily. I guess that’s what allows me to pursue some complicated projects. That could be the reason I learn so effectively, I’m not afraid of a failure.
Fast-forward two and a half years, I realised all of the things I planned, and much more. However, what I thought would take me a couple of months at best, it took me a couple of years. And if I would pursue this niche, it would take me a couple of more, easily.
Other aspects were super friendly, Andrii asked no upfront payment for anything, basically treating me as his successor. ‘You take the entity, we’ll figure out the rest later,’ I like this approach. I’m that easily moved myself.
He just wanted to reunite with his family. He didn’t want them to come back to Lviv, and he did not want to miss his daughter’s early years playing with this small business.
Even tiny, at that point.
Training#
I had to attend some training from him, that’s why he pushed me to make my decision as soon as possible. He would leave all his farm posessions to me, no charges. (Almost.) I’d spare him of all the things of closing the business.
It would be hurtful to destroy the farm, the very thing he built himself, crafted even. I’m at the same point writing this words, unable to finally destroy all the equipment. Even as the farm is officially closed, and serves almost nobody, but me and some friends.
The training was brutal. I was thrown into the water and left swimming, mostly on my own. It took me some time to realise I’m in the open sea, and I can see no land.
First Week#
I won’t recall the order of my training, but it involved most of the things I needed for the operating the farm.
- serving clients
- that included delivery
- and taking orders
- sowing cultures
- including those that need pre-watering
- watering cultures
- both those that were growing
- and those that were getting green, under the lamps
- cleaning the farm
Or, I’d rather say that I’ve got my training to support myself the first week of operating the farm.
First Days#
First days Andrii was with me most of the time. He would work on the farm and comment on what he’s doing. He was just talking to me, assuming I would remember everything he was saying. I was panicking inside! Too much of the information! I got the notebook and started scribbing the things I thought meaningful.
Those were:
- 13 grams of fertilizer on one (red) bucket of water
- sow peas every 3 days, twice a week, about 5 trays minimum
- and small trays too, not too many though, from 4 to 8, 6 would do
- I need to water it in hydrogen peroxide
- hydrogen peroxide of 35%, 5 ml on each litre of water — so 1/200 — or 25 ml for this 5 litres sprayer
- If it’s 60% hydrogen peroxide, than 3 ml for each litre of water, so 15 ml for this 5 litres sprayer
- Humidity in the room: 50—60% is good, 70% is okay, 80—95% is very bad
- Temps in the room: 12—15 ºC is okay, below 6 ºC is very low
- Deliveries: I need to issue an invoice for each restaurant
- name of the restaurant + how many grams for each culture, or the number of packs, if it’s growing microgreen
- each restaurant has different price policies, there’s this standard price, some restaurants have discounts, but some has bigger prices due to reasons
That was only the first page. I have — let me count now — almost 50 pages in this notebook, plus some scribbles here and there. Half of these pages were made during the first month, and half of that was made during the first week. So, more than 10 pages from this first week of me trying to catch up.
Patching#
Andrii was not satisfied with me. He kept complaining — mostly to himself — the farm is doomed. One day his wife visited the place, a month or two later — she arrived grab some things from Lviv, before they relocated half the planet away — and they were talking over the phone, and they brought up this ‘the farm is doomed’ yet again. But let me tell the story (mostly) chronologically.
I was irritated by that, but I did not complain and did not give up that easily. I’m pretty much used to this, people not believing in me. I’m not even trying to prove them wrong. Honestly, I learned to not giving a single fuck about others. If I ever want to prove something, it’s for myself. And it’s not like ‘YES, I CAN!’ shit, it’s rather ‘I think that should be done this way, so let’s get at learning whether I’m correct.’ I’m truly proud of this approach, and I can recommend it to anyone. It’s much better than competing with others.
When someone says some obvious bullshit to me, I’m patching their words as they say, just-in-time, at run-time. I have no idea from what point in life I started doing this, but my guess is that it’s from my early childhood. I lived with mostly Russians, and Russians lie, it’s a huge part of their culture. Parents lie to their kids, and as a result, kids learn to not trust anyone, even their parents. At least, that what I can remember from my early days.
Regarding this situation, from the very early on, I made an obvious patch of expectations. Andrii expected me to get his small business and improve it, so it’ll thrive over some time. For me, it was obvious that if the business won’t suddenly die over that same time, it’s a great achievement. He basically left the very complex entity to someone who had never been even remotely interested in growing microgreens. But let’s back to the first days.
First Deliveries#
During our first days, we went on our bike rides, yet again. However, this time I needed to remember other things. Andrii was showing me restaurants I would deliver microgreens, a few dozens. Most of them were in the city centre, and I couldn’t even make notes! I have some kind of Topographical disorientation, and it’s very difficult for me to remember routes of the new places.
I have no idea whether it’s the head trauma from my childhood, or just some feauture of me. I build the very detailed map over time, but it takes longer than for anyone else I know personally.
Lviv, I learned its city centre only after a couple of years! Even despite I’ve been wandering its streets almost daily.
It was a personal hell, to remember all those places. Thankfully, Andrii was supportive here and he told me I’ll get it over time (which I surely did), and that all I need is to follow Google Maps at first, and then I’ll build these routes in my head very easily. Which turned out to be true too.
We were arriving at a new restaurant, us together, and he was smiling and chit-chatting with the chefs, waiters and others he knew, and he was introducing me, as the new guy who would deliver greens.
It made a funny effect on most places. Apparently, they thought he hired some guy to deliver greens, that the things were going very well for him. We didn’t share he was leaving the country, and not just country, he planned to return to Canada. Not their business, right?
We had only four days together, starting with Monday, and it was late Thursday, we were walking, our bikes in our hands, and talking. It was the last time I’ve seen him in person. Excluding our later FaceTime Video calls. It was a warm autumn day, and he was planning to leave the country the following day.
Miscalculated ETA Day#
I think one thing worth mentioning. During my first on-my-own day at farm — Andrii was still in town, but busy with his own business — I started my work pretty late, maybe at 5 pm. I needed to deliver a few restaurants, and Nick visited me, so we were chatting and doing nothing. Andrii arrived and panicked, why haven’t I started working? Ah, ‘there’s plenty of time’ I said relaxingly.
Thai vibes, you know.
He did most of his work himself, showing me how and what to do, once again. And Nick delivered the urgent greens. (He’s a very fast rider!)
Then I went to the city centre to deliver the rest of the restaurants, and there we met, the three of us. We had a late-night kebab, chit-chatting over some things. I believe that was the last time Nick saw Andrii.
To Infinity and Beyond#
After Andrii left, I was completely on my own.
He spent some time in Poland, they decided their son would finish his class at school, before they relocate the continent. So technically, he could visit, but he was busy with some new work there.
Only his wife came once, to grab some things before her new big adventure.
And my very long farm adventure had only started.
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