After the university he went back to his home town, got married... A son was born, then a daughter. Women again began to pay attention. Life again turned face to him. But then the glorious nineties burst forth. Everything flew backwards. People lost a lot. While he got up off his knees, established some "shuttle" business, while began to make some money... And then the default came - money turned into a paper... And he realized that he needs to start all from the beginning.

Grechko thought hard. He clearly realized that it was not the last default and that his whole life would be the same torn stripe - from default to default. And probably he never get out from the low social level, will grow old and nothing will see in his life. And he is already 34... Grechko decided to take a risk and went to Moscow, drove to the Canadian Embassy, took forms to complete and return back home. He translated everything in a hurry, filled everything and sat down to study English. A year later he was interviewed "in an enemy language", and in half year sold everything that he had and came to Canada.

2

From the beginning the Canadian life didn"t start very well. He didn"t have a real profession, wasn"t a businessman and definitely had no connections. In Canada it is not like in Russia, where if you are friend with an owner, you can get a good position and high salary. Here people have different minds set. If your salary less than market price - you and owner are the best friend. But if you milked a little bit higher salary than average market price, it's better not to get caught by the owner! He went from one family business to another, but everywhere it was a same. The salary was slightly higher than a minimum wage - enough to eat, but not enough for good life. By Russian standards, looks like everything is cool, but for Canadian life - low level. Once again when he was laid off and went to unemployment, Nikolay decided to summarize and think about a path forward. Eight years of Canadian life had flown by, and he, except of spoken English, hasn"t progressed anywhere. It was absolutely clear that he had to do something urgently. After long and hard debates and doubts, it was decided to go and study three-dimensional computer design in a college near the house. The training is exactly for one year. The government, as part of the re-qualification program, will pay almost everything, in case if you will pass all the exams and receive a diploma. Grechko took up his studies very seriously, fully understanding that it could be his last chance. He bought a powerful computer, with intend to consolidate what he learned during the day after the study. In the same time, Nikolay started a tight friendship with more advanced students, in order to learn extra tricks. He even tried to make romantic relations with the teacher, with hope to get "private" lessons... Shortly speaking, he did everything he could. And luck did not keep him waiting. After graduating from college, Mr. Grechko was employed in a large engineering company as a draftsman in the mechanical department. He was paid exactly double salary, in comparison to his last job, in spite of Nikolay would agree even to a minimum wage. After half a year he bought a new car. The old car he generously gave to his wife and, embracing her with a fatherly hag, added: "We are not a poor people to commute on the buses". A year later, having saved up enough money for down payment, the Grechko family bought a house. The house was far away, pretty small, but it was their house! Life again began to accelerate the motion.

Nikolay certainly understood what his department was doing, but on very high level. Especially he had no clue why it was necessary to do this way, and not otherwise. He tried not to ask any questions, in order do not draw a special attention to himself. When more experienced colleagues argued with each other, to prove that some specific coefficient should be used in this calculations, Grechko always tried to pretend that he is very busy and do not have time for discussion. And if someone insisted to hear Grechko"s opinion, kind of trying to pull him to his side, Nikolay usually tried to laugh off, throwing some neutral meaningless phrases like: "In Russia, this coefficient has always low, and now I eventually realized why USSR broke apart." He didn"t fight, didn"t pretend to leadership or career growth, he just wanted this job! And he wanted this forever. He dreamed to be forgotten and just receive this big salary.

The project, for which Grechko was taken, was slowly unfolding and the mechanical department was not too busy, because detailed design hasn"t begun yet. If the boss was needed something, he was coming out of the office, caught the first seeing designer and asked him to check some "problematic" place. Just like it was in the Soviet Army. Grechko, as an experienced soldier, immediately understood how the system works and simply tried to avoid the boss and not to appear in the workplace. If the task was a bit more complicated, i.e. not just an ordinary redrawing, but required at least some sort of qualification, then Nikolay began to ask a lot of additional questions, clarified all sorts of unimportant things... At the same time he was nodding seriously and added amicably: "Oh, now this is different story! You didn"t mentioned it from the beginning. I don"t want to guess." Having received all the necessary explanations, he sincerely thanked the person who gave him the assignment (usually the lead designer) and returned to his workplace. When in 2-3 hours he was asked to show some results, he looked faithfully into lead engineer"s eyes and, seriously replied: "Yes, yes, yes, of course, of course. I"m working on it and I'll try to finish by the end of the day. "

At the end of the day, of course, nothing was ready. Realistically for average designer this scope of work takes no more than an hour, but not for Nikolay. The hour only was spent for clarifications and amplifications. Two days later everything was as before (i.e. nothing happened), but Grechko continued to ask additional questions, and nodded with a smart face, listening to the answers. The "lead designer" which already lost all his patience, started yelling with a red face that he would have done it by himself in maximum an hour and already would forget about it. And he spent only for an explanation at least a two hours, and lost a lot of time and nerves! And that he also has a boss and a schedule! And he has been working for more than 30 years as a designer, and never saw clowns like that! Nikolay stood with a guilty look, looking frightened from side to side and repeating with a stubby tongue: "Excuse me, I had all sorts of problems with the computer there... Sorry, I apologize...". Screaming in such a respectable engineering firm was pretty rare notion and usually everyone around stopped the work and began to listen. No one knew the prehistory of the conflict, but from the side everything looked very ugly. Poor immigrant, harmless draftsman was intimidated by "lead engineer". And poor guy just tried to defend himself... And this poor Nikolay, he is a nice guy! What this lead engineer wants?! When the unpleasant scene was over, Grechko almost cried like a battered dog. He went away somewhere, with a sad face of undeservedly humiliated person.

After 20 minutes he returned and sat down at his workplace, looking with a sad eyes on the screen, but without touching the keyboard. It was so painful to look at it... Humiliated in public, a 50-year-old man, grief-stricken and deeply experiencing his shame. Someone from colleagues can"t stand and came to pity him, expressing sincere sympathy.

And then came the second part of the beautifully rehearsed performance, which Grechko held tightly under control. With a dull look, listening to the advice not to take everything that happened closely to the heart, "humiliated and insulted" with frozen tears in his eyes, he looked at the interlocutor insanely and said in a half-whisper: "I do not know how I will live with all this... this... I have never... never been so humiliated in my life...".

The compassionate colleague asked him to calm down, and went to Nikolay's "offender" to convey a "terrible" conversation. After five to ten minutes, the "lead designer", who already was not so "hot", and well understanding all the potential consequences, came to Grechko to make a peace. After many apologies, the "offender" returned to his workplace and never touched the "offended". The main idea of this tactic was that the conflict never went to the head of the department, and faded at the initial stage. Everyone was happy with this result. Grechko never received any skilled work, only a purely drafting. Lead designer no longer gave him anything more or less serious. This way he tried not to lose his temper again, and don"t lose his job. Koifman understood all this not right away, but when the "puzzle" was finished, he even started to respect his new friend. Without connections, without any knowledge, without even good English... practically without anything, Grechko managed to stay in a serious firm, on a good salary, with a title "mechanical designer".

The changes happened unexpectedly. It turned out that the mechanical department lagged behind, puffed at the end of the schedule, didn"t order more than half of what was due and so on. What exactly happened Nikolay did not understand, but to be honest, he even didn"t try. On Monday morning, to mechanical department, without any explanations, was announced that they have a new boss. Also, along with the new head of department, another new lead engineer was presented. The Project Director expressed the hope that these changes will help to catch up the schedule and that the new people will help to push entire team of mechanics.