OPPORTUNITIES

What ifs?

         “Things come, and things go, and we are never quite sure which way to flow.”

After retiring from working we have time to explore our memory and ask ourselves; “What if?”  My grandmother use to say; “Waste no time with vain regrets.”

         I am very happy with the career path I took. At times I wonder what would have happened if I had accepted one of the many job offers I had.

         Here are the offers I can remember:

         While serving in the Royal New Zealand Navy I carried out a tour of the officer’s training ship, Worcester.          I met a man who was the Governor of this ship. He was seeking an outsider’s opinion of their training methods. I carried out an inspection and gave him a verbal report over dinner at Claridge’s Hotel. 

         He told me he was the Legal Adviser to the Admiralty and ask me if I would like to join the British Navy.

         I declined this offer, largely because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in the Northern Hemisphere.

         While returning to New Zealand on the ship Ballona we were given a few days’ leave in California.  I spent a few days in Hollywood in Los Angles with two of my navy mates.  New Zealand sailors were a novelty in Hollywood.          We met many interesting people, including some film actresses.

         Before leaving we met Paul Mahoney from the Mark Herstein Film Agency. He gave me his card and asked me to return to Hollywood for a film test. While it might have been someone’s dream – it wasn’t mine.

         I had no regrets after hearing about the corruption and vice in the industry –  and I was no good at rote learning.  The acting was not for me!

         My next job offer was made at the end of the war after decommissioning finished the R.N.Z Navy was looking for someone to train as a Padre.

         Was I interested in being considered?  I had been a head choir at St Mathew’s in Hastings and an altar boy but my faith was not strong enough for that kind of job.

         I remember declining the offer saying; “I was not keen on pink- gins.”

         After being demobbed I returned to the Department of Agriculture. I told the Personal Manager I would like a field job and was prepared to go to Lincoln College and do a diploma in agriculture. He told me we only employ degree graduates these days. “You do a degree or we are not interested in you”.

         I had a problem I had not passed the university entrance exams – what was I to do? I made an application to Canterbury College to see if I could be admitted. In the meantime, as a backup,  I applied to the Otago Teachers College and was admitted but I was never accepted.

         To my surprise Canterbury College admitted me saying if I passed three subjects they would grant me university entrance.

I scraped through my intermediate exams and ultimately graduated B.Agr.Sc from Massey College of the University of New Zealand.

         My first field job after graduating was in the Whanganui area working mainly in the Waimarino district.

         While in Whanganui I carried out research on how gorse spreads. I took hundreds of soil plugs, extracted the seeds, and sent them away for germination testing.

         I ultimately received an award at a National Weed and Pest Conference for this work. At this stage, the Director of the Grasslands Division of DSIR ask me if I would be interested in joining his team to carry out this type of work on other pasture weeds. I declined and was sent off to head the Taranaki advisory team.

         Later on I was given the luxury of a five months management training before being conscripted to work in Wellington.

         At one stage I was sent off to attend training in extension at Hawkesbury College in Western Sydney in Australia. After I arrived the Australian government offered to pay my expenses if I helped with the training – a generous offer.

         Some years later the New South Wales Department of Agriculture appointed a new director and sent him to New Zealand to see how we operated. At that time I headed up the Management Services Section so he spent time with me and the staff. The team enjoyed his company and gave him a hard time.

         One day I received a letter asking me if I was interested in applying for the Principal’s job at Hawkesbury College. I imagined what a hard time I would have with the Australian staff if they had a New Zealand boss. I declined – it was not my role. Shortly after it became a university.

One day the Department of Agriculture sent me down to Balclutha, to Telford, to see if I would be prepared to take on the Principal’s job at the Telford Agriculture College. The College contains 921 hectares of farmland with halls of residence and was situated at Waitepeka near Balclutha.

         I thought of my children’s education and declined this job offer.

         Another time John Parsons came down from Patea and tried to talk me into becoming the South Taranaki Farm Improvement Club,  Farm Advisor.

         We had worked together on the Taranaki Federated Farmers Executive. As there were no long-term prospects in that job, I declined his kind offer.   I was better off where I was.  

         Later on, I had two more high-powered job offers. One I accepted,  one I rejected.

         Out of the blue, I received a letter from Dr. John Woods in Bangkok offering me a senior position in UNDP (United Nations Developing Programme).

         I resigned from my position in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. I had worked for them for 39 years and my Assistant Director Peter Thomson was well qualified to take over my role.

         It turned out I had been recommended for the position by Professor Hadley Read, at Illinois University.          He had been a consultant I used when in the States as an Eisenhower Fellow.

         After working for 18 months in the UN – largely in Bangladesh. I was offered a World Bank/FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) position in Bangladesh.

My Director in Bangkok also tried to get me to take up this role in Dhaka. He was keen to get me out of Bangkok so he could give my position to one of his Philippine mates.

         I was keen to return to New Zealand. My good wife Joyce would not have been able to live in Dhaka – the climate would have killed her. I declined this offer and headed home gratefully to meet our new grandchildren.

         After returning to New Zealand Massey University put me on their staff as a Senior Lecturer and seconded me to the University of the South Pacific. This job led to running workshops for Asian Managers in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia.

         I flew to Singapore 32 times to run three-day workshops for the Singapore Institute of Management University.  I carried on visiting and running these workshops in Singapore until I turned 82. I got sick of flying so at that stage so I retired.

Geoffrey Moss(mossassociates.co.nz)

         I learned and had fun. I am sure I made the right decisions and my life would have been very different if I had taken some of the other job offers.

“One is old when regret takes the place of hopes.”

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