It just happened.
One day in the fall of 1999, I came home from work and told my wife I was going to quite my job....I had always told her that if I decided to leave the firm I was with that I would begin looking at other local firms.....it didn't quite happen that way. No planning, no preparation no searching for other work. Just decided it was time to leave. Usually it is a good idea to find other employment before you give your resignation. My method isn't highly recommended. But that was the way it happened.
We went to church the Sunday after my discussion with my wife, a normal occurrence with our family. I decided to ask the congregation for prayers has I intended to go in the next day to work and give my resignation. They thought I was a bit crazy.....brave, but crazy none the less. Prayers were certainly needed as we had four children and my wife was pretty much a homemaker. Yep, wisdom might not have been a major element of this decision but faith certainly was.
About four days later, I was coaching our boys in football when my team mom came up to me (she was team mom for the last five years) and said that she was impressed with my decision. Maybe that was her way of saying that I was crazy too. After all, I always wanted a full time job of volunteer coaching a recreation league football team for no pay. Well, I do love football. She was the office manager of a major corporation and they were getting ready to do a full scale interior renovation of their local corporate headquarters. Another friend and fellow coach was a general contractor and had offered to introduce me to several other architecture firms in the area if I was interested. Yet another football coach was a millwork fabricator and they all became part of the beginning of Ionic DeZign Studios. McDonald's Corporate office was our first project 13 years ago in downtown Norfolk.
I thank my friends Cheryl, Adam and Ron for supporting me and making sure I didn't goof something up on that firs project. I guess I should thank football too! Later still, a dad called my house to check when practice was scheduled for that evening and got a message saying to press one for IONIC, press two for Shaklee, press three for flute lessons and finally press four to reach the Thompson family. Yep, those early years we did all we could do to survive. Mike mentioned that he heard all the "stuff" on the answering machine and wondered what I did. I guess I didn't do a very good at marketing back then and had to explain that I was an architect. He mentioned that he might have a few things for me to do. That began a long relationship with many of our friends at Great Atlantic Properties. A few multi-family projects, a library, and office space and on and on. Thanks Mike for calling my house that afternoon!
That was 13 years ago when I worked out of my dining room in my home. The kids would interrupt their piano playing when the phone rang for business and then start right up where they left off once I set the phone down. The dog would announce the arrival of the UPS or FEDEX man each day....who needs a doorbell? I painted the walls around me bright purple and the IONIC blue for inspiration....the same colors that now adorn our walls in Pembroke when we moved in 9 years ago.
We have grown a lot over the years. Learned a lot too. Made a bunch of friends and hopefully turned out a few really nice projects for our clients. Success is not measured by how much money you have in the bank or even how many projects you have completed. BTW we have completed nearly 1000 projects in these last 13 years. I believe it is measured by the relationships that you create along the journey. We have had a great journey so far.
Thanks again to all those that have supported us and we look forward to continuing our work for many years. We wish you the best from your friends at IONIC.
Be sure to look back at the blog over the next few weeks as we introduce the individual members of TEAM IONIC.
www.ionicdezigns.com
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