Page 20 - My Memoirs - Max Kurz
P. 20

taking on part-time jobs, one of which was working at Paddy’s market. The reality hit me that I was now married with responsibilities and liabilities.
It is hard to explain the times that we were living in. I believe I framed things in my mind according to what was expected of me, what I should be doing according to the viewpoint of the outside world. This created stress and a lot of self- inflicted pressure which did not help my state of physical and mental health. Unfortunately, what did not help, was by nature, I was an incessant worrier. This eventually led to the onset of a long period of asthma.
On reading the papers for job opportunities, I came across an advertisement for a position in Real Estate, I rang and arranged an interview with a Mr. John Kent, the location was Coogee beach. John Kent was an executive of Paxton’s Travel which had just acquired the Real Estate business known as J. A. Trollope & Co. An old established management and real estate sales business in Coogee. John Kent was intimidating, carefully and softly spoken, professional yet authoritative. He described the position and the company as something extraordinary, if you were lucky enough to be chosen it would be equivalent to winning the lottery. The position offered a full-time job as a salesperson in real estate, Monday to Saturday, no set hours as you would be expected to work after hours and weekends. It was commission only of 40% of gross commissions received by the office on settled sales plus a 10 pound a week retainer which would be debited against commissions. All this was meaningless to me, as I had no idea about real estate. But I was sold, enticed by the way in which the job description had been conveyed, the ambience of the office presentation, the imagination that I can be somebody doing something worthwhile and respectable, not to mention having a job. My enthusiasm and excitement exceeded my naivety and ignorance about what real estate was all about. In time I would learn all that there was to know. I got the job.
I started on a Saturday morning, was introduced to all the staff, particularly the office property manager Mr. Mannie Bernhardt. I would later learn (not part of the job description) that it was expected of me to assist the property manager in collecting rents. The one other person was Bob Giltnan who also was employed as a new part-time real estate salesperson starting on the same day. We were given a cubicle office space to work from and at 12 noon all staff, property manager and
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