Today, I had a meeting scheduled for 2PM. Having thought of an idea for a phone app, I had gone to the Lviv Polytechnic University yesterday in hopes that I might find a student to program this app inexpensively.
Looking for the good that might be hiding midst the frustration of a "bad computer day" when nothing goes right and simple things can't seem to be done and looking for a solution to a problem I was having did not seem to be available, it occurred to me that I had found an app to develop, an app that would solve the problem I was having. Something I had long sought but not found, as every idea I had seemed to have had already been produced amongst the millions of apps now available.
I enjoy programming, but it is time-consuming and there is so much else I want to do and a young tech savvy person can do this faster and better than I, leaving me free to do other things like marketing the app, travel and blog and focus on coming up and refining the ideas to be programmed and I believe in Ukraine I can possibly find a programmer at a bargain rate.
In the big old main building of the Polytechnic University, I wandered the halls as I have come to do. A very nice and very young looking student helped me out. I thought perhaps he is the one to program my app, but no he tells me he is an architectural student. He took me to one office where the man there indicated we should go to another office where a guy there spoke good English and would be able to help me. He would be there in 20 minutes.After waiting 30 minutes I decided to wait no longer and instead head over to the building where I thought the computer science department was, but just as I turned the corner to go down the stairs, I saw 2 men going into the office I had just given up on waiting at. When I indicated my purpose, one of the men asked me to wait in the room just outside his office, a large one which led me to figure he must be pretty important.
A few minutes later he took me down the hall and down the stairs at a very rapid pace. I told myself to not try to keep up with him as one of the two dangers here I've identified is tripping and falling given the many stairs and uneven cobbled roads and my reflexes though amazingly good when I do stumble may not be what they once were and falling is only appropriate for young people. But when we hit the straightaway in the hallway below I quickly caught up with him.
I remarked how beautiful the building is and he said that, unlike with other universities, this building was not converted from another use but was specifically constructed for its current purpose as a University. It was constructed in 1877.
We then entered another large office where my guide talked to another man and explained my purpose in being there. I was told a meeting with the appropriate people would be set up and I was to return the next day at 2 PM. Right here.
Oh, my. I'm thinking they don't understand who I am or that this isn't such a big deal and I'm not even sure the idea I have will be worth pursuing once I more thoroughly investigate the apps in the app store. This is such a good idea that it is hard to believe someone hasn't already thought of it and incorporated in a published app.
In preparation for the meeting I try to get some business cards printed up quickly but the place I go to, suggested by the hotel manager, sends them out so it will take 2 days. Instead, I type up the info for the card on my smartphone, email it to the clerk waiting on me at the print store and get her to print 20 or so repeats on 2 sheets of shiny cardboard paper stock used for printing pictures. But I can't get her to cut them out for me as I don't think she understands what I'm asking. This is all done in Ukrainian. She does, however, lend me a pair of scissors and I cut out cards from 1 of the two printed sheets.
As I produce very uneven edges, I take the other sheet to the hotel office hoping they have a paper cutter to slice them evenly. One of the young women attempts the cut out with scissors but her hands are shaking so another takes over and when the young woman manager comes in she calls the secretary into the office who proves to be by far the best of the three of us who have attempted this task.
I now have evenly edged business cards and although they have the essential information I want to convey they sure don't look professional.
I debate, with myself, whether to pass them out at the meeting. I could change the info on my website which is inaccurate, a long replaced phone number, but I don't remember the password as it has been years since I had any use for it. I imagine sitting at the end of this conference table with the people assembled by the chairman of the department saying "who is this guy, why are we wasting our time".
I can explain that I am retired and that's why I have no business cards and my website is out of date. But then why am I here? An idea so powerful that it has thrust me out of retirement warranting me to call for this meeting when I don't even know if it is an original non-published idea?
I do have the credentials, educationally (Electrical Engineering and Business Management) and I was co-founder of an Internet start-up company which was quite successful (not in terms of profits which if you recall before the 2000 crash were deemed extraneous - as perhaps appears to be happening once again, but in terms of number of users (not paying of course). But this is all ancient history and puts the burden of assembling this busy group of people on the uniqueness of my idea and my seriousness in pursuing it which I can't in any way support honestly.
I finally decide on a cover story which happens to be the truth. What a unique idea! And if they throw me out of the office in disgust? Well so be it. In truth, I did not misrepresent what I was looking for here. Any responsibility for wasting time here belongs to the department chairman (if that is his position) for the misunderstanding which caused him to assemble this group.
Feeling better after sorting this all out in my mind and armed with the best sleep I've gotten since being in Ukraine, I decided this morning to head to the train station and line up my ticket for my trip to Kyiv late Saturday afternoon which will allow me to accomplish something and not waste the time before the meeting thinking about it.
At the train station I go to the information booth where the nice young woman writes out in Ukrainian the time, train number, car and seat number we have jointly selected for me to give to the ticket counter where they don't speak English. I could do this online but want to make sure I get the best seat selection.And just to be sure, I bring the ticket I buy back to her to check out. As she looks at it with great concentration she begins to frown and then her face tightens further and then even more so. And i am thinking this is taking some time and what skill I've acquired in checking these thing myself as I did with the previous ticket all in Ukrainian which brought me from Mukachevo to Lviv. Then like the clouds clearing into a sunny day her face brightens she smiles. All is well.
At the tram stop outside of the train station, I ask several people for the right number for the tram to the Polytech University. I am told a couple of numbers and then a tram shows up with a different number but am told to get on this as it has the university listed on its sign though I don't see it.Watching closely as we pass the cathedral near the university we seem to veer off in an unexpected direction and after a number of blocks I figure we are far past where I should have seen the university. I get off and nothing looks familiar. Uh oh. Not am I going to annoy everyone by wasting their time I am further going to enrage them by showing up late. I ask a couple of people for directions. I know the word for "where" and "polytech" and "university" are similar words in English and Ukrainian.
Down the long streets I go which angle off here and there and finally ask some student-looking-like guys who show me the way and I see the university ahead of me in plenty of time. I'm feeling a bit light headed at this point and don't know whether it's jet lag, the concern of being lost and late or simply stage fright. Or all of these so I decide to get something quick to eat which I do at a little place across the street from the university, there being no restaurant in the big university building according the guard just inside the front door.
I arrive at the door of the office for the meeting ten minutes ahead of time but it is closed and no one is there. I check the door number on my phone. I had taken a picture of the door in case I forgot it and this is the right office. But no one is there.Then it's 5 minutes before the meeting. And then it's 2 PM, time for the meeting, and still no one is there. A guy comes along and tries to open the door but can't. He paces up and down the hall, but strangely ignores me even though I am obviously waiting to go in as he is. If he made eye contact I would ask him if he is here for the meeting but he doesn't. Then I approach him anyway but he indicates he doesn't speak English with no indication of interest in me or what I'm doing here so I conclude his presence doesn't indicate there is a meeting about to take place here. I recheck my camera (I had taken a picture of the door and its number in case I forgot) and uh oh. I have a picture of a different door here. But then I determine I took this one before the other and I do have the right number office which is in fact the number I had in mind, from memory, before looking at the pictures.
I am starting to wonder if I should be angry at all of this. But then I figure this may be a blessing and I won't have to incur whatever the unpleasantness might have been in store for me in the meeting. But then another guy knocks on the door, it is opened and I see inside the man, (department chairman I think), whom I talked to yesterday. I'm not sure he recognizes me at first but then he does.
As I was thinking yesterday and today he had a rather severe attitude but he is very friendly today. He tells me I am to go to another building where the software department is housed and meet with a professor he uses the word "philology" (I'm pretty sure he used that word which I found interesting) who deals with the students who would be "able to help me". I got him to write it all out, building number, the man's name etc.. He told me it was only five minutes away. In shaking hands and saying good by I ask him if he is the chairman of the computer science department and he said that he is.
Off I go and get to the right building by, of course, asking some students who go out of there way to take me to the right building.
At my destination I meet the professor, a very nice guy, in his 30's, I'd say. We sat down. I called up my website to show him my background. but, the only thing he seems interested in is my Electrical Engineering background which means I'ii have some understanding of the technology we are to discuss.
Leaving out the unique feature of my idea, I described its other features so he could determine the level of expertise required and time involved to develop it. Then on an impulse I decided to trust him with the idea without a non disclosure agreement because I didn't want to delay the process and lose the momentum and possibly never proceed with this as other things intruded in my, lately, very busy life.
Self mockingly, I said "can you keep a secret in a low voice" (someone had just entered the room). I leaned toward and he nodded and leaned towards me with our heads almost touching. I was making a joke of this but he was taking my joke seriously. So I told him of the key feature which I hope is, but do not know yet whether it is, indeed, unique, since there are so many apps out there and it takes time to check them all and I had not done that yet.
He told me since they were students the charge would be just $7 to $10 an hour for the one or two (depending on the speed I want to complete the project) mid-level developers required since they were just students the total time involved. I indicated this was fine, but subject to first determining whether somebody had already produced such an app. He said he would check this out the end of the week. I assumed I would do this (and will too) but it is great that he is offers to do this as I had not anticipated this.
So. I am elated at the way this all has worked out. All I could wish for but not hope to expect. And infinitely better than my worst fears.
And whether or not the key idea in my app is new or not I've found a great resource to program it or any other idea I come up with leaving me free to pursue the equally, if not greater, important task of marketing the app, and all the other things I find now in my life there is not enough time to pursue like blogging, teaching English, traveling etc. etc. etc.
I believe I have finally discovered what I had not realized until now. Perhaps late in life, but not too late, while I am still young (under 80). The secret to a even more happy and rewarding life than with which I have been blessed.
Carpe Diem!
Oh, just one more thing. I stopped in the Tourist Info office today in the lovely, even on a rainy day, town center. Much to my surprise tourism has been climbing for the last few years "but not like 4 years ago, when the "futball" championship took place. I am happy to here this, then not so sure as, I am not so sure I want others to discover this wonderful city and risk seeing it change.
Anyway. Another great day.
Carpe Diem.
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