Paqari

I had a good client portfolio and he was one of my best clients. I remember I was at home when he called me and asked for some products, I told him I was fired for no reason from the company so he was worried about getting the products to fix what he had to.

Victor is a good architect and a loyal person, he didn’t know the city very well because he was from Valparaiso and didn’t have good clients at all. So… the next week he called me again and said: “Hey buddy… I got an idea and I’d like to talk about it”.

We had a long meeting and talked about the business. The clients were calling me but I didn’t have enough money nor the credits to afford the initial investment.

Victor was excited about starting something new and told me to begin with the corporate identity. I looked for an original name, I found out about the indigenous civilizations and I picked a name from the Aymaras community who live in Arica too, the name is Paqari and it means “Eternal”.

Everything was ready to start the business so we went to the lawyer’s office to sign and register the company. Victor told me he couldn’t be my partner because I didn’t have money and I was taking no risks.

We agreed a salary, comissions and kept going.

In 2018 I was selling different construction materials for local projects, I had a meeting with 2 business owners and agreed prices, quantities and the best service they could find in the city.

I told Victor about it and he was very excited but not realistic as I expected him to be about what was happening. He said he had money to supply the companies so I took the plane to Santiago for business purposes and got better prices for the clients.

Everything was going well except for an important loan that was rejected and besides we were not receiving the payments on time. We lost the contract and Victor blamed me for that although I had already told him to supply ourselves and buy the construction materials in November not December. I showed the logistics and supplies management essay, the market research and emails as proof I was speaking the truth.

In April I was worried about my financial situation, Victor hadn’t paid the salary nor the comissions for 3 months, didn’t answer the phone, my savings were dying and I was feeling very uncomfortable as I had to apply for jobs again and because my father in law was feeling upset and treated me badly. Despite this I never dropped down to his level because I’m a person who’s always looking for solutions and focus on them. I went to a lawyer friend “Miguelito” and explained the Paqari situation.

Miguelito said:” You’re not his partner and you don’t even have an employment contract with him therefore we can put the case in the employment court and get a compensation for moral damage”. Some minutes later a provider friend called me and asked for the reason we were not buying products anymore and he replied:

“My friend Ricardo lives in Calama and I know he may be needing a chief administrative officer soon, I’ll send you his contact”

In the last days of May I went to Calama and met Ricardo. I was hired and went to work in Pica, a little town that’s located in the middle of the most arid dessert in the world; “Atacama dessert”.

I won the judgement against Victor and got a good compensation, finally… I could take a breath.