Hi, I have been looking at what others have written about themselves and therefore a few things about me: Karl.

I was born in Aarhus, Denmark.

When I was 20 I went to Copenhagen and studied there for the next 10 years, achieving a total of 3 educations: Shipping man, a BA and an AE (Academy Economist, that more or less equivalent to a MBA in international marketing).

During those years I worked at night in hospitals as an assistant nurse to pay for my upkeep and not at least for fun and games. Copenhagen was/is perfect for that.

I got my first real job as an export assistant (in Copenhagen) for the Middle East (promoting Danish printing ink to printers). Quite exiting, I even visited Saudi Arabia and Bahrain once.

However, I was restless and after 3 years I tried several other sales/marketing jobs and apart from one all they were in export. Products ranged from rubber hoses to the car industry to top quality chocolate. No fear of flying here. But something was still missing.
Then in 1987 I accepted a job as an Area Manager for German market for a Danish manufacturing company in high tech heating. This was a kind of a wake up call. To be effective I had to absorb a lot of technical stuff and the way the Germans do business.

I found I that liked both the technical stuff and the German way of no nonce business.

I had till now (78-88) done satisfactorily sales and marketing jobs, nothing more nothing less. I felt I was more or less was wasting my time. Something was still missing.

With the German market job I was moving in the right direction, as I liked the market and the products, but the lack of having any real influence of my marketing strategy was like a straight jacket to me. There was no room for experiments, all was set in stone.

Therefore in the spring of 1988 I called the CEOs of three other leading Danish heating manufacturers directly and told them, that I could make them a success on the German market (that was a gamble, because at that time I did really know how). - I was invited to an interview with all 3.

2 of them offered me a job. I choose the one who were willing to give me free hand and time in forming my own marketing strategy and its implementation.

The first year was real, real tough. I made all the mistakes you can do, working 7 days a week, driving all over Germany (more than 60000 miles per year). Sales were developing slowly, far too slowly, but then at the end of 1989 I finally got my breakthrough: my first big customer, who was to become my biggest customer of all in the years to come.

Nothing could stop me now, I continued my tough working schedule, but now I knew more and more what worked and what did not work. So with clear targets, our sales doubled each and every year and in 1991 I founded my first subsidiary company in Cologne, Germany. - I had at long last found my niche.

The company went from strength to strength and we reached for the year 1994 a turnover of DM 10 million with 18% net profit. However, as the CEO I was more and more bound to my desk and was not in the field having direct contact with old and new customer. My hired sales staff was doing that. The ground work was done, so we still doubled turnover every year.

I liked the responsibility and the power of being a CEO, but got more and more frustrated with paper pushing, and started looking around for a new challenge in the fall of 1994. My boss for my Danish parent company found out about my search and asked for an immediate meeting.

He didn't want to let me go and he asked me what it would take for me to stay? I told him: I want a new start up challenge - that was accepted

In the spring of 1995 I moved from Germany to UK to build up a new business there for the first time. Now with the experience from Germany transformed to the UK. I hit the ground running. The first year of sales (1996) we reached a turnover of 1 million pound sterling and break even.

The future looked indeed bright, but in the winter of 1996 a new CEO had taken over at my parent company and he asked me to return to Denmark in the beginning of 1997, as the Danish home market was showing decreasing sales. I considered, but had to say no, as I could not afford it because of my salary level, a tax of 68% (top tax for the highest income level) would be enforced.

So in the summer 1997 I was without a job. I had for some time considered working for myself and now was the right time

I will make the rest of my story short. I worked as a consultant 3 years in Norway, then 2 years again in the UK. It was mostly business turnarounds for small businesses.

Back again in Germany, this time for almost 3 years. Approved as a start up coach/consultant paid by the European Union to help long term unemployed to start up own businesses and help them to succeed.

My job was to vet them and only promote actively those who really had the necessary drive. Till 2006 I did more than 150 businesses in Germany. Then the EU funded project was not renewed.

Once more I returned to the UK with the intention of going a new way again.
My concept was quite new, something I had been thinking about for a few years: I was going to help small companies with good products/services to succeed in Germany with my direct help based on a no win-no fee scheme.

However, I took my time, and for the first time in many years I had a real l o n g holiday and enjoyed life in the English countryside before I started looking around, and I found the right small manufacturing company.

Alter a thorough market research of the current German market. I implemented my new market strategy and in about 12 months after that, we had our breakthrough.

Based on the above fact, I was negotiating a new contract then the company got into severe trouble on the America market (start of the recession). They were operating with heavy losses and much to the CEO's regret the board could not renew my contract.

That was a chock to me, I was totally unprepared. So in the last year I have been working all kind of manual jobs like shelve stacking on night shift to pay the bills.

I have of course been looking for jobs, but at my age (60) - forget about it. And consulting in the current crisis is a no go zone.

Therefore I'm here at Wealthy Affiliate, again a whole new direction, but I still have fire left in my belly for new challenges, and I will stay the course till I succeed that I promise.

Maybe this will be my best move yet