Strange this thread stayed up this long and I appreciate the input. Might as well get wordy.
When I was a pup I couldn't play pool with my friends. Tried everything, spotted them 20 to 25 in straight pool, no fun for either. I had to wait for road players.
When time came my friends got jobs at "The Mill". That would be one of the factories. I chose to be an Aluminum Siding salesman knocking on doors in the day, pitching deals at night. I would see friends occasionaly at bars. They bugged me about getting a real job. I was driving a brand new car, paid for, they were driving 5 - 10 year old cars trying to make enough to make payments.
Florida happened. I did a few things, did well but not enough for me. Went back into sales, Urethane Foam Roofing. I made 7% commision and my usual sale was 500K to 2 Million. No one was with me on the estimates and sales. I needed Glasses as time went by. I got them and passed by a pool hall wondering if I could shoot pool with glasses, had not shot in 17 years. The game was 9 Ball. People were jumping over balls this was before jump cues were banned later to be brought back again.
I had fun for a week. Everyone was saying "wait till Richie gets back in town". Day finaly came. I had been expecting someone like "White Cannonball" and in comes this kid. He had a backer his same age. He cleaned my clock the first night but we played for about a month straight. We both have versions of the end of month, both could be right but his backer started giving me bouncing checks. Out of this I made a lot of aquaintances and one fiend, Richie.
I had a cue I brought back from upstate NY. I wanted it refinished and another shaft made. Richie told me of one guy who could probably do it. We drove to the guys house in Hollywood where I met a young Dennis Searing. The guy was as down to earth as Richie, shot A Class Pool and turned some wood I had never seen before. I thought I gotta learn about this.
In the late 1990's I owned my place outright (Townhouse) and was worth about 1.5 million. My dad passed away and I went in to run his business. During this time a Public company opened up and every day they came buy to try to get me to develop a 4 component machine. I said no and finaly one of the people said to the other "told you we were wasting our time, he CAN'T do it. Naturaly being stupid I went for it leaveing my Secratary manager in charge. Not that long after I found out everybody and there brother was stealing from me. I signed a power of attorney to an on line management company. Next thing you know I was broke and owed 250K.
Spent a year in depression, pulled myself up and started a company on the WWW. I had to move to Jacksonville as it was growing and I needed a couple of things, one being closer to State line for shipping.
I spent 10 years building a multi million dollar a year company and very much as all before all but the lone ranger.
Yes, LOL, much has been skipped over. Just wanted to point out I know how to work alone, spent most of my life working alone. I am retired now, took a residual lifetime buy out rather than lump sum.
Now this may be a shocker. I have hundreds, maybe thousands of aquantances in over 60 years of life. I however have around 8 friends. How do I judge a friend? I am falling off a cliff, everyone I have ever met has a hold of my arm. As I fall farther few have hold of my arm. I am going over no matter what. The people that will go down to the rocky part hundreds of feet down rather than let go, they are my friends.
Okay, LOL, you can wake up now, story is over.
