My choice in life was made for me, I wanted to be a pool player, but I didnt get a drop of natural talent, what took me 5 years to achieve took some of my friends 2 years to achieve. I stuck with pool for over 10 years and couldnt put together enough winable action to live on. I simpally didnt play good enough, i would in spots. There is nothing like winning, but I looked at where I would have ended up if I stayed in pool full time and I didnt like what I saw myself being in another 20 years. So I kept my eyes open for something I had talent for, I found it. In that world I was Efren, so leaving the pool hall for a different hustle I was the best at it made leaving pool easy, and I liked the $$$ and the rush. I never looked back, that lasted 3 years(the Feds shut it down-but 14 years later they still talk about me, i am a ledgend in a small world,much smaller than pool) it gave me the seed $$$ to do other things, i still played some pool the whole time but no action. Now I'm well healed and wanting to come back and play again but until my back is sorted out I play when I can. If I had any kind of talent for pool I wouldnt be where I'm at today thats for sure but I dont know if I'm any happier now or not.
to this I would like to add what i learned in the pool room first watching Billy, Tooth, Davenport, Snake in Oakland, Buster in La, and many more, i learned how to make a game for myself, but more importantly I took those skills the art of negating a game into the world I mentioned above-telemarkering and became the best there ever was, I knew it deep inside me I was the best, there was only one other guy who could pitch close to my speed but he had a drug problem I didnt, Jay Helfert will verify this too. I went from the pool hall to making 5 dimes a week working 4 hours a day on the phone, I never had that feeling in pool of complete and total confidence that there was no-one better than me, I have played like a chamion in spots for 15 minutes here and there, but on the phone calling someone I never spoke to and getting a check in the door from Fed-x the next day for $10,000 for a 45 minute call is a rush-same as making a score in pool, I told Dave Knottingham about it and he said" dont look back at pool" he was a great friend and pool hustler and played good not great. But the Feds broke it up 3 years later and alot of people went up on time in the joint, I didnt because I never lied, I just learned to move good and sell people on the idea they had the best of it. I spoke to Archer about this once and he summed it up perfectly "You knew it was for you" like pool was for him when he started, I knew my first week I was going to be the best-Archer did too. the rest is history.
God bless those of you born with the natural talent to play champion level pool, you were lucky enough to find what worked for you, I have the same love for the game I just cant make it work like the champions can. I've never had a square job in my life either, not because my parents had $$$ they didnt, I just cant handle a normal job or school-i'm a free spirit, telemarketing was come to the boiler room when you wanted too. I have had a life of freedom too, i wish everyone in the world could. I respect and thank those who dont. Were very lucky to have that freedom but like Billy said in this thread it can come at a price later in life. There isnt a retired pool players pension fund-shame. However everyone did come up big for bugs.
Fatboy was the muscle back then, John ALWAYS got paid!