Where Were You... Have You Changed?

An Overview from 1959 to 1976

As always, if this is your first time on my blog, since it is time oriented, I suggest you scroll down and start at the beginning.

Here we are in 1959, I am learning the record business; about the promotion process and the distribution process and we are combining all the information with a mail order operation out of a retail store. We are buying odd lots of records, cataloging both sides of the record and promoting the list on the radio, in fact on one of the top R & R radio stations in New York at the time. Well, we made it all work and my foundation of knowledge was growing every day. Along with this, I was learning how to operate a printing press, along with my artistic ability, this made a great combination.

Now, I said this new experience would change my life forever and it did. One day in October of 1959 a young lady (Alice Marie) walked into the store and purchased a record, the record on the VeeJay label. “He Will Break Your Heart” by Jerry Butler. In order to shorten the story, the record was defective and she brought it back twice for replacement. The third time was on a Thursday, this time she called at 9:30Pm, we closed at 10:00PM and she was really mad, this last record was defective as well. I don’t know why, I took the call or why I volunteered to drop a new one at her house, but I did. I brought the record to her house, talked with her and her step mother for a while. I mentioned I was going to the diner for coffee and asked her if she would like to join me, for whatever reason she said yes. We went to the diner, had coffee, talked and talked, until 6:30AM. I took her home and was curious as to why her step mother wasn’t going crazy, it turned out she knew me from where I worked, she worked across the street in Modell’s and she drove by the diner twice. Just to keep this as short as possible, I saw her again on Friday and Saturday. The one thing that was different, on Saturday I asked her to marry me and on April 9th of the next year we got married and remained married until her death in June of 2007. The day we got married, I called her up early in the morning of April 9th, we already had the license, and we just had not set a date. I had off that day and had to work that night, so I said let’s get married today, she agreed. Now all I had to do was find someone to marry us and line up the witnesses. I remembered a minister that came in one of the hobby shops, I went to his church and explained what I needed and later that day we were married, not one picture. Just imagine we stayed married without a wedding album. There will be a lot more about this wonderful lady and the marriage as we go through the years. This is one of those important keys to being a successful entrepreneur; you need and strong and willing partner.

One thing about times, “yesterday and today”, there both the same. Today we talk about how fast technology changes, then we were talking about how fast a record becomes old and we sell it as “Oldies.”

After about a year, we realized the record business was an OK business, however, it did not fit in a hobby shop and we were spending too much time on it and it was affecting our core business so we shut it down. We still kept the printing since we could use it for promotional items in the hobby business.

My boss (Jack) at the time was like a father to me and it was really difficult for me to tell him I was going to get married since I never even told my mother. Remember, my mother never thought that any one was ever good enough for me, and my future wife was not an exception. Jack was a driven individual and probably one of the main reasons I am who I am and the way I am. With him nothing was ever good enough and he always wanted you to think. At one point, I will never forget, I wanted to make some major changes in the store and I went to him with my proposal, well he flipped. As his blood pressure was rising, he said to me, “I don’t pay you for ME to make decisions, I pay you to be convinced that what you are doing is right and if it doesn’t work that you are man enough to accept the responsibility for the move and should I ask you some questions about it, you’ve thought it out enough to give me some answers and defend your decision.” What a lesson! By far, he was the most driven person I have ever met. Not many people like working with him, but they ALL respected him.

The years (up until 1961) I spent with Jack were an incredible learning experience, I learned to give your best and expect the same out of everyone around you. I learned, but did not execute in the majority of my career that if you keep someone on board that is underperforming because there a nice person you are doing harm to both the company and the individual. It’s a hard lesson to learn and even harder to execute.

About a year after I was married, I realized it was time to move on, my entrepreneurial spirit was starting to burn and working with Jack, I would never be able to do the things that I wanted to experience. In addition, my first child was on the way and I had to be concerned about a future.

I was presented with an opportunity in a smaller hobby shop in Rockville Centre, NY; with the store being smaller the thinking of the owner was also smaller. Although the thinking was smaller, he gave me the opportunity to get my entrepreneurial juices flowing.

This is me in 1963

I started my first real entrepreneurial project, Ellis R/C. I took on a partner and we would assemble products in his basement, he was both talented and motivated. We introduced three main products along with about ten accessories. In addition, I would take products to various Model Airplane events and set up displays in hotels. I have to tell you, this being by first entrepreneurial experience was not very financially rewarding, but I was learning as to what to do, what not to do and how to withstand the pains of trying. We were getting write ups in magazines all around the world, but it was still a struggle.

At the same time, my wife and I decided we needed our own home for our son to grow up in. However, we had the same problem that a lot of young couples have, no money! I started looking around and I found a piece of property in Bay Shore, NY, now if I could only find the money. Well, I had some spiritual intervention, I found a builder that was willing to work with me, he would get the property, put in the foundation and frame house and I would have do the rest as the down payment along with $1,500.00 in cash. The first thing you have to understand, I was not a builder and I did not have the $1,500.00, so being realistic, I accepted the offer. My wife and I would drive 40 minutes every day after work, with our infant son and work on the house as long as we could. Our neighbors were great; they ran an extension cord so we had the power we needed to get the work done. I had managed to get $1,000.00 to give the builder and was still short but, I had two more weeks. The intervention, my wife would play bingo at a Jewish synagogue near where we lived, the Wednesday night before the Friday due date, she won $500.00 and we got our first home and together we got the house finished and moved in. Friends would later stop by and tell us how lucky we were to be so young and have our first home. To me luck wasn’t involved, it was the passion the both myself and my wife wanted to have our own home, We made it happen.

Now having the home, it also enabled me to set up operations in our basement and start to do all kinds of work and expand my horizons and search out what I really enjoy. Before long, I was silk screening, hot stamping & making printed circuit boards, doing all kinds of art work and even doing small metal fabricating in my basement. I even had equipment to do small proto type vacumn formed and injection molded plastic parts. I always had a passion to succeed and I never focused on money, If I focused on finishing the project and I knew the money would be there.

The journey to the hobby shop was getting longer every day and I was still like most, existing, not the best of cars and in those days flats were a common thing and I had my share. I looked around at both the hobby business and my boss and made the decision that I was not interested in either. So after all this time and all the accolades I was getting in the industry I put it behind me (with the support of my wife) and I quit my job.

Under any normal circumstances this should be a very scary time, but I had always believed that life is a series of illogical contacts and over the years I had met a lot of people.

One of the products I was making under the Ellis R/C brand was a controller for model slot cars and one of the people I was dealing with was connected with a large pen manufacturing company and he asked me if I could find a group of people to assemble parts of the pen, I took a look and immediately asked when did he need them. Well before you know it, I had a delivery van and thirty people working out of their home and assembling the pen parts and I had another income, more than I was making at the hobby shop and along with the stuff I was doing in my basement my income was up by about thirty percent, still no financial giant but, moving forward. At this point, my partner in the R/C business decides it’s too much effort for too little return and decides to step out of our venture. I am moving further and further away from the hobby industry and decide it’s best to just shut it down and focus on other more profitable areas. Sometime around May of 1964, my wife gives another reward and tells me she is pregnant with our second child, fantastic, we have our three bedroom ranch and even if we have a little girl we have a bedroom for her.

I have to stay focused on finding more ways to make money, I meet an individual in the plastic business and he asks me what I know about vacuum forming of plastic. I was familiar with the process from the hobby business on small parts, his interest was much different, he wanted me to make grills and head light covers out of ABS material for New Your City buses. I asked him how many and how soon did he need them. We sat down, put together an order with enough time to set up a manufacturing operation and agreed to get started. In January of 1965, my second son was born and we were manufacturing parts for New York City buses. Who knew? All types of companies were coming to us for specialty plastic parts and we were growing, still no financial rainbow, but I was supporting my family like most Americans. I was an entrepreneur and I was questioning, “is this all there is?”

Then one day, one of my friends invited me to a meeting, he said it might be an opportunity that could be done part time and I could earn some extra money, which I definitely could use at the time. And little did I know that the one hour meeting that I attended with him that evening would change my life forever. It marked the beginning of a different view of the entrepreneurial venture. Let me share with you a little about that evening. I went to the meeting that evening, there were about 30 people in the room, very, very excited people. I was a little nervous, I had never been around anything like that before and the enthusiasm was electrifying and I kind of sat in the back of the room and just observed. They told me I could get started that evening at a starter position for somewhere around ten dollars in the lower position which would allow me to sell the product or I could get started as a distributor for five hundred or I could start at the top for $4,000 as an Advisor. The Advisor really appealed to me. I didn’t have five hundred and I certainly didn’t have $4,000.00. But, I decided, right then and there that’s what I was going to do, start at the $4,000.00 level. So I went out and first place I went to was my own bank where I had an average balance in the low three figures (sometimes) and of course they turned me down. To make a long story short I went to fifteen banks and loan companies, filling out applications until I finally found someone who would take a risk on me. Now I finally had a start and I also had a garage full of products and promotional material and about two weeks later they informed me that I had qualified to move up to the next position which only cost me another $4,000.00. Now, I didn’t have the first $4,000.00 so where was I going to come up with the second. I certainly could not go to another fifteen loan companies. So I went some friends and convinced them, to loan me $4,000.00. Now at the end of the first year, to tell you how successful I was, I learned a lot of things on what not to do. I had lost almost everything I had. I was at a point where the future only looked worse. At that point all I had to show for my efforts was a garage full of product. So that’s how I got started, but I tell you what. I, wouldn’t give up, I wouldn’t quit. I had a lot of friend’s stop by with their negative advice…”You should really think about quitting.” That is one reason I’ve always said “Don’t tell anyone about your problems because 80% don’t care and 20% are glad.” Yes, I got a lot of advice. However, I didn’t quit. The next ten days things happened and I believe totally in my heart that it’s because I would not quit. Everything started to happen, I paid my bills and my business took off and within months I was making ten times what I made every month at my old job in my new business. And it took off from there and I got hooked on being an entrepreneur, I got hooked on being in business for myself. You know back then which was only forty years ago there wasn’t a lot of tools to use to build your own business. There was no Internet; there was no personal computer, conference calling, and voice mail, iphones, email and all the other hundreds of high tech support devices that are just great today. Back then I didn’t even have a telephone answering machine; they weren’t even available yet. In fact my first business I didn’t even have a brochure. It was just me and my ability to talk to people and tell my story.

This was my first exposure to MLM and I was excited, what I enjoyed was sharing a story and motivating others. It was really exciting to see others do more than they thought they could do, the motivation was not always long lasting but it gave them a period in their life where they were excited and that made me feel good.

In the meantime, my small manufacturing/design business was growing; we went from 2,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet. We were making the bus parts, we were designing household products from water sprinklers, bar accessories, Light-up makeup mirrors and closet lights just to name a few.

Now, here was a tremendous learning experience. The reason that so many people that win the lottery go broke is because they were never taught to be a millionaire and I was not taught to handle the money I was making between my regular business and my MLM venture. I say to people, “Your net worth will never exceed your self worth.” I was NO exception!

The growth of my main business was draining the money I was making from my MLM and I allowed 95% of my main business to be controlled by one company and they decided to do the work I was doing in house and completely destroyed my business.

Even though I was making nice money with my MLM income I decided I needed some more business education and I decided to look for some type of job where I could learn how corporate America really worked. In addition, my wife was pregnant with our third child, still no major concern, we had three bedrooms. If we had another boy, they could double up and if we had a girl, she could have a room and the boys could double up, so life was great.

After a short period of time there was an opening for a supervisor in the vacuum forming department of a large packaging company. This was just what I was looking for, a job where I can learn the inner workings and still have my MLM. The job was more of a second income, the learning was primary.

In March of 1966 my first daughter was born and I went crazy, I had my little girl. The job was good, I had a potential to move up and take over the entire division and I did, but I was learning more and more I enjoyed people and sales, the MLM was showing that more and more every day. The company was allowing me to do design work for them but, I still wanted to be in sales. Finally I decided to leave the company and search out where I could learn how a corporate sales department works.

In 1968, when things really exploded for me, the first, I was introduces to a new individual in MLM, he was involved with the first company that I was involved with but, he was more motivating. His name was Glenn W Turner and was one of a few people in my life that I believed was a good story teller and you have to be to be a motivator. It did not take long for me to have a very exciting income however, now I can look back and realize I still did not know how to handle success and I was still trying to push or pull people to success even if they really didn’t want it.

Well, by the end of 1968, yes, you guessed it; my wife was pregnant with our fourth child. Now it was getting a little tight with a three bedroom house, what we had to hope for was a girl, that way we could put two in each room. Thank God, we got our wish and in August of 1969 our second daughter was born. One little bump this time, I got home from work and my wife told me it was time, I was excited even though this was our fourth, then there was aknock on the door and I had an emergency and had to go to work. I quickly found a neighbor to take her to the hospital. When I look back I ask myself, "Why did I do what I did?"

In 1969 I was doing all types of graphic arts and I had some contacts with the record industry and was making some design presentations and receiving some fantastic acceptance. However, I was still learning about the real world when I find a better known artist taking one of my sketches to a final stage for a major record and I could say was “Well I got paid for the sketches,” and life moves on. Around the same period of time, more important things were happing in my life; my oldest son got me involved n the Cub Scouts, a very rewarding part of my life.

As I said earlier, “Life is a series of illogical contacts,” it turns out someone In 1971 I ran into someone met early on in the hobby business and he had gone into the packaging business and was looking for someone in sales. I met with them, I’ll never forget, the owner said he was looking for someone who could increase sales by 20% immediately. I stood up and said thanks for your time and was ready to leave. They were shocked, I said “if I could give that guarantee, I would not be in here talking to you, I would be on the phone taking bids for my services,” they understood where I was coming from and I sat back down and we finished our meeting and I went to work and in 120 days I increased sales by 22%. No up- front guarantees, just hard core work, follow-up and Salesmanship.

When they say “Lighting never strikes twice”, well pregnancy is a little different; by the end 1970, my wife was pregnant with our fifth child and he was born in March of 1971.
In 1972, I was offered the job as Vice President of Manufacturing for a health and beauty aid company, I accepted and we started another disastrous journey. We went from a 10,000 square foot operation to a 127,000 square foot operation. The problem with this was the principals had other ideas and two of them took off with money and girlfriends. When do disasters stop, I have learned that, “When you stop trying!” which I never will.

With five children as well as they were growing, our three bedroom ranch was running out of room and we had to make a move. Although, my wife wanted to stay in Bay Shore, my ego was pumping a little (a Lot) and I wanted to move up, (another one of life’s mistakes) so in 1973 we found a nice four bedroom home in Lake Grove, NY. Great move for me, but my wife would never consider it home and my kids just accepted it and never really were in love with it as a home. But, my ego was stroked. When people tell me they are doing something for their spouse or their family, I always ask them to look in the mirror and ask theselves "Who am I really doing this for, my spouse, my family... or me?"

Wow, guess what, more illogical contacts, again someone from the hobby business. I had met someone when I had worked in the second hobby shop that was always looking for help from me, which I was always willing to give. He owned a chimp that was always on TV (Variety Shows)

He asked me if I would like to promote some products. He had a friend in the artificial flower and landscaping business. I will tell you again, I knew nothing about this business, so I said when we start. I designed a product line and brochures and we got up and running in six or seven weeks and built it a home part business and generated some nice income through it. I opened an office in Manhattan and was doing more promoting and more and more advertising work. I had several companies come to me to package their businesses for the Business opportunity field and I even took some on the road to test the marketability and enjoyed it immensely.

Early in 1974, I received a call from an individual I had met at a franchise show; he was located in King of Prussia, PA. He called to see if I would be interested in doing some marketing and design work for business opportunity companies that participated in his Bus-Op shows. After a few conversations I agreed to go and meet him at his office. We developed a great relationship and I started to do work for several of his clients. It turns out that both of us were involved in the same MLM Company in 1968, so we had a lot in common and we were both driven by accomplishments.

My last blog talked about whats needed to be an entrepreneur, I left out one of the most important items which I will talk about in my next posting... PASSION!

In October of 1976, a major change in my life!

Some of the Things it Takes

If this is your first time on my Blog, I suggest you scroll down and start at the beginning.

Before we move on in calendar years, I would like to give you a preview of what it takes to be a Serial Entrepreneur… thick skin and a willingness to live alone, no I don’t mean without a companion. You will find yourself on a desert island for most of the time, yes the people around you say they will hear the music you play but they won’t hear the words you say. You really can’t blame them because they did not sign on for problems, they are there for the rewards or they believed in the dream about the picture you painted for them, but you did not tell them there might be a storm and if you did, they did not hear that part.

As we go along in my story I am going to cover what I believe are some of the key traits and foundations for success. Over the years there have been a lot of statements about success, most of them attributed to Napoleon Hill and “Think and Grow Rich”, this is my adaptive version of one: “Success is a Progressive Realization of Predetermined, Worthwhile Personal Goals.’ When you think about this, think about the words that are truly personal: Success-is something different to each of us; Progressive-a time frame, it does not happen overnight; Realization-you get to feel it, touch it, enjoy it, without that it’s hard to move forward; Predetermined-When we lay out what we are working for it’s easier to avoid rationalization of accomplishments, Worthwhile-our efforts must be worth the effort, Personal-Yes, there has to be something in it for you and it may be just the gratification of helping someone achieve their goal; Goals-extremely important, you must know where you are going to know when you have arrived. So, first understand what it is you want and where you want to be.

Now let’s look at some of the keys:
1. Having someone to confide in will help you look at yourself.
2. Having a clear plan and direction as to where you are going and what you want to achieve.
3. Have faith in yourself.
4. Check your ego at the door; this will enable you to listen.
5. Remember, there are two types of PMA and one I believe is more hurtful than helpful.
6. Remember, most important there are consequences for every action you take. As a result of my actions I spent 30 months in a Federal Prison. (more about that as we move on in this story)
7. Review your dreams, get out of the stands, stop being a spectator and become a participant in both life and your project.

Most of us give up on our dreams, think back to high school, sitting there dreaming about the car you are going to have. Now, look at the top selling cars in America, are they the cars you were dreaming about? Probably not, the reason they are the best selling-most of us have given up on our dreams. Well, let’s get started. Dream again!

The first thing you will really need is SOMEONE!

That SOMEONE is probably the most important key to your future; we must all adapt the “don’t-do-it-alone” advice which is one of the main foundations of a lot of the step programs. In other words, we need a few key people who will have your back, people that will tell you the truth, and people that will hold you accountable. We’re all entrepreneurs of our own ideas! As we venture down the wild and crazy path of life, now compounded by entrepreneurship, we will come up against personal and professional problems that are just too big to solve alone. If we want that goal we have set in front of us, we will need the help of others.

You would think in the age of the internet we would be able to reach out to just about anyone. Well the stats don’t show that; I read in 1985, the average American had three people in whom they could confide important matters. Later in 2006, that number has dropped to two. More than 25 percent of American’s admit they have no confidants at all.

If you are truly looking for success, look at it this way: Success is the ability to create the results in life we truly seek and not, say, just the amount of money you make.

If you look around at the people close to you, do they think you have all the answers? That’s really not what you need, what you need people you trust and who understand your professional goals. You need people you can open up to; that you can share your fears and failures and goals and dreams with, and you can ask for help. You need to build an “Inner Circle” a “Mastermind” group.

All you need is three people to change your life for the better. That’s it—just three people. In all likelihood, (there not the three people who probably just came to your mind!)

So it is with opening yourself to two or three close advisers, the people are your tribe. Nature wants to take you there—you just have to trust yourself to ease off the brakes. (Pick up a copy of Seth Godins book “Tribes”, it will help.

I believe that this first step is the hardest part of your journey. I was told when I was 16 years old “Good people are hard to find, either you can’t afford them or their in business for themselves” and I’ve told people, “Don’t tell people your problems, because 80% don’t care and 20% are glad.” The people you need are normally not the people you are working with now, they are people you have crossed paths with or people who know people you know, but they must understand life and the concept of what you are going through.

Next… 2. Having a Clear Well-Defined Plan

Having a clearly defined plan will develop faith and belief in your plan and your project; it will also give you guidelines for levels of achievements. Now when this is clearly laid out, you and everyone around you will be motivated by your level of accomplishment and will want to give more and do more. We all like to see where we are in every project we do. This plan will also be your road map to success.

Next… 3. Having Faith in yourself

Here is where I really fall short. I tell everybody, “I’m a great teacher, I’m a terrible student.”
Difficult for me, always has been. People around me have always thought that I had enough self-confidence for the US Army that shows you what they knew. In addition, it relates back to number 1, having people that know you and you can confide in. From the time I was a teenager, I lacked the self-confidence to really move forward. I was being written about, I was giving seminars from the time I was eighteen, still, not enough. Oh yes, I had the confidence in the project I was moving forward and that the way we were headed was the right direction. But, I always felt there was somebody who could do it better.

It made no difference to me if it was going on a date, I felt my date could do better of it was a work related project, I knew I could resolve whatever problem or method necessary, but someone could do it better.

Funny, as I’m typing (with two fingers) this blog, all my thoughts are coming together and I realize this goes all the way back to my childhood and this blog may have helped me resolve this problem.

When you lay out your plan, put you in the picture, search out support not acceptance. Always remember, the majority of people really don’t want you to succeed and move up from them. When you have faith in what you are doing and faith where you are going and faith that YOU will get it done, you are unstoppable.

Now… 4. Check your ego at the door; this will enable you to listen.

It’s important to have faith in yourself, yet you have to be open to other ideas. It’s really a fine line between the conviction and belief in what you are doing and the understanding of another way. I said recently in a business I was involved in I would welcome competition because they could make some of the mistakes for me and maybe they would find a better way sooner that I could alone. So, take off the blinders and check your ego at the door.

Now… 5. Here we are at My Favorite topic, the infamous PMA. (Positive Mental Attitude) – The Foundation of the so called Self Help Industry.

This is one area where I completely disagree with the concept. I really don’t believe that the concept of a Positive Mental Attitude prepares one for the inevitability of Murphy’s Law, and yes, it does come into play. It’s great to move along and believe that you can get something done, and yes when I was younger I did believe that I could perform brain surgery, you would need to hold the book for me. That’s when I became more realistic, and became a realistic optimist with PMA (Proper Mental Attitude.) I’ve traveled all across the United States and have met with hundreds of individuals who got themselves in problems for having that Positive Attitude, now there is nothing wrong with Positive, we just have to be realistic and everything else will fall in place.

Now… 6. Consequences

Wow, I know this one well, too well! I will not go into the full details of my situation at this point, but yes, due to mistakes on my part I spent 30 months in Schuylkill Federal Prison. I will discuss more of this when we get to 1994 in my story. It makes no difference, basic high school physics; every action has a reaction. You eat too much, you gain weight; You work too much, you can get tired; You go to the Casinos and gamble, you can lose; You make mistakes in business, you can lose as well. Just keep the consequences in focus and in your rear view mirror. Remember what you are working for and don’t lose sight of what you have.

Now…7. It’s time to Participate in what you are doing, more important Participate in Life.

I went to see a movie “Flash of Genius”, the movie was about the inventing of the intermittent windshield wiper, his commitment was there, but in the end his wife was not. The majority of us lose sight of what is important, I mean really important. Take the time, stop being in the stands get into the arena of life and participate. Doing this will make your accomplishments even more worthwhile.

Well enough about what I think, funny, that’s what makes the self-help industry so big, it’s really just based on people’s opinions, not necessarily facts.

Now we will back to my journey, we will come back in around 1960

We will start with June of 1954

I really didn’t want to start all the way back but, it’s important to give you some background to eliminate any excuses one may have for either not moving forward or not achieving. I was an only child living with a possessive single mother (a great lady by the way). I was her life and no one was good enough for her son, so needless to say I did not have many friends other than some cousins. I spent eight years in a parochial school and learned to both respect and understand the philosophy of the nuns as well as developed a strong desire to become a Priest. That desire diminished as time went on and I had several meetings with some New York Bishops and found that I had some different opinions than the Church and at that time, and during the 40’s & 50’s there was no differing with the opinions of the Church. Still to make my entire family happy in September of 1954 I enrolled at Power Memorial Academy high school in Manhattan and my world began to form. One bus and two subways every day, the walk from the subway everyday (looking over my back at Central Park) became an everlasting memory. I only made that trip till June of 1955, I will tell you, and my short time a Power was an experience (great) that will live with me forever.
You have to understand that the 50’s were a different time; we did not have the communications of today, which enabled me not to tell my mother I was not going back to school until the spring of next year. I will say that I did have the knowledge to understand that I did need an education and I was going to have to find it somewhere. Until this time I always had the drive to go out and do something to earn money, it made no difference to me if I shined shoes, picked flowers from the bushes hanging in my yard from the neighbor’s tree and selling them on the street corner or reading poetry or doing sketches in Washington Square in New York for tips. I always wanted to make it happen. One of my teachers in Power really had a major impact on my life when he had me read “A Message to Garcia” an inspirational essay written by Elbert Hubbard, and which I keep a copy even today. This essay laid out what I felt was important to set as a standard for what I was looking to achieve in life. At this stage of my life I had been dealt almost every negative card that someone looking for excuses could ask for, however I was not looking for excuses, I was looking for answers and a direction. I wanted to be like Rowan (the main person in the Message).

My career began with me walking in to a hobby shop on Jamaica Ave. in Queens Village, NY, fifteen years old and searching for information. Conversation started, curiosity developed and I started hanging around the store with the owner and it wasn’t long before he offered me a job. I could not have planned a learning experience better than this. What happened was I was meeting with hobbyist, individuals from all walks of life that loved to share the knowledge and the experience they received by participating in their passion whether it be model airplanes, model trains, painting, ceramics even kites. Working in a hobby shop was like being a bartender; individuals would come in for hours at a time and talk and talk.
I worked long hours, never knowing how much money Mort (the owner) was going to give me, it really made no difference, because I was learning and I was receiving some money from the shoe shine routes I set up. I was reading everything I could find and asking every question I could, before long everyone was coming to me for answers and the owner Mort was getting married and asked me to watch the store while he went on his honeymoon, I jumped at the opportunity, again no idea if I would even get paid, like Rowan, I did not ask, I just grabbed the opportunity. When he returned, the store was rearrange and our sales were up, I was proud and he was pleased and I did get paid although not much I was rewarded and I did learn more. As time moved on my knowledge of the hobby business grew, I started to meet salespeople from wholesalers in the industry and they started talking about my accomplishments in the industry as word traveled I stared to receive phone calls from other stores and here is where I started to realize that one of my main weaknesses is, I lack the amount of self-confidence that I should have, even today.
In June of 1956 I was asked to meet with the owner of a Hobby shop in East Meadow, NY, I heard of this store and had no idea as to why he would want to meet with this sixteen year old high school dropout. Well it seemed my reputation in the business and the marketing knowledge and technical knowledge that I was taking for granted, others weren’t, and I was offered a real job at $50.00 a week. Of course I was told I would probably be working seven days a week since the front half of this hobby shop was an ice cream parlor to be able to open on Sundays, made no difference to me I was being presented with another opportunity and another learning experience, I accepted.
The time period was really the beginning of the discount store era, Korvette’s and Modell’s was hurting all the small merchants and we were located across the street from a Modell’s, tough sledding could be ahead if we accepted what was happening and did not react. I did not want to accept what was happening and I proposed to my boss the wildest alternative I could have thrown out and not to my surprise he said I was a crazy teenager with no real knowledge of the retail industry that’s why I worked for him! However, two days later he came in and call me in his office and said “Maybe you do have an idea!”, my idea sell everything at full list, no discounts other than special sales, increase inventory and offer more service. It was my young opinion that hobbyist wanted the items they wanted when they wanted them, not tomorrow and by increasing inventory and by developing a reorder system and by staying on top of everything we could develop a reputation of “The place to go” and by guaranteeing everything sold by us we could separate ourselves from others. We actually would give a discount if we did not have the item and had to order it, we believed we should have everything related to our customer’s needs. Well, it worked at the end of the first full year our sales increased by over 30% and our profits were through the roof. I was rewarded and my pay went to $76.00 per week, more important I was learning more and more.
In 1958, I finally convinced my boss to eliminate the soda fountain, the ice cream and the newspapers, of course he said now what do we do with the space. Our hobby section occupied two floors; first floor, model airplanes, R/C and U-Control as well as crafts and the lower level was all model trains. We had space left on the first floor. I said how about records, he said you’re crazy but, in 1959 we gave it a shot. In the fifties it was 45RPM and LP’s, rock and roll was in the early stages but there was enough “old” rock and roll to market, we went on the radio with oldies, again it worked. To make it easier for newsletters and record list we purchased a printing press (an Addressograph 1250) and here I go again I learn yet another couple of trades, records and printing all in one motion.
Little did I know this part of the venture would really change my life forever

It Starts Like Any Other Addiction

This blog is going to tell the story about a "Serial Entrepreneur." Now I know there are a lot of individuals like me all around the world. But, it's important for all of us to know that we are not alone, although most of the time it may feel like your totally isolated.

For those of you that are wanna-be entrepreneurs, or maybe you are a true entrepreneur or just maybe you are a Serial Entrepreneur like me. Over the next few months, I will attempt to take you on a journey that may be familiar to you or maybe it sounds like something you've heard, I hope it gives you the strength or the idea to get you to the next step.

I will start over the next few days by taking you on a journey through my experiences, we all learn by yesterday, however the important thing is to move on to tomorrow. As the title of one of Clint Eastwood movies I will tell you about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I will start by telling you that every step was an experience that moved me in a forward direction. I ask myself daily, was it worthwhile? I will answer by simply saying that I am further along than I would have been if I was like one of the majority who never tried and the experiences that I encountered are like the Maste Card commercial "Priceless."

As we travel this journey, you may get tired, bored and uninterested and that will be normal, just remember learning from just one of my mistakes or from one of my good moves can literally change your life.

This whole Blog will start with my main philosphy "I don't chase rainbows, I build them!"