I'm sorry I haven't been posting lately, it's not that I don't love y'all (cause I do, really!), I've just been busy selling toy cars on ebay and trying to do some writing.
Mixed results on both fronts.
I've also been having a lot of difficulty with my depression, anger and impulse control.
My anger control issues are by far the most worrysome, I'm actually triggering migraines working so hard at keeping my anger in check. A couple a week.
I'm a little frightened by some of the very close calls the last couple weeks.
I hope to be posting more soon.
Be patient, I'll try to make it worth the wait.
-The Greeter
Friday, November 30, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
The Greeter's Resume! A monument to my Glorious Failure
I've worked most of my life, save for twice where I went on disability, into the vocational rehabilitation problem for the stae of Arizona (glorious failures, VR actually dropped me from the program after several 'job training' gigs ranging from packaging nuts and bolts, to assembling ballpoint pens by hand for .03 each).
I owned 2 businesses, one a vending company, the other a taxi service.
I purchased the vending business from my employer after winning the Arizona Lottery's "Fantasy 5" game, I used the $50,000 prize (just over $36 k after taxes) to buy a 73 Pontiac LeMans I'd been pining for and the vending company. This was 1990.
My boss had been thinking about retiring, she was going blind and had health problems, she found about my lottery win only when I offered her $30,000 cash for her equipment, stock , and contract with the city.
For 2 1/2 years, I ran the business, working about 4 hours a day and netted about $30k a year, my machines were located in the Police and Public Safety building in downtown Phoenix. In the afternoon, I sold used cars at 'Aloha Bill's Garden of Gears'. I was his top salesman 6 months running.
Eventually, the Investigation Bureaus were relocated into the precients, cutting the traffic in the building by almost 90%. I finally sold the business, lock, stock, and barrel, for 1/2 what I paid for it, to a big vending company that had much lower overhead because of thier size.
I can't say I lost money, it supported me for nearly three years, but I'd like to have done better with it.
It was easy work, just stupid easy, and there was no safer place in the city to run a business. I once came in on a Monday morning to find one of my candy/chip machines with the glass front smashed out, the machine empty. The Cash and coin mechanisms were intact and untouched.
Before the repairman arrived to fix it, the inventory was returned along with $350 cash to cover the damage and lost revenue. I never did find out what happened.
I'd kill to have that back.
I've worked many different jobs;
Grocery bagger/stocker
Auto detailer
Cook at KFC ( no, I don't know the secret recipe. I didn't eat chicken for 2 years after this one)
Cesspool digger/pumper (you want to talk about a shit job :lol: )
Asphalt spreader
Vending machine tech. (later owner of the biz)
Car Salesman (I've almost constantly had one or more car or truck for sale since I was 16, I've got one of each for sale as I write this).
Repo Man
screw sorter
shrink wrapper
ballpoint pen builder
Security Guard
Asst. manager of a porn shop (I worked at the slowest store in the chain, it 'only' grossed $20k a month)
Certified Nursing asst.
Taxi driver ( later 'owner/operator', eventually I owned a taxi and livery service)
Taxi dispatcher/office manager
I'd take the worst of these jobs over the one I have now, but that's not what this post is about.
My cab career began by accident.
I used a taxi one night after a night of drinking and poker with a couple buddies, the cabbie was telling me some of his stories, when he told me he cleared $100 or more most nights, I decided I'd try it for myself.
From '93 to '99 I drove 1 or 2 nights a week, in November '98 I went to full time, driving 72 hours a week, within a year I owned 5 cars, by Christmas 2000 I owned 16 cabs outright, 30 drivers paying me, it was fucking awesome.
I saved to buy my first cab, then put a day driver in it, driving myself at night.
The day guy paid me enough to cover my expenses, I saved $50 a night (the amount I would have paid in lease) and everything I earned on Sunday, towards my second cab.
When I got it, I put two drivers in it, I continued to saved $50 a night from my earnings and the night lease from the other cab along with my Sunday earnings Soon I bought 2 more.
I sold cabs as they became too maintenance intensive and bought more, we lived on what I earned driving, rolling all the net profit from the other cabs to expand my fleet.
Until Jan '01 I was doing great, making a pretty good living, expanding my fleet, it was sweet!
Then I fucked it all up, oh I had some help, but I started the avalanche.
In January '01, I sold 2 retired cabs, grabbed my bankroll, and headed for the auction with $17,000 in cash and a goal of paying cash for 3 to 5 new cabs.
Before the auction began, I ran into a guy I knew from my days as a semi professional car salesman, Vic was now an auto wholesaler and fter talking for awhile, we struck a deal.
The next day I selected 10 cars, including 4 Lincoln Townecars and 2 Cadillac Devilles, Vic made some calls, and by sundown they were all financed through 6 different dealers, I'd put $20k down, and had $37,000 in car notes. I wasn't worried, I figured that I'd have them paid off in a year, and my fleet, had gone from 16 to 26 cabs in 24 hours.
It took a couple weeks but soon I had 50 drivers.
I was grossing nearly $80,000 a month!!!!!!! I netted close to $3,000 a month.
Then the bottom dropped out!
I was paying out almost $45k a month to the company I ran my cars with, $12k for Maintenance, $10k a month in car payments , and money for fees, contingency money, blah, blah, blah!
Spring and summer '01 was hard, 6 cars had to be replaced due to wrecks (including 2 of the cars I was financing) 1 0f the 2 Cadillacs was destroyed in an arson fire. In four months I replaced 9 transmissions at nearly $1000 each and 17 seperate a/c systems average about $900 each . Wear and tear caused the retirement of 6 cabs. On Aug 31st, I was hurt pretty badly when a crackhead hit and flipped my pickup, she had no license, driving a borrwed car and my truck was totaled.
September 10th I had 21 cabs, 40 drivers paying every day like clockwork, the worst of the bad seasons behind me, the only lingering problem was due to insurance companies dragging thier feet, I was making payments on three ruined cars.
September 11th, 19 whack jobs led by a militant raghead with bad kidneys, crashed 4 planes and changed all life as we know it, only 4 drivers out of 40 were able to pay. September 12th 1 driver paid.
By Decmber 21st, I was working in a group home, cabs repo'd, sold, signed over to the company to cover outstanding balances, my cash reserves were gone. Driving a rented cab on my days off, I'd come full circle.
In March '03 I bought a cab and started again, the business was different, a lot different, but by October 04 I was running a 5 car independant fleet and owned 3 cars (financed), on the fleet of the largest company in the city, I was a partner in 2 others. December 6, 2004, I was beaten and shot, nearly killed, during a robbery.
Iwas running the company from a hospital bed with 2 cellphones, I immeadiately forfeitted the cabs on the other companies fleet and made my partner in the other two my business partner as well.
He completely fucked me over.
Memorial day weekend in '06 my wife fractured her pelvis, she was out of work 7 months, the laid off in a 'workforce reduction', we were 3 house payments behind by then.
Jan 17th of this year, I closed the doors. We'd lost the house already, we were living in a friend's spare bedroom.
We moved to New Mexico, to my home town.
Now I'm a Wal*Mart greeter, the worst job on earth, especially for someone who'd called his own shots for so long.
Assitant crakwhore is only the 2nd worst job in America, behind greeter.
There is so much more to tell, but this post has taken more than 3 hours, I have to stop when I start crying.
Next time I'll talk about my parents, all in an effort to make you understand what made me this way, and to help me get some closure so I can move forward.
Until next time.
-The Greeter
I owned 2 businesses, one a vending company, the other a taxi service.
I purchased the vending business from my employer after winning the Arizona Lottery's "Fantasy 5" game, I used the $50,000 prize (just over $36 k after taxes) to buy a 73 Pontiac LeMans I'd been pining for and the vending company. This was 1990.
My boss had been thinking about retiring, she was going blind and had health problems, she found about my lottery win only when I offered her $30,000 cash for her equipment, stock , and contract with the city.
For 2 1/2 years, I ran the business, working about 4 hours a day and netted about $30k a year, my machines were located in the Police and Public Safety building in downtown Phoenix. In the afternoon, I sold used cars at 'Aloha Bill's Garden of Gears'. I was his top salesman 6 months running.
Eventually, the Investigation Bureaus were relocated into the precients, cutting the traffic in the building by almost 90%. I finally sold the business, lock, stock, and barrel, for 1/2 what I paid for it, to a big vending company that had much lower overhead because of thier size.
I can't say I lost money, it supported me for nearly three years, but I'd like to have done better with it.
It was easy work, just stupid easy, and there was no safer place in the city to run a business. I once came in on a Monday morning to find one of my candy/chip machines with the glass front smashed out, the machine empty. The Cash and coin mechanisms were intact and untouched.
Before the repairman arrived to fix it, the inventory was returned along with $350 cash to cover the damage and lost revenue. I never did find out what happened.
I'd kill to have that back.
I've worked many different jobs;
Grocery bagger/stocker
Auto detailer
Cook at KFC ( no, I don't know the secret recipe. I didn't eat chicken for 2 years after this one)
Cesspool digger/pumper (you want to talk about a shit job :lol: )
Asphalt spreader
Vending machine tech. (later owner of the biz)
Car Salesman (I've almost constantly had one or more car or truck for sale since I was 16, I've got one of each for sale as I write this).
Repo Man
screw sorter
shrink wrapper
ballpoint pen builder
Security Guard
Asst. manager of a porn shop (I worked at the slowest store in the chain, it 'only' grossed $20k a month)
Certified Nursing asst.
Taxi driver ( later 'owner/operator', eventually I owned a taxi and livery service)
Taxi dispatcher/office manager
I'd take the worst of these jobs over the one I have now, but that's not what this post is about.
My cab career began by accident.
I used a taxi one night after a night of drinking and poker with a couple buddies, the cabbie was telling me some of his stories, when he told me he cleared $100 or more most nights, I decided I'd try it for myself.
From '93 to '99 I drove 1 or 2 nights a week, in November '98 I went to full time, driving 72 hours a week, within a year I owned 5 cars, by Christmas 2000 I owned 16 cabs outright, 30 drivers paying me, it was fucking awesome.
I saved to buy my first cab, then put a day driver in it, driving myself at night.
The day guy paid me enough to cover my expenses, I saved $50 a night (the amount I would have paid in lease) and everything I earned on Sunday, towards my second cab.
When I got it, I put two drivers in it, I continued to saved $50 a night from my earnings and the night lease from the other cab along with my Sunday earnings Soon I bought 2 more.
I sold cabs as they became too maintenance intensive and bought more, we lived on what I earned driving, rolling all the net profit from the other cabs to expand my fleet.
Until Jan '01 I was doing great, making a pretty good living, expanding my fleet, it was sweet!
Then I fucked it all up, oh I had some help, but I started the avalanche.
In January '01, I sold 2 retired cabs, grabbed my bankroll, and headed for the auction with $17,000 in cash and a goal of paying cash for 3 to 5 new cabs.
Before the auction began, I ran into a guy I knew from my days as a semi professional car salesman, Vic was now an auto wholesaler and fter talking for awhile, we struck a deal.
The next day I selected 10 cars, including 4 Lincoln Townecars and 2 Cadillac Devilles, Vic made some calls, and by sundown they were all financed through 6 different dealers, I'd put $20k down, and had $37,000 in car notes. I wasn't worried, I figured that I'd have them paid off in a year, and my fleet, had gone from 16 to 26 cabs in 24 hours.
It took a couple weeks but soon I had 50 drivers.
I was grossing nearly $80,000 a month!!!!!!! I netted close to $3,000 a month.
Then the bottom dropped out!
I was paying out almost $45k a month to the company I ran my cars with, $12k for Maintenance, $10k a month in car payments , and money for fees, contingency money, blah, blah, blah!
Spring and summer '01 was hard, 6 cars had to be replaced due to wrecks (including 2 of the cars I was financing) 1 0f the 2 Cadillacs was destroyed in an arson fire. In four months I replaced 9 transmissions at nearly $1000 each and 17 seperate a/c systems average about $900 each . Wear and tear caused the retirement of 6 cabs. On Aug 31st, I was hurt pretty badly when a crackhead hit and flipped my pickup, she had no license, driving a borrwed car and my truck was totaled.
September 10th I had 21 cabs, 40 drivers paying every day like clockwork, the worst of the bad seasons behind me, the only lingering problem was due to insurance companies dragging thier feet, I was making payments on three ruined cars.
September 11th, 19 whack jobs led by a militant raghead with bad kidneys, crashed 4 planes and changed all life as we know it, only 4 drivers out of 40 were able to pay. September 12th 1 driver paid.
By Decmber 21st, I was working in a group home, cabs repo'd, sold, signed over to the company to cover outstanding balances, my cash reserves were gone. Driving a rented cab on my days off, I'd come full circle.
In March '03 I bought a cab and started again, the business was different, a lot different, but by October 04 I was running a 5 car independant fleet and owned 3 cars (financed), on the fleet of the largest company in the city, I was a partner in 2 others. December 6, 2004, I was beaten and shot, nearly killed, during a robbery.
Iwas running the company from a hospital bed with 2 cellphones, I immeadiately forfeitted the cabs on the other companies fleet and made my partner in the other two my business partner as well.
He completely fucked me over.
Memorial day weekend in '06 my wife fractured her pelvis, she was out of work 7 months, the laid off in a 'workforce reduction', we were 3 house payments behind by then.
Jan 17th of this year, I closed the doors. We'd lost the house already, we were living in a friend's spare bedroom.
We moved to New Mexico, to my home town.
Now I'm a Wal*Mart greeter, the worst job on earth, especially for someone who'd called his own shots for so long.
Assitant crakwhore is only the 2nd worst job in America, behind greeter.
There is so much more to tell, but this post has taken more than 3 hours, I have to stop when I start crying.
Next time I'll talk about my parents, all in an effort to make you understand what made me this way, and to help me get some closure so I can move forward.
Until next time.
-The Greeter
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