We were young, dumb, and full of anticipation, eager for our shot at the American Dream! Most of the Yahoos chose to attend college and/or serve in the military after high school. I chose my own adventure, fleeing the godforsaken hinterlands with a diploma, a particular set of skills, and a decade of sales experience. Designing and selling t-shirts had taught me more than four years of fancy book learning. Now Captain of my own destiny, I charted a course back to Chicago.
Shenanigans ensued.
Selling greeting cards door to door at the tender age of eight filled my pockets with loot and my soul with purpose. Live to sell! Sell to live! Yet when I shared my goal to become a sales manager with my high school guidance counselor, she suggested learning HVAC repair ‘just in case.’ Yikes! Selling was fun and easy for me, and it promised a life of adventure, so, with a heave and a ho, I set out, fueled only by my desire to parley.
Gigs with on-the-job training combined learning with earning and introduced me to life-changing gurus. Applying their lessons turned work into play. Pursuing my passions for over fifty years, I stumbled up into management more than once, and on a dare from a client, I went into business as a marketing mercenary. Now, in the third half of life, it is time to give back and share the lessons learned pursuing my own American Dream.
Think like a pirate. Have fun, be lazy, and cheat!
In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 megabytes. Like P.T. Barnum, I'm shamelessly giving away my autobiography, The Life and Times of Grizzled Adman, with new content added as statutes of limitation expire. Life stories are written in real time today, and your collaborations are welcome. How much fun can be had launching a religion, reviving a political party, or teaching stark, raving capitalists? I'm about to find out. Who’s with me?
