07 June 2007, 10:00 PM
As often happens in my life, something I read or heard
motivated me to start writing about my earliest recollections. The whole
reason I began writing these thoughts was to keep from forgetting them!
The first pages were written sometime in the mid 1990’s
with very little being added after my initial thoughts. In November 2006 I
read a story about a group of people who had initiated “November Novel Month”
several years earlier. They initially wanted to see if they could write a
novel in one month. They weren’t concerned with the quality, rather with the
number of words they could write during the month of November. They set 50,000
words as a goal. Several years after the idea was born they had thousands of
people logging onto their web site to do the same. There were no prizes
involved, instead the satisfaction of knowing they had accomplished writing an
entire novel in one month.
Un Don Especial was in its final stages of being
published and I was working on an idea for a new book. I liked the idea of
writing a novel in a month and while my schedule was fortunately packed with
activities, I thought I would give it a shot. As I sat down to write, my first
thoughts didn’t flow as I wanted, so I called it an evening and decided to
start the next day.
The idea came to me in a flash! I already had a book
partially written in the form of the thoughts which follow. I looked for and
found the text which I had started several years earlier. I conducted a word
count and found I had about 15,000 words. Since November was already underway,
I figured it was a good place to start. I began writing a little bit every day
and by the time November came to a close, I had reached about 60,000 words.
I still had several years to go to reach the end of 2006.
While the intensity of my writing subsided after the end of November 2006, I
continued tapping away at the keyboard. As I write this introduction on the
evening before I turn 45 years of age, I have 124,000 words! While I still
have correcting to do and additions to make, I am amazed how the writing has
just flowed. I have learned in the process I truly enjoy writing and look
forward to doing much more.
Several thoughts have come to mind as these words seem to
have magically appeared at my fingertips. One of the thoughts has to do with a
comment I heard regarding the nature of an autobiography. “An autobiography,”
it was said, “only tells what the author wants and is willing to share.” I
agree with the statement completely!
All of us have certain feelings, thoughts and actions we share
with no one. Even for those who know almost everything about us, we usually
have one or two little secrets even they don’t know about! Keeping this
information close to the heart is not being malicious or deceitful rather
realistic regarding its nature. Sometimes, ignorance is indeed bliss.
As such, I don’t pretend or claim to espouse every
intimate detail about my life in the pages that follow. Instead, my aim is to
record moments which, for one reason or another, have stuck in my mind. I am
sure each person who has participated in the events which follow has his or her
perceptions regarding the situation. This is as it should be and part of what makes
this such a wonderful life!
Each of us passes the minutes, hours and days in some
form or another. The great majority of this time is spent with our own
thoughts. Even when we are with other people, our mind is constantly thinking,
perceiving and analyzing everything. How we interpret each situation depends
on our individual experience and is unique from the interpretation any other
person will have.
These are my perceptions, my thoughts and my
reflections. They are written for anyone who might want to know what makes me
tick. I share what I recall, think is worth remembering and which might be of
value to anyone who may care to know more about me.
I have so much to learn and while I feel I have come a
long way, I also feel there is so much I don’t know: so many rocks to turn, so
many paths to travel, so many people to do and things to see!
While my sincere hope is to reach 88 years of age
healthy, wealthy and wise, there are many rows to hoe and factors to take into
consideration. While I have been on earth, I have learned there are two
overriding factors in our lives, happiness and satisfaction. These factors are
present when we are useful to other people and make their lives better in some
way or another. When we do so, we also are ultimate beneficiaries.
The words which follow serve as a map to where I have
been and a compass to where I would like to go. My most sincere desire is for my
thoughts, ideas and reflections to serve those who choose to read them.
Love life, live life and enjoy every moment in this
marvelous journey because be it long or short, it is, in fact, gone in an
instant.
~ rhm²
Two civilians walked into the office and asked for Robert
McBride. "I'm Bobby," the handsome young man in uniform responded.
"We're familiar with your work and would like to
talk to you for a few moments," one of the men said.
"Is that a request or an order?" Bobby asked
with a grin.
"For now it's a request," the older of the two
men replied, not amused.
"Well in that case, fire at will!" Bobby
responded.
The two men explained they were familiar with his work
within the Air Force. They mentioned they were constantly on the lookout for
young talent, particularly for those who met his description. Bobby was of medium
build with dark hair and blue-gray eyes. He could easily pass for any one of
many different nationalities, and this was precisely what the men were looking
for. They offered to take him through a language training program which would
lead to an attractive commission upon completion.
Bobby accepted the proposal and was soon immersed in an
intensive language training program. After work one day he went to a local bar
in San Antonio with a friend to have a drink. After his friend left, he was
having a quiet drink when a gentleman sat next to him and ordered a beer. They
began talking about a myriad of subjects. The topic which interested the
stranger the most was world leaders.
"What is your opinion of Hitler as a leader?"
the stranger wanted to know.
"Well," Bobby began, "the Germans are
notorious as one of the smarter groups of people in the world. For an unknown
Austrian to penetrate the military ranks of the Germans and become their leader
is quite impressive. In addition, he led them to war and very nearly
established Germany as the world's dominant power. So I would say he was a
tremendous leader!"
The man seemed somewhat taken aback though didn't offer
any objections. "What about Mussolini?" He wanted to know.
"I would say Mussolini falls in much the same
category," Bobby replied. "While I don't agree with their ideology
or methods, their capacity to lead was tremendous."
Several days after this encounter, about which Bobby
didn't think twice, he was called in to talk to his Commanding Officer.
"Were you in a bar several days ago talking about world leaders?"
The CO wanted to know.
"Sure, what's up?" Bobby asked with curiosity.
"Did you mention to someone in the bar you believe
Hitler and Mussolini were great leaders?" The CO asked.
"Yes, I did!" Bobby answered without
hesitation.
As the conversation went on, Bobby could see he was under
scrutiny. He was temporarily relieved of duty and told to sit tight for
further instructions. He soon found out whoever sent the men to talk to him
had also sent others to talk to his mother as well as to his third and fourth
grade teachers.
Bobby had planned to make the Air Force his career. This
new turn of events made him realize what he was getting into and he didn't like
the looks of it. His commission called for him to stay in San Antonio until
the end of 1962. With a baby on the way and an acceptance letter to enter law
school in his hands, he asked for and was granted early release.
He and his wife Betty, pregnant expecting their first
child, made plans to go back to Albuquerque and start a new life.
I was born in San Antonio, Texas, on June 8th,
1962 at 2:38 AM at Lackland Air Force Base Hospital. While the total bill came
to under $10 for the hospital, there were disadvantages to being born in a
military hospital. Early the next morning the nurse came to my mom’s room
demanding to know the name to put on my birth certificate. My dad wasn’t there
at the time and though they had talked about names, my dad had never been
serious about the subject. He had come up with names like Procopio as well as
other names which seemed to be but a joke. My mom asked the nurse to give her
time to consult with my dad; the nurse was adamant. She wanted a name right
there, right then! As a result, I became Robert Hugh McBride II.
When I was six weeks old, I had my first plane ride as
we flew to Colorado to see my maternal grandparents and then on to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Shortly thereafter my mom started working as an English teacher
at Rio Grande High School in the South Valley of Albuquerque. During much of
this time I spent my days with my Aunt Elsie who took care of me while my mom
worked. She would pick me up after her school day and we would go home to get
ready for the next day. One of my earliest memories was driving home from my
Aunt Elsie’s listening to and singing the song “Downtown” as we drove down West Central Avenue in Albuquerque.
During this time my father was working several jobs and
going to law school in Oklahoma City. He graduated from law school and the
family was once again reunited.
From the time I was born until I was 4 years old I had an
obstruction in my "food tube." The doctors had trouble diagnosing
the exact problem and when I was 4 years old they did exploratory surgery. Dr.
Clevenger, who performed the surgery, discovered I had Pyloric Stenosis, which
is usually detected at birth and which is a fancy way of saying the tube going
from my stomach to my intestines was almost completely blocked. There was only
a tiny hole by which food could pass through my system. I was operated on and,
fortunately, everything went well. Dr. Clevenger performed the surgery to
correct the problem while my Uncle Buddy, also a doctor, helped to explain the
situation to my folks.
While I like to kid around as to the reason I have a huge
zipper on my stomach, this is the real reason! I always thought my explanation
of being in a gang related brawl was much more exciting, though far from the
truth!
Our first home was on Campus Blvd. close to the
University. We later moved to Adobe Acres in the South Valley. I more vividly
remember my aunt's house, where I stayed while my mom taught school. She also
lived somewhere in the South Valley. Behind the house was a big field where we
used to play. Down the road was a little store where we often went.
An early recollection is when my cousin Stuart and I stole
some kind of candy from the little store. When my aunt asked us from where we
had gotten it, we said "We stole it from the little store." We got
spanked and my aunt told us not to steal candy from the little store. A couple
of days later we came back with a different kind of candy. When my aunt asked
us where we got it, we said, "We stole it from the little store."
When she asked us why we had stolen the candy from the little store when she
had told us not to steal we told her we thought it was the other candy we
couldn't steal... we thought it was OK to steal other types of candy.
My aunt would often reprimand us for something bad we had
done and she would inflict a degree of pain on our backside. It didn't really
hurt because she didn't hit too hard and we would start crying just so she
would stop. Afterwards we would go into the next room and start laughing at
how smart we were. We used to raise a lot of cane. While I was always kind of
shy and reserved, Stuart was always coming up with things to do that were wild
and crazy. . I usually went along with most of the things he suggested for the
ride.
One particular time around the 4th of July we took a
lizard and tied him to a bottle rocket and sent him to space travel. We
thought this was great fun. Now I look back and wonder how we could have been
so cruel. I now realize we were just trying to find things to do. On a
positive note, the lizard story has a good ending. When he came back down from
his space shuttle, we found him and he was still alive! We let him go and while
we never knew if he lived to tell his friends about his adventure, as far as I
know, he was the first lizard in history to attempt space travel.
Another game Stuart and I played was with ants. We would
get a red ant and put him in a black ant hill. We would sit there and watch
the black ants destroy the red ant. It also worked the other way just as
well. Sometimes we would just let one black ant and one red ant go head to
head in battle. If I remember correctly it seems like the black ants used to
come out on top most of the time. We got a few ant bites in the process of our
ant fights, though not nearly as many as we probably should have sitting around
playing in ant piles.
I have very fond memories of my Aunt Elsie. While she
was strict, deep down inside she had a heart of gold and I always felt she
treated me like one of her own children, and in some instances perhaps even a
little better. When I was young I was a very sick boy, as I mentioned
previously. The doctors didn't know what was wrong with me and neither did my
parents. My primary problem was I couldn’t eat properly. I would eat and
within a very short time the food would come right back up. Instinctively, my
aunt fed me many times a day just to make sure I got nourishment. I looked
like many of the undernourished kids on TV we all hate to see so much. My
stomach was extended and it looked like I was pregnant.
There is one thing though I will never forget. The doctors
said that if it hadn't have been for my aunt, and everyone else, feeding me so
often, I very well could have died. Because the condition I had is usually
diagnosed at birth many of the doctors were surprised I was even alive.
Another memory I have of my aunt was her continual battle
with a birthmark I had on my neck behind my ear. She thought it was dirt. She
scrubbed and scrubbed trying to get that darn birthmark out. Afterwards, I
would have this big red mark where she had scrubbed so much. She was a very
funny spectacular lady with a tremendous laugh which could be heard
everywhere. What a lady!
During this same time I spent time with my aunt, we used
to go to Dixon, New Mexico, where all of her family lived. While we were there
we would run wild. I remember one time we had a rotten apple war. We were
running around the orchards picking rotten apples off the ground and trying to
hit each other. While the apples smelled terrible, it was great fun.
With my mom and my dad we frequently went to San Luis, Colorado, to see my grandparents. While I was there I was pretty much free to do
whatever I wanted. Many times I would take my cousin Stuart or another friend
with us. We would go to the creek and throw stones or go and chase little pigs
to hear them squeal.
I have very fond memories of my grandfather. He used to
go out of the house where there were always pigs and horses hanging around. He
would take his cane to them and yell at them until they moved out of the way so
he could pass. My grandfather was called "El Patron.” Everyone knew and
respected him. I remember him driving around town low-rider style waving to
everyone as he passed. By the end of his driving career, he was already in his
80’s; they wanted to take his driver's license away. He would have no part of that
and continued driving. Everybody just got out of his way when they saw him
coming because by then he didn't drive too terribly well.
My grandfather was a very proud man and just wouldn't
quit. I fondly remember him sitting in his recliner chair puffing on a cigar
and "reading" the paper. We caught him a few times reading the paper
upside down which gave us quite a chuckle. One time when my
grandfather was very sick he was taken to Pueblo to the hospital. My mom and I
took my grandmother and stayed with my Aunt Helen and my Uncle Teen. One night
while we were sleeping, all of a sudden I heard this voice calling me in what
seemed like a dream. When I awoke I couldn't see anything. There was smoke
everywhere. A fire had started in the basement from a TV they had won on some
kind of game show. My mom wrapped me up in a blanket and we went outside while
the fire department came. We all got out all right except for my cousin Diane
who had to be taken out through a basement window. She got cut up pretty badly
from the glass, had smoke inhalation, and was rushed to the hospital. Fortunately,
she, too, was all right.
I remember the thrill my grandfather got out of the rides
my dad gave us in one of his Jaguars. We used to go out on the road between
San Luis and Walsenberg and my dad would “open it up.” One time we got up to about
130 MPH. After one of our rides, the windshield wipers wouldn't stop after we
stopped the car. It was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. The car just
freaked out.
Another fond memory I have of my grandparents in San Pablo was my learning to eat chili. My grandmother made wonderful red chili about
which I wasn't too sure at first. I later learned to love it. All the adults
would eat chili though was I never was daring enough to do so. Finally, one time
at my grandma's I ate red chili with beans and tortillas and I was in heaven.
I must have been about eight or nine years old. Since that moment, a bowl of
beans, some red chili on the side and tortillas has become one of my all time
favorite foods.
In her kitchen there was a cellar under the kitchen where
they would keep food. I remember thinking it would be a terrific place to hide
if Indians ever came. In fact, it may be my grandma planted that idea in my
head telling me about something that actually happened though I can’t recall the
details.
After we moved from Adobe Acres to an apartment on Jefferson Street, I remember having a cement mixer I got as a gift. I remember taking the
truck outside and playing with it on the sidewalk. I must have been 3 or 4 years
old at that time.
Another event I remember, when I was about 3 or 4 years of
age, was messing around in the kitchen. I got a bottle of ketchup out of the
fridge and decided I wanted a drink. I got a straw, put it into the ketchup
bottle, and proceeded to suck it up. We have pictures to mark this
extraordinary event!
Manzano Day School
I went to school at Manzano Day School from Kindergarten through
fourth grade. The memories I have of the school are, in general, pretty good.
At that time, the school seemed huge. I visited it later in life and found it
really wasn't so big. I remember one time some friends and I were on a pyro
kick and were lighting matches everywhere. There was a heavy set teacher whose
name was Mr. Redmond. He was from Boston and had a wicked accent. I vividly remember
one time we were lighting fires in the playground and he came bouncing along
mad as a bee. He took us into the Principal's office and called our parents.
Needless to say, our folks were not too happy.
At Manzano, Morley Anderson, Gary Sanchez, John Leggott and
I made up the Manzano Day School Super Team. We played all kinds of different
sports and regardless of the sport we always beat the other guys pretty bad.
John Leggott’s family had a cabin in Taos. During ski season went there with
them there quite often. I recall the day they took me to the Longhorn Chutes which
are several steep, deep runs and I slid down the mountain on my butt. It
wasn’t long, however, until I was following them wherever they took me. We had
some terrific times and in the process I learned to ski on one of the most incredible
mountains I have been to. It was a great cabin. Since then I have always
dreamed of having a cabin like theirs in the mountains.
At Manzano I had a teacher whose name was Mrs.
Schmuck. I must have been in second or third grade. I remember she was very
demanding though also had a great sense of humor. She was always joking around
with us and I remember I liked her very much. I also had my first
"girlfriend" at this time. While I really didn't like girls much or
know about the birds and the bees, Carla Villa and I would just sit together
and then go on the swings. I remember we tried kissing and I really don't
think either of us enjoyed it too much. Fortunately, this would change with
time!
Sports were an integral part of my growing up. After the
surgery to fix my food tube, I had to exercise to strengthen my stomach muscles.
My folks enrolled me in gymnastics. It was really good fun. Rolling around
and doing cartwheels and all that kind of stuff. I took lessons at Fishback’s
Studio just a few blocks away from our home at 412 Alvarado in Albuquerque. The only part I didn't like was when we would have recitals and I had to get
all dressed up in what I considered kind of girlish clothes. They also put
makeup on us because of the bright lights and I wasn't too crazy about that either.
At about this same time I started to take swimming
lessons. My dad was a Captain in the Air Force and we used to go to the
officer's club at Kirtland Air Force Base. I liked swimming quite a bit. The
biggest thrill was when I finally got to jump off the high board at the pool.
After I did it, I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I learned to swim
pretty well and started taking diving lessons. While this was also was fun, it
never was high on my list of priorities. Perhaps one of the reasons is because
of the time I was doing a back flip and didn't jump out far enough. I hit the
back of my head on the board, was knocked unconscious for a moment and the
lifeguard had to drag me out of the pool. My mom took me to the doctor and I
was fine though I never was quite the same on a diving board after that!
I started playing little league baseball when I was
pretty young. I was generally a pretty good player and I particularly liked to
play catcher. I felt like that was where most of the action was.
I recall one time being in a batting slump. If you can
call a 7 or 8 year old being in a slump! In any event, my coach was bound and
determined I was going to hit the baseball. They just kept pitching and
pitching to me. I kept swinging and swinging getting more frustrated all the
time. I must have swung at that ball more than a hundred times. For the life
of me I couldn't hit that stupid little ball. I don't know if it was true or
not but it felt like everybody was laughing at me. I was crying and felt very
humiliated. Finally, I think the coach gave up and I remember going home
crying and vowing I would never play baseball again. I did, of course, and by
the next day I was out there again.
My dad wanted me to be tough. In actuality, I was kind
of a sissy. I clearly remember when my dad bought boxing gloves for my cousin
Stuart and me. I wasn't too terribly thrilled with the idea. Stuart used to
beat on me pretty good. Most of the times I ended up crying and, I'm sure, my
dad humiliated at what a weakling he had for a son. He then bought a speed bag
for me. This was an entirely different story and I got pretty good at knocking
the speed bag around.
In our home on Alvarado we had a pool table. My dad
loved to play pool. At first I just hit the balls around a little bit. Then
my dad showed me how to play and I got pretty good. He used to show me off to
his friends at the parties they had at the house, which was quite often. My mom
would get angry at my dad because he would never let me win at pool. We would
play quite a bit and at first he always beat me. In time, I regularly began
taking games from him.
At one party when I was about 11 or 12 I was drinking
wine coolers; the adults thought this was kind of cute. I ended up getting
pretty tipsy and I remember feeling dizzy. I think that was the first time I “copped
a buzz” with alcohol.
One of my fondest childhood memories was going to my
grandfather's ranch in Grants, New Mexico. Once we were at the ranch my
cousins, Tommy and Stuart, and I were pretty much on our own to do whatever we
wanted to do. We each had 22 caliber rifles and one of the things we did was
to pick off prairie dogs and rabbits. The prairie dogs were the most fun
because they just kind of sat there waiting for you to take them out. The
rabbits were a little bit more challenging because they ran fast and you had to
be a pretty good shot to get them. Another thing we did in Grants was
to ride horses. There were several horses over the years but the ones I
remember the most were Mosca and Estrellita. There was a little Shetland pony
my dad bought for me once but we had to get rid of him because he chased the
cows and never let anybody ride him. With the other two horses we rode all
over the place. One of our favorite things to do was to go camping up on the
mesa. We usually had to ride double on one horse and single on the other. I
remember doing like the movies and running across the mesa trying to knock one
another off the other's horse. It was great fun.
We loved riding in my grandfather's pickup truck. He
used to cruise all over the place and we would usually ride in the back Indian
style. Whenever my Aunt Brenda or any of the other adults were not around, my
grandfather let us ride on the tailgate. I think we fell off a couple of times
but it was usually when he wasn't going very fast.
One time we decided we were going to jump on the train
that went past his land and try to take it into town. To get ready for this we
would practice jumping off the truck and rolling when we hit. When it came
time to actually jump on the train it was usually going too fast for us to
catch it. I do think my cousin Tommy and maybe Stuart caught it once. As I
recall, I always went along for the ride but in the end I always chickened
out.
We spent many hours under the bridge the train went
through by the ranch. We gathered rocks, railroad stakes and anything else we
could find to throw at the train. We especially liked to throw the stakes at
the train at night time because we could see the sparks fly off the railroad
cars. We also threw things at the new cars that passed by on the railroad
cars. I'm sure the insurance companies hated us. Eventually, the railroad
made barriers to protect the cars and prevent damage.
One of the most famous speeches we all got was the “initiative
speech” from my Aunt Brenda. We were just kids and didn't really care for much
except having a good time. On the ranch there was always plenty of work to do
and my Aunt figured that as long as we were there we should share in the load.
That's when we got the “initiative speech.” Although none of us knew what that
word meant, before the end of the speech we certainly learned, after she used it
in her speech about fifty times. We sat there patiently listening to her and
then ran laughing our heads off.
Another important lesson I learned early on was a result
of a gift from my Grandpa Vigil. It was the impetus to my having some healthy
cash flow, which later helped me tremendously! He gave me a Black Angus heifer
when I was quite young. We took her from his ranch in the San Luis Valley to my Grandpa McBride’s ranch in Grants, New Mexico. She was beautiful and, when
the time came, she began producing offspring. Each time a male was born, my
Grandpa McBride would trade me for a heifer. The bull of the herd was one of
the offspring from my original heifer. In time, I had several cows. My
Grandfather cared for them at his ranch, and I would occasionally go with
Stuart and, sometimes the rest of the family, to help around the ranch. The
biggest yearly event was branding the cattle. In the early years it was all
ropes and strength to wrestle the little rascals to the ground so we could
brand, mark and castrate the males which would not be used to breed.
I learned this was hard work and there was always
something which needed to be done. As a secondary benefit, the proceeds from
the sales of my cows helped greatly in funding my bank account and, eventually,
my college education at the University of Colorado.
One of the things I remember well is the way my parents
taught me the value of money. At a very early age I was taken to the bank to
open a savings account. Usually when it came time for a birthday, Christmas or
another special event, if I wanted something that was particularly expensive
they would tell me I could have it but I would have to pay for half of it and
they would pay the other half. This worked for many things. One of the first
items I remember buying is a Panasonic clock radio which has lasted for over
thirty years. In addition, we worked out a deal for my waterbed, fish tank and
other things as well.
When I started driving my mom and dad made a deal with me
on a car they had recently purchased. It was a 1977 blue Honda Accord. The
deal was I would make half of the car payments and they would make the other
half of the payments. When the car was finally paid off at the end of three years
half of the car was mine and the other half was theirs. Coincidentally, I was
graduating from high school about that time and they gave me their half of the
car as my graduation gift.
At the time I can't say I was too crazy about the idea of
paying half for all of these things, especially when many of my friends would
get these things for "free." I now realize it was an excellent way
for me to appreciate the value of the dollar and the necessity to work for
those things I wanted. I am very grateful my folks taught me this important
lesson at an early age.
My best friend when I was growing up was David Jones. To
date we continue to be very close and he is my daughter Chantalle’s Godfather.
We first met playing baseball in Little League. Our friendship developed over
time primarily during baseball season. The fact that we lived close to each
other was a great benefit. He went to public school and I went to private
school. As a result of where I went to school, most of my classmates didn’t
live near me. On the other hand, David was just up the street a few blocks.
One of my fondest memories was getting together with him and going to Fox Park on Alvarado to play baseball. We would go there and spend hours hitting each
other fly balls. Every once in a while we would get together with some other
kids and play "500." But most of all, we were just good buddies.
Like all good friends we had our share of fights and
little battles. Of course, he was usually wrong and I was usually right! In
any event, these fights were always settled in a few days. We would swallow
our pride, make up and go hit fly balls again.
The best part of our childhood relationship was when I
lived at 412 Alvarado. In 1976 we moved to Rio Rancho and he stayed in the old
neighborhood. We would talk and see each other occasionally though our
relationship during our high school years cooled quite a bit. It wasn't that
we didn't want to see each other anymore rather, it was the fact we were at
different schools.
One of the battles I often had with my folks was that I
wanted to go to public school like "David Jones." My parents
resisted and I was sent to the "better" private schools. I was
somewhat of a rebel, though admittedly often without a cause, growing up and I
didn't like being told what to do. The problem intensified when I saw other
people I knew who went to public schools. It seemed to me they never had to
study and had all kinds of time on their hands. Fortunately, my folks
persisted and I continued going to private schools. At the time I was pretty
upset that I had to study and be occupied by school all the time while those I
knew in public schools were having a good time.
I now realize that given my general attitude in high
school, my parents made the best choice and I am glad they persisted in my
going to The Albuquerque Academy. As delinquent and ornery as I was in high
school, I think I would have probably come out of the public school system as a
lost cause.
Fortunately, David always seemed to have his priorities
straight and though he went through the public school system, he graduated from
school certainly as prepared for life as I. After we graduated from high
school I went off to school to the University of Colorado at Boulder and David
went to the University of New Mexico. It was here that our friendship
strangely enough seemed to grow and build once again. Whenever I would come
back to Albuquerque for visits and holidays, I would always call David and we
would get together. By then I had toned my partying down quite a bit and we were
on level ground again.
David was never opposed to a few
brewskis though anything beyond that was not really his cup of tea. When I
toned down on the other type of partying and concentrated on brewski curls we
seemed to get along much better. From then we have continued to be excellent
friends and I feel a great affinity towards him and his family.
California or Bust
We went on a couple of trips to California and to Disneyland when I was small. The first time we went we stayed at my Uncle Jack's place in Carlsbad. When we arrived, it was already dark and thus began my first experience with the
ocean. I must have been about 6 or 7 years old. We went out onto the sand and
I remember being kind of scared because I couldn't really see anything. What I
did hear was the roar of the ocean every time the waves came in. All that
night I was wondering what the ocean was like…
The next day when I saw it, I was in love. We had so
much fun playing in the sand. One day I remember I was playing in the surf
minding my own business and along came a jelly fish and stung me on the foot.
I was whooping and hollering and at first my mom thought I was playing. When
they finally figured out I was really in pain they came to my rescue. I
remember the burning feeling and thinking it was never going to stop. It just
kept burning and burning. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!
Somewhere around the same time I remember a car window
incident with my mom. We were out driving around and I had my head out of the
window from the back seat. My mom started to roll the window up because she
couldn't see me. As she was rolling up the window it got stuck on my neck.
She couldn't see what was happening and I couldn't talk. Fortunately, there
was no serious damage done though it did give us all a chuckle for some time
after that.
The majority of my young life was spent at 412 Alvarado
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I remain very fond of that house many years later.
When we first moved into the house it had a big enclosed porch in the back.
Later my folks remodeled the house and reincorporated that room into the main
living area and made one big party room. Where the porch used to be they put
an old bar style pool table which my sister has to this day!
The backyard was nicely
landscaped with pines and a patch of grass to play on. We had a water fountain
built and in that we put fish. One winter the fish stayed in the pond.
Somehow or another they lived through the winter. I am not sure how because
the pond froze over and I am not sure how they got food.
One event I remember vaguely, but have been told the
story often, is that right after we moved into our home on Alvarado, Stuart and
I were playing on the front porch and fighting about something or another. We
then proceeded to unleash the harshest name calling we could imagine. I told
Stuart he was a "nigger" and he told me I was “adopted." While
the former term is offensive, the latter would soon bring great joy into my
life. These, however, were the worst insults we could muster up at the time,
Another memory I have of Alvarado
house was a time Stuart was raising bunnies. He gave me a bunny and I had the
bunny out back in a cage. He came over and we were playing. For some reason or
another we started fighting. Not an unusual event. Stuart decided he was
going to go home and was going to take MY bunny with him. He got MY bunny in
its cage and went and sat on the curb. I remember crying and crying telling
him that he couldn't take MY bunny away.
I remember a particular night in the house. My parents
usually got baby-sitters for me when I was small but one time my cousin Stuart
and I convinced them that we could stay home alone. We were about 9 or 10. We
were playing with our Hot Wheels which we used to string all over the house.
All of a sudden somebody started knocking on the door. My parents had told us
not to answer the door for anybody. So we just sat there. Pretty soon the
knocking turned into pounding. The man, who we later figured must be drunk,
started yelling, "I know you’re in there; open the door.” We, by that
time, were hiding in the family room crouched low. We stayed that way for
quite a while. The knocking stopped and we stayed put. Then a little later
the guy started at it again. The whole thing seemed to us like it lasted for
hours, but in reality it probably only lasted about 10 minutes.
There were three bedrooms in the house. At first my room was in one of these
rooms at the main end of the house. After I got bigger I moved into a room
that had been made out of a part of the garage. That was paradise for me.
This was the 70's and I remember I had the room fully decked out in black
lights and black light posters. There was a small window high up in the room
where I put orange curtains. I then painted all of my doors black. It was
quite a room. It looked like a pumpkin!
Perhaps the best part of that
room is I had my own separate exit. Although at that time I was probably only
12 or 13 and I really didn't use it much, just the fact that I had it made me
feel important. The truth is there were several nights I can remember being
more than a little scared that a burglar was going to come in that door and get
me. Another part of that house I remember is our remodeled kitchen.
In the kitchen instead of having a kitchen table we had a booth. It was the
same kind they have in restaurants. I always thought that was pretty cool. It
was orange Formica if I remember correctly. Like I mentioned before, this was,
after all, the 70's!
One of my hangouts when we lived
on Alvarado was the Officer’s Club at Kirtland AFB. They had a swimming pool,
which is where I learned to swim, and also where I learned about the birds and
the bees and other things as well. Each summer there would be a group of
people who would get together on most weekdays and just hang out. I used to
ride my bike to the club which was perhaps about 4 or 5 miles away. When I
would get there we would just do whatever came naturally. We used to check out
the girls and just generally do nothing at all. One time I remember somebody
had scored a joint from somewhere and we all went outside the pool and sat
under a tree and blew a joint. It was the first time I had ever smoked pot and
it really didn't seem to be such a big deal to me. The grass may not have been
very good or I didn't have enough but I didn't even cop a buzz.
One other thing I have already
mentioned and remember about being at the Officer’s Club is taking diving
lessons, hitting the diving board, being knocked unconscious and being taken to
the hospital. As I said earlier, my enthusiasm for diving was gone from that
day forward.
It was at this time my mom and dad really wanted to have
another child. The choice was to adopt. We met three-year-old twin girls from
a foster home and they were with us for approximately a month. They were
really cute! Ultimately, they were sent back to their biological mother and we
just waited patiently for the right opportunity to come around.
When the day finally came, it was summer and I was waxing
my mom’s car with some kind of special wax. My dad called us on the phone and on
August 15, 1972, we got the news that Maya Elizabeth was born at 4:00 AM and
she was ours. We immediately left and met my dad at the hospital to see my
little sister. It was a time of great joy and happiness in our home. I can
remember my mom, who was already a pretty good shopper, going crazy getting
ready for Maya!
We went shopping like there was
no tomorrow getting things all equipped for the new baby. I was 10 years old
at that time and the new baby in our home didn't faze me too much. At first I
was probably somewhat indifferent because of our ten year age difference. In
time, I became very close to Maya and love her incredibly!
When Maya was just a few months old she got very sick and
went to the hospital. I was trucked off to my aunt's house and we waited
several very painful days and nights while she was diagnosed as having
pneumococcal meningitis. We were told it was very difficult to tell what the
long term results might be and it was possible the effects could be pretty
serious. Maya went through her illness with flying colors, although she did
lose hearing in her right ear, which the doctors said was the direct result of
the meningitis.
This was also the last time I
would see “El Patron” alive. My Aunt Joan brought my grandparents to see Maya
at the hospital and to stay with me because it was Christmas and my mom was at
the hospital with Maya. My grandfather died the following January, ten days
after we brought Maya home from the hospital.
Some of my fondest memories growing up were playing
football. The very first team I played for in the Young American Football
League was for the Hawks. That first year my mentor was coach Bell. He was very intense! That first year I was somewhat shy. It would be one of only
two years in my football career when I didn’t start a game. I played center
and the starter was a guy by the name of Frank Sedillo. I used to think he was
a god. He was good and I wanted to be like him so badly. As it turns out he
continued playing football and was an excellent player at the high school
level. I would not be surprised if he went on to play college ball. The next
year I continued to play for the Hawks and I was starting, as Frank had moved
up to a different division. That is when I got my first real taste of playing
football. It was a gas and I loved it. I don't think that at first I was
particularly good but I paid attention and learned quickly. Coach Bell wore a
huge gold ring on one of his fingers. Whenever we didn't perform to his
standard, which was quite often, he would smack us on the helmet with that
ring. It would echo around in our heads for a while and was very loud. After
that year I played with different teams in different positions.
The teams I remember were the
Hawks, the Raiders and the 49'rs. One of the teams I really enjoyed the most
was the Raiders. One of my coaches was Gene Franchini, who has remained a very
good family friend. It was with that team I really started to blossom. The
coaches were excellent and very dedicated. They took the game seriously but
also seemed to really care about us as kids and that seemed to take precedence
over all else. I believe some of my deepest underlying values were learned on
the football field. Also, by that time I was starting to get pretty good!
I enjoyed getting out on the
football field and just letting it rip. In general I was pretty shy as a kid
but when I got on the field it seems like I turned into a different person. I
would let it all hang out and the thing that mattered most was hitting and
demolishing the opposing player. I really got a great adrenaline rush out of
the whole thing. My next team was the 49'rs and was coached by some police
officers. My best buddy on the team was Scott Goode. Scott and I had all
kinds of good fun both off and on the field. We were pretty good “hanging out
buddies” and we used to go to the Officer’s Club and raise hell quite a lot.
Scott was always into being mischievous and I usually went along for the ride.
We had a guy on our team by the name of David Proper who had a long ponytail
and a running back whose name was Michael. Boy, he could run! Just by
watching him walk you could tell he could run fast!
During this time Maya was a
cheerleader for a couple of the teams and she was always running around in her
cute little outfits. I went on to play football for the Academy. That story
is best left for a different chapter.
We used to enjoy riding bikes as
kids quite a bit. From 412 Alvarado I used to ride my bike over to my cousin
Tommy's who lived up near the Sandias in the NE heights. It was a pretty big deal
to have my mom let me go by myself. When she finally let me go I remember
thinking I was a pretty big shot. When I got to his house we often rode up
dirt roads to the Sandias. It would take us a long while to get up there and
had usually worked up a sweat by the time we got there. Afterwards came the
best part of all, riding down. We used to haul ass down the dirt roads
skidding and careening our way down. Great fun!
My dad and his brother, my Uncle
Buddy, were great friends while my Uncle Buddy was alive. They were both very
competitive and they were always trying to beat each other at something or
another. I recall one time coming home from my Uncle Billy's house after
Christmas or some other such holiday. My dad had a Jaguar, which was his car
of choice at the time, and my Uncle had his Porsche. We came hauling down I-40
racing and we kids were having great fun. I don't think our moms were quite so
thrilled. I remember thinking my dad and my uncle probably couldn't afford
really expensive cars as kids so this was their way of catching up and having
some thrills.
When I was 10 years old we went
on a trip to Florida and, specifically, to Disney World. It
was a blast. At the time, my dad was doing some legal work for a gentleman
whose name was Glen Turner. He had several different businesses and did pretty
well. I later found out not everyone thought so highly of him and I believe he
might have even done some time in prison. In any event, at that time those kinds
of trips were common and it was first class all the way. After we spent some
time at Disney it was time for me to go home and for my folks to continue on to
a cruise to the Bahamas. My mom later told me this gentleman was pretty
eccentric and he would go around giving hundred dollar bills to all the
ladies. I had to go back to Albuquerque by myself. I was terrified and tried
very hard not to let my folks know how scared I was. I tried to be brave on
the outside though on the inside I was terrified. My mom and dad took me to the
airport and waited for me until it was time for the plane to go. After I got
on the plane I remember crying and thinking how far away I was from home and
hoping I wouldn't get lost on the way. I had about a four hour layover in Dallas and I can remember just wandering around the airport. My folks had made
arrangements with the airlines who knew I was traveling alone and helped me as
much as possible. When I finally landed in Albuquerque I was so happy to be
home. My Aunt Frances picked me up at the airport and I stayed with her until
my folks got back. After that episode I felt like I was a pretty big kid,
especially proud that I didn't get lost on the way back from Florida.
One fond memory I have as a child were the fishing and
camping trips we took with my Uncle Billy. He was always looking to head to
the great outdoors in some way shape or form. We used to go camping up at Navajo Lake. Initially we would fish from the rocks and try our luck in the rivers. Later
we would go out on my Uncle Billy’s boat and go tooling around the lake.
My Uncle Billy also went often to San Carlos in México to
go fishing. These were wonderful trips which involved hauling his boat down to
México and doing all the preparation to make sure things went smoothly. While
the actual fishing was a lot of fun, I can recall the getting ready to get
fishing as being hard work! Nevertheless, having a dolphin fish hooked on the
end of the rod literally fighting for its life is an experience I’ll never forget.
I now realize how much these early experiences later
influenced my life. From my own camping trips with friends during high school
and college to the trips I took later with my family, my love of being out in
the wilderness started from an early age. Much of this I owe to my Uncle Billy
who was always cooking up some way to get us out of the city.
A ski trip I remember very well was going to Aspen, Colorado, when I was about 13 years old. My cousin Stuart came to our house the
night before we were going to leave. We thought we might need some liquid
refreshments for our trip so I sneaked into my dad's bar and snagged a bottle
of Vodka. As I was leaving the bar my mom caught me red-handed with the
bottle. Needless to say, she wasn't very happy with us; I think my dad thought
it was kind of funny.
My cousin Tommy was old enough to drive at the time and I
remember tooling around Aspen in his car which was a Camaro or a Z-28 as I
recall, jamming to ZZ Top's "Tres Hombres.” We had our own room and after
skiing one day my cousins and I got together and somehow managed to buy a huge
bottle of wine and a case of beer. We downed all of it in about half an hour.
We were all pretty plastered. I don't think any of us remembered too much about
what happened after that. When we awoke the next morning we realized that
during the course of the night Tommy had thrown up his retainer in the toilet
and flushed it. That was pretty much the highlight of the trip!
Although I was still pretty young when my maternal
grandfather died, I remember him well. He was a very proud man who was well
respected in his community and who never gave up on anything, including life.
The doctors said that because of poor health he should have died perhaps ten
years before he actually did. Just like the Energizer bunny he just kept
ticking.
The day my grandfather died I had the strangest feeling
coming home on the bus from school. As soon as I walked in the door I knew
what had happened. Although there was a lot of sadness, the overriding feeling
was that of respect for a great man who lived.
There were two deaths that had a profound impact on my
life. One was the death of my cousin Ronnie Warrick and the other was the
death of my Uncle Buddy. Both deaths occurred during my high school senior
year and I was out of town for both. When Ronnie died I was in México on a
hike in Barranca del Cobre and when my Uncle Buddy died I was in Guatemala studying Spanish. Both of these deaths affected me so much because previously
the only people I had ever known who died were old. Both of these guys were
relatively young and it didn't seem fair to me their lives should be cut so
short, so quickly! Both of their deaths were particularly hard on my dad. I
believe he lost his two best friends that year. It was then I began to think about
how important it is to live each and every day to the fullest because we never
know when our time is going to come!
When my Grandmother Vigil died I remember being very
sad. I was already older and I had always had a very deep love for my
grandmother. One thing which happened and greatly lightened the moment was the
“church incident.” My mom had always told me if I was in a Catholic Church and
didn't feel comfortable kneeling and crossing myself, I didn't have to do it.
Even though my grandmother’s service was in the Presbyterian Church I was very
confused. My cousins and I were pallbearers and were situated right up in the
front row of the church. We did not know whether we should kneel or what we
should do. At one point in the service, my cousin Mike asked me if we should
kneel. I told him my mom said I didn't have to if I didn't feel like it. So
we just sat there. I think my mom and aunt were very embarrassed at our
confusion because we kept looking back to see what others were doing.
Rio Rancho
When I was 14 years old we moved to Rio Rancho into a
great big beautiful house on the golf course. At the time I was still going to
school at the Albuquerque Academy which was on the other side of town. I had
to get up early in the morning and take the bus to school. I was normally
involved in activities after school and I usually got home pretty late.
One of my dreams was always to go to public school.
Fortunately, my parents were adamant about my going to the Academy because they
felt it was definitely the best thing for me. In any event, I really wanted
the kind of freedom I saw all the public school kids had. I envied them
because it seemed they never had homework and since school was so close they
had a lot more time to do what they wanted.
My link to this new group of friends was my cousin
Stuart. When he was 15 and I was 14 he got his driver’s license and we would
go messing around in an old Willy's jeep he had. It was a pretty high tech
jeep and the gas gauge consisted of a stick we would use to measure how much
gas we had!
We had quite a bit of fun cruising around and partying.
During that time some of my friends from Cibola High School were Craig Napurano,
Steve Baccum, Ambrose Armijo and Brian, whose last name I have forgotten.
Every once in a while I would manage to ditch school and go to Stuart's and we
would party hardy. We had somewhat of a ritual and would always leave the
place spic and span. We would jam to groups like Foghat, Aerosmith and
Ambrosia. The song “Mama Frog” was always a favorite! I remember some pretty
good, decadent times with that group.
Summers around the “ranch,” which is what we called Rio Rancho, were always good fun. I usually had a girlfriend or two and we would go to the
club and swim quite a bit. Midnight cruises around the golf course were also
pretty popular around that time.
Looking back on things, my life at the Academy was pretty
fulfilling in spite of my desire to go to public school. I started going there
in the fifth grade and finished high school there. Life really changed at the
Academy when I was in eighth grade. That's when girls were admitted and it
made a big difference in my life. It probably was more distracting than all of
the teachers would have liked but we surely had lots of fun.
Before that time I had one girlfriend I remember, Tracee
Galles. I was in the seventh grade and she was going to Sandia Prep. We used
to have our folks take us to dances. The first real date we had was going to
see the movie Young Frankenstein with Mel Brooks. We thought we were pretty
cool at the time holding hands and kissing which felt pretty good. We were
pretty harmless and really didn't know what we were doing. I recall being heartbroken
and crying when Tracee broke up with me.
Then, as I mentioned, in eighth grade girls were admitted
to the Academy and we boys had a field day going out with all of the girls.
During that time I went out with Karen Schalk and then Julie Foster.
With Julie I remember spending hours late into the night
talking on the phone about all kinds of things.
After a while things settled down and my first real
meaningful girlfriend was Sally Kitts. We dated for about two years before
things kind of fizzled out and we each went our own way. We had a great
relationship and really got along well having a wonderful time together.
Though afterward we were never romantically involved, we remained very good
friends and would go partying every once in awhile. The next serious girlfriend
I had was Susan Dermksian. Her father was "The Shoe" and I worked in
his shoe store in Coronado Shopping Center. I was immediately attracted to her
though she didn't give me too much consideration initially.
Sue was from Rhode Island and lived there with her
mother. She would come to be with her father during the summer. The summer of
'78 she came and started working at her father's store. I asked her out and
nothing much happened. She brushed me off and basically said she wasn't
interested. We did hang out together though and got to be pretty good
friends. A little later that summer she set me up with one of her friends and,
interestingly enough, after that is when she started to show interest in me.
By the end of the summer when she had to go back to Rhode Island things had
gotten a little more serious.
She finished her senior year of high school in Rhode Island and the next year returned to Rio Rancho to live with her father and we went
out during my senior year of high school. That whole year I was in heaven. I
always felt really good when I was around her. We had a lot of fun together.
It was also nice that we lived so close to each other. We would meet out on
the golf course a lot of times at night. We would also sneak over to each
other’s homes.
One time I remember we both fell asleep and when we awoke
it was already morning. We had to sneak Sue out. When she walked home, Maya’s
dog Amigo followed her home. I think her dad was suspicious, though nothing
came of it.
We also went out quite a bit with my friend Tim
Anderson. We would go on double dates and go back to his place. He had a
great house and his folks were hardly ever there so it was perfect. In the end
I was going off to college and there was just no real promise for the two of us
so we split up and she went back to Rhode Island while I went off to school in Boulder.
Oh I’m on
my way, I know I am
Somewhere
not so far from here
All I know
is all I feel right now
I feel a
power growing in my hand
Sitting on
my own now by myself…
~ Cat Stevens ~
Those who
flow as life flows know
They need
no other force:
They feel
no wear, they feel no tear,
They need
no mending, no repair.
~ Tao Te Ching ~
An important part of my growing up was playing football.
From the Young American Football League to the Academy I played football with a
passion. One of my fondest memories was when I was first eligible to play
football for the Academy in eighth grade. I wasn't able to start with
everybody else because I was playing YAFL and because of a rule they had I had
to wait for the season to be over. During this time I was talking football
with the coach and my then Chemistry teacher Harry Herder. When I became
eligible, I practiced with the team for about a week without helmet and pads.
The first day I could practice in full pads we did a breakdown drill and I
brought down the fastest back on the team, Matt Jakusz. What I didn’t realize
is during the drill I was supposed to slow down and wait for him to make his
move. I went full steam ahead, as did he. He challenged me and I him as we
both hit head on. We both got up seeing stars!
Coach Herder was thrilled and the next game I started as
middle linebacker. We had some great times on the JV team. The next year when
I was in ninth grade we had an excellent team and coach Herder had moved on.
We had another coach we really didn't respect too much and we pretty much ran
what we wanted to. That was perhaps the best team I played on as far as our
record was concerned. We cleaned house on everyone we played and had a lot of
fun doing it!
While I played just about every position on the football
field, this was the year I got to play quarterback! I started as halfback and
my second position was quarterback. Usually by mid 2nd quarter we started
putting the subs in and I moved to quarterback. We called all our own plays on
the field. It was wonderful! We killed all our opponents, frequently running
up the score.
It was also on this team where my position on defense solidified
as middle linebacker. My passion was always greater on defense and as middle
linebacker I had a great time nailing the poor soul who happened to have the
ball on the other side!
The next year, as a sophomore, I moved up to varsity. We
also had a great team that year and we made it all the way to the state
championships where we lost a heartbreaker. The only problem that year was
that I was small compared to most of the seniors on the team and for the first
time since my very first year I rode the bench most of the time. Fortunately,
we had an excellent team and I was usually able to play most of the third and
fourth quarters because we usually had the game pretty well wrapped up. In terms
of having fun it wasn’t nearly as fun as the previous two years or as the
forthcoming two years.
My junior year was all around good. I was a starter both
ways and I was a force on the team. I was known as a hard fearless hitter and
I was well respected by my teammates and my coaches. Our team that year was
not quite as good mainly because many of the excellent athletes in our school decided
they preferred to play soccer rather than football. It worked for them and
they were state champions for two years running. In the meantime, we were
having a ball. Our team was pretty tight knit and despite the fact that I
wasn't in the "jocks" group I was well accepted because of the way I
played. I finished the year with an award for All District First Team Linebacker.
I was pretty thrilled about that!
I was fortunate enough in my senior year to have the kind
of year many people only dream about. I had a beautiful girlfriend, a car,
great friends and I was captain of the football team. Everything about that
year seems like a dream and I feel very fortunate to have lived it. Much of what
I achieved I attribute to my parents who always made me work for whatever I
got, with the exception of school tuition. I believe these values enabled me
to have the kind of year I had. In any event, getting back to football, I was
co-captain of the team and while we didn't have a great team we sure had a lot
of fun.
I played offensive right guard and left middle linebacker
on defense. In addition, I was on all special teams. There were two games
during the year where I played every single play of the game. One game when I
played every play was in Española. I remember one play where, while going to
make a tackle, I fell in a pile of cow pie which covered the front of my
jersey. Apparently in Española they also use the football field to graze
cattle.
At the end of the year I was again chosen for All
District First Team Linebacker and received an award for Honorable Mention
Offensive Guard. The most meaningful award that year, however, came from my
teammates who gave me the Most Valuable Player Award, which was indeed very
special.
Those are years which will always live in my memory and
while I was never big enough to play when I got to the University of Colorado,
I believe what I learned in those years of playing football was as important as
any other part of my education.
On our Senior trip we went to Barranca del Cobre in México.
This was indeed an incredible trip. My friend Gus Appenzeller was with me on
the trip and we had a whale of a time. We first went to Chihuahua where we
spent the night and were thrilled we could just walk into any store and buy
whatever kind of liquor we wanted. The purchases we made came in very handy during
the remainder of the trip much to the dismay of our sponsors. We were amazed as
little kids went into stores to buy liquor and cigarettes for their parents or
perhaps for themselves as well!
The next day we hopped on a train that took us to the
canyon. The trip was spectacular and since my first trip I have taken the same
train ride two other times. Once we got to the canyon we found a guide to take
us to the bottom. There he left us and we were to travel for about five days
before we got to another place where another guide would meet us to take us
out. We followed the river for about three spectacular days.
Gus and I found one cave to stay in which belonged to
some of the local Tarahumara Indians. During that time of the year the Indians
were up higher and so we took over their cave for two nights.
It was there where one of our sponsors was injured. At
the time we felt it served him right because he wasn't very nice during the
first part of the trip. In any event, we couldn't go any further. Since we
had not reached the point where we were supposed to get out, we were stuck.
Fortunately, there was a little Indian boy who had been watching us curiously
and fortunately he led us out of the canyon. I remember thinking how ironic it
was. Here were all these gringos with big backpacks and more gear than you can
imagine contrasted with a little boy with his drum and small satchel with bread
and cheese. He would walk up ahead of us and then just sit down and play his
drum until we caught up. I’m quite sure he was amused with the whole situation
and was sure if he left we were sure to get lost!
Once we got to the top of the canyon we convinced some
guy to let us sleep in his stable and from there we caught a ride back to one
of the little towns where the train stopped. When I got back to Albuquerque I found out that my dad's first cousin Ronnie Warrick had died in a car
accident. As I mentioned previously, this had a profound effect on me as did
my Uncle Buddy's death about a month later. Ronnie was, I believe, my dad's
best friend; they were great buddies. I know it really hurt my dad. This,
along with the death of his brother Buddy, to whom he was also very close, hurt
my dad more than I believe we will ever know.
The Academy provides seniors the opportunity to do what
is called a “senior project.” Each student can choose a special field of
interest and do a sort of internship that lasts about five weeks. I chose to
go to Guatemala to study Spanish.
It was quite an experience. One of the first things I
remember is getting off the plane in Guatemala City. I had to find a place to
stay there for the night and then the next day get a bus to Quetzaltenango
better known as Xela. That first night was pretty scary. Even though I had
taken Spanish classes and could defend myself somewhat, this was different and a
combination of fears, uncertainties and doubts crept into my being. In any
event, I got through the night and managed to get to the right bus and head off
to Xela. It was amazing to me people would ask the bus to stop in the middle
of nowhere and they would promptly get off the bus and disappear into the
jungle.
When I finally got to Xela my "brother" was
there to meet me and take me to my new home for the next five weeks. The
family I lived with was very humble and had a terrific outlook on life. They
had no car, no phone and could barely make ends meet yet their spirit is
something I admire greatly to this day. I have thought about them often over the
years. This experience perhaps more than any other led me to my career in
International Business. Most importantly, I learned to value many things which
had nothing to do with money.
The school I went to was excellent. Each day for three
to four hours in the morning and three to four hours in the afternoon it was
one on one with a teacher who, in most cases, did not speak any English. While
it was frustrating at times, I was forced to speak the language. In addition,
the family with whom I lived spoke no English. I recall many evenings going
to the movies with the father of the family. He was a very decent, honest and
down to earth guy. After the movie we would walk home and talk for hours. I
also spent quite a bit of time with my "brother" and we went out and
partied quite a bit. One night he and I downed a bottle of some rot gut
whiskey and were generally pretty decadent.
It was during this time that my Uncle Buddy died. I
recall the day I found out he had died of complications from a heart operation
I was going to the beach. My “brother” couldn't come with me the same day and
so I went alone. I bought a hammock and strung it up on the beach. I had a
full day and night to think and reflect on life and death. After it was all
said and done I realized how important it is to live each and every day to the
fullest. We never know when our time is going to come so we might as well grab
all we can in this life! While both my Uncle Buddy and my cousin Ronnie died
at a very early age, I believe they both also lived very happy satisfying
lives.
One other place I remember particularly well in Guatemala was a natural hot spring up in the hills around Xela. It was beautiful. I had
never seen anything like it. The jungle was thick and lush and they had built
a swimming pool to gather the nice warm water that came from the spring. I
remember taking some pictures though after they were developed they didn't do
justice to the place. It was, in fact, breathtaking.
Another interesting experience I had while I was there
was trying to go out with one of the locals. I fell head over heels with one
little Guatemalan gal. In the end all I got was a little kiss and that was
about it! I was indoctrinated into the world of courtship Latin style. I
would go over to her house and sit and talk but her parents would never let her
go out with me. As I reflect, they were very smart parents! Although it was
not one of my more passionate relationships it certainly was very interesting.
Fortunately my parents always encouraged me to work. I mowed
lawns, sold raffle tickets and the like from a very early age. My first job
was mowing the neighbor’s yard. The guy was very “picky” always making a
thorough check on every little thing I did. It was kind of like getting
“detailed” in front of a firing squad!
Another one of my early jobs involved my mom, my dad and
my car. When I was 15 years old and able to drive they made the deal with me I
have previously mentioned. I paid half of the monthly payment and they paid
the other half on a recently acquired Honda Accord. The first question
obviously was how I was going to get the money to pay for my half.
They had a solution for this as well! Three times a week
I was “Sanitary Engineer” for my father’s law offices. This is just a nice way
to say I was a janitor and cleaned offices! In general, I think I did a pretty
good job though my dad might remember it differently. I would dust, throw out
the garbage, vacuum and clean the bathrooms, which was my least favorite part!
In addition, I would do a little deeper cleaning every once and a while.
Although I’m sure it was not as deep nor as often as my father would have
liked.
This also turned out to be pretty handy when I had a date
and we had no place to go. I always had a place to go. Warm and cozy with
music and privacy, very convenient indeed!
I was also introduced to the wonderful world of Pizza. I
started working at Shakey's Pizza Parlor. At this job I would make pizza in
front of a glass window where all the little kids would sit and watch. A lot
of them would make faces at us and we would sometimes make faces back. One of
the highlights of this job was that for each shift we were allowed to make and
eat a small pizza. We got pretty creative and made some pretty awesome pies,
particularly those which were on the spicy side!
Over the next several years, I worked in many different
pizza places. I made pizza, stocked ingredients for pizza, cleaned pizza
places, delivered pizza, charged for pizza and did just about everything else
that had to do with pizza.
Another job I had was working at “The Shoe’s Place”
selling shoes. We really had a ball working in Coronado Shopping Center and
checking out the chicks. It was during this time when some other guys who were
working at the store turned me on to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. This is
also where I met Sue, who later became a very important part of my life.
One summer I worked sweeping out houses in a new
subdivision in Rio Rancho. Before the painters would come we had to sweep out
the houses and get all the dirt and dust out. I worked that summer with this
older guy. It was then I realized how important it was to get a good
education. While he was a nice enough guy and we had many interesting
conversations, I certainly didn’t want to spend the rest of my life sweeping
out houses!
Another summer I worked at the golf course. I drove the
Sand Pro at 6 AM raking all the sand traps. This was actually a pretty good
job. Even though I had to get up early, I would usually meet Anthony Chavez
around the 11th hole and we would party a bit and have a good old time.
At another time I worked at a Pizza and Sub place at the
bottom of the hill near Corrales. This was not very eventful except for the
fact that I did everything. Made Pizza, made Subs, worked the cash register
and cleaned up.
Because of all of the jobs I had, I usually had my own
spending cash. This helped me appreciate the value of hard work and making my
own money. I was able to buy many things on my own. For certain occasions, like
my birthday and Christmas, in addition to what they bought for me, my folks
would still split 50-50 for special things I wanted. My jobs kept me pretty
busy. Between school, work and football I was always on the go. Fortunately, it
didn’t take away from my fun, for which I always found time, often to my folks’
dismay.
This was a wonderful time to be alive and in high
school. Even though I went to a prep school where there was a great emphasis
on school work, we always found time to have fun. As I mentioned before, I
always wondered what it would be like to go to a public high school where
school work wasn’t so demanding. In my view the public school kids really had
it made. They had all kinds of time to party hardy!
We had our special times though. One of the greatest of
all party spots was La Sala. This was an old house which had burned down out
on the mesa going towards the Sandia Mountains. All that was left was the
basement. We took it over and it became our hang out. Whenever we could we
would go and hang out. During school, after school and on weekends, it was the
place to be.
With my Cibola High School buddies we would go down to a
place by the river. We called it Asia. We would go down there, have keggers
and generally have a rip roaring time. In the summer when the weather was nice
we would dive into the Rio Grande and get whooshed downstream.
I was fortunate to have a pretty killer house for
parties. My folks were pretty lenient when it came to allowing my friends to
come over. We had a pool and a great big golf course as a backyard. Many a
time we hung out at my place with a few cold ones.
During high school I would also go out to meet Anthony
Chavez on the golf course to party. Since he had control of the watering
schedules, he would make sure our spot wouldn’t get watered until early in the
morning. We had a killer spot on the tee box of the fifth hole with a great
view of Albuquerque. We would pull up a chair, party and talk about all kinds
of things. My mom always thought Anthony was a bad influence on me. Looking
back on it, I suppose we were probably bad influences on each other.
Ambrose Armijo’s house was another party spot. He was
Stuart’s friend and had a room off to the side of his folks’ house. We used to
do major partying there. Albums I remember from that particular time are
“Foghat - Fool for the City,” “Pink Floyd - Animals” and “Ambrosia song Mama
Frog.” As I previously mentioned, another choice party spot was Stuart’s house
during the day. His folks worked so we had a perfect opportunity for
mid-afternoon partying. The thing I remember most is the post party clean up.
We were very efficient and had it down to a science. In no time we had things
spic and span and we were out of there.
At school we had a special locker room for the football
players. The lockers were particularly big to hold all the football gear. We
took one locker and set it aside for party gear. In particular, during
baseball season we had our share of parties there and in the tunnels under the
school with a cool custodian by the name of Gene. Frequent deodorant fights
disguised the party.
A wonderful part of growing up in the 70’s was the
music. While I’m sure each generation is sure they have the very best music, I
am certain there is nothing which will ever quite come close to the music of
the 70’s!
When Stuart started driving, we went to the Pit for my
very first concert, War. I was blown away by the whole atmosphere of the
concert. The people, the lights, the energy and the music immediately
penetrated my soul and my being. Stuart was driving an old beat up Willy’s
Jeep which had a faulty gas gauge. He would open the gas tank and put a stick
inside to see how much gas he had. On this particular day he must have read
the stick incorrectly because we ran out of gas on Coors Blvd. At that time,
there was little street lighting and Coors Blvd was a two lane road. While I
can’t remember exactly how we got out of the predicament, we somehow managed.
And all this before cell phones!
I went to many concerts, though I’m not exactly sure how
many. When I was dating Susan her brother Mike was a Disc Jockey at a local
radio station. He got tickets to all the shows coming to town and usually gave
us a couple. While each concert experience is unique and has its own character
and feel, the 70’s concerts still rank as some of my favorites.
The 70’s came to a close. I graduated in May of 1980 and
got ready for a big move to Boulder, Colorado. The summer before going to Boulder was one of basking in the sunshine while hitting on the local talent in Rio Rancho
and Albuquerque. Being eighteen, full of energy and spirit brought some great
times with friends and acquaintances. The summer of 1980 was a summer to
remember as the last when I would be living in Rio Rancho and in New Mexico on a permanent basis.
University of Colorado at Boulder
I don’t think I will ever forget the first day I arrived
in Boulder. My mom, dad, and Maya drove me to Boulder and the first place
where we ate was the International House of Pancakes just off the Boulder – Denver Turnpike. We then went to Nichols Hall which was to be my residence for
the next year. After unpacking my stuff which included the famous radio I
bought when I was about 10 years of age, a footlocker and my trusty filing
cabinet, my folks and Maya were off with teary eyes. My own eyes were also
tearing. I was both excited and afraid of the adventure to come.
I lived on First East in Nichols Hall. We later donned
the name, “The First East Beasts.” The first people I met when I got to school
were Gil Juarez and Tim Tafoya who were the local Chicano contingency. Since
we got there a couple of days early, we went to a few meetings and a few
parties waiting for the rest of the people to arrive at school.
On the day I finally met my roommate, Hugh Barber, he
took me by surprise. He was a short energetic guy with reddish – blonde hair.
The first thing that struck me was how disorganized and messy he was. Since we
lived in close quarters in a room that was about 3 meters by 5 meters (12ft by
20ft) his disorderliness was at first somewhat of a shock. I soon got used to
it and we became great friends over the next two semesters of school.
Our first order of business was to check out the local
fraternities who were all having their Rush parties. We went to several and
drank their beer though with the exception of two guys on our floor, we
remained independent. The First East Beasts soon developed energy for partying
and having fun and we were legends in our own minds!
There were several humorous events that occurred during
that first year in Boulder. One of the first things we instigated was a
Wednesday evening study break. One of the guys on our floor was older, 22 or
23. His name was Tony Leavitt and he was from Maine. The age is significant
because he was able to buy beer and liquor for us. The Wednesday evening study
breaks became a tradition. We started the party at 10:00 PM and it usually went
on until the wee hours of the morning. One of the rages during that year was
upside down shots. We would do upside down shots of Tequila and Vodka which
were usually mixed in our mouth with Rose’s Lime Juice. Good healthy fun.
Needless to say, many of us didn’t make our morning classes on Thursdays.
Friday afternoons usually entailed a trip to Liquor Mart
with Tony where we would stock up for the weekend. We would usually start the
party on our floor and then wander out into the campus to see what kind of
trouble we could get into. At that time we had a group of guys from First East
that usually hung out together. There was me, Hugh Barber, David Fishman, Bill
Gallen, Mike, Josh, Randy, Wormy and our Resident Advisor who was supposed to
keep us out of trouble. In fact our RA often joined us and was an integral
part of our fun.
October 31st rolled around and I experienced my first
Halloween in Boulder. Halloween in Boulder is an event like no other. The
town goes wild. Everyone dresses up and it is one huge party. I can’t
remember right now what I was dressed up as though I do remember I had my face
painted and for some reason I ended up sleeping in David Fishman and Bill
Gallen’s room which was right next to mine. More than likely my roomie Hugh
locked me out of our room because his girlfriend was visiting. The next
morning my folks called and Hugh came to get me in Fish’s room. I remember
going to my room to get the phone and getting scared when I saw my face in the
mirror.
Dorm life was a blast. One of the things everyone did
was to try and make their dorm rooms as distinctive as possible. Some went
with bright and rosy motifs, others with black lights and posters. Hugh and I
had an interesting combo of Playboy super models posters and a wonderful plant
which we put in an electrical spool in the middle of our room. Everyone who
came into our room was required to autograph the spool in their own unique
way. It made for quite a conversation piece.
When November rolled around and the weather started
turning, we all got out our ski equipment and test drove our equipment in the
halls. It was hilarious watching everyone skiing around the carpet in the
hallway. Probably my best buddy during that time was David Fishman. I had a
pair of ultra light Hexel skis that were about 180 cm. He convinced me to get
some “real boards.” I found an advertisement for someone who was selling some
downhill Atomic skis. I never knew the exact length though they were close to
220 cm. The first time there was an opportunity to hit the slopes, we were
there like a bear. I had my Honda Accord, complete with ski racks, and we
never missed a chance to head for the hills. All I needed was the first time
to strap on my newly purchased cruiser skis and I was hooked! I really dug the
long giant slalom turns and developed a serious Need for Speed!
When the second semester rolled around, several of us,
including Fish and me, arranged our schedules so that all or almost all of our
classes were on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were
reserved for skiing. We had discount passes and had the whole thing figured
out. Our favorite place to go was Arapahoe Basin. We learned that mountain
like it was the back of our hand. In the end we were skiing for about $12 to
$15 per day including gas, tickets and food. Our first order of business each
day was to bury a bottle of wine in the snow to be popped open later in the day
for lunch. We had a blast!
Skiing with Fish brought a whole new element into my
skiing style. I was previously a bump guy and loved the challenge of the
bumps. With my new downhill skis, I became a cruiser. More importantly, I
learned the wonderful feeling of dashing in and out of the trees. Arapahoe Basin was ideal for this! We would hop on the Palavacini lift and ski it all day
without going on the same exact route all day. It was steep, deep and very
diverse with a long run out at the end which allowed us to rev up our engines
and go.
Lunch time would come and we would zero in on our stashed
wine bottle. Anything left from the bottle went into our bota bags for a
little warmth on the chairlift. We did manage to break a few bota bags which
resulted in an interesting stain on our chest, not to mention the odor of alcohol
to keep us going.
When I look back on that particular year, it contains
some of the most memorable moments of my life. We were all on our own for the
first time; all looking to find ourselves and going skiing as much as
possible. Add all that up and you get lots of craziness and very little school
work being done. It was a time also when I met Robin Reinacker, who was my
girlfriend initially and later became one of my best friends at school.
During my first year of school I took on a couple of different
jobs. The first job was with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group. My
job was to go around with a clipboard asking people pretty silly questions
about the environment. That didn’t last for very long. The next job I got was
at PSI Design. PSI manufactured really hip furniture made from wood. Most of
the pieces are fairly large and hang from the roof or a tree somewhere. We
made chairs, loveseats and airplanes for little kids. The process went from
drawing patterns on the boards, cutting, sanding, finishing and assembling.
After I started working there, I got a job for my friend Tim Tafoya who left
part of one of his fingers in the band saw one day. Ouch!! Both Tim and I
continued to work at PSI for a few years. Twenty years later I still have some
hanging chairs to show for my hard work and most are still in pretty good
shape!
Around this time my dad invited me to go on a trip with
him and we took a tour which included Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. The highlights were a ball game in Los Angeles, walking along Fisherman’s Wharf
in San Francisco and taking in some shows in ever sparkling Las Vegas.
While the trip was enjoyable with regards to where we
went and what we did, it was also a trip which would change my relationship with
my father for the better. As we were sitting in our hotel room in Los Angeles, he came clean with me. Our relationship had been somewhat forced for many
years primarily because I didn’t feel he treated my mother the way I thought he
should.
He told me, “Robbie, I know I haven’t always been a good
father and husband. There are things which I have done which I am sure I could
have done better. I just want to let you know I’m not perfect and while I do
the best I can, I realize that isn’t always good enough. I’m sorry for
anything I’ve done to hurt you.”
This was the first time I had seen my dad in this light.
To me he was always the authority figure who was beyond reproach. He was the
successful lawyer, the confident politician and always the life of the party.
He was not the one to sit down and lay his emotions on the line. The fact he
did this with me helped me to see him in a different light. This trip made me
realize that in addition to being my father, he was also a friend and human
being who has his virtues and faults.
I decided to get customized license plates during my stay
in Boulder. My 1977 Blue Honda which was a great car and ran strong throughout
my years at CU was originally registered in New Mexico. So I went to the Department
of Motor Vehicles and asked for plates which said, “I CU.” I was pretty proud
of my creativity and loved going driving around with those plates until I got
my residency in Colorado and had to change them.
About two weeks before my sophomore year started in Boulder, I returned and helped my friend Bill Gallen and his dad refinish a basement on a
townhouse they bought. Bill, Randy Cundit and a guy named Gary were my
roommates for that year. The basement was to be my home and it was pretty
killer! I had bought an old refrigerator in Albuquerque that had been turned
into a beer meister. We had cold beer on tap and darts in the basement which
led to a great party atmosphere.
David Jones made an incredible wood handle for my beer
meister. When I sold it a few years later, the person asked, “It comes with
the handle, right?” I mumbled something about it being a gift from one of my
best friends and much to my dismay heard myself say, “Sure, why not?” As I
reflect on it now, it was probably the best thing to do. While I have often
wished I hadn’t given it away, it is probably still to this day in use
somewhere, with the same spectacular handle!
I had my waterbed set up along with my armoire in a
separate room in the basement. The only problem was it got rather cold down
there though it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be handled with a space heater.
In those days we were pretty frugal with electricity bills. On one long
weekend, I think for Thanksgiving, we turned down the heat only to find our pet
bird Fred frozen to death. While this was a traumatic time, we were able to
pull ourselves up and continue on with our lives.
It was also during fall of my sophomore year when we
found out the Rolling Stones were coming to Folsom Field in Boulder. My friend
Bill and I came up with a bright idea. We decided we were going to sneak into
the concert by climbing the wall. Bill was a hard core rock climber and was
convinced we could do it. This was, of course, after a few marathon sessions
with our beer meister. On our way home one night from a party we decided to
test it out. We went to the field and after getting up about 20 or 30 feet, I
had no place left to go. With no hand holds, I peeled off the face of the rock
and fell on my heels and then my backside. I got the wind knocked out of me
pretty good. After catching my breath, we rode home. The next morning I
couldn’t walk. It took me about a week to get back on track again. In the
end, we ended up buying tickets to see the Rolling Stones!
Rolling Stones weekend came around and my buddy David
Jones came up with a few of his friends. Their names were Joe, Carl and
Melissa. It was also right around Halloween which meant it was nonstop party.
We cruised the Pearl Street Mall and went to all kinds of parties leading up to
the concert. When concert time came around, Mick Jagger and his buddies were
incredible. There was nonstop energy for the entire concert. We all had a
great time. When it came time for David and his friends to head home there
were a couple of my roommates who wanted to be packed in Melissa’s bag because
she was a cutie.
My sophomore year was one of getting into the rhythm of
school and having a good time partying with my friends. While I got to be
pretty good friends with Bill Gallen, I never really got too close to Randy and
Gary. They were both frat rats and had an entirely different agenda. They
were always going off with their fraternity brothers doing different insane
things. Bill at that time was heavy into climbing and was constantly going up
to the Flatirons to do some bouldering. I went several times with him and
while I did some rock climbing, I never really got into it. Hanging on to the
side of a rock for my life was not my idea of a good time. While it definitely
brought an adrenaline rush, it just wasn’t for me. All in all I spent more
time with Bill, David Fishman, Hugh Barber and Robin Reinacker. All in all,
the townhouse experience was very positive!
Once my sophomore year was over, I headed back to Albuquerque. My dad helped me get a job at United Wholesale Liquor through his friend Mike
Chiordi. Talk about the fox in the hen house! My main job was to go around the
warehouse with a shopping basket filling orders that would be packed and loaded
onto trucks for shipping to the restaurants, bars and package liquor stores.
One of the guys I met there played football for St. Pius, who was our arch
rival when I was at the Academy. It turns out he played right offensive guard
and left middle linebacker just like me. We played directly across from each
other on both offense and defense! He graduated one year before I did so we
played against each other when I was a junior and he was a senior in high
school. We both remembered each other very well and this led to a fast
friendship.
By the end of the summer I was promoted out of the
warehouse and my friend and I were riding around town delivering liquor. For
some strange reason I can’t recall, it didn’t seem to matter that neither one
of us was twenty one years of age, which was the legal drinking age in New Mexico. Neither of us minded one little bit. It was during that summer I started a
collection of miniature liquor bottles which Maya later inherited. I believe
they may have all been subsequently polished off, though I’m not sure who
initiated the miniature bottle fest!
Junior year I decided to move out of the townhouse and I
rented a condo with Tim Tafoya and Gilbert Juarez on Valmont St. fairly close
to the Pearl Street Mall. We were the resident Chicanos of our group and got
along well together. Tim was from Golden and Gil from Denver. They both had
jobs on the weekends close to their homes and so they were normally away on
weekends. This was fine by me because that left the house to me and I could do
as I pleased. Both Tim and Gil were great roommates, very easy to get along
with and friendly. At that point the novelty of being away from home and at
school had worn off quite a bit and we had mellowed somewhat although we did
have our moments!
As usual when Halloween came around we were there like a
bear. I dressed up as a G.I. Joe and we all headed to the Pearl Street Mall.
I don’t remember how they got there though I went on my bike. For most of the
time I lived in Boulder I went everywhere on my bike. We wandered the mall and
laughed at all the crazies for awhile. Later on in the evening, I lost them
and ended up going inside the Flatirons Theater where there were lots of people
and lots of dancing. I met a couple of people I knew and met a new friend from
the Ritz, a funky store on the mall. As usual, Halloween was one of the
highlights of the year.
Monterrey
In January, I left to study abroad in Monterrey, México.
The school I went to was El Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores en Monterrey, better known as “El Tech.” I got there with visions of speaking Spanish all the
time and being fully immersed in the society. What I didn’t expect was to meet
some great friends from the United States. One was Bill McIlwaine and the
other was Leo Redmond. I also ended up moving into an apartment close to the
university with a girl named Cathy.
While Cathy and I never dated, we became very good
friends. We lived in a cinder block apartment with almost no furniture. I had
taken a little boom box with me to México and it was during this time I really
learned how to juggle well. To this day whenever I hear a Joe Jackson song I
automatically start looking for three objects to practice my juggling! My only
challenge was to keep the flying balls away from the corner where we had a
stack of Tecate cans all the way to the ceiling. Drinking Tecate with lime,
salt and jalapeños for chasers was our favorite pastime. A couple of years
later, I found out Cathy died in a tragic car accident.
Life at The Tech was great. I learned all about “mañana”
and focused on having a good time. My first classroom experiences there were a
trip. I thought I spoke Spanish fairly well though was humbled when I actually
had to take all of my classes and exams in Spanish. The teachers took it easy
on the foreigners and we were all able to get passing grades without too much
trouble.
Bill and I had a great time raising hell in México. We
went to Tampico several times. On one of the trips I hooked up with a little
coastal gal and we went round and around a bit. One day we went to the beach
and Bill lay out in the sun a little too long getting as red as a lobster. I
don’t think he recovered for a couple of weeks! Later that night I remember us
all going to a dance. The disco song “Gloria” was blasting on the dance floor
and we had a good old time!
One of my trips to Tampico involved going to Nogales to get my visa renewed. Rather than getting a student visa, several of us decided
we would just go in on visitor’s visas and renew them when the time came. If
I’m not mistaken we had to renew them after 3 months. I really didn’t think
anything of it, so I went from Monterrey to Nogales and bought a ticket to go
to Tampico a couple of hours later.
I walked across the border and into the USA where I stayed for approximately 8 minutes, at which time I turned around and walked back to
México. As I was going back in, the immigration official stopped me and took
me into a “little room” for further interrogation. My backpack had several
books from the Tech and I had some tortillas which I had also purchased in Monterrey to snack on.
The immigration officer knew what was going on and I knew
he knew. I was stuck. He delayed me just enough to miss my bus to Tampico. We finally negotiated and he let me go. It cost me a bottle of cologne, a few
pesos and I think I may have thrown a tortilla in for good measure. As I
boarded a bus for Tampico a few hours later, I sighed in relief and continued
on my merry way.
When Spring Break rolled around, Leo Redmond and I threw
some stuff in our backpacks and headed out for an adventure through México with
a couple of hundred bucks in our pockets and a deep desire for adventure. We
hitched and bussed our way through a good chunk of real estate in México.
We started our adventure by taking a bus to México City. We stayed there for the night, wandered around a bit the next morning and
headed to another station where we took a bus to Guadalajara. We arrived early
afternoon and went to get something to eat. A short time later we hooked up
with some locals and started partying. Although our plan was initially to stay
in Guadalajara for several days, they convinced us to go with them that night
to Puerto Vallarta. After a pretty steady run of beer and fun, we rolled into
the bus station about 11 or 12 PM. We caught a bus and were on our way to Puerto Vallarta.
As we pulled into Puerto Vallarta, the sun was peeking
over the mountains. We headed straight for the beach, first stopping by a
liquor store to restock. We found a place to camp and set up. I recall
needing to clean up pretty bad and going into a bathroom close to the pool at
one of the hotels nearby. As I was cleaning up a funny old guy came in the
bathroom and said with a smile, “Don’t mind me, you can keep bathing there!”
We were talking a bit and after he did his business he washed his hands and we
continued our banter. When we said goodbye, he shook my hand with his still
wet hand said, “Sorry about that, I always piss all over myself!” I laughed so
hard I thought I was going to die! Fortunately he was only kidding as he had
just washed his hands.
After hanging out in Puerto Vallarta for a few days, we
hopped on a ferry and headed over to Cabo San Lucas. We really had no idea at
all where we were when we arrived so we stocked up on supplies and asked where
the beach was. We found one beach and decided there must be a better place to
camp up the coast. We ended up huffing and puffing our way over a mountain
which had no trail we could find. When we came down the other side, we came to
the most spectacular beach I had ever seen.
The waves were huge and crashed into the beach. We found
a secluded cove and decided it was “the” place to camp. We set up and began to
enjoy one of my most memorable moments at a beach. There was absolutely no one
around. While the surf was a little too stiff for us, we were just happy to be
in paradise. I felt total freedom. We ended up staying there for three days
and two nights. In the entire time we were there, we saw only one other
person. When we ran out of supplies, we headed back to civilization and caught
a ferry to Mazatlan.
In Mazatlan we met up with Bill who had rented a room
with a couple of other people. We had our tent pitched in a campground and
showered and cleaned up in the hotel. Bill and I met two sisters from Los Angeles and had the time of our lives for about five days or so. The girls were
staying at a nice place on the beach so we made ourselves useful, as
companions. We went to the discos, stayed up late on the beach and generally
had a wonderful time. The four of us partied together and then we would go our
separate ways for private time. I later met my friend again in Los Angeles for my cousin Dawn’s wedding. She met me at the airport and whisked me off to
the place where my old girlfriend Sally Kitts was performing in a band
somewhere in LA. From Mazatlan we cut out and took a bus back to Monterrey to finish our semester at the Tech.
I decided to stay in Boulder and get caught up on a
couple of classes to make my senior year easier. I rented a house with the
Fish, Josh Racko and another guy who buzzed around in a Vespa. While we were
all taking some classes, we were much more interested in partying and having a
good time.
I got a job at Abo’s, delivering pizza which is among the
best jobs I have ever had. While I met up with a bozo every once in a while,
in general the people tipped well and they were always happy to see the “Pizza
Guy.” When they didn’t have cash for a tip, they were always happy to
improvise with whatever they had at hand, which in turn led to some very
interesting evenings and even a romantic interlude.
One day as I was in the gym, I got interested in the
aerobics classes which I always saw going on. I signed up and was hooked in a heartbeat!
There was good music, good exercise and about 20 to 30 good looking ladies
jumping around in tights. Things don’t get too much better than that! In
addition, there were only a couple of guys in every class, so that made things
even more interesting.
One particularly sprite girl caught my eye early on in
one of my classes. While we never talked, there was definite chemistry going
on, particularly during the song “Drop the Pilot” which was part of the
instructor’s sequence of songs. I always managed to position myself towards
the back of the class so I could keep a good eye on everything and make sure
everything went smoothly.
I frequently stayed after class and juggled in the gym
which had great high ceilings and a nice hard floor to bounce my juggling
balls. On the last day of one of my classes, I heard my nice looking young
lady speaking broken English to the professor. She was giving the professor a
gift and when she was finished, I went and talked to her. When I learned she
was from Venezuela, I immediately wanted to practice my Spanish. While she
seemed semi-interested, there was nothing which really led me to believe it
would be more than a casual acquaintance.
This was the first time I talked to Haydee who would
become my wife and who has been my companion and best friend for the past 23
years. As I write these lines at 44 years of age, she has been with me for
over half of my life!
I asked her if she would be interested in going to a
party that night and she gave me a resounding, “Maybe!” I asked her for her
phone number and she said she didn’t have a phone. While times have changed
over the years, in the 1980’s everyone had phones! So I took this as a brush
off. In any event, I gave her my phone number and asked her to call me if she
wanted to go.
I went back home and didn’t think much would come of my
meeting with my Latin American princess. While I wanted much more, I really
didn’t expect much to happen. To my surprise, later that night I got a call.
As it turns out, that call was the beginning of a wonderful future together.
I later found out Haydee was playing a game of backgammon
with a guy by the name of Fernando. Haydee was living with him and his wife
Gisela in Boulder. The bet was that if Haydee lost she had to call the gringo
who wanted to speak Spanish. If she won, she wouldn’t have to! She later told
me she didn’t really want to go out with anybody who wanted to speak Spanish
because she wanted to speak English. Fortunately for me, she “lost the game”
and called me. I’d like to think while she “lost” the battle, she definitely
“won” the war! We decided to go to the party and she told me where she lived.
I went to get her and we went to a party my roommates told me about.
I really didn’t know many of the people at the party and
neither did she so we spent the night talking and really digging and getting
into each other. We talked about a lot of things in a mixture of Spanish,
English and body language to get our point across. I invited her back to my
place with a special plan, to go on the roof. Much to my satisfaction and her
surprise, she accepted. We climbed up on the roof and looked at the stars and
talked forever.
I was leaving in a couple of days to go back home for a
couple of weeks and she was planning on going back home to Venezuela in a week or so. We met the next day up on the hill in Boulder. While I really liked her
and we had a spectacular time together, I didn’t think much more was going to
come of it. We both had different plans and so I pretty much said goodbye,
though she said her plans weren’t set in stone.
I went home to Albuquerque for a few weeks and then went
back to Boulder to start my fall semester. I called Haydee when I got back on
the chance she might still be there. Lo and behold, she was! We started going
out together.
I had found a great deal living with two Okies whose
names were both Debbie in a killer house with a great view. I was starting my
senior year of college and Haydee was dedicated to studies and exercise. After
a while, Haydee came to live with us and together we all had a great time! The
two Debbie’s worked and weren’t going to school so they were in full party
mode! They both took Haydee under their wings as a sort of mascot. Haydee had
a smile which wouldn’t quit and an infectious laugh she freely gave which made
everyone else laugh as well. They knew all the right bars with all the best
deals from Tuesday through Saturday. I joined in the fun every chance I got.
During the fall of 1983 I had a job which I will always
remember as one of my favorites. I was “The Beer Guy” at the football games.
While I don’t remember exactly how I came about being The Beer Guy, it was a
blast! I would go to the game about an hour or so before kickoff and start
peddling beer primarily to the student section. While I have had many jobs
where people have been happy to see me, including being “The Pizza Guy,”
perhaps none compares to being The Beer Guy. Everybody loves The Beer Guy! I
wore some striped pants which were loose fitting and high top sneakers. I
would get soaked from head to toe with beer and love every minute of it. While
I typically drank some of my profits, on a good day I would walk away by the
end of the third quarter with about $80 or $90 in profit for a couple of hours
work. Every job should be like being The Beer Guy!
When Halloween came around Haydee and the Okies decided
they wanted to dress me up as a girl. While I hesitated initially, they were
very convincing and ultimately got their wish. They put make up on me, did my
nails, put me in high heels and sent me out onto the Pearl Street Mall. I
believe it was one of the worst nights of my life! I really didn’t like being
a girl at all. I thought guys were hitting on me and didn’t like the feeling
at all. The girls, on the other hand, all had a great time parading me around
like a trophy.
That winter I took Haydee to my home in Rio Rancho and
she met my folks for the first time. We continued to go out together and in
March or April of 1984 she went back to Venezuela, much to my dismay. While we
both wanted to keep in touch, we also knew we would be a long way from each
other. We talked on the phone and kept in contact throughout the next several
months.
I finished my senior year at the university with a pretty
light schedule. I had only something like 10 or 12 hours since I had taken
classes the previous summer. The class I enjoyed the most was Italian. It was
my second semester and I loved it! I also had some great classmates, one who
kept me occupied after hours, as well as a terrific teacher who made it all
more interesting.
My graduation was somewhat anticlimactic. While it was
fun and I enjoyed it, there wasn’t really the same kind of closeness with my
classmates which I had experienced in High School. I was just happy to get out
and be on my way. I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business
Administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder in May of 1984.
I was burned out on school and considered taking some
time off to travel and perhaps work some place exotic for a year or two. My
mom and dad didn’t share my enthusiasm for putting school off. They made me an
offer which was difficult to refuse. They told me if I went to graduate school
right away they would pay the tuition. Otherwise, I was on my own.
While I was anxious to take some time off, I didn’t want
to be stupid so I took them up on their offer! I was accepted into the Graduate School of International Management, also known as Thunderbird, in Glendale, Arizona.
I was very interested in language and international
studies so Thunderbird fit the bill perfectly! I had what I considered to be a
solid base for Spanish and Italian came pretty easily to me. I was starting to
fancy myself as an international executive jet-setting around the world. In
addition, the program at Thunderbird could be completed in 12 months if you
were willing to take a full load for two semesters and one full summer.
I took the summer off and went back to Albuquerque before
school. I believe this was one of the only times I didn’t have some type of
job. My big events of the summer were hanging out with friends and organizing
a garage sale to raise funds to go visit Haydee in Venezuela. After the garage
sale I had some greenbacks; we were, however, minus a few things my mom would
later ask about!
My trip to Venezuela was full of emotion. I planned to
go there for one month. While I had traveled internationally and been away
from home already for some time, this particular trip somehow felt bigger. Plus
I was going to see my Latin Princess. We had kept in contact and, if anything,
the distance had made us grow fonder of each other despite the hardship of
living so far away.
I got to Venezuela and Haydee took me to her house where
she lived with her mother in Chacao, a neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela. Her sister Beatriz and niece Mayrím also lived there at the time. Haydee’s mother was
wonderful as was the rest of her family. They all treated me beautifully.
While we used Chacao, her house as a home base, we took
several side trips. Haydee had asked for time off from her work at a liquor
distribution company. When they didn’t give her the time off she wanted, she
quit. They later rehired her after I left.
On one trip Haydee’s sister Beatriz let us borrow her car
and we went to the beach down on the coast about an hour away from Caracas. The car was a little Renault and I had a heck of a time driving there for the
first time. The traffic and the flow were completely different from anything I
was used to. It was like race car driving through streets. I felt like I had
to be totally prepared and ready for anything at anytime. On one jaunt to the
coast I was driving through a tunnel and changed lanes in the middle of the
tunnel. I was immediately reprimanded for committing a traffic violation!
While pretty much anything went in terms of driving, I learned there were
certain rules which were respected.
On another trip we took a bus from Caracas to Mérida. I
will never forget getting awakened in the middle of the night as we were going
through the mountains. I didn’t have my contact lenses on so I was blind as a
bat. I was dazed and confused, which happens from time to time, as an officer
from the National Guard made us get off the bus. As he asked everyone for
identification, I had no idea what was going on. I finally gave him my
passport and, after giving my documents special scrutiny, he allowed me and the
others to get back on the bus.
In the morning when we awoke, we found ourselves deep in
the Andes Mountains. Switchbacks took us back and forth through treacherous
terrain. The mountains fell off dramatically into an abyss below us. The
scenery was spectacular and while it reminded me of Colorado it was unlike
anything I had ever seen because the vegetation was so different. It started
out lush and green and as we climbed above the tree line turned into short
scrubby tundra.
We arrived at an inexpensive, nice hotel in the middle of
the mountains. There were horses which we rode and a river called the “Río
Chama” which ran close to the property. It was rather cold and we bundled up
with all the clothes we had taken along because we weren’t very well equipped
for the chilly conditions.
We walked around the town of Mérida which seemed to me at
the time to be quaint and quiet. We also went up on the tram which took us way
up into the mountains. While I don’t recall if all three stations were working
at the time, I am pretty sure we got to the top of the second station.
In Mérida we went to a nearby park which had a sort of
zoo inside of it. While it wasn’t a very extensive zoo, it did have several
animals and birds. One of the cages had a lion. I’ll never forget one guy who
stuck his shoe past the railing and close enough to the lion’s cage that the
lion started pawing at his shoe. I was sure the lion was going to somehow drag
him into the cage and eat him alive though he would have never fit through the
bars. I suppose I imagined the lion would shred him into little pieces before
dragging him in!
We went back to Caracas and attended a wedding for one of
Haydee’s best friends Lucy Matticoli who married a guy named Alberto. It was a
big deal with lots of liquor and everybody dressed up nice and fancy. It was
my first big party in Venezuela and I was quite impressed. I found out the
Venezuelans definitely know how to party hardy!
From there we took a bus and a ferry to go to Margarita Island which has lots of tourism and great beaches. We arrived and found an inexpensive,
rather dumpy kind of place in the city of Porlamar to stay. We immediately
went to the beach and while we went into the water somebody took my sandals.
Haydee still laughs to this day when she tells the story about my trying to
cuss out some guys who were standing close to where we had left our things. I
was convinced they had something to do with the disappearance of my sandals and
they seemed only slightly amused at my predicament. To make matters worse,
while walking back to the hotel barefoot, I cut my foot on some glass.
Needless to say, that evening I wasn’t a happy camper. Talk about being at the
Bottom of a Bounce!
Everything else about Margarita was wonderful. We had
great weather and went to several different places on the island. We went to
Juan Griego which has a spectacular fort overlooking the ocean, to La Restinga
which has boats which buzz through marvelous mazes of mangroves and to a beach
made up of tiny pieces of seashells. No sand, just seashells. It was
incredible!
When it finally came time for me to leave Caracas, I did
so with tears in my eyes, hoping Haydee and I would somehow be able to make
things work. By that time I was starting to get a little nervous in terms of
my own emotions and feelings. I had always managed to find something “wrong”
with the girls I had dated. While they were great girls in their own right,
there was something which made me believe they weren’t “the” one, though I’m
sure several would have made excellent long-term companions.
With Haydee it was different. I couldn’t find anything I
didn’t like about her. I loved her smile. I loved her attitude. I loved her
laugh. I loved the way she treated me. I loved the way she talked and
walked. I loved the way she loved me. Most of all I loved her spirit. I was
hooked. I remember going back on the plane to the USA from Venezuela thinking someday I would marry her. While the thought terrified me in a way, I knew it
was to be...
I packed up my trusty Honda and headed out to Grad School. The American Graduate School of International Management, better known as
Thunderbird, is on an old Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. The school dorms are actually old barracks for the troops.
The student body is extremely diverse, coming from
virtually every part of the world and speaking just about any language you can
imagine. The curriculum is based on three main pillars. Business,
International Studies and Language. Students are trained to work in an
international environment any place in the world.
When I arrived, I immediately started looking for a place
to live and found a house located a big city block away from the campus. My
roommates were Mike Kundrat and his girlfriend whose name I can’t recall. He
was tall, blonde and very athletic. She was short, feisty and Chicana. He
worked as a teacher and she worked at whatever she could. Hal, the owner of
the house, owned a store outside of Phoenix selling jewelry and rocks.
One of my first and my most lasting friends from
Thunderbird was Bret Rogers. We were in many of the same classes and both had
an intense interest in Latin America. We would study together and hit the
local bar on Thursday nights where faculty and students joined to sample the
world’s finest spirits.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was scheming how to get
Haydee back by my side. We talked back and forth and somehow came up with the
cash to buy Haydee’s ticket back to USA. She came in October and we were once
again together.
While I was focused on my studies, Haydee was focused on
working and doing exercise. We bought a bike for her and she joined a gym
which was about two big city blocks away. She would go back and forth
sometimes three times a day to do aerobics and exercise classes morning,
afternoon and evening. In addition, she worked at Washington Inventory Service
and La Parrilla Suiza.
School was pretty intense and required long periods of
concentration and study. Fortunately, the courses were interesting and right
up my alley. I was able to test out of a good portion of the basic language
and start right in on business language. Though the business courses were
pretty basic, they were lively and full of international flavor. The
International Studies classes were fun and dynamic.
Mike and I got a along great. We set up a horseshoe pit
in the backyard along with some floodlights. We spent a lot of time drinking
beer and pitching shoes late into the night in the mild evenings which were the
norm rather than the exception in Glendale. In addition, we got out onto the
tennis courts several times a week where he frequently took advantage of me in
a very unkind way though I eventually got better and made a match of it!
By December of 1984 I knew I wanted to share my life with
Haydee. I went out and bought the most expensive engagement ring I could
afford at the time, which wasn’t much. You need to really look for the diamond
to see it properly and hope you don’t have anything in your eye to cloud your
vision! In early 1985 I got down on a knee and, with my fish in an aquarium
beside me as witnesses, asked Haydee to marry me. Looking at her with tears of
joy in my own eyes, her eyes became moist as well, and she said, “Yes, I would
love to marry you!”
Needless to say I was thrilled and by the smile on her
face, I knew she also was happy as well. We decided it would be best to get
married after I graduated from Thunderbird. We thought a lot about how we
wanted to get married. While we were in no hurry, there were so many factors
involved. For that very reason we decided not to stress about the whole thing
and just make it simple when the time came.
One day early in the second semester at Thunderbird, my
friend Bret, told me, “Rob come with me to a meeting tonight.”
I asked him, “What’s it about?”
He told me, “Don’t ask questions and just come!”
I did as instructed, and was introduced to Toastmasters
International, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving public speaking
skills. If he would have told me the type of meeting I was going to, I may
have never gone. Fortunately, he didn’t and after the first meeting I was
hooked. I signed up to do my first speech the following week! I’ll never
forget the topic. Well perhaps one day I might, though this particular
paragraph will be an excellent reminder! My talk was about myself and I expressed
my passion for skiing.
I discovered I really enjoyed getting up in front of
people and talking. The exhilaration and adrenaline rush made me feel alive!
The atmosphere within Toastmasters instigated immediate improvement through
constructive feedback. Before I knew it, I had won a couple of awards for best
speech and best Table Topics presenter.
I burned the midnight oil and Haydee remained very
active. She was totally dedicated to exercising and working. At La Parrilla
Suiza she was hired initially as a hostess and dazzled the patrons with her
magnificent smile and wonderful disposition. After a while I began working at
La Parrilla Suiza as well. We ate some wonderful food during that particular
period of our lives! Haydee’s favorite was the baked cheese with tortillas.
My favorite was Las Chilaquilas and the grilled meat.
Haydee worked in a few different jobs within the
restaurant though at the end of our time there she was a waitress and I a
waiter. We had great fun at the restaurant! The people who worked there were
wonderful and we became fast friends with several of them. Many of the people
in the kitchen were from México and we got along fabulously with them as we did
with the locals.
At the end of the first semester several people from
Toastmasters asked me if I wanted to be president of the club and I replied,
“Sure, why not!” I was elected president and was in charge of running the club
for about three months. As it turns out, my decision to join Toastmasters
would have a tremendous impact on my life for years to come.
In May of 1985 Haydee’s mom got really sick. Haydee had
a bad feeling about things and decided to go home while I kept my nose to the
grindstone. Haydee was with her mother through the end of a difficult bout
with Leukemia and was by her side when she died June 9th, one day after my
birthday. Haydee was devastated. I consoled her as best I could, though I
could feel the pain in her voice when we spoke.
In the meantime, I had moved out of the house with Mike
and his girlfriend and into an apartment closer to campus. It was summer time
and Phoenix was in full scorch. You could fry eggs on the sidewalk during the
day and the evenings brought little relief. It was too hot in the day to go
into the swimming pool and though it was still like a hot tub in the evenings,
many of us would venture into the pool in the evenings for some hope of cooling
off.
During that summer I found several new friends and spent
a lot of time with my Toastmasters activities. My friend Bret Rogers had gone
down to Argentina for a study abroad program so I hooked up with an Asian
contingency and had a great time.
Haydee returned to Arizona and we sat down to talk about
our plans together. We had just spent some serious bucks sending her back to Venezuela, so funds were low. We decided it was too expensive to go to Caracas to get
married. In addition, with her mom now gone, the environment was not very
conducive to having a big blow out wedding.
Arizona held no special appeal long term and while we had
some good friends there, we couldn’t see getting married there. My mom and dad
had just split up after 26 years of marriage, so Albuquerque was dicey at best
with emotions running at an all time high. The place which made the most sense
was Boulder. It was where we met and where our life started together so it
seemed logical we should begin our married life under the shadows of Boulder’s Flatirons.
As late July rolled around, I was in the middle of my
final classes. One of the classes I remember well was Latin American Studies.
For the final exam, our task was an in depth analysis of the word “Chingar” and
how it related to México’s history, past, present and future!
Haydee was still in a bit of a funk from her mother’s
passing on and making detailed plans for a wedding wasn’t high on our list of
priorities. I was convinced I wanted to get married and, despite some who told
me it would be better to wait and, “sow my wild oats,” I went with my heart.
We looked at the calendar and decided August 31st was a good date.
It was a Saturday and it was an absolutely gorgeous time of the year in Colorado.
In mid August I completed my studies at Thunderbird. My
folks and Maya came for the graduation. We had a wonderful time. I had a
tremendous sense of accomplishment and could feel the sense of pride which
emanated from my mother and father. While they were in the middle of a very
difficult time together, they kept a stiff upper lip and joined me as I made my
debut into the world.
My mom and dad gave me a spectacular gift for my graduation.
In an envelope, I was given the title to a 1960 Mercedes 190SL. I loved the
car! It was baby blue and had a hard top which came off and a soft top which,
while it needed some mending, kept the larger rain drops off your head. The
car needed some work though it was in decent running condition. I have always
enjoyed fiddling around fixing things and so it was no big deal for me to start
taking things apart to try and fix the car. The operative word here is TRY,
since many times I was ineffective in my endeavors as a Mercedes car mechanic!
Meanwhile, Haydee and I found a very nice card to
announce our wedding. They had pretty purple flowers and we bought a bunch of
them. We sat down, made a list and began sending “announcements” to our wedding.
While I don’t recall exactly what they said, it went something like this:
“We are happy to announce our wedding in Boulder, Colorado on August 31st, 1985.”
No exact place, no details, just a city and a date. We
went to our old landlord Hal’s place which was called Rockazona outside of Phoenix on NW Grand Avenue in Peoria. We found some gold rings which had gold chains
etched into the surface and knew we had found what we wanted. We chose three
small diamonds to insert into Haydee’s ring and walked out of there with two
great rings which set us back $251.22.
We started saying our goodbyes and on our last night in Arizona, our friends from La Parrilla Suiza gave us a bang up, rockin’ party! The house
had a pool and we all ended up getting nice and wet before the night was over.
We packed up headed out of Arizona via Albuquerque on our way to a new life
together.
We pulled into Denver, Colorado, to my Cousin Ivan’s
house on Wednesday, August 28th which just so happened to be Haydee’s birthday.
On Thursday the 29th we started getting serious about our wedding. Up to that
point about all we had was a Justice of the Peace lined up, some verbal
agreements with a flower shop and a strong desire to have the time of our
lives!
We headed to Boulder in search of a place to get
married. I had fantasized about getting married on a rock way out in the
wilderness somewhere with a stream running nearby. As we wandered around for a
bit in Boulder, we headed for the hills at the base of the majestic Flatirons.
We started driving around Chautauqua Park and came upon a park in the middle of
several buildings. We got out and lo and behold there was the rock about which
I had been dreaming! It was at one end of the park and had a great view of the
Flatirons. A US flag situated in the middle of the park also waved proudly in
the breeze. I looked at Haydee and she at me. We knew we had found “the”
place. It was perfect and just what we were looking for.
We continued running around, renting tuxes, ordering
flowers, taking blood tests, sauntering into the courthouse for our license and
going a million miles a minute to prepare. In the meantime, people started
calling Ivan’s house, which was the only way they knew how to get in touch with
us. This was, of course, well before cell phones sidled up to everyone’s hip to
provide instant communications at the touch of few buttons with anyone in the
world. By Thursday afternoon, we had an actual place to get married! By
Thursday night and Friday people started arriving from the four corners of our
universe.
My dad pitched in and bought the liquor which consisted
of a keg of beer and champagne. He also picked up the tab for the food which
consisted of nicely arranged deli trays from King Soopers. Following is a list
of some of our expenses:
œ Wedding
Bands $ 251.22
œ Flowers $
127.05
œ Justice
of the Peace $ 75.00
œ Boulder Parks and Recreation $ 45.00
œ Lab
test $ 30.00
Haydee had a dress her mother gave to her for the event
which made the gown extra special. Haydee did make it a bit more “sexy” with a
nip here and a tuck there. I was dashing; or so I was told, in a gray tux with
tails. My groomsmen were in black tuxes and my best man, David Fishman kept
his red Ray Ban sunglasses firmly in place throughout the ceremony.
We arranged the benches in the park around the rock at
one end and all female guests were paraded down the “aisle” into their seats.
The day was spectacular. The USA flag waved against a backdrop of a deep blue
sky and the Flatirons forced their way up to the heavens to provide a perfect
backdrop for our momentous occasion. We had many more people show up than we
possibly imagined and we loved every minute!
While people often refer to the groom’s nervous nature
before the ceremony, I was on cloud nine and having the time of my life. I had
my love, I had my family and I had a rock upon which to get married. The rock
symbolized in my mind the commitment we were making to each other. Since we
hadn’t really sent out “invitations” as such and since we had no RSVP’s we were
surprised by the attendance of many of the people, never imagining they would
make the long journey to see us get married.
Among those in attendance were the following:
Mom
Dad
Maya
Ivan Catari
Deresa
Aunt Elsie
Uncle Billy
Grandma McBride
Aunt Joan
Uncle Bob
Pat Callahan
Aunt Mabel
Uncle Eben
Dale Parrish
|
David Jones
Carol Lucero
Mirna Peraza
David Fishman
Connie
Gil Juarez
Tim Tafoya
Mike
Kundrat
Mark Canavan
José
Lugo
Mike Callahan
Aunt Helen
Uncle Teen
|
Haydee drove up in our red Ford Futura which was “left
over” after an unsuccessful bout of mine buying and selling used cars at
auctions while I was in Arizona. I’m convinced I would have been much better
off keeping my Honda Accord which had done me so well over the years though it
was a learning experience!
Haydee had driven up from Denver that morning with Ivan
and Deresa. As she arrived to the park, I was already there. I had stayed the
night before with my mom, dad, Maya and a few friends in Boulder. Haydee
arrived and finished getting dressed in the car. David Jones and David Fishman
escorted my grandma and each of my aunts down the “aisle” we had left in the
grass between the benches we had placed surrounding “The Rock.” Then my mom
and I came, as well as the rest of the court. We then waited as Ivan escorted
Haydee to center stage.
Haydee bravely hopped up on “The Rock” next to me and we
began the ceremony. Judge Lee Hawk performed the services under the
magnificent blue sky which was pecked with white fluffy clouds on a late summer
morning.
Before and after the ceremony, my good friend Mark
Canavan was perched on another rock strumming his guitar. We all gathered
around as he dazzled us with his musical prowess.
Then as I snatched the garter from Haydee’s upper thigh,
the bachelors gathered for the obligatory garter toss. They all lined up and
waited patiently. That is all except for David Jones who was crouched and
ready to pounce at the first sign of fabric. Most of the guys kept their hands
by their side or clasped firmly onto their drinks. As I flicked the garter
over my head, David flew head and shoulders over the others as he snatched the
garter in victory as we all watched.
One of the most interesting facts about our wedding is
that we had about as many photographers as we had attendees! Later everyone
sent us a copy of their photos and we ended up with several angles of each
particular part of the wedding. With so many cameras we got several good takes
of each shot. Several years after the fact we put them all into an album which
still serves as an excellent memory of one of the happiest days of my life.
After the ceremony and a healthy round of photos, we all
went to a shelter at one end of the park where we had set up food and liquor on
picnic tables. We all stood around the keg and partied as we opened our
wedding gifts, many of which were from people not present in body but in
spirit!
In the afternoon we went to the Hotel Boulderado where we
had rented a room to “consummate” our marriage. After a romp and a rest, we
were ready to go again. We were all having a great old time and the keg ended
back up in our suite where the party raged on. We hit the jackpot with the
hotel as they were serving oysters at 10 cents a shot. They were bringing them
out in cookie sheets and we were putting them down as fast as they could bring
them. One of the more interesting facts of that particular evening is that
Haydee made me sleep on the couch! Perhaps it is more accurate to say I lay
down and went to sleep on the couch, though her version may vary slightly.
We stayed at my Cousin Ivan’s house for several days in Denver while we looked for a place to live. While Boulder was our first love, we figured Denver would provide more opportunity. We found a place on 759 Reed Ct. in Lakewood called Waterside Apartments in Lakewood. We paid something like $295 per month
for rent.
Haydee found a job quickly at Washington Inventory
Service and I answered an ad for a cook at Red Robbin Restaurant. While I was
very smart on paper and had a couple of degrees to show for it, in reality I
was very poor and needed to pay the bills! Though I had a few interviews at
Thunderbird and even one “fly back,” I was without a job. One of my more
memorable experiences trying to get a job while still at Thunderbird was
botching a cover letter for Procter and Gamble. In the header of the letter I
spelled the company name as “Proctor” rather than “Procter.” I’m sure those in
charge of the interview said, “If this idiot can’t even take the time to spell
the company right, he’s not worthy!” Needless to say I didn’t get that
particular interview let alone the job.
Haydee worked strange hours and was hauled off late in
the night to different stores and warehouses, often at two or three in the
morning to take inventory. I worked evenings at Red Robbin on the “cold side”
preparing salads, soups and such for a high class burger joint. Somehow my
vision of my first job out of graduate school was much different.
I had worked in enough restaurants to know I wanted to do
something different with my life. At the time, however, it was a means to an
end. In the daytime I focused on getting another job. I scoured the newspaper
ads daily and sent my resume out religiously to several companies.
One day I noticed an advertisement which read something
like this:
Wall Street Investment firm seeking motivated people to join
our team.
It was enough of an enticement to get me out the door and
to a group interview way out on Wadsworth Boulevard in Westminster, Colorado. They showed a video which depicted offices in Manhattan, New York, and talked
about the opportunities which the firm offered for account representatives to
grow with the company.
The manager, Chris Kinsky who managed the First Investors
Corporation office, interviewed me and took my resume. He told me they were
going to review the candidates and let me know their decision in several days.
I went home excited about the opportunity. Finances had always interested me
and the thought of managing investments intrigued me. I told Haydee it seemed
to be a good opportunity and truly hoped I would get called back for a second
interview.
A few days later, I received a call and was asked to go
back for a second interview. I met Guy Brazell who filled me in on additional
details regarding the opportunity and gauged my interest. I wanted to get to
work and so when they offered me the position, I eagerly accepted.
I later found out people were hired if they walked into
the office, had a heartbeat and were willing to go through an intense training
program with no pay. In the meantime, I was green and naïve so I just rolled
with the punches. After graduate school, the training was just another
obstacle to hurdle and posed no great problems. I would go to the office in
the days to study for the Series 6 securities license and in the evenings
change clothes to go work at Red Robbin.
It was a fairly tough initial commitment since the job
had no salary and was strict commission. To make matters even more
challenging, the commission for a trade placed today was paid about six weeks later.
In late November of 1985 I passed the test with flying colors and was set off into
the world to work my magic. My main dilemma was I wasn’t quite sure how I was
going to do it. I had a lot of book knowledge, knew a whole lot about making
pizzas and doing other odd jobs, though I had no idea about the business world.
The best way I have to describe the process I began is
door to door mutual fund sales. First Investor’s primary product was a fifteen
year contractual plan investing in high yielding “junk bonds.” The money
invested in the first year went about 50% to commissions and people would
commit to a certain dollar payment per month for fifteen years to achieve a
desired investment result. The plans were sold primarily as education,
retirement and savings plans.
After some initial success with some family and friends,
I was out in the cold cruel world left to fend for myself. Mondays were set
aside to work in the office setting up the week’s schedule. Until we were able
to book fourteen or fifteen appointments, we weren’t “allowed” to go home. I
can remember many Monday nights when appointments would magically start popping
into our calendars as the Monday night football kick-off time approached.
The majority of us in the office didn’t make much money
and those were pretty lean times. If it hadn’t been for Haydee working, ends
definitely would not have been met. Even with Haydee working, I recall being
short of money frequently. One month rent came due a bit quicker than our cash
flow so I went to the bank and asked for a short term loan. They showed me the
door quickly saying we had no credit and nothing as collateral for the loan.
We went to a local pawn shop and pawned some of Haydee’s jewelry to make rent.
Fortunately, we later went back to the pawn shop and recovered the jewelry.
This experience taught me the importance of having available credit which we
later acquired. Our first purchase on credit was a television we bought from
JC Penny. The television probably cost us more than twice its original amount
when interest was calculated. While I don’t recall the exact cost of the
television, we paid something like $29 a month for what seemed to be a
lifetime!
Brant Demuth was my best buddy at the time and Haydee and
I introduced him to a beautiful Colombian girl we knew by the name of Marta. I
remember one weekend all of us heading out to Steamboat Springs to check out a
road race of classic cars and also to check out a time share which had offered
us a free night of lodging in exchange for enduring their sales pitch the
following day. The weekend was a success in spite of the heavy duty sales job
they did on us trying to get us to buy a time share. For me it was actually a
great learning experience on how NOT to treat potential clients.
I drove past Sloan’s lake in Denver on my way to work at
that time and decided it would be great to live by the lake. Several days
later, I noticed a “For Rent” sign on an apartment building close to the lake.
I stopped in to check it out and found a great one bedroom apartment with a
terrific view out over the lake. To boot, the rent was less expensive than we
were already paying. I went home and told Haydee about it. We both went to
see it and knew we had found our new home. We got out of our lease with
Waterside with minor difficulties and moved into the Catalina Apartments on 17th St and Sheridan Blvd which was just inside the Lakewood city limits.
At First Investors we would often pick up the telephone
book and start dialing for dollars. It wasn’t easy. I remember setting an
appointment one Saturday at about 5:00 PM. It was clear on the other side of
the city and it took me almost an hour to get there. When I got to the house,
I could hear people talking inside though they didn’t open the door. I stood
outside knocking on the door and ringing the door bell for about 10 to 15
minutes. When I realized they weren’t going to answer the door, I got back in
my car and headed home tail between my legs. I was fuming! While it was a
tough lesson to learn at the time, it taught me the importance of confirming
and re-confirming every appointment even if it meant the person canceled at the
last minute.
While I didn’t particularly like the job, I did form a
couple of excellent relationships. One was with Brant Demuth, who went through
the entire training procedure with me. Others were Guy Brazell, who was our
trainer and later became an excellent friend, colleague and eventually followed
me to Seligman several years later, as did Russ Schaffer another quality
individual.
As a direct or indirect result of my Saturday drive out
into the boondocks only to get stood up, I began looking for a new job. Money
was very tight in those days and we had to scrape and scratch to make ends
meet.
As I scanned the newspaper one day, I saw an advertisement
for a Series 6 registered investment executive who was also licensed to sell
Life, Accident and Health Insurance, which had also been part of my training at
First Investors. The advertisement mentioned sitting in a bank and talking to
customers about investment products. The job sounded perfect!
I interviewed with John Knight who would later become my
boss. He liked my credentials and I was hired to work for Pamco Securities and
Insurance in August of 1986. I was assigned to two branches of Bank Western.
Both were in the suburbs of Denver, one in South Glenn, out towards Littleton, and the other in Aurora.
I was in heaven. I had a desk, the bank sent out
referral letters daily and it was a much nicer working situation than what I
had at First Investors Corporation. One of my daily duties was reporting to
John about my activities in terms of calls, contacts and sales. While I didn’t
enjoy this one bit I realized it was an excellent way to keep me on my toes.
Up until I started with Pamco, I had never really dealt with big bucks and now
I had an excellent opportunity not only to work with lots of money but also to
make lots of money!
I will never forget my first sale at Pamco. I had gone
over the products with John and the paperwork which needed to be filled out to
establish an account. Nevertheless, I hadn’t actually opened an account. I
was in the Bank Western in Aurora and I had a customer who had a CD renewing
for $50,000. A bank employee by the name of Carla Maddox, who later became my
biggest source of referrals, sent the person over to me and I went through my
pitch. At the end, I believe I said something really clever like, “So, what do
you think?”
The couple in front of me looked at each other and said,
“Sure why not, let’s give it a shot.” I just about busted a gut right then and
there. I scrambled to get the paperwork and fill it all out before they
changed their minds. After they were gone, I called John and told him the good
news. This particular sale, more than any other, is the one which sticks out
in my mind as my first big sale. I didn’t have any fancy words or unique
approach, just common sense and a belief in what I was doing. While I would
later learn there was much more to sales, this was my first major learning experience
in terms of the magical world of sales.
Working at Pamco was akin to being a fox in the hen
house! We were securities salespeople disguised as bank employees. While
there were disclosures which told the people we weren’t working for the bank itself,
the people often believed since we were sitting in the bank, we must be bank
employees. As time went on this difference became more evident with larger
signs and more disclosure.
For me the difference between First Investors and Pamco
was like night and day. With Pamco, I had more credibility and people didn’t
look at me as a just another “salesperson.” One of my biggest challenges at
First Investors was to be anything but a “salesperson” though I felt exactly
like a tricky used car salesman trying to pass something over onto my clients.
Later I discovered the value of a being a good
salesperson, though from the beginning of my career at Pamco, I fancied myself
as some type of a fancy “Wall Street” executive. My self confidence increased,
I procured many new clients and most importantly, for the first time in my
career, I started making real money. While I was still paid 100% on commission,
the lag time between sales and payment dropped from about six weeks with First
Investors to about a month with Pamco.
Little by little I began figuring out what I was doing.
While John Knight wasn’t my favorite guy in the world to work for in the
beginning, I learned to trust his advice and value his opinion. I suppose I
was and continue to be somewhat of a rebel against authority. My relationship
with my bosses at First Investors and Pamco was iffy at best. I now think it
was just my way of establishing my independence and creating my own future
though I now realize there are many things I could have done better if I had
been more willing to listen.
A competitive environment prevailed within Pamco and we
were constantly measured and compared to our peers both in Colorado and in the
nation. Initially, this constant scrutiny annoyed me. In time, I learned to
play the game and enjoy the hunt. As a result of the competitive spirit, I
became fast friends with many of the other Investment Executives. Since we
were pretty much on our own when we were in the branches, we established an
informal telephone support network which helped out tremendously.
One of my best friends was John Whittington. While he
didn’t have a great attitude at the time, he was older and had more
experience. I learned a lot from him and we spent a lot of time together.
One trip we took with John and his girlfriend was to the
mountains to go rafting over the 4th of July. We sold our red Ford Futura and
purchased a white 4X4 Jeep CJ-7. We went four wheeling up into the mountains a
few hours away from Denver and camped out. The following morning we headed
down to the place which organized the rafting trip. They instructed us on what
to do and we were off. The experience is one of the most exhilarating I’ve
ever had. John’s girlfriend fell out of the boat at one point and floated to
shore to sit out the rest of the ride. I also fell out during the rocking and
the rolling and Haydee put out her arm and with surprising strength yanked me
back into the raft! She had put a lot of time and energy into me and wasn’t
about to lose me to a river in the middle of the mountains!
There were some pictures which were taken by the rafting
company. To this day Haydee has never let me live down the fact that I never
went to pick up the pictures. Fortunately, I did find a picture in the newspaper
which I cut out of a group rafting on the same 4th of July. I put it in our
photo album and tell everyone it was us doing my best to mitigate the fact I
never went to get our picture.
Living in Catalina Apartments was a blast. We met and
became fast friends with Rick Schuettpelz and his future wife Jeannie. Rick
worked with the schools as a custodian and Jeannie had some government type of
job. Rick and I really hit it off together, while Haydee and Jeannie also
established common ground.
In the summer Rick often invited us up to his cabin where
we would ride motorcycles and go fishing. On one particular outing we were
catching fish like crazy. While I forget the actual number of fish we caught,
it was over 50. We would pretty much throw the line in the water, reel it in
and catch a fish. It was amazing and we had a blast.
In the fall, weekends consisted of getting together,
partying and preparing for the Denver Bronco games on Sunday. For a few of the
games, we hopped on bikes and went down to Mile High Stadium which was a
stone’s throw away. Towards the end of the third quarter, they would
frequently open the doors and we would go wander around.
In this, my first full year of work with Pamco, I
qualified for the sales trip in December. We went to The Bahamas and I was in heaven. The owners of Pamco were John Phillip Sousa II, grandson of the great
musician, and Alan Blank. I found out it was well worth the effort to go to
the sales trips! Those guys knew how to throw a party! Everything was first
class with lots of nice little surprises. Every evening when we got back to
the hotel room there was something special waiting for us. Sometimes it was
something useful for the next day like a t-shirt, sun tan lotion and a camera
for a sports outing. Sometimes it was cash. The last night it was
traditionally a piece of nice Baccarat crystal.
For some reason in 1988 things didn’t quite click on
production front. While I felt like I knew what I was doing, I lacked
consistency. I hadn’t quite figured out the secret to getting things to rock
on an ongoing basis. I did well enough though to keep from getting canned in a
very cutthroat business. The rules of the game were very clear and if you
couldn’t cut the mustard, you were out the door in a heartbeat. I saw many
people come and go in my first two years there as I would continue to see
throughout my career in financial services.
Perhaps the toughest thing for people to adjust to was
the variable pay. For me, it was really all I ever knew, so I didn’t have to
adjust! I learned to love the fact I was in charge of my own destiny. There
was no one telling me how much money I could or couldn’t make. While being
master and commander of my own fate was sometimes scary, it has always been
particularly appealing to me.
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I was in South Glenn a
reserved and relatively quiet branch. There was an older clientele and one
lady by the name of Angie was the ruler of the roost. Many of the older
clients came in and would speak only to her. My business was influenced
greatly by number of referrals I received from the bank employees. While
anybody in the bank could give me referrals, it was mainly the accounts ladies
who were best positioned to send folks my way.
For some reason Angie was never terribly convinced about
Pamco and, as a result, never sent many people over to me. The bank put some
pressure on the employees to send clients my way because it was very profitable
for the bank. At the same time, there were several managers who were never
terribly enthusiastic about the idea of money leaving the bank to some
investment vehicle provided by a third party. While it made economic sense,
they protected their asset base and didn’t want to see it dwindled away.
The Branch Manager in South Glenn supported me in my
presence. In actuality she floundered in her support. She sent a dual message
which indicated it was all right to support me, though not too much! While I
had several allies in South Glenn, including one great lady named Sue, there
were others who obstructed my progress.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I headed out to Aurora. This
branch, unlike South Glenn, was a very busy, noisy branch. There was a lot of
activity. While their clientele was diverse in age, the older ones were
typically those with the bucks. Though I never did an average age study for my
clients, I am pretty sure it was well over 70. Typically, I had appointments
booked from opening to close. In Aurora my support system was much better.
The two people who were most helpful to me in Aurora were Charlene Albert and Carla Maddox. Charlene, the receptionist, sat in front of
me and channeled people to me every chance she got! If I was with someone, she
would call me and politely let me know there was someone there to see me and
ask if I could see them. I often excused myself briefly from the appointment I
was with and went to talk to the people at Charlene’s desk. I would ask them
if they could wait or if they preferred to set an appointment. When Charlene
saw me do it a few times, she got the idea and started setting my appointments
for me!
Carla Maddox was a referral machine and typically
prepared customers with just the right approach. The bank employees received a
bonus for customers who ended up investing with Pamco so they had a strong
incentive to do so. I later instituted a program of my own which rewarded all
referrals regardless of whether they invested or not. This was one of my
proudest achievements as it catapulted me into the person within my company who
generated the most referrals nationwide for an extended period of time!
Things were so good in Aurora that I left my appointment
book there and encouraged the employees to book my appointments for me. I was
in constant contact with Charlene and would work Aurora by remote on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays when I was at South Glenn.
The branch manager in Aurora, whose name was Norris Cowen,
was a great guy. He was of medium build, had puffed out a bit and had a ready
smile. Whenever he said goodbye to someone, he always said, “Have fun!” To
this day it is one of my favorite things to say and it came originally from
him. He played the political game quite well and supported me when he saw it
was necessary. In addition, and most important as far as I was concerned, he
never did or said things behind my back to undermine my efforts. While he
didn’t agree with everything I did, he was always upfront and honest in words
and actions.
I told my boss John I thought it would be wiser to spend
more time in Aurora even though South Glenn had a bigger asset base. He didn’t
agree and, in a way, my couple of busy days at Aurora soon seemed to generate a
life of its own. It is often said, and I experienced it during this time of my
life, the busier you are, the more activity comes your way.
Without exception, the most exciting event of 1988 was
Alicia’s birth. Haydee had been pregnant two times prior to Alicia and had
miscarried early in both pregnancies. We went to an expert and he said there
were some cysts of some sort which could hinder proper development during the
gestation cycle. He did a laparoscopy and told us to keep trying. I
particularly liked this advice!
About the time we found out Haydee was pregnant with
Alicia, we felt this pregnancy would go to term so we moved within the same
house to the other side of the duplex. Our address became 1720 Lowell Blvd.
We now had an additional bedroom as well as a large downstairs with another
bathroom, a kitchen area and huge living space.
Haydee did her best to take it easy during her
pregnancy. She was mellow when the doctor told her to be mellow, active when
he told her to be active and ate voraciously throughout. We awoke early on
Friday, September 9 and Haydee was in pain. Her water broke and we were off to
the hospital. Things seemed to move along nicely at first, then things slowed
down and we played the waiting game. Haydee, who has never been terribly good
with pain, was a trooper throughout. Luis Enrique Montes de Oca, Haydee’s
brother, was with us as were my mom, dad and Maya.
Later in the evening the doctors started to induce labor
and things began progressing once again. We were in St. Joseph’s hospital and
our insurance with Kaiser Permanente had excellent maternity coverage.
Initially, we were in a very nice birthing room. If you were taken straight
there, you wouldn’t even imagine it was in a hospital. While the bed was
designed specifically for birthing, the rest of the room could well have been a
room in anyone’s house. There were pictures, a sofa and things were very
comfortable.
Somewhere around 8:00 PM there was some kind of problem.
The nurses and the doctors started rushing around and I freaked out. They
mumbled something about an infection and immediately prepared Haydee to go to a
different room. I insisted on going, though they weren’t too keen on the
idea. I remember going into a very sophisticated room with all kinds of
apparatus. It appeared to be some sort of surgery room. I watched in awe as
everyone ran around.
Haydee was, I am sure, even more scared than I, though
she did very well. Soon they had Haydee pushing with all her might. The
doctor whipped out some forceps and began yanking Alicia out. The whole thing
seemed pretty rough to me, though I wasn’t about to say anything to irritate
them! Alicia Marie McBride was born at 9:56 PM and weighed 8 pounds, 2
ounces. She was named after Haydee’s mother Alicia and after my mother whose
name is Marie Elizabeth, though everybody calls her Betty.
I was in awe with the process. Because Haydee was “RH
negative” the nurses and doctors were hurriedly going every which way which
made sense at the time, though the reason now escapes me. I thought something
was terribly wrong when I saw Alicia for the first time. She was kind of
purple and her head looked like a football. I was afraid to even ask because
she looked sort of deformed to me. Later I whispered to one of the nurses and
asked if she was all right. The nurse looked at me and assured me she was
perfect.
I stayed at the hospital until about midnight and then
went home. I remember getting to our home and feeling incredible. It was one
of the most intense and pleasurable experiences of my life. To think I was
partly responsible for bringing this wonderful new little life into this world
was beyond words. I felt a unique mixture of pride and happiness along with a
tremendous amount of fear and responsibility. It is a moment I will never
forget as long as I live!
Towards the end of 1988 we found a house on the other
side of the lake on 1722 Lowell Blvd. It was a one bedroom duplex in a house
one block off the lake. While we liked the apartment at Catalina, we were
anxious to have more room and a yard. In addition we had a garage where I
could put all my stuff. I have always been a great accumulator of stuff.
After all, you never know when you might need it! I now realize while many
women suffer from PMS, I suffer from TMS which stands for “Too Much……..Stuff!”
Things started to click with my production at work. I
truly believe the added responsibility of a baby in the house had a positive
influence on my level of activity and success. While it was tight to the end,
I qualified to go on my second sales trip in December of 1989. It was a trip
which literally changed my life and my outlook forever.
While I had qualified for my second sales trip with
Pamco, I was still pretty much an “average” Investment Representative. Even though
I was increasing my client base and my income, I still wasn’t breaking any
records.
We went to Los Angeles first where we had a business
meeting and then were off to Hawaii for the recreational part of the trip. In Los Angeles I met and heard
Joel Weldon for the first time. He told us a story about sales
and service, which involved Willy Cooley, a black toothless taxi driver from Memphis, Tennessee. Until hearing about Willy, I thought being a salesperson was somehow
evil. I never imagined myself to be in sales, rather in investments as a
financial executive. I learned we are, in fact, all sales people to some
extent. In addition, excellent salespeople make a tremendously positive
difference to all. I attribute this one lesson, along with
Joel’s enthusiasm,
to the tremendous change in my attitude and my income which followed.
Before I could put into practice all I had learned, we
went to Hawaii. John Sousa and Alan Blank were up to their usual tricks and it
was wonderful. We went to the big island to a fairly new resort, which was so
big there were trains to take you from place to place. There was a little
something for everybody from swimming with the dolphins to a romp on the
beach.
The event which I remember more vividly was the day we
had the Pamco Olympics. Spouses were divided and teams were arranged. There
were all kinds of games on the beach. Each team made a cheer and we generally
had a great time. The highlight of the day was a body painting contest. Each
of the groups chose one member of the team for some body painting. Haydee was
chosen from her group and she was painted from head to toe. The most dominant
part of the artwork on her body was the baby which was painted on her now
already quite large stomach. It was the first image we had of Chanty who was
in the oven!
I was off like a rocket! After learning about Willy
Cooley and the value of a great sales person, my work took on an entirely new
meaning. My business was no longer offering investments, rather involved a
profound commitment to help people reach their dreams and financial
objectives.
My number of clients and production skyrocketed. From
that point on I was consistently in the top 10% of producers in the country.
I developed healthy competition with several people in the company both in Colorado and throughout the country. Among my most noble competitors was Sybil Praski who
worked out of the Cherry Creek Branch in Denver and “Kippy” Gibeau who worked
out of Colorado Springs.
My first published article I wrote as a “Top Gun,” one of
the companies’ top producers.
A Fountain of Business
By Rob McBride
In our business there are certain things over which we have a
great deal of control and other things over which we have little control. We
need to let the things that we can’t control take care of themselves while
‘taking the bull by the horns’ with those things that we can control. One of
the things that we can all control is our existing customers. If it is a new
institution, then the customer base is getting started; if the institution has
been around for some time, then it is very likely that a large customer base
already exists. By cultivating and nurturing our existing customers, we can
guarantee that we always have a source of business.
One of the best wars I have found of building on my existing
customer base is by conducting customer reviews. While many different
approaches can be used, the following is one that has worked for me. I
subscribe to the A to Z systematic approach when it comes to contacting the customers.
Whether they have a $100,000 annuity or a $2,000 IRA, I call them all to invite
them in for a review. I emphasize that it is extremely important to update
their file and review their current situation. Once the customer is in the
branch, I treat the appointment as I would any other sales appointment. I go
through a confidential that I have already prepared with updates of their
current PAMCO investments. When the confidential is completed, I make
recommendations and expect a sale.
Often times there is nothing that can or should be changed at
the time of review. Plant the seed for future business and show them that you
truly care about them. People’s situations change. They inherit money, receive
lump sum distributions, receive insurance settlements, have grandchildren, sell
their homes, etc. If these people think of us first, we have an excellent shot
at investing those dollars.
Granted there are those people who will not want to come in
or who will come in just to give us grief. The vast majority, however, will
appreciate the fact that you care enough about them to take time to update
their situation. Although there are times when it seems like talking to these
people is a waste of time, the payoff will always be forthcoming either through
personal referrals or additional business. I know this to be true because
currently two-thirds of my business comes from existing customers.
I later changed branches to Lakeside where I worked from
Monday to Friday and on Saturdays, when necessary. Lakeside had about $125
million in assets and was one of the larger and more desired branches in the Denver Metro area. The manager was a young go-getter by the name of Curtis Varnold. He
and I hit it off immediately and established an excellent working relationship.
He truly saw the value of our service both for the bank and for the
customers.
The highlight of 1990 was without a doubt the birth of
little Chanty. She had already had her debut in Hawaii painted on Haydee’s
stomach as I mentioned. Since we already had Alicia, we were a little more
experienced in the whole parenting thing which didn’t in the least bit take
away from the excitement of the new bundle of joy coming into our life.
On the morning of Thursday, March 8, 1990, Haydee began
experiencing pain. She called the doctor who asked her a few questions and
told us it would be a good idea to go in. We took our sweet time getting
ready. We left Alicia at the babysitter’s and went to St Anthony’s Hospital to
check in. As we were waiting to register, one of the nurses came and talked to
Haydee. The nurse was very experienced and could tell Haydee was getting ready
to deliver. Haydee was wheeled away and I was left to take care of the
paperwork.
When I finished the paperwork, I headed for the room and
Haydee was just about ready to pop. Within half an hour at 2:27 PM our little
Chanty was born. She weighed 7 pounds and 11 ounces. Haydee and I were both
ecstatic and particularly happy we didn’t go through the marathon Alicia had
put us through.
When Chanty was born we named her María Chantalle
McBride. She is blessed with two names, which Haydee and I both liked though
María was more my doing than hers. Since seeing the movie “West Side Story”
many years before, I had always liked the name María. Our gringo pronunciation
was more like “Mareeya” than the standard María. The name Chantalle came from
an existing customer I had who came into the bank one day to open a custodial
account for his daughter Chantalle. I told Haydee about the name and she loved
it. While I liked the name María as her first name, Haydee told me how many
people have María as a first name in Latin America in general and in Venezuela specifically. We asked if we could change the name, and successfully changed
Maria Chantalle to Chantalle María.
Initially, I felt Chanty was much more adventurous than
Alicia. She seemed to have no fear. I attributed this to her older sister
Alicia who is almost to the day 18 months older. We also got “Sweetie,” a
black Labrador puppy from my cousin Stuart. At first Chanty had no fear of
Sweetie, though that changed. In time, as happens with many of us as we get
older, she became more cautious though initially she was much more
adventuresome and prone to bumps and bruises.
One event I recall quite clearly several months after we
had brought Sweetie home. I had been training her to “heel” and stay beside me
as we walked. I would take her to Sloan’s lake every morning about 6:00 AM to
do her deed and let her fetch sticks from the lake. She loved the water and
would go bounding into the lake to fetch whatever I would throw.
I was very happy and proud at how quickly she learned. I
began to take her out without her leash and one particular morning disaster
struck. She saw a dog across the street and in the precise instant I said,
“No, Sweetie!” she took off across the street as a pickup truck was crossing.
Sweetie hit the side of the truck and then lay motionless in the street. The
owner of the truck stopped and felt terrible. He asked if he could help and he
took me to our house about a block away.
As I walked into our house with Sweetie in my arms, tears
were flowing down my cheeks. Haydee saw Sweetie and immediately suggested we
take her to the veterinarian. The vet said she was in shock and suggested we
leave her there for observation. We left her overnight and when we picked her
up the next day, she still wasn’t quite herself. While she shook off the
cobwebs in time, we were never certain if the impact shook a few screws loose
which never quite got back into place. Needless to say, I kept her on a leash
afterwards on our walks regardless of how well she behaved.
With my new outlook on my job as a salesperson and the
benefit I was providing to each and every one of my customers, making the
annual trip with my company was no longer a huge deal. In 1990 I made the cut
with no problem whatsoever. We had a meeting in Doral Beach in Miami.
Joel was with us once again and expertly explained to us how to work with different
personality types. We later met up with our spouses to go to The Bahamas for another bang up time with John Sousa and Alan Blank. Each of the trips seemed
to get better and better. On this particular trip, I recall returning to the
hotel to find an envelope with cold hard cash and a note to enjoy a morning of
shopping the next day.
About the same time I moved to the Lakeside branch, Pamco
Securities and Insurance was purchased and became Liberty Financial Services.
While the basic structure of the business was the same, we inherited much
larger disclosure signs indicating we were not part of the bank and a series of
additional paperwork which was a nuisance in the beginning though extremely
beneficial in the long run.
Previously our word was our honor and while we gave
prospectuses for the investments we sold and were “required” to disclose
commissions and fees, we had nothing in writing to indicate exactly what
customers were getting into. One of the documents we were now required to have
our customers sign spelled out in minute detail exactly what the buyer was
getting into and the costs. Initially I imagined no one would invest after
reading the strong explicit language indicating we were not part of the bank
and also specifying in minute detail the fees and commissions.
To the contrary of my initial belief regarding clients’
reticence to invest, my sales and my career skyrocketed! I consistently earned
the “Top Gun” awards for sales achievement and received promotions. While
Pamco had been excellent at giving recognition and rewards, the tradition
continued with Liberty Financial. I earned many promotions and plaques which
make good fodder for an ego wall!
I will win! Why?
Because I have faith, courage and enthusiasm!
While there were always challenges in terms of opening
new accounts and finding new customers, things seemed to come much easier now.
I had a deep underlying drive and motivation to help my customers in any way I
could. This, in turn, created a backdrop for my income to continue to increase
year after year.
Why should I, “Bring a Little Sunshine into everyone’s
Lives?”
œ Attitude
is contagious
œ Being
positive is a lot more fun than being negative
œ You
get more out of life if you are the kind of person people want to be around
œ It’s
much nicer to see a smile on a person’s face than a frown
œ I feel
much better about myself when people are happy and positive around me
œ It is
a great feeling to make a positive difference in other people’s lives
œ Living
successfully is easier than living as a failure
œ It
brings out the best in people
œ You
catch more flies with honey
Inventory of Strength’s and Skills:
œ I have
a good job
œ I have
an excellent education
œ I am
respected by my peers
œ I have
a wonderful family
œ I feel
I am attractive
œ I have
a great outlook on life
œ I have
tremendous earning potential
œ I have
at least two friends I feel I could count on in any situation
œ My
family is loving and caring
œ Despite
some setbacks, I have been able to set aside some funds
œ I am
healthy
œ I set
goals and strive to achieve them
œ I
don’t want to be ordinary; i.e. I want to be in the top 5% in everything I do
œ I have
faith
œ I have
courage
œ I have
enthusiasm
What kind of person to I need to be to achieve my goals?
œ I have
to have a great attitude
œ I need
to build up lots of “failures”
œ I have
to be willing to go the extra mile
œ I need
to continue learning and growing for as long as I live
œ I need
to learn to be more tolerant of people who don’t have the aspirations I have
œ I need
to constantly be looking for new opportunities
œ I need
to squeeze every ounce out of life
œ I need
to have positive self-expectancy
œ I need
to enrich others so they in turn can enrich me
œ I need
to look at long-term objectives so as to conquer intermediate hurdles which
will occur
œ I have
to be likable
œ I need
to project the image I will be successful regardless of what happens to me
œ I need
to solicit and allow Haydee to help me in the realization of my goals and
aspirations
œ I need
to be a winner
Model these People:
œ Ross
Perot: Wealthy, powerful, strong with a deep sense of what is right and wrong
œ Martin
Luther King: Fought for right vs. wrong, learned to accept failure as a
natural part of success
œ John
F. Kennedy: Strong desire to succeed; unwavering self confidence; personable,
well liked and respected
œ Sybil
Praski: Outstanding sales success, willingness to work and do what needs to be
done
œ Richard
Ducate: Financially successful, sense of humor, filled with vitality
Motivational chant:
We are the Top Guns, mighty, mighty Top Guns
Everywhere we go people wanna know
Who we are…
Once again as December rolled around, I had qualified for
the annual trip. This year we were off for a spectacular trip to Mazatlán.
Joel made the trip with us and talked to us about “Coyote thinking.” It was a
seminar based on adapting to change and working smarter, not harder.
Haydee couldn’t make the trip so my sister Maya went with
me and we had a blast! The night I remember the most was a costume party. We
were given a few articles of clothing and accessories to use when we got to our
rooms and improvised the rest of our costumes. When we got to the party, we
were each given a small shot type glass to hang around our neck and each table
had a bottle of Cuervo 1800 tequila. As we walked around from table to table
we did shots of tequila. Needless to say, it was a wild night!
I began to get restless with the same old routine day
after day. The same types of clients were asking the same questions day after
day. My friend Steve McClinden came along and introduced me to a young dynamic
group of people within Amway called Network 21. Among the people I met in our
“upline” were Bob and Lori Taplin. It was a motivated group of individuals and
their drive and energy was contagious. I began going to meetings and becoming
more involved in their activities. Haydee never was as excited as I was about
Amway and I believe this was in part because it took me away in the evenings to
meetings all around Denver.
My interest in the organization and Network 21 was based
on their adherence to the same type of principles which
Joel Weldon had talked
about during the previous three conventions I had attended with Pamco and Liberty Financial. They listened constantly to cassette tapes which they received weekly
as well as reading books which came monthly. The audio and library program
espoused the benefits of personal growth and development. Contrary to a
popular belief by many of Amway being a get rich quick scheme, they advocated
nothing of the sort. Their belief was to be successful in the organization,
you had to work hard. In addition, while success was possible, it was
definitely not destined for the weak or the timid.
I convinced Haydee to come with me to an “open” event in Palm Springs for Network 21. While she wasn’t really interested in attending the event, it
was a great chance for her to hook up with her long time friend Mirna Peraza.
They met and did a lot of catching up. In the meantime, I attended the
meetings, which were full of energy and excitement. After going to the event,
I was pumped up and ready to rock!
“There isn’t anything or anybody who can keep my family and
me from being successful. We will do whatever it takes as long as it is honest
and legal to make a fabulous life for ourselves.
“My resolve is fixed, my desire is great and there is no
stopping me from realizing the goals I have set for myself.
“We will be successful and we will be diamonds in life. Our
faith is strong and we have direction which will lead us to our destination.”
Meanwhile back at the ranch, my business with Liberty Financial was booming. I was extremely busy and had appointments typically from
the moment I arrived in the morning until closing time. Some of the customers
I recall the most were: Wilma Demko, Art Krebsbach, Dick Ducate and Kay
Climer. They would come into the bank often and always look for the
opportunity to sit down and talk about their investments or just shoot the
breeze over a cup of coffee. The environment in the bank was very easy,
relaxed and conducive to forming strong bonds with clients.
I am convinced the busier we are, the more we get done.
This was certainly the case for me in 1992. I had what seemed to be a million
things going on and was getting it all done. In addition to having my biggest
year in production and working the Amway business, we also were in the midst of
a move to Venezuela in the heat of the summer of 1992.
While there were several reasons we decided to move, I
believe everything I had done previously prepared me for what was to come. My
interest in Latin America and knowledge of Spanish led me to marry my Latin
American Princess while my work as a Financial Consultant and the experience I
had gained enabled me to launch into this new adventure.
All my resolve and education in International Business
would be put to the ultimate test. My dad came to Denver and we talked long
into the night. He left the next morning and I found this note:
Robbie,
You are alive! You are really alive. I am more confident
than ever that this is truly the first day of the rest of your life. The best
is certain to come. You are all together. You are a great father and husband
with the wisdom and patience to handle whatever comes your way.
I am very proud of you and you know that your mother is as
well. My granddaughters are as precious as they can be. My visit with you,
Haydee, Alicia and Chantalle was as positive as could be. We shall be together
forever.
Love all of you,
Daddy
Moving to Venezuela, perhaps more than other event, was
instrumental in developing my theory about bouncing back like a rubber ball.
While initially I believed it was my experience which was most important to
give credibility to my thoughts and ideas I share with people in so many ways,
I now realize it is not my experience which is important rather each individual’s
experience which creates understanding and significance.
In late July, 1992 we packed Haydee and the girls and
they were off to Venezuela. There were still several things to take care of so
I stayed behind to pick up the pieces. We had previously gone through the
exercise of what goes and what stays. I have learned regardless of the amount
of preparation, when the movers actually come, it is always a harrowing
experience. They started taking everything! They even wrapped up an ashtray
with its contents as is, which we discovered when we unpacked several weeks
later.
Haydee’s Cousin Ivan helped me through the packing ordeal
and accompanied me in my final days as a resident of the USA as did my father. I hopped in my car and was off to Albuquerque to leave a few belongings and
say “Hasta Lou Way Go” to my family.
With the die cast and everything in order, I prepared for
what I thought might be my final farewell to the USA as a place of permanent
residence. The night before I left, I took a walk around the lakes of the golf
course behind my mom’s house in Rio Rancho and reflected on what had been and
what was to come. In a flood of emotions, I made a solemn oath to myself that
my life would be significant in some way. While I wasn’t sure how it would
happen or what the circumstances would be which would launch me into the
success I so strongly desired, I was convinced this moment was an important
turning point in my life.
I was 30 years of age and while I had accomplished what I
considered to be great things, I truly felt what was to come would be more
meaningful and significant than anything I could possibly imagine.
The toughest part of leaving was saying goodbye to my
family. While I had already lived away from home for 12 years, knowing I could
hop in my car and be in Albuquerque in several hours was always a comfort. The
support my mom and dad had given me throughout my life was unconditional and
unwavering. In good and in bad they were always there to offer a helping
hand. Realizing I would now be in a foreign country thousands of miles away
was a tough pill to swallow.
I arrived in Venezuela on 27th of August just in time for
Haydee’s birthday on the 28th. I immediately felt the warmth and unconditional
love which Haydee’s family had for me and my family. Haydee’s brother Luis
Enrique, also known as Chichito, and his wife Ysvelia took us into their home
as we scrambled to get our feet under us. All who have made a move know of the
stress it creates and those who have moved internationally know of the added
challenges. They were there to help us every step of the way.
I found myself at age 30 with my wife and my two daughters,
Chantalle and Alicia who were two and three years old respectively. We were in
a strange land where everything was new and different including the money, the
banks, the language, the streets, the news, the food and, in short, an entire
new life.
I recall my first major challenge as a resident in Venezuela was to buy a car. The exchange rate was approximately 70 Bolívares to the dollar
and I had earmarked about $3,000 for transportation and was anxious to get a
vehicle.
I had just recently sold a black 1968 Mustang in Colorado and was convinced I wanted something similar. I remember Chichito telling me,
“Rob, this isn’t the United States. You shouldn’t buy a used car and
especially not one so old!” I thanked him for his advice and proceeded to do
what I wanted to do anyway.
I began looking specifically for Mustangs and located one
in the approximate price range I wanted. I went to see a red 1969 Mustang with
a three speed transmission. While it was dusk and I couldn’t see the car too
well, I could tell it had new paint and a new interior. In addition, when I
took it for a test ride, I felt the power roar from under the hood as I put it
into gear and took off. I negotiated a bit on price and we arranged to go to
the Notary to sign and make the transfer.
I recall the owner wanted cash for the transaction and
wasn’t willing to accept a check. Since once you sign over the car, you no
longer have a legal right to the car, he wanted to protect against any
problems. The request seemed reasonable so I agreed. The next day I remember
going to the bank to get a cash advance from one of my credit cards. The
transaction took quite a while to complete and after waiting for a long time,
the cashier finally called me to get the money. It was a huge stack of cash
and I remember being very nervous walking around with all that money!
We went to the Notary and purchased our first vehicle in Venezuela. I was in love with my hot rod. It had far more power than even my other
Mustang which had an automatic transmission. Nevertheless, I slowly began to
realize my brother-in-law was right about not buying a used car. While it
looked great, it had a lot of quirks and, in particular, the electrical system
was a mess. The previous owner, I believe, bought the car, cleaned it up, put
some money into paint and upholstery and resold it I’m sure for a nice profit.
I remember zooming around in my Mustang. One morning as
I was zooming out of Chichito’s parking garage, I zoomed right up against a
concrete pillar when I miscalculated the distance. In spite of some problems
with the car, and the belief I was taken for somewhat of a ride on the purchase,
I did love the car’s power!
Now that I had transportation it was time to get busy
getting a job. While I was in Colorado, I had made several contacts to try and
set up work, all to no avail. It was difficult to go to a company and say, “I
would like to work for you and, by the way, could you send me to Venezuela?” So armed with an IBM laptop computer and printer my mom gave me, I began my
search.
One of my options in terms of work was Amway though I
soon found out Amway was not yet in Venezuela. I was doing some soul searching
as far as what I wanted to do because in spite of my steadily increasing
income, my work as an Investment Executive with Liberty Financial was becoming
somewhat monotonous. I felt myself saying the same exact words day after day
to the exact same type of client in a never ending quest to sell my products.
I took the opportunity to talk to many different types of
companies when I arrived in Venezuela though the one with the most promise was
Merrill Lynch. I found an alumnus by the name of Paolo Facci who studied at
Thunderbird at the same time as I, though we didn’t know each other in school.
I called him and we agreed to meet at a restaurant call “L’Attico” in Altamira. He was nice guy, about my age, and told me he would be happy to talk to the
office manager Javier Manrique about me.
I followed up with Javier and we arranged to meet on
October 8, 1992. One of the things I obtained a lot of while working with
Pamco and Liberty Financial was self confidence. I basically told Javier he
was crazy if he didn’t hire me! While I may have come off a bit cocky in the
interview, whatever I said worked because he offered me the job. He told me,
“Rob you have one big advantage and one big disadvantage. The advantage is
that you are a gringo and nobody knows who you are. The disadvantage is that
you are a gringo and nobody knows who you are.”
He told me initially I would be on a draw of $1,500 per
month against future commissions which, while way below what I was making with
Liberty, was the first time in my professional career I earned and was paid any
money for anything except for making a sale. Even though it was to be paid
back with future production, it was nice to have some cash flow while we were
getting our legs under us in Venezuela.
Living in Caracas was a huge shock for me. I had lived
in the Southwestern United States for my entire life and while Denver and Phoenix, the two biggest cities I lived in, were fairly large, Caracas was completely
different. Caracas is situated at about 3,000 feet above sea level in a valley
and takes up about the same amount of physical space as Albuquerque. Different
is its density with lots of high rise buildings. Urban planning was virtually
non-existent and, as a result, traffic is terrible because there are frequently
only one or two options to get to certain areas of town.
In the meantime, Haydee and I were on the lookout for schools.
Together we went to and were rejected for a lack of space from Washington and
Jefferson, two well-known bilingual schools. We went to the Colegio
Internacional de Caracas where they did have space. We rejected that offer
because the tuition was very steep and we didn’t like the area of town where it
was located. After a lot of phone calls and searching we found a fairly new
school by the name of Instituto Andes. It was in a very nice neighborhood
called Los Naranjos del Cafetal.
I didn’t realize initially, though found out quickly, Instituto
Andes was a Catholic Girls School. This certainly was not high on my list in
terms of educational institutions. Nevertheless, as we continued to find it
virtually impossible to get into other schools because of a lack of space, it
became our best option. We went with Instituto Andes for our girls’ education
which, in retrospect, was an excellent decision!
Many people had told us it would be wise to find a house
or apartment close to school so we started looking in Los Naranjos for a place
to live. While I had lived in houses for almost all my life, the great
majority of people in Caracas live in apartments. While we looked for both
apartments and houses, we eventually found an apartment we really liked on the
fourth floor of a building called Pacarima on La Avenida Principal de los
Naranjos.
The owner of the apartment was a guy by the name of
Gonzalo Cubillán. While the whole process seemed terribly complicated, compared
to what I was used to, we were eventually able to come to an agreement and
lease the apartment. The apartment building was fairly modern, had a tennis
court and some nice space for the girls to play. The apartment itself was about
1,800 square feet, had three bedrooms, a study, three bathrooms and an
additional bedroom for a maid. The part I liked best was a small garden and
terrace which had a nice view out towards Caracas.
While I was registered as an Investment Advisor with the
National Association of Securities Dealers with a Series 6 license, I had to
take several exams to be able to work with Merrill Lynch. I needed a Series 7
because the Series 6 is primarily for mutual funds whereas the Series 7
encompassed stocks, bonds and options. I also had to take a Series 63 for some
reason or another.
I recall filling out the paperwork to take the exam and
remember being called into Javier Manrique’s office. He said, “Rob, I believe
we have a problem.” I immediately tensed up because I had no idea what he was
talking about. He said, “You weren’t truthful on your application for the
National Association of Securities Dealers.” As my mind began churning wildly,
it came to me in a flash. When I initially took the Series 6, I was asked if I
had ever been convicted or pleaded guilty to any kind of a crime. I truthfully
stated I had once been caught for shoplifting a Penthouse magazine when I was
in college. Several years after I was working for Pamco, I received a note
from Boulder County telling me I could have the case closed for a fee. I paid
the fee and figured that was the end of that story. The NASD apparently has a
longer memory and likely compared my answers to the questions on the Series 6
exam with those I had put for the Series 7. Nevertheless, I recall being more
than a little nervous as Javier confronted me. After I realized what the
situation was I laughed about it and told him the story. It no further
hindered my progress.
The offices for Merrill Lynch were located on the 4th
floor of Parque Cristal in Los Palos Grandes. It continues to be one of the
nicer places to work in Caracas. With a station for the metro at the entrance
to the building and nice restaurants all around, it was a great place to work!
The offices were nicely appointed and most had a window which allowed you to
see the person who worked across from you in the next office. If you were with
a client or wanted privacy all you had to do is close the window. It was
wonderfully practical.
I recall my first meeting with Merrill Lynch. I quickly
sized up the “competition” and figured I would have no problem whatsoever
getting right back into the top 10% of the sales force as I had been with
Liberty Financial. As I looked around me and listened to those in the meeting,
I saw people who by in large had very negative attitudes and seemed to complain
about everything. I was sure with my positive attitude I would soon be running
circles around them.
I later found they did not all have terrible attitudes
and were, in fact, excellent professionals! In addition, there were many who
were extremely successful in the business. People like Josefina Ramirez,
Michele Giacamotti, Ivan Pulido, Ernesto Amengual, José Villa and Freddy
Martinez to name a few. I was to learn a humbling lesson about just how hot I
thought my stuff was!
Thanksgiving came around and I started feeling serious
nostalgia. Mine was the case as it is for so many people in the United States of America. Thanksgiving meant being with family! I got serious home
sickness. While the sadness was particularly poignant initially, we have
maintained the tradition in our home and we have our own Thanksgiving every
year. Though I have kept in close contact with my family and visit every chance
I get, Thanksgiving continues to be one of the times I miss them most!
By December 1992 I had a job, the girls had a school, we
had a nice apartment and our life in Venezuela was on its way. My mom and Ito
came to visit us in our new apartment and our new life to celebrate Christmas
and ring in a New Year.
I learned what Christmas was all about in Venezuela. This definitely has to be one of my favorite times of the year! There is a
general lack of activity from about December 15th to about January 15th. It’s
just pretty well understood people don’t work during this time. It is a time
where family and friends get together and share joy and jubilee for the holiday
season, along with a healthy dose of alcohol which is always available!
The fireworks are spectacular and there are many
traditions during the holiday season which are particularly gratifying. Just
about every company with any number of employees has a Christmas party.
Sometimes they are informal affairs at a bar and other times it is a full blown
party with terrific music from all genres and lots of entertainment. In
addition, it’s a time when many friends talk to each other and catch up on what
has been happening while the world has been doing its flippy flop over the last
several months.
While families are generally close, Christmas brings them
even closer together. Even the younger generation stays to be with the family
before “sneaking away” later to go party with their friends. The adults
usually don’t mind though because they are usually having a pretty good go at
it themselves. A time honored tradition we established many years ago in New México is shots of Tequila on Christmas Eve. I am happy to say the tradition lives on
in Venezuela every year!
When the girls were younger we would play the “Niño
Jesús” game. While Santa Claus does frequent several of the local shopping
malls, it’s baby Jesus who is in charge of delivering gifts throughout Latin America. For the most part he comes shortly after midnight. While the kids are thrilled
to open their gifts on Christmas Eve, the parents are also happy because they
don’t have to wake up early the next morning. Christmas in Venezuela is primarily celebrated on Christmas Eve and we typically tip over and go to bed sometime
around 4 AM and 6 AM depending on how much fun everyone is having!
It usually takes several days to recover. Plenty of
leftovers from spectacular menus prepared on Christmas Eve are usually
available. In the meantime, people start getting serious about partying again
for New Year’s Eve. Usually, there are several warm up parties to tune up for
the Big Event. Fireworks which come out full force on Christmas Eve step it up
a notch for New Year’s Eve. The dogs head for their master’s side and bombs
bursting in air continue from several days before to several days after The Big
Day.
More often than not the ladies are getting the food ready
and the guys are making frequent jaunts to the liquor store. Heads are
counted, menus elaborated and arrangements made. The food typically includes
healthy doses of hallacas which are similar to my native tamales, and yet, very
different. A pork roast with all the trimmings is one of the centerpieces as
are lentils which simmer in the background before making their first appearance,
albeit minus several bites, when midnight strikes.
With the stage set, people settle down and wait for
company to arrive. As is usually the case, people start arriving about 8 to 9
PM with many waiting until closer to 11 to make their grand entrance. The
drink of choice for big events in Venezuela is whiskey. 12 years or better is
the norm rather than the exception. Buchanan’s, Chivas, Old Parr and Johnnie
Walker Black are the rule rather than the exception. With plenty of crushed
ice and Gaitas, the local holiday music, blasting in the background, a soft
roar is usually humming by about 11 PM.
Then things kick into high gear! People began looking
for cash to put in their pocket, suitcases to go for a walk, grapes and lentils
to eat as the New Year arrives. With the TV on to see the sight of New York greeting the New Year, we start picking up speed. By 11:50 PM, “Yeah - the house
is a rockin so don’t bother knockin’, come on in!” to pay homage to the late
great Stevie Ray Vaughn.
With the radio blaring and whoops and hollers filling the
air, the countdown begins. People grab whatever they can to make the most
noise possible and start living it up. Champagne is taken from the freezer,
glasses are filled and the stage is set. As the New Year comes, people toast
and the melee comes to a head. People grab a fist full of as much cash as they
can get a hold of with one hand and as the clock strikes 12:00 AM, there is a
mad dash for grapes as many struggle to down one grape with each dong of the
New Year. I’ve never been a big participant in the grape ritual because I
choked once and decided I wanted to live to see the next New Year to do it all
over again!
Everyone hugs and kisses with big “abrazos.” “Pats” are
seldom permitted and the offender of the “pat” normally receives a big hug in
response. As things settle down, most eat a small cup of lentils for good luck
and some refill.
Then a select few grab suitcases and head for the
street. As you look out into the streets you see many people walking up and
down the road, some in a drunken stupor, with suitcases so as to have good luck
in travels for the coming year. This is usually the time when many head off to
see the other side of their families and when the youngsters head off to party
with their friends. One of their favorite destinations is the beach to watch
the sun come up.
The music continues to rock with Gaitas and during the
night and “Amparito” is usually played at least a couple of times. As pulse
decreases around 2 to 3 AM, somebody, usually me, breaks out a bottle of
tequila, limes, salt and our collection of shot glasses to get things rocking
again! By this time the drivers are starting to take it a little easy while
the rest line up to put them down.
The dancing which has been going off and on all evening
once again comes to a head with elixir to move things to the next level and the
magic of the moment moves the spirit. This last burst of energy usually leads
to ultimate lockdown for the older folks. If you’re lucky many of the guests
begin to help picking up the mess and if unlucky you begin to see your helpers
dropping off to sleep anywhere handy.
And thus 1992 ended. I was just beginning a new
adventure as a strange man in a strange land. While there were many eventful
years previous to and after 1992, more than any other it was the year I
experienced the most heartache, excitement, risk and adventure. Moving my
family thousands of miles away to a new country with no job and no permanent
place to stay was a tremendous challenge.
Years later, the events of 1992 together with my
reflection upon them became the key ingredient of my concept “It’s the Bounce
that Counts!” which I would later share in conferences, seminars and
workshops. Sometimes in life we are up and sometimes we are down. I learned
it was not so important where we happened to be in the cycle. What was most
important was our ability to Bounce Back at least one more time to fight
another day. After all, “It’s the Bounce that Counts!”
The first part of the year I studied for the National
Securities Dealer’s exams. The day I got my results saying I had passed the
test I felt like the floodgates had been opened and I was ready to rock! My
only challenge was what to do and where to go with all the energy I had!
I recall the first day I started making calls to prospect
for business which was a couple of weeks before I could actually go out and
close deals because I hadn’t received the results from my exam. I sat down at
my desk and in about 20 minutes called everyone I knew in Venezuela. Unfortunately, none of them had any money. For a Financial Consultant looking to drum
up business, this is not a good sign!
On the positive side, the people I did know were happy to
give me referrals and thus began my career as a Financial Consultant in Venezuela. The first day I could go out and actually close a deal was on April 1st, 1993.
I had already met with one of my referrals who wanted to open an account so I
set an appointment to close the deal. I got the documents signed, grabbed the
check and came back my first day out of the gates with an account as an April
Fool’s day surprise. I was pretty excited! I went to the office manager to
have him approve the documents. After looking everything over he asked, “Is
that all? It’s just a small account!” While it was a small account, I believe
it was about $40,000, I thought he could at least congratulate me and say, “Hey
Rob, that’s great! Little by Little We Go Far!”
I never could really figure out the whole manager role.
It always seemed to me in the financial services business, as with many other
businesses, the primary function of a sales or office manager should be to
motivate their people. On the contrary, what I often found were managers who
led by fear and intimidation. The order of the day was often, “You better get
your butt in gear because there are a lot of people who are just waiting to
take your job!” While this worked with some people, I never liked the tactic.
There was high turnover in the field. I saw many people
come and go during my time at First Investors, Pamco, Liberty Financial and
Merrill Lynch. There seemed to be a general belief, however, if you were able
to stick it out for a certain period of time, you were pretty much “safe.”
This time period in Merrill Lynch was set by most at five years. So initially,
this was my target. I later found this was not the case though it did give me
something to aim for initially!
1994 was a year with two important events in my
life. The first was teaming up with Pelayo Garcia and working as a team in
Merrill Lynch and the other was buying my first property.
Pelayo had been after me to team up with him from the
time I started producing at Merrill. I was hesitant initially because many of
my colleagues told me it was wise to wait at least one year before teaming up
with someone. In addition, I had always worked on my own and wasn’t sure if I
would like working with a partner.
Little by little Pelayo and I began sharing more with
each other. As it turned out, we had many common interests. In the area of
self help and motivation, we both felt strongly about the importance of
positive thought and action to achieve our objectives. Nevertheless, there
were several things about which we did not agree.
One area where we clashed had to do with style. Pelayo
was very aggressive and had a, “take no prisoners” attitude. My approach to
the business was subtler. A “kinder, gentler” approach you might say. I
strongly believe we don’t convince people to do anything and particularly if
it’s against their will. They must convince themselves and we are merely
conduits, who provide information, some useful and some useless, to that end.
Another area about which we didn’t agree was how our
business should be divided. I believed we should have an even split, 50% ~
50%, while he believed he should have a higher split. While he had more
assets, one of the key reasons we worked together was for him to be the
“outside guy” and me to be the “inside guy.” He went out prospecting for
business while I stayed in the office managing the investments and the
clients. From the get go I told him the only way I would be interested in
partnering with him was if we had an even split on commissions. While
generating new clients and building assets was initially difficult, I was
holding my own and didn’t feel I needed anybody to fall back on.
My perception was he wanted to be the “team leader” and
build a group whereby he was Master and Commander in control. I told him in no
uncertain terms, “It’s my way or the highway!” If he wanted to be the chief,
he could do it with someone else because I wanted no part of it. Eventually,
he conceded and, though we had a period where the split started in his favor
because he did bring more assets to the team at the get go, over a period of a
few months we worked to a 50% ~ 50% split.
In the meantime, I had the itch to buy my own place to
live. I was tired of renting and “throwing” my money away so someone else could
benefit with what seemed to be steadily increasing property values. When we
lived in Colorado we never had complete certainty as to our future so I had
been content to rent. Now, I had a burning desire to have my own place.
I had some money in investments, IRA and the bank. Along
with a loan I was able to obtain through my mom and Ito, I came up to an amount
of $100,000 I could invest. We started looking around at apartments, which
were about 1200 to 1500 square feet. I focused on apartments because they were
most available and I had discovered for security reasons, they were probably
our best option. Everyone I had met in Venezuela who lived in a house had been
robbed at some time or another, many in very undesirable circumstances. I
decided to take the low road in this respect and we zeroed in on apartments.
At the time we were living in an apartment, which was
about 1800 square feet. The apartments we saw initially really didn’t grab my
fancy at all. They were smaller, in buildings which weren’t quite as nice and
had little or no view at all. One day we went to see an apartment of the 4th
floor of a building called Pacaraima on Avenida Este 3 in Los Naranjos. As we
drove to the building we fell in love with the area. It was in the same
neighborhood we were living, close to the girls’ school. In addition, it was
on a cul-de-sac which had a park and sports facilities including a tennis
court, basketball courts and a soccer field.
The first apartment we saw was fairly nice. It had a nice
space distribution, was about 1500 square feet and the asking price was about
$120,000. It had three bedrooms and three bathrooms and a small terrace which
had an excellent view of the building right in front! One parking space was
underground and another was out in the open and it came with a small storage
area in the parking garage. I wasn’t particularly crazy about the place though
there were a few things we liked.
As we were leaving we talked to two people, one was Dr.
Edgar Bustos, a pediatrician on the 5th floor who grunted and provided little
information. The concierge, Brigida, was much more helpful. She told us about
some of the good and bad things related to the building and also asked us if we
might be interested in buying one of the Penthouses which was also for sale. I
told her we were and she gave me the phone number.
I called a gentleman by the name of Elie Frewa, the owner
of the Penthouse, and asked him what he was asking for the place. He gave me a
number which was much greater than we were thinking about. Nevertheless, I told
him we wanted to see the place. When I hung up, Haydee asked me if I was
crazy. I responded, as was my custom, “Usually!” I told her I wanted to see it
and even if we couldn’t afford it, we could at least see a nice place and at
best perhaps work out some kind of deal.
We arranged to see the apartment on Saturday, February
26th at 11:00 AM. Haydee and I fell in love with it immediately! The
distribution was very similar to the other apartment we had seen on the 4th
floor, with additional benefits. The apartment itself was bigger and closer to
2000 square feet. It had an additional terrace, which had a big water fountain
with plants all around it with an open ceiling through which you could see the
sky. Each of the bedrooms was slightly bigger and, most importantly; it had a
bar in one corner of the apartment with panoramic windows which looked out over
an unobstructed view of Caracas and the Avila.
We immediately noticed one of our neighbors in the Penthouse
within the same complex in front of us building upstairs on the roof. I asked
Elie about the construction and he explained many who own Penthouses in
apartment buildings construct on the roof. While according to the official
document of the property, the area pertains to the building, many are able to
get the approval of their neighbors and build anyway. This is “La Ley del Vivo”
at its finest!
As I sat in the bar looking out over Caracas, I was in
love! I was highly motivated to make a deal and Elie was highly motivated to
sell. He and his wife had been trying to sell the apartment for some time with
no buyers. They had recently reduced the price substantially from their
previous price and were now willing to deal. I told him right off the bat I
didn’t have the kind of money he was talking about. At the time he was asking
for Bs. 18.000.000 which came to US$163.500 at an exchange rate of Bs. 110 to
the US$.
I told him I could come up with $100,000 and asked him if
he needed to have all the money up front. He told me they had recently
purchased another Penthouse and didn’t need to have all the money initially. I
asked if he would be willing to finance part of the deal and hold a mortgage on
the property to guarantee payment. He thought about it briefly and said
“yes!” While there were numerous details which we later worked out, we had a
deal!
This is an exciting time! We just put down $5,000 on our
dream apartment. We’re talking about a little Penthouse action with a swimming
pool and all the extras. I’ve always wanted the house on top. With a little
luck, everything will fall into place and we will move in to our new home in
one to two months.
This place is awesome. Great beautiful view of Caracas and the Avila. We’ll be on top of the world looking down.
Joel Weldon’s
statement of, “Don’t get the rabbit habit, think mink!” stuck with me and
certainly applies in this situation.
It’s a little scary to think about how it’s all going to work
as far as paying for the place, though we will find a way. I have faith. This
also gives me a why and a what. For all my adult life I feel like I have been
throwing money away into a bottomless pit with rent. Now I can at least have
something I can call my own. I can take care of it and treat it with love.
This is something I have never felt before renting.
After finalizing all the details and signing on the
dotted line, we moved into our apartment in Residencia Pacaraima and I found
myself with major motivation to move and shake! Our monthly expenses were
about $2,600 per month and my income was about $1,800 per month. I immediately
began working to make up the shortfall.
One of my agreements with Merrill Lynch when I started
was to travel to the interior to find new accounts. Initially, I began
traveling to Maracaibo in western Venezuela. I received several referrals to
meet people on the “other side of the lake,” in Cabimas and Ciudad Ojeda. I
immediately had a chemistry which jibed with many of the people who lived and
worked there. Many were Italians who had immigrated years ago and started
businesses in the oil service industry. They were, generally, hard working and
very serious about their money which was fine by me.
My first major inroad came with a speech I gave to the
Chamber of Commerce of Lagunillas and from there I spread my wings. In 1994 I
traveled on average of once a month to Ciudad Ojeda. In order to get there, I
first had to drive to the airport in Maiquetía which was about an hour drive
depending on traffic. I flew to Maracaibo which was about another hour in the
air. Then I took a taxi ride of about an additional hour to the other side of
the lake. Year round the temperature is extremely hot in the region,
frequently exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. People in Ciudad Ojeda were
impressed with my commitment and little by little my business expanded.
Primarily through word of mouth I began opening more and more accounts.
Venezuela ~ 1994
Start year off by forming a team at Merrill Lynch with Pelayo
Garcia and then quickly going to Albuquerque with Alicia and Chantalle in
January for Dad’s, Rori’s and Grandma McBride’s birthdays. We spent about two
weeks there and then came back.
Pooling our funds together and with special thanks to mom and
Dave have about $100,000 in possible financing to buy a place. Start looking
and after about 3 weeks find our Dream Penthouse. While more expensive than
we’re thinking about, with financing from ex-owner and all our savings we buy
our first property to the tune of $163,500.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (work), things are going well.
There is a severe banking crisis in Venezuela. A total of about 12 banks close
during the year. And there is a flight to safety and in particular to dollars.
Pelayo and I bring in an average of $2 million per month for
first 6 months. Then exchange controls hit and the inflow of funds slows to a
trickle. Meanwhile, the markets worldwide are turbulent. We experience the
worst bond market in 60 years and the supposedly “safe haven” 10 year treasury
notes suffer a loss of 7% for the year. Our clients lose an average of the
same amount and are not happy campers!
Production at year end slows to almost nothing. Finish the
year with just under $150,000 in production for the firm, which translates to
about $40,000 in earnings on just under $30 million in assets.
Exchange controls and financial turbulence grip the country.
The exchange rate is fixed at 170 Bolivares to the dollar in July 1994 and
stays there until year-end. Many banks and insurance companies close affecting
many. Even so, all except the very wealthy eventually get back what they had
invested. The overall cost to the country and reserves is high and the mood of
the country is precarious.
Inflation hits 70% and people see their purchasing power
decline dramatically. Many companies are closing and outdated labor policies
strangle the country’s economy.
Most people are anxious to put 1994 behind them and yet wary
of what 1995 will bring.
Meanwhile, Pelayo and I have optimistic goals for 1995. We
plan on prospecting and working harder than ever. We start the year on a
positive note with Ama and Ito coming to Venezuela for a two-week visit.
“Onward ho we go into 1995!!”
As I reflect on this period of my life, it is without a
doubt one of the most exhilarating. More than 12 years later as I write these
thoughts, I finally figure out how to put into words my attraction for living
in Latin America, in general, and in Venezuela, specifically. There is no
doubt the “Quality of Life” in the United States and in other parts of the
world is very high. What we have in Venezuela is a “Quality of Living!” There
is no other place I have lived where I have felt so alive! Every day I wake
up, I know I am alive and kicking though I must admit sometimes I think it
would be better to live and kick a little less!
1994 perhaps more than any other year illustrates this
fact. In spite of turmoil and obligations which required I move my little
fanny, I was alive and together with Pelayo who became my soul mate, we were
alive. We had goals, ambitions and a life which drove us to succeed. While we
weren’t always successful in our endeavors, there is no doubt we lived and
breathed each and every moment.
To this day I am convinced my life is an adventure of
excitement, one which is full of ups and downs, twists and turns, satisfaction
and heartbreak. This is my life, to have and to hold, to create magical
moments right now because this instant is the most intense moment of my life
and now is the time to live it.
1994, with all of its commotion was, in fact, one of the
most intense years of my life and one I will always remember as a year which
through its challenges brought out the best in my abilities.
Setting goals had been an important part of my life for many
years. Pelayo and I were convinced it was the best way we had to keep on
track. While we didn’t always make our goals, we were very consistent and
through 1995 continued to build and grow our business.
Through the window which opened and closed between our
offices we communicated constantly throughout the day. On the 4th floor of the
West Tower of Parque Cristal, both of our offices faced toward the Avila, which loomed wonderfully in the background. We would energize each other when we
were down, be joyful when we were both motivated and, in general, supported
each other in all we did.
Our friendship was based on a similarity of circumstance
and a common objective. He grew up in Miami and was a transplant in Venezuela, as was I. We were both in a way, “strangers in a strange land.” While his
Spanish was much better than mine, we both faced cultural challenges which
often contradicted what we knew to be true. We had similar issues in terms of
visas, working permits and dealing with currency exchange issues as well as a
host of other items.
Most importantly, we both had a driving desire to
succeed. While we didn’t always agree on everything, the congruency of our
overriding goals and objectives kept us moving in the same direction. We were
both convinced we could make it into the elite of Merrill Lynch. While I
respected the abilities of the top producers in the office, I never doubted I
would soon become part of their ranks. This group wrote their own ticket and
was financially able to do as they pleased. Pelayo felt the same as I and
together we faced the world.
While we both concentrated on building assets, I was
primarily in the office taking care of clients and investments while he was out
and about drumming up business. On my monthly ventures to “La Costa Oriental del Lago” we would reverse roles and he would stay close to home while I was out and
about. During this time Pelayo also traveled quite a bit within Venezuela. One of his primary markets was Maturín.
While, much to our chagrin, we weren’t breaking any
records in terms of production and assets, we did manage to steadily increase
and build on our base of business. My first couple of years at Merrill Lynch
was particularly humbling. While I was in the top 10% of producers nationwide
with Pamco and Liberty Financial, I was merely in the middle of the pack at
Merrill Lynch.
Yearly trips for “Falcons,” “Chairmen,” and “Eagles” were
just beyond our reach. I had previously become accustomed to frequent
recognition for my achievements. Promotions from Investment Manager to Senior
Investment Manager, for example, were norm. “Top Gun” awards for outstanding
production were a common event as were yearly sales trips.
My title from the beginning to the end of my career with
Merrill was simply “Financial Consultant.” I received no promotions and no
title changes to motivate me. The only time my title changed was when Merrill
began to reposition and we all became Investment Managers rather than Financial
Consultants. At Merrill I was more likely to get a swift kick in the rear for
a mistake than a pat on the back for a job well done. Both Pelayo and I came
to understand this and knew it was part of the game. We were each other’s motivation
and bound together in thick and thin.
One of the exceptions to this rule was my being invited
to New York for a training program in March of 1995. This particular trip was
certainly one of the highlights of my career with Merrill Lynch. While I had
worked for New York based firms since starting as a Financial Consultant many
years earlier with First Investor’s Corporation, I had never been to the Big
Apple.
The actual training was done in Princeton, New Jersey, in a very nicely appointed training facility owned by Merrill Lynch. I met
Stephen Dear and his staff who expertly guided us on the do’s and don’ts of
Financial Consultants.
Kevin Wallace, a Financial Consultant in the Far East,
was hailed as God’s gift to Merrill. He was the top producer in the world and
generated from 12 to 13 million dollars in revenue for the firm. A quick
calculation at the time on my part brought his income to more than $5 million
per year! Later he took the role of the punching bag rather than the hero as
his business practices were scrutinized.
The highlight of the trip for me was a trip into New York City to see the New York Stock Exchange and visit Merrill Lynch’s headquarters.
I stayed with another colleague in a hotel across the street from the
impressive twin towers of the World Trade Center which soared over us as we
played tourist for several days.
I will never forget the feeling of walking through New York City for the first time. The activity and movement of literally millions of
people in the business hub of the world was impressive. To this day thinking
about the buildings which tower over Manhattan and spew forth massive numbers
of people takes my breath away.
I had the opportunity to go to the top of the World Trade Center and sit on top of the world looking down. The meetings in Princeton, New Jersey, were full of success stories within the firm which created a
tremendous degree of commitment and motivation. While I was already extremely
motivated, my desire became even more ingrained into my being.
Nice relaxing day in the sun at the Costa Linda in Aruba with my Dad, Beth, Rori, Haydee, Alicia and Chantalle. We spent the morning at the
pool, went to the beach for a bit where the waves were a bit rough. We ate
lunch at poolside and then kicked back in the afternoon by the beach and the
pool. Dinner was at Pizza Hut per Alicia’s request.
It’s great to have the girls with us on the trip. Haydee won
the mother’s day raffle and as a prize received two tickets to “Italian Night,”
a t-shirt and $100 in gambling bucks to the Hyatt. Later on, I won a bottle of
wine in a Merengue dance contest. This is perhaps one of my greatest
achievements!
Workshop Ah Ha’s with Bill Waters:
œ Law of
reciprocity ~ The more I give, the more I get
œ If you
have a big dream, you will never get lost
œ If
someone doesn’t want to talk to me, they don’t deserve me.
œ Learn
something from every failure
œ Not
interested? What is the name of your biggest competitor?
œ Failure
is a natural part of success
œ Merrill
Lynch International is the highest paid sales force in the world
œ Don’t
allow anybody to be your superior – treat everybody as your equal
œ Understand
the process and above all, have fun!
œ Always
follow a statement with a question
œ One
hour of planning saves 3 – 4 hours of activity
œ Today’s
triumph (or setback) is just one step along the journey
There is a magical wonder about setting goals. In August
of 1995 one of my goals was to write a book. By August of 2005, ten years
later, Un Don Especial was written and ready to rock. While it took me
until December of 2006 to finally get it published and in my hot little hands,
it was written by August of 2005. As “The Law of Attraction” promises, the
universe had aligned with my goals and led to the writing and publication of
the book I had once only dreamed about writing.
In July of 1995 the person we bought our apartment from,
Elie Frewa, asked if I would be able to pay him the balance of what I owed him
for the apartment. Because exchange controls were in effect, US$’s were king.
This worked to our favor and when we agreed on a final payment it was with the
benefit of a substantial discount from the original amount. When the exchange
controls took effect laws changed to make payments for any dollar based transactions
payable instead in the equivalent number of Bolívares at the official exchange
rate.
In the end, Elie was happy because he had cash, and I was
happy because even though I still owed money on the apartment, it was now much
less in dollar terms. The final cost of our apartment, taking into account the
reduction to the principal amount, came to about $136,000.
I had spoken to my office manager, Javier Manrique, in
early 1994 about starting a Toastmasters International Club in the office. I
was convinced of the club’s principles and values and confident many could
benefit, including me. He told me very matter of fact, “You can start a
Toastmasters club or you can be a Financial Consultant but you can’t do both.”
I got his message loud and clear, put the Toastmasters club on the back burner
and concentrated on my job.
In September, 1995 we had a Relationship Management
Program meeting in Caracas. Among the ideas we discussed was social
responsibility. In a breakout group several of us discussed ideas we could
implement to be more socially responsible as an organization. One of the ideas
I proposed to the group was to start a Toastmasters group which could help
employees of Merrill Lynch in Caracas as well as others.
When it came time to choose someone to deliver our
findings to the entire group of participants, comprised of about 100 people, I
immediately volunteered. With butterflies in my stomach and my heart in my
throat, I expressed our ideas to the group and gave particular emphasis to the
Toastmasters idea. José Malbrán, an intense, extremely likeable guy from
Argentina who was the Regional Manager at the time, loved the idea. Wonder of
wonders, all of a sudden, Javier also embraced the idea. In retrospect, this was
one of the first of many large groups to which I would speak!
This was the beginning of what was to be a very
fulfilling part of my life for years to come. I wasted no time in getting the
ball rolling. I called Toastmasters and asked what we needed to get a club
going. They gave me the requirements and I set up an informational meeting to
get things started.
Initially the members of Toastmasters came from Merrill
Lynch. Some of the original people stayed and others dropped out. As we had
people drop out, we opened the club to non employees. This turned out to be a
tremendous source of extremely fulfilling friendships, which I maintain to this
day.
The learning process of starting a club, organizing
meetings and, most importantly, of keeping people motivated has been one of my
most important lessons in life. There were many times over the years to come
when enthusiasm would ebb and I would jump in to inject new found vigor into
the club. Time and again we revived from near closure to keep things rolling.
The Caracas Toastmasters Club continued after I moved
from Caracas to Argentina for a little while until eventually vanishing as
interest came to a standstill.
My ideal day:
I wake up in the morning bright and early at 6:00 AM. I go
to my own personal gym and workout for half an hour while watching the news and
catching up on European markets.
Afterwards, I take a nice hot shower in my shower overlooking
the Rockies. After eating a healthy breakfast of fruits and juices, I go into
my personal office and from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, I get in two solid hours of
work with my electronic workstation which allows me to download via satellite
all of the previous days information for my clients.
By 10:30 I’m buckling my ski boots. I walk out of the front
door, strap on my boards and ski down to the chair lift. After several
exhilarating runs, I ski back to my house where I start lunch with a nice cup
of hot chocolate. Our maid cooks a light, delicious, nourishing lunch. By
2:00 PM, I am back in my office for two more solid hours of work. I reallocate
$10 million in assets for a nice cool production of $200,000. Fortunately, I
am now working for myself so a large chunk of that goes to me!
At 5:30 PM Haydee and I are in our hot tub outside soaking in
luxury. After a nice refreshing shower, we plop ourselves in front of the
fireplace in nice cushy furniture playing games with the girls until we put
them to bed at 9:00 PM. We have a nice solid hour of time to read and relax
together. By 10:30 PM we are out like a light thanking God for the
perseverance it took to get where we are.
After spending Christmas in Venezuela, we went to visit
family in New Mexico. The highlight of the trip was going skiing in Taos:
I enrolled the girls in an all day ski program at Taos Ski School for Kids. Alicia was in one class and Chantalle in another. Both started
out on the poma and Alicia graduated to the beginner’s chair lift on the first
day.
At the end of the day, both teachers said my girls were the
stars. Both of them were anxious to show me what they had learned so I joined
them for their first few runs the following day.
Alicia then showed me she could go on the chair lift by
herself. When I had gone inside, Alicia tried to take out the lift line rope
with her neck. Oops! Afterward she was all right and anxious to ski the next
day.
I can picture myself swishing down the slopes with my lovely
girls. I am so happy we had a chance to do this.
Around this time I began to develop a theory about Latin
America in general and, in specific, Venezuela. The theory has to do with the
fact people in general praise children for being “vivos” and chastise them for
being passive. Those who are “vivos” generally enter into a situation and use
their influence to gain what is frequently an unfair advantage. While this is
sometimes desirable, it is in my opinion this is one of the chief reasons why Latin America continues to be an “underdeveloped” country. I wrote the following poem
which expresses this theory.
El Vivo
En una sociedad donde él que es más vivo es
rey,
no se respeta la ley.
El vivo toma todo lo que puede aunque la
otra no cede.
El que hace trampa promueve el hampa.
Daily motivation was and continues to be an important
part of my life. Words have the power to transport us into another place and
time. 1996 was a year where the idea of an “Adventurer Mentality” accompanied
me daily.
My visits to la Costa Oriental del Lago became more
fruitful as time went on. My relationships were strengthened and people began
to trust me more and more. I started seeing many clients and prospects for
business and socially as well. With each visit my asset base and client base
built, if not in the moment, with seeds I planted with increasing frequency.
In particular one client in Bachaquero became a
tremendous source of business and satisfaction. Unfortunately, I learned
several years later this client died unexpectedly in a tragic automobile
accident.
I began to realize the relationship with my clients was
the most important part of developing a strong asset base. As my relationships
strengthened so too did my productivity.
Pelayo and I joined forces with Salomon Levy to conquer
the world. Salomon had started after we had and, while very good and
experienced, had less in assets. We developed a plan, which seemed to make
sense economically and proceeded to yank and crank.
We had a ball and we were constantly pushing each other
to work harder and be more effective. Working together also had its benefits
when one of us wanted to take time off or had to travel for business. As one
would travel, we generally had two people taking care of the fort.
In June of 1996 we reached the milestone of $50 million
in assets. We had a great celebration to make sure we wouldn’t forget the
event. We also pushed over $210,000 in production during the same month.
While we were still small fish in a bigger pond, we were all convinced we were
on target to take the world by storm. As a team we were generally among the
first in the office in the morning and some of the last to go home in the
evening. More importantly, we seemed to have more fun than the rest.
œ Provide
Better Service
œ Call
everybody
œ Answer
phone calls within 1 hour
œ Promise
a lot and deliver more
œ Stay
focused
œ Work
8:00 ~ 5:30
œ 1 FC
available on holidays
œ Find
new ways to explain investments
œ Always
have an opinion
œ Start
day with service calls
œ Be of
service
œ Introduce
clients to management
œ Eliminate
errors
œ Get to
know clients’ families
œ Get to
know clients’ special needs
œ Take
key clients to lunch on birthdays
œ Make
clients feel special
œ Always
be courteous no matter what
œ Never
lose control
œ Always
show respect
œ Show
special interest in clients’ interests
We were bound and determined there wouldn’t be anybody or
anything to stop us from being successful. We brainstormed constantly and were
always looking at new ways to increase our asset base and production. Now many
years later as I reflect on these ambitions a few were perhaps unrealistic. Particularly
to “eliminate errors” and “never lose control”!
In the meantime, Alicia and Chantalle were bigger and
more beautiful by the day. They were now both going Instituto Andes. Chantalle had originally gone to Mi Tita for preschool and then joined her big
sister at Instituto Andes. The school has always been very dedicated and
serious about education. While it was a bit too strict for my taste, I can now
see the benefit it had on our girls. Both Alicia and Chanty have been happy,
thoughtful and always respectful. Seeing them go off to school each morning in
their uniforms was certainly a sight to behold.
Haydee and I had made a conscious decision when the girls
were born about Haydee taking care of the girls and not working outside of our
home as long as we could swing it. With my work picking up and income
increasing yearly, we were able to maintain the promise and Haydee was fully in
charge of raising our beautiful daughters. While I will take some of the
credit for how wonderful they have become, I will give the lion’s share of the
credit to Haydee who was there every step of the way through their development
from babies, to toddlers to little girls and now to young ladies.
There were constant activities and much of Haydee’s time
was spent toting the girls to one thing or another. If it wasn’t ballet, it
was flamenco or some other function. Haydee was constantly on her toes making
sure they were well cared for and not a day went by when Haydee didn’t express
her love to our beautiful daughters with actions and words.
In August we made another trip to the states with an
initial stop in Colorado. We visited Ivan, Dale and Denise, Rick and Jeanie
Schuettpelz, Curtis Varnold and Tim Tafoya. We went to Waterworld with the
girls before heading down south to Albuquerque.
I wrote this poem for my dad…
Three and four ago
A babe was born
They christened him two
Two by two the years go by
Said two to one
What is true?
Came the answer
Work straight and through!
Two by one the years go by
Said two to one
Where are you?
Came the answer
Working straight and through!
Two wondered and thought
Is this true?
One by one the years go by
Two sees it is true
Something for all to view
One has worked straight and through!
One by two the years go by
The love shows through
One and two know
The straight and through.
~ rhm²
Our main event this time in Albuquerque was Maya’s
wedding. Curiously enough, Maya married Allan Lujan on the same day, August
31st as Haydee and I had been married eleven years earlier. The wedding was at
my mom and David’s home and it was spectacular. The girls looked so cute and
Maya was a happy camper. We all had a great time.
The last part of 1996 was spent remodeling the bedrooms
and bathrooms in our apartment. José Guzmán, a long time friend of Haydee’s,
came up with some great ideas and set to work to transform our apartment. As
is most often the the case with construction, we lived in chaos for a while.
In the end, however, we ended up with some nice new living quarters.
What excitement! Maya and Allan arrive in Caracas at 9:10
PM. They are the very last ones to get their luggage and one of the pieces of
baggage has lost its tag. Stayed up until 3:00 AM talking and drinking Polar.
After spending Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Maya
and Allan in Caracas, we head off to El Playón to the Club Posada Boconó along
with Mirna and Michael for some fun in the sun. Among the highlights was when
a surfer crashed into Maya and gave her a busted lip. Fortunately, liquor was
flowing freely and any pain was quickly washed away.
One of the first things I did in 1997 was to make an
appointment to get laser surgery on my eyes. While there were other types of
surgery being done in the USA at the time, this particular surgery was not yet
approved. Nevertheless, the doctor I was referred to had performed many of the
surgeries with excellent success. My first appointment was in January while
the surgery actually took place on May 29th.
I was quite nervous going into the surgery. Imagining
what might happen if there were complications and losing my sight wasn’t a nice
thought. When I saw the number of people lined up to have the surgery, my
fears were calmed. It reminded me of how we branded cattle back at the ranch
in Grants. Line ‘em up and knock ‘em down. The entire surgery took no more
than 5 minutes per eye and I was on my way.
I recall doing the calculations at the time and figuring
the doctor would be an excellent client! While I did follow up and try to
round him up, I was unable to nail him down for an appointment.
The surgery itself, while at the time it didn’t appear
so, became a resounding success. It took several weeks for things to settle
down and then for the first time in my adult life, I could see my toes while
taking a shower! It was truly amazing to be able to wake up and be able to see
without having to don a pair of glasses or insert little pieces of plastic into
my eyes. I was thrilled.
The only thing I wasn’t overly happy with is while my
left eye had perfect 20-20 vision; my right was a bit blurry. The doctor and
the nurses told me the surgeries have varying degrees of success and nothing is
100%, which, of course, they told me at the outset as well. Eventually, I
found the “little problem” with my right eye was actually a godsend. As I type
these words 44 years old, I don’t need glasses to see far or close. My left
eye takes over to see faraway and my right when I am reading. On their own, I
cannot read with my left eye or see very well into the distance with my right.
Dateline: Haydee sticks her fingers together with Superglue
while gluing a nail. Freaks out and is generally hysterical, while I try to
pry her fingers apart with a knife.
Even though I usually had dogs while I was growing up, it
wasn’t until I was older when I really enjoyed having dogs. While I was small,
we had two Collies, one whose name was Lassie and the other whose name was
Thor. Afterwards, we had a little Pekinese who we named Missy. Feeding Missy
and taking care of her needs was always somewhat of a hassle for me when I was
young. My mom would often ask me, “How would you like it if I didn’t feed
you?”
In Denver we had Sweetie, a Black Labrador, Stuart had
given to us and who Maya eventually cared for and loved for many years. After
several years living in Venezuela it was time to get a dog. I searched the
Internet and looked at all the different characteristics of dogs. I wanted a
dog who could live in an apartment and who was good with children. The results
all pointed to a Beagle.
In April of 1997 we bought Tanny, a mostly black Beagle
about 3 or 4 months old. We soon learned Beagles, in general, and Tanny, in
specific, had a mind of their own. While she was very loving and fun to be
around, we could never teach her the basics, such as doing her deed in the
right place, coming when we called her or even fetching a ball. To be fair,
she actually fetched the balls pretty well and with a great deal of
enthusiasm. The challenge was for her to bring them back! In spite of her
shortcomings, I enjoyed having her around. There was nothing like coming home
to a pet that was always happy to see me regardless of what type of day I had.
On May 4th, 1997, my Uncle Abel died and I went to the
funeral. I was very moved when I was asked to give the eulogy. For me, my
Uncle Abel was my mom’s family in a nutshell. He was the one who had stayed in
the San Luis Valley, along with my Aunt Mabel, to live the life of the Vigils.
Farming and ranching were his life. Going back to San Luis would never quite
be the same after he was gone.
Below are my thoughts, put together as I traveled to Colorado and prepared the eulogy:
Uncle Abel, Abie, Abelito, El Shine, The Chief, Hijo del
Patrón, Sr. Vigil, Mr. Vigil, Mr. V and Butch. My Uncle Abel was known by many
names.
As you all know he was born and raised in the San Luis Valley. Once he tried to leave but his heart never left here. He soon came
back. He came back to his rancho, his cows, his horses, his pigs, these
beautiful mountains, his hunting, and most of all to you… his people.
My Uncle Able lived life on his terms and nobody else’s.
Perhaps this is what made him special to all of us.
He was a real person with real problems, real sorrows but
also real joys and real happiness. Most of all though he had a heart of gold.
He always felt a deep responsibility:
To his country
To his people
To his community
To his father
To his mother
To his brothers and sisters
To his wife
To his children
To his grandchildren
To his nieces and nephews
…and let us not forget the responsibility he felt
for his animals…
We all meant so much to him and he to us. Last night I asked
my daughter Alicia what she wanted me to say about my Uncle Abel and she said,
“Just tell them he was special to all of us.” I think that just about says it
all.
I have many fond memories of my Uncle Abel. I remember:
The way he used to always say, “Robbie, how are you? It’s so
good to see you!”
The way he used to give me a big hug every time I saw him.
The way he would give me an even bigger hug when I left.
As a kid, always wondering which the “good” eye was and as an
adult still wondering at times.
The glass eye looking up at me in the bathroom
The way he smelled right after he had bathed and splashed on
some Old Spice
The sadness he felt after his daughter Abby died.
Crouching down and making Alicia and Chantalle laugh with his
smile and kind words.
The pride he felt when he showed all of us his rancho
The joy he had when showing us his “Dream Tractor.”
The way he told me he was going to get better and come see us
in Venezuela.
Well Uncle Abel, you are now free to go wherever you want,
although, I am sure you will always come back to the San Luis Valley.
Most of you have more memories of my Uncle Abel than I can
ever dream of. Let’s share those memories today and in the future when we talk
about him. Let’s remember those good things that we can.
Not too long ago my uncle Abel was at the doctor’s office and
the doctor told him he had to stop drinking or he was going to die. My Uncle
told him, “You are going to die too!” It is important to realize my Uncle Abel
was not afraid to die. His time had come.
My Aunt Joan and my Uncle Abel would often discuss who would
be buried between my Grandmother and my Uncle Ernie. Aunt Joan it looks like
my Uncle Abel beat you to it…
William Shakespeare had Julius Caesar say the following:
The valiant never
Taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders
That I have yet heard,
It seems to me most strange
That men should fear;
Seeing that death,
A necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Uncle Abel the time has come for you to join your:
Mother
Father
Brothers
Sisters
Daughter
Granddaughter
Prized horse Prince
Three legged Bulldog
If we want to be sad let’s be sad for us but certainly not
for him. He lived the kind of life most of us can only dream of, on his terms.
En nombre de la familia yo quiero darles las
gracias a todos ustedes por venir hoy para honrar mi Uncle Abel. Son ustedes
quienes le dieron su forma de ser.
Sin ustedes es posible que el hubiera sido
solo otro Don Nadie y no la persona increíble que fue.
BUTCH
Lo conocemos por muchos nombres
Pero es el mismo hombre
El vivió su vida de su manera
Sin importar lo que dijera la
chismera
Su vida era su familia, su
rancho, sus animales
Pero como todos tambien tuvo sus
errores
Sin embargo su corazón se hizo
con oro
Cuando lo necesitábamos nunca
estábamos solos
Hoy no vamos a decir adiós
Sino hasta luego y que vaya con
Díos…
My Uncle Abel’s funeral was bittersweet. I was so proud
to do his eulogy. While it was sad to see him go, it was also wonderful to see
so many people I hadn’t seen in so long. After the funeral we all went and ate
lots of food and partied long into the night. I reflected on how I would
prefer to have people celebrate my life rather than lament my demise when I
die. I’ve given instructions as such and expect they be carried out!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Pelayo, Salomon and I were
rocking and rolling. We met daily and strategized regarding the best way to
get new clients and maintain the clients we already had. My individual assets
as of the end of June, 1997 were $25 million and the team assets were in excess
of $60 million. My individual production was at $205,000 to date and as a team
we were just over half a million for the first six months. Little by little we
were getting where we wanted to be.
On July 7, 1997, Dan Charleston, the portfolio manager
for the Seligman High Yield Fund, came to our office to tell us about his
management style and the reasons why we should sell his fund. While at the
time it was just another portfolio manager proposing the marvels of his fund,
this particular company and this particular fund would become an important part
of my future in years to come.
Summer vacations took us to Cancun in August of 1997 to
share time with my dad, Beth and Rori. The Mexican people know how to treat
travelers the right way and we had a wonderful time. We chose the Royal
Solaris Hotel, which has an all-inclusive plan. We have come to love this type
of travel. In particular, we enjoy everything being “on the house” from the
moment we arrive to the moment we leave. Though we are obviously paying for
everything, it’s nice to know you don’t have to take your wallet out every time
you want to drink or eat.
Like most of these resorts, they had activities in the
evenings, which kept Alicia, Chantalle and Rori on their toes. We also enjoyed
the activities and, perhaps more than anything else, enjoyed sharing time with
my dad. Vacations with my dad are always full of activity. His energy and
drive come forth in everything he does which guarantees we are always on the
move. While my family doesn’t always move quite as quickly as he might like,
we have arrived at a happy medium and this type of vacation suits us all very
well.
During the summer of 1997 Pelayo asked to meet with
Salomon and me. The purpose of the meeting was to dissolve the relationship we
had together. While Pelayo indicated an interest in continuing to work with
Salomon, he wanted out of the relationship with me. He felt he was bringing in
the lion’s share of the assets, a point, which while arguable, was valid given
the arrangement we had talked about.
While his words cut through me like a knife initially, I
understood his concern and was happy to oblige. Both Pelayo and I indicated we
would like to continue working with Salomon. I believe of all of us, Salomon
was the most affected. He was caught in the middle of our disagreement and he,
I believe, wisely, chose to go his own way. He had given his all to the team,
as in my opinion we all had, and this came as somewhat of a slap in the face to
us both as I saw it.
Shortly after the office found out about what was going
on, José Villa, one of the more experienced Financial Consultants in the
office, approached me about working together. We agreed on a financial
arrangement; I moved my office next to his and I had a new partner.
While Pelayo’s words hurt, he was a very important part
of my history in Venezuela and Merrill Lynch. I wanted to continue our
friendship, which he was reluctant to do initially. In time, the frost melted
and we were able to patch up our differences. During the “recovery” period
there was a song which made me think of our relationship.
Lyrics
Don't Speak:
No Doubt
You and me
We used to
be together
Everyday
together always
I really
feel
That I'm
losing my best friend
I can't
believe
This could
be the end
It looks as
though you're letting go
And if it's
real
Well I
don't want to know
Don't speak
I know just
what you're saying
So please
stop explaining
Don't tell
me cause it hurts
Don't speak
I know what
you're thinking
I don't
need your reasons
Don't tell
me cause it hurts
Working with José brought new learning and challenges.
José had been working with Merrill Lynch for about 15 years. He was already
very successful and had a broad base of clients. This was good on one side
because I had much to learn from his experience. On the other hand, it brought
a level of comfort which was very distinct from the drive which Pelayo, Salomon
and I shared.
My relationship with José was almost the exact opposite
of what I had negotiated with Pelayo. José was very comfortable in the office
and was looking for someone to help boost his business by establishing new
relationships. In addition, he was looking to create a support system. He was
pretty well set in his ways and knew what he wanted. He wanted to make money,
lots of it, and, at the same time, have peace and tranquility.
I began traveling more and ramped up my prospecting
efforts. My association with José brought me to a level where my monthly
income stabilized considerably. Because of the type of business he did,
production came much easier and rotation of certain clients between various
investments was pretty well structured. This stabilization in income was again
good on one side and not so good on the other. Because income was steadier, my
prospecting efforts were not as enthusiastic as they had been previously.
José had about $90 million in assets when we teamed up
and I had just under $30 million. Together we were sitting on about $120
million assets and averaging about $100,000 per month in production for the
firm. As a result, we were primarily interested in higher profile type
clients. Clients of $100,000 were on the low end of the totem pole for us and
we were aiming by and large at clients who had the potential for $250,000 plus
in potential. By definition, and in practice, most of the people with this
amount of money already had pretty well established financial relationships. Our
challenge was often to woo them away from competition.
Two of the places to which I started traveling, in
addition to La Costa Oriental del Lago, were Valencia and Barquisimeto. I was
able to establish some particularly interesting relationships in Barquisimeto which kept me going back for more. I began to get the hang of traveling and,
for the most part, found less competition and more willingness to hear new and
innovative ideas than what was typical in Caracas.
One of José’s traits which I admired greatly and which at
times bugged the heck out of me was his ability to delegate just about
everything. I admired this trait because delegation is not something which has
come easy to me and it often bothered me because I was often the recipient of
his delegation. One of the phrases he used often was, “Bob, hazme la segunda
para…” There came a time where I didn’t want to do any more “seconds” for
anybody and I told him so in no uncertain terms. When we had misunderstandings,
this was generally the source.
On the other hand, I learned a lot about the business
from José. With his experience, he knew many of the ins and outs of the system
and he knew how to get things done. In addition, he was very clear on his
objective within Merrill Lynch and that was to make money. Everything else was
in the background. First and foremost, production needed to be taken care of
and, after this primary task, everything else would take care of itself. I
learned how to better manage clients when making particular types of
recommendations as well as the benefit in doing block purchases and sales of
securities. While asset allocation and investment objective were an issue,
they were not as important, in his book anyway, as doing the trade.
While I had some fundamental differences with this
particular approach, I did understand his point of view. José was looking to
produce for a few more years and then cash out and check out of the business.
Part of my initial appeal to work with José was the fact that he would tell me,
“Bob, I’m not sure how much longer I will be doing this.” I had been in the
business long enough to know the majority of Financial Consultants were most
successful in building their book of business when their partners either left
or were fired. Little did I know at the time I would soon be on the wrong end
of that type of circumstance!
While there were instances when a book of business was
divided up between existing Financial Consultants, it was common for a partner
or the partners of an exiting person to inherit the entire amount. At one
time, Pelayo, Salomon and I analyzed how each of the really “big” Financial
Consultants got their books and we found the great majority of them had
inherited a large portion of their assets. While they had been adept in
managing and garnering referrals from the existing clients, a large percentage
of their book came from accounts which someone else had actually opened.
I continued to be particularly good friends with Salomon
after the break up. Salo began working closely, though not as a partner, with
Freddy Martinez. José and Freddy had worked together previously and so it was
somewhat comical Salomon and I were now working with the previous “odd
couple.” During this time Pelayo continued to be pretty frosty towards me,
though in time this too would change.
In October of 1997, I was invited once again to a
training program conducted by Merrill Lynch in Princeton, New Jersey, and New York City. As a result of my recent partnership with José, I arrived with a new degree
of confidence and enthusiasm. I was now part of a team managing in excess of
$120 million in assets and this brought with it a certain degree of clout. In
these types of meetings, everyone positions, measures and compares. One of the
first questions asked is, “How much do you manage and how many clients do you
have?” This was the gauge as to how successful you were and often how much
attention people paid to you. While the trip to New York City this particular
time wasn’t as emotional as the first time, it was awe inspiring nonetheless.
In early December 1997 I was approached and asked if I
might be interested in considering a career in management within Merrill Lynch.
Following is a list of Pros and Cons I came up with at the time:
|
Pros
|
Cons
|
|
New energy
|
Need to
relocate
|
|
Enhanced
career opportunities
|
Less freedom
to work as I please
|
|
Ability to
positively impact a greater number of people
|
More, bigger
problems of others
|
|
Ability to
use my public speaking skills
|
Not as much
control over my income
|
|
Ability to
motivate large groups of people
|
Need to worry
about other people’s performance and not just my own
|
|
More stable
income
|
More time
away from family
|
|
More opportunity
to travel
|
|
|
Opportunity to use international skills
|
|
|
Ability to
teach skills acquired over past 12 years as FC
|
|
|
More career
opportunity as a manager than as a producer with other companies
|
|
|
More
prestige, title
|
|
|
Ability to
prove myself in a different position
|
|
|
Girls
opportunity to live in a different environment
|
|
After talking about it with Haydee and deliberating the
possibilities, I told them I was interested. While the opportunity didn’t pan
out in the end, it was a very beneficial exercise to help me evaluate my
priorities.
We closed 1997 with a trip our entire family took and it
was a long time coming! Haydee, Alicia, Chantalle and I packed our bags and
traveled to New Mexico on December 19th. After spending Christmas with my
folks, we hopped back on a plane on the 29th of December to see Ivan in Denver. We spent time with Ivan and celebrated New Year’s Eve with Rick and Jeannie
Shuettpelz.
This trip, in particular, took me back to the night
before I left the United States to live in Venezuela. The walk around the
lakes in front of my mom’s house in Rio Rancho had initiated a desire to return
to the USA one day with my entire family happier, healthier and wiser than when
we left in 1992. This was the crowning event. I was on a great ride
professionally with Merrill Lynch, Haydee was more beautiful than ever and our
daughters were the most beautiful, intelligent, courteous and most well
adjusted girls on the planet. This is, of course, my humble opinion and I
admit I might be just a little bit prejudiced!
As 1998 began, I got my feet under me and was starting to
adjust to José’s style of doing business. We were steadily increasing assets
and established several new trusts which besides solidifying the relationship
with a client, also brought in new assets. In particular Mundi Martinez and
Edgar Fernandez were helpful in my realizing this objective.
I was invited to go to the International District
Opportunities in Leadership program conducted in Miami by Merrill Lynch. This was
the second step in the offer I had received previously to move into management.
We met for two days of meetings and seminars where opportunities available
within Merrill Lynch for managers were explained. In addition, I perceived it
as a testing ground for those who would be chosen to lead the firm in the
future. While we were told the meeting was informational, I got the distinct
impression our every move was being followed and analyzed.
At the time I went to the program, I was interested in
pursuing the opportunity. As I began to see what was involved in the
management side of the business, it began to lose its appeal. While I’m not
sure if this shift in my enthusiasm was the reason for my not being called back
to future trainings, I imagine it was pretty obvious. One of the things I
really liked about being a Financial Consultant was the fact I felt in control
of my own fate and income at all times. Managing people and handling their
problems was never high on my list of priorities. Nevertheless, it was an
interesting experience and, if nothing else, I realized it was not something I
wanted to do.
Alicia learns how to ride a two wheeler today! We went out
to the park by our house and after a short while, Alicia is now tooling around
on her bike.
In July 1998 I had an opportunity to reconnect with
Amway. The company was now making inroads into Venezuela and one of my
mentors, Rosemarie, called me to see if I was still living in Venezuela. I told her I was and she set up a meeting for me with Jerry Webb, one of the “stars” of
my upline and the Network 21 organization when I was in Denver.
I was very anxious to meet Jerry and as it turns out, he
is a fine individual. His demeanor and his approach are excellent. What
didn’t coincide is what I imagined a “Diamond in Amway” to be. What I saw and
experienced was Jerry in Venezuela. On the day we met, he had an appointment
about every 30 minutes. He had set up operations in a modest hotel in Caracas and they flowed in one right after the other. With a stack of materials in one
corner of the room and a phone which never stopped ringing, what I saw didn’t
coincide with what I had once imagined the “lifestyle of the rich and famous”
within Amway.
I thanked him for his time and told him I was really not
interested in pursuing the idea at the time. After explaining the benefits of
his offering, he disengaged gracefully and left the door open for future
dealings. As I reflected on the meeting, I realized Amway for me had always
represented hard work and this is exactly what Jerry Webb was doing. The get
rich quick type of scheme, in my opinion, is for the birds. While I would have
more than likely been interested at a different time in my life, July of 1998
didn’t include Amway in my future.
As I was slaving away in the mines of Merrill Lynch,
Haydee and the girls had their own agendas which were packed with activity.
The girls were in ballet a couple of times a week and practice was daily before
an event. There were typically several events each year and each had a lot of
build up and activity. In addition to the endless rehearsals, which for some
reason never seemed to have a specific beginning or end, there were costumes to
rent, tickets to buy and flowers to take so we could properly congratulate our
girls.
While I am hard pressed to go to a ballet or theater
which doesn’t involve “my girls,” it was always a pleasure to go see my girls
dance. I watched them evolve from very young girls hopping around on stage
looking for directions to beautiful young women who move with grace and style
across the stage. I believe the sacrifice they made over the course of many
years has paid off tremendously in their poise, confidence and perseverance to
see things through to the end.
Haydee had her chosen activity, Flamenco. She began
taking classes with Diana Patricia, “La Macarena,” and loved it! She met a
group of ladies with common interests who met and danced several times per
week. Initially, Haydee looked at Flamenco as a good way to stay in shape and
do something she liked to do. In time, it began to include dancing in front of
large groups of people in various theaters around Caracas including the
prestigious Teresa Carreño. While she almost always stressed out before the
performances, she always emerged with her fabulous smile and special grace
which made us all so proud of her.
Trip to Morrocoy
Our first outing in our brand new Mitsubishi Space Wagon.
Along with our family came Guillermo, Mirtha, David, Ana Waleska, Gloria and
Tia Ana. We stayed at Playa Dorada, hung out at the pool some days and went
out to the beach on others.
Trip on Peñero to Cayo Playuela with the gang. Beautiful!
Crystal clear waters. Did some snorkeling in the reefs. Small fish bit Alicia.
I particularly liked the ride back on the boat. Sea was a little rough, looked
like rain. Chanty and David were up front. Ride’em cowboy! Sun pokes through
the clouds just for me to see the light!
Finished reading “Passages.” Perhaps 35 is not too early for
a “mid-life crisis.” According to the book this is very normal, just deal with
it, and don’t lose confidence and party on, Wayne!
Gloria cut her foot on some glass. Took her to the hospital
to get five stitches in her foot. I tied at Backgammon with Haydee, two games
each. Alicia beat me for the first time!
Haydee’s birthday (28th): Went to Playuelita.
Snorkeling with Chantalle. Helped her overcome fear of the fish. It was
spectacularly beautiful! Even though our BBQ got rained out, we had lots of
fun.
Started reading The Magic of Thinking Big. On this my
3rd time with the book, I realize despite a downturn in the
financial markets my confidence is once again building. Most important aspects
of confidence, walk tall, be happy and thankful for all I have!!
Our 13th Anniversary (31st): Rest and
relaxation by the pool then went for a romantic dinner in Tucacas. Prepared to
return to Caracas and hold clients hands because of 500 point plus drop in
market today.
Took peñero to Playuela and walked over to Playuelita. Had a
wonderful day snorkeling and checking out the ocean life. Took Alicia, Chanty,
Ana Waleska and Gloria out on the boogie board to check out the sights.
As the year went on, I began to realize this would be
anything but a normal year. In September, 1998, a crisis in Asia wreaked havoc
in the markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was pushing 9000
points, dropped dramatically to about 7400. I looked at the graphs and thought
this was an excellent time to buy. The bond markets had also taken a hit in
spite of a flight to quality and we had many concerned investors calling.
I suggested to José we call all of our clients and
suggest they take a position in equities or increase their exposure as a result
of the recent downturn. While I had no specifics which told me this was the
right thing to do, it was more of a “gut feeling” which led me to believe it
was a terrific time to invest. José wasn’t crazy about the idea and he told me
if I wanted to call my clients and make the suggestion to go for it. He, on
the other hand, was going to sit tight and ride the storm out for the time
being.
I promptly made a list of clients to call and told them
of my idea to increase exposure into equities. By and large the people I called
had taken some pretty serious hits and the value of their portfolios had
dropped significantly in recent weeks. With the exception of a few people, the
rest told me they would prefer to wait and see what happened. This was the
start of an idea which I have talked about a lot and have yet to put pencil to
paper. The idea is for a book called:
Buy High, Sell Low, Psychology of the Investor
It never ceases to amaze me how investors think. When
things are going well and they are making money, it’s a breeze to get them to
invest more funds. On the other hand, when things are going down and they are
losing money, it’s almost impossible to get them to invest. In many cases, the
best time to buy is when it is most difficult emotionally. Needless to say,
after the dust settled, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and equities in
general began to steadily increase. The few people who took my advice and
invested when the markets were so low were very grateful afterward.
One of the principles which stuck with me for the better
part of my career was dollar cost averaging. Simply, it means investing money
in a particular investment during good times and bad. The result over time is
an average cost which is below the average price of the investment. Though it
is also true if we continue to invest money into an investment which is going
down, we WILL lose money 100% of the time. So it is not always wise to
continue investing money into a particular investment. Nevertheless, for an
investment which makes sense over the long term, it makes sense to continue
investing money during good times and bad.
This particular philosophy generated many discussions
between José and me. While he agreed the principle made sense, he believed it
was better to have dividends and interest paid in cash. The primary reason is
because this would generate additional opportunities for the client to take
advantage of new investments and for us to increase revenues. This flew
directly in the face of my one guiding principle in everything I did with
clients, which was, “Always do what’s best for the client!” While what José
suggested was not necessarily “bad” for the client, it didn’t coincide with
what I felt was the best direction to take.
Even with these differences, we got along well and it
certainly felt good to be part of a team which was, by the end of 1998,
managing almost $130 million in assets and producing in excess of $1.25 million
for the firm. Coming from a difficult situation the year earlier where my
partner had basically told me to take a hike, it felt good to be part of
something bigger and while I don’t know if it was necessarily better, the new
relationship did garner a new found respect within upper management, or so I
thought.
Elections in Venezuela brought a great deal of turmoil
towards the end of 1998. Hugo Chavez, who had previously failed in several
coup attempts, was elected president primarily because people wanted some kind
of change. His largely populist message aimed at the most humble and
vulnerable sectors of the economy had taken hold. While the masses held on to
hope he would change things for the better, the financial and business sectors
were frightened with Chavez’ rabble rousing as well as his strong ties to Cuba.
As a result of what was happening worldwide in the
financial markets and countrywide politically, there were a lot of rumors in
the office with respect to Merrill Lynch’s future in Venezuela. I had several
close friends in the office who were petrified about the possibilities of the
office closing and/or possible layoffs. I had a long held perception about
layoffs which was only lazy and unproductive people are laid off from their
jobs. While some of my drive for the business had waned recently, I certainly
didn’t consider myself lazy and as a team we were very productive bringing
steady revenues into the firm.
I decided I would continue business as usual unless
someone told me otherwise. While several of my colleagues in the office began
putting off opening accounts, just in case, I kept yanking and cranking as best
I could.
One day I listed all of the speaking events I had done
outside of Toastmasters. I came up with the following.
œ Venezuela Joint Venture – Sep 95
œ Venezuela Joint Venture – Mar 98 (100 people)
œ Advanced
ML training – Sep 97
œ Relationship
Management – Oct 96 (Won prize)
œ Chamber
of Commerce Lagunillas – Sep 93
œ Chamber
of Commerce Maracaibo – Jun 94
œ Eulogy
for Uncle Abel – May 97
œ Motivational
Seminar for new FC’s – Attitude – Mar 98
œ Chamber
of Commerce Barquisimeto – Jun 98
œ Chamber
of “Industriales” Barquisimeto – Jun 98
œ Chamber
of Commerce Valencia – June 98
œ Euro
Currency Conversion and Implications – Dec 98
Haydee, Alicia, Chantalle and I took off for USA leaving all of the troubles in the financial world and in Venezuela behind. We had a great time
with family and friends reestablishing many of our long lost traditions, like
tequila shots on Christmas Eve. Little did we know, a nuclear size bomb was
about to drop right on our heads.
Trip to LAX right on schedule. Michael Lovelady, Mirna
Peraza’s boyfriend, met us at the airport in his classic Studebaker. Haydee
and Mirna have been friends for what seems to be a lifetime. While she was
married for a time to Ivan, the relationship between Haydee and Mirna really
began to flourish after her relationship with Ivan.
We ate Sushi for dinner at Michael and Mirna’s house.
Michael then proceeded to kick my butt in darts. This will be forever known as
the LA Darts trip.
Trip to Disney was wonderful! A little cold though great
service and rides made it excellent. We went on lots of scary rides including:
œ Matterhorn (twice)
œ Spinning
Saucers
œ Splash Mountain
œ Great
Train Ride
œ Roller
Coaster by Mickey’s house
œ Jungle
Cruise
Met up with my cousin Tommy McBride and went to the LA Science Museum. His wife Jean, who was pregnant, and his son Tyler were also along for the
ride. While they invited us for dinner, things were a bit uncomfortable and we
didn’t stay.
Went to Universal Studios on a cold blustery day. Got there
about noon and had a great time. We took the tour which lead us through the
Earthquake, fake floods, Jaws, etc. We also went “Back to the Future” as well
as to the Animal Maniac’s Show. Ate lunch at Jurassic Park before going on the
ride two times! We got soaking wet and then freezing cold all while having an
excellent time. Finished the day off by going to the Nickelodeon Show.
Michael and I took the girls down to the beach at Palos
Verdes to the Tide Pools. It was wonderful to walk around with the girls and
check out of the sights at the beach.
Stayed at Maya’s last night, went to mom’s in PM and then to Sharon’s in the evening. Saw all the cousins, smoked a cigar and then did some tequila
shots. Went to my dad’s where we did more shots and talked to 5:00 AM.
We did Christmas morning at dad’s house with Rori. Girls had
a great time opening gifts. Went to my mom’s about 2:00 PM and had a wonderful
dinner. David Jones, Carol and company came over as well. We played pool and
shot the breeze.
Kicked back at mom’s and relaxed. Girls played with new
toys, in particular with Nintendo 64 and computer games. I helped Ito set up
surround sound. Munched left over’s all day, played pool, watched the girl’s
ballet and Haydee’s Flamenco video.
Went skiing to Santa Fe with David Jones and his family.
Alicia was a “Brave Piglet” because though she didn’t feel too good, she
toughed it out. The girls took lessons until mid day which gave Haydee and me
a chance to ski with each other and by ourselves. We all skied together in the
afternoon.
New Year’s Eve party at Maya and Allan’s. Had a good time
with Ivan, Linda, Robert, Jennifer, Jackie, Stuart, Jill, Travis, Cody, Hannah,
Isaac (Allan’s dad), his girlfriend, Allan and Maya. Much different atmosphere
from what we are used to in Venezuela. Nonetheless, rang in the New Year with
joy and festivities. Stayed up until about 3:00 AM.
1999 started with a bang! We arrived on January 6th in
the evening and I went back into work on the 7th. A meeting was called for the
entire office at 8:00 AM on Friday, January 8th. In and of itself this was
very unusual since normally there were separate meetings for Financial
Consultants and the rest of the staff.
Immediately, what had previously been rumors in the
hallway became full blown concern for our future as individuals and as an
office in Venezuela. Because of the financial climate worldwide there were
already drastic cuts being made by Merrill Lynch in the domestic and
international offices. In addition, the political climate in Venezuela added an extra ingredient of uncertainty to the mix.
The following morning we all gathered in our beautiful
4th floor meeting room in Parque Cristal. We occupied the entire floor of the
west wing of the building and had fairly recently gone through remodeling. We
had very nicely appointed offices in the best possible location. This “too
good to be true” scenario provided the back drop for the bomb which was about
to drop.
The entire staff was packed into the office and as our
office manager Javier Manrique began to speak, you could hear a pin drop as
murmurs came to a halt and fear began to grip each of our inner beings. Javier
began with the token words stroking his own as well as our egos about how well we
had done as an office. Assets were up, production had steadily increased and
we had strengthened our relationships with clients.
Then as often happens when we are hearing so many good
things about our performance the magical BUT word was dropped to change the
pace of the conversation. As he began with, “Due to worldwide financial
difficulties, the local political situation...,” our eyes glazed over and we
braced for the news to come. “We find ourselves in a situation where we need
reduce the size of the office to about half of its current size.”
As these last words escaped Javier’s mouth there were
expressions of relief, agony and uncertainty as we each began to calculate the
possibilities. Were we going to be in the half which would continue on or in
the half which would be out on the street? Javier continued saying there might
be further changes down the line as this was the first step in what might be
additional changes to come.
Javier told us the affected personnel would be called in
during the course of the day. We cowered out of the office, some laughing
nervously and others panic stricken to do our best to carry on. Some rushed
back to their offices and began immediately making backup copies of client
lists and deleting other information from their computers while others wandered
the halls looking for comfort and explanations.
I had no idea what my own fate would be. While I was
concerned I might fall into the 50% who would be asked to pick up our things
and go, I also realized I formed part of a very productive team within the
office. I felt both José and I were an asset to the office and even more so as
a team than individually. I went back to my office and did my best to carry
on. I had two appointments in the morning and while I explained to both
clients the possibilities, put on my “game face” and handled both as
professionally as I could.
Throughout the morning and between appointments several
of my best friends in the office were called into the “dungeon of terror” to be
given their last rites. One by one they stopped by the office to tell me they
were among the walking dead. As I learned of each new casualty my heart skipped
another beat.
12:00 PM rolled around and the office was like a morgue.
Tears flowed freely in the hallways as people began to pack up their belongings
and head for home. Two weeks’ notice and the opportunity to adjust to the news
is not standard operating procedure in the financial services industry. On the
contrary, once you have been given the “pink slip,” they want you out of there
as soon as possible. It’s quite common, in fact, to have someone accompany you
to your office to make sure you don’t do anything to harm either yourself or
the company.
As I watched many of my colleagues gathering their belongings,
I continued to breathe, though just barely. Around 12:30 PM as I was heading
for the door to get a bite to eat, I was stopped in mid stride by a tap on the
shoulder and a voice which said, “Please come with me.”
My heart stopped as I walked into the inferno which
others had just experienced. “Rob, you have been a valuable asset to the
company,” the conversation started, “Nevertheless, decisions have been made,
the die has been cast and your life is about to change.”
The rest is a blur. I recall tears initially welling up
in my eyes and then drying back up again forced down by the pride and composure
which I wanted to hold. I wanted to walk out with dignity and with my head
high knowing I had performed at my best during my time with Merrill Lynch.
Unlike many of my colleagues, I had made no plans for an
impending exit. I had my client list and phone numbers tucked safely away, a
ritual which any Financial Consultant worth his or her salt does anyway on a
regular basis, and so mine was simply to gather in a few minutes what had taken
me many years to build, objects which represented more than six years of my
life. To gather memories which could not and would not ever fit in a box. To
gather every ounce of pride I could and walk out of the office with my head
high knowing this was not the beginning of the end rather the beginning of
something great.
Somewhere in the midst of my pain that afternoon, I had
the presence of mind to call several individuals who could be influential in my
next step. Among them was Liliana Van Vort who worked for Seligman Financial.
I had spoken to her recently and she mentioned their wholesaler for Latin America had accepted a position with a competing firm by the name of Janus. She told
me a similar meeting to our own in Caracas had also taken place in Merrill
Lynch office in Panama. She had spent the day talking to several of her best
clients within Merrill who no longer had jobs. I asked her about the opening
for a wholesaler and she told me they still hadn’t filled it. She suggested I
put together a resume and send it to her so she could forward it on to the
powers that be. Little did I know at the time this phone call in the midst of
my distress would be a determining factor in the direction my life was about to
take.
As I said my goodbyes to people who had become my family
and my life, the tears once again made their appearance in my eyes as we hugged
and made promises to stick together through thick and thin. Promises many of
us knew could not and would not be kept in spite of our desire to make them
so. Knowing as way leads to way, our own way would lead us away from those who
had formed such an integral part of our lives for so long.
As I hopped in my car and began driving home, the tears
which had been obedient earlier and which had stayed put began to flow from a
damn which finally yielded to the weight of a sadness pressing against its
walls. Then as I drove through blurred vision, I began to think of what I
would tell Haydee and the girls as I saw them. No words came, only a flood of
emotions, fears, uncertainties and doubts which gripped my entire being.
I had never ever in my wildest imagination even dreamed I
would ever be fired or “let go” from a company. As far as I was concerned,
those who were downsized from companies were the lazy, incompetent souls who
never had a chance to begin with. Mine was to soar with the eagles with a
positive attitude knowing the world would be mine as long as I established
goals and objectives and worked tirelessly towards my end. Now in the depths
of my soul, I knew even though I had remained positive and upbeat throughout,
there is no one who is indispensable within any organization.
I opened the door to my home and walked in. Haydee,
Alicia and Chantalle came to greet me. They immediately saw the anguish in my
face and began to cry as did I. Through sobs and tears I told them I no longer
had a job. We remained huddled, feeling each others’ pain and yet remaining
bound as a family for what seemed like hours.
I was in a stupor and I wallowed in self pity. Playing
the victim and wondering why this happened to me. As I spun in a downward spiral
all I could think about is how foolish I had been not to see the writing on the
walls. Why hadn’t I taken precautionary measures? Why hadn’t I started
looking for a job previously? Why hadn’t I prepared my clients for what was to
come?
These and many other questions plagued me. I know my
concern in turn worried Haydee and the girls as I moped around the house. Misery
loves company and I was determined to have lots of it! Haydee’s family, who
had also become my own family and support system, came to comfort me. They
were all very kind. They told me how proud of me they were. How I was one of
the smartest and most prepared people they knew. While I was later able to
appreciate what they told me, at the time it was like water hitting oil slicked
pavement. Their words rolled right off of me.
The first Monday of the rest of my life. Last Friday cost
reductions at Merrill Lynch hit me in a very direct way and I was laid off. I
somehow thought it would never happen to me even though the writing was on the
wall. I suppose since I felt I was a hard worker and always kept a positive
attitude, I would somehow be immune from a layoff. Oops!
Friday was like a morgue in the office. More than 20 people
out of a job. As near as I can figure, the office has reduced in size by about
50% since its high point. 17 Financial Consultants remain from what was once
35 or 36. When the news came, it hit me like a bomb. I always felt if the
time did come, it wouldn’t be a big deal. It felt a lot different when it
actually happened than I thought it might.
I was pretty down all day Friday. Coming home and facing my
family was perhaps the hardest thing I have ever had to do. By Saturday mid
day though I was back up again. I had spoken to my parents and, in particular,
my mom gave me some excellent advice. I decided 24 hours was all I really
needed to be down.
Now I believe this is, in fact, a tremendous opportunity.
The truth of the matter is I was not really totally satisfied with what I was
doing. This has already, in the short time since it has happened, made me
realize several things.
The most important is I think it is time to make a change.
It is a little scary and I am not sure how it will turn out. One thing for
sure is that it is a challenge and I love challenges.
I love public speaking and being up in front of an audience.
Now I need to figure out a way to make this profitable. I am not exactly sure
how I am going to do it though I have some excellent ideas and that is all I
need.
I had awakened and smelled the roses. We all need a time
to grieve at certain times in our lives. Sometimes this period of grief is
long and sometimes it’s short. In all cases we can decide exactly how long the
grief will last. In this case, I decided 24 hours was more than enough. Now
it was time to move and shake. My main challenge was I didn’t know where I
should move or how I should shake!
There were two specific points in my life when I had
become “burned out” on what I was doing as a Financial Consultant. One of the
times was in 1992 before I moved to Venezuela and the other in 1998 in the
midst of the financial turmoil the world was experiencing. In both cases, I
heard myself answering the same questions from the same type of clients. My
responses seemed rehearsed and without enthusiasm.
I thought back to something I heard years before about a
performer, I believe it was Julie Andrews, who played Peter Pan on stage. Someone
once remarked to her after the play, “When you said, ‘I can fly!’ it sounded as
if you really meant it and as if you said it for the very first time. How can
you keep the same level of enthusiasm?”
She replied simply, “For each member in the audience, it
is the first time!” I had lost my enthusiasm and as a result, instead of
flying with the eagles, I felt at times I was bumbling with the bozos. I
needed to find something which would once again light my fire.
News travels fast in any community and the financial
community in Venezuela found out quickly there was a lot of money in the street
which was up for grabs. Several of my colleagues had already cut a deal with
Stanford Financial and, in addition, other smaller brokerage firms in Caracas were actively seeking to snag those who had left Merrill Lynch. While the majority
of assets Financial Consultants manage generally stay with the firm they worked
with previously, there is always a percentage of clients who will follow the
individual regardless of where they choose to hang their hat.
My immediate response was I didn’t want to continue being
a Financial Consultant with any firm. Fourteen years and a kick in the rear to
move me out the door was enough. Nevertheless, I wanted to cover my bases just
in case. My first order of business was to call my clients and let them know
what happened. While I didn’t think I would be calling them later to solicit
their business, I wanted to leave the door open, just in case.
I wrote out a script which didn’t slam Merrill Lynch and
which simply informed them of what had happened. I preferred to be the person
to tell them I was no longer with the firm rather than someone else. The
responses I received were tremendous and very comforting. With few exceptions,
my clients were very supportive of me and told me they wanted to know where I
went and what I decided to do. Many told me they would follow me and open
accounts if I chose to stay in the business.
One week has passed since D-Day at Merrill Lynch. My
thoughts are starting to crystallize and I believe my direction is getting
clearer.
I received a call from Carlos Peyer, who used to work at
Merrill Lynch in Caracas and now works with Prudential Securities in Miami. He said he was pretty sure I could get a position with them though I’m not sure I
really want to do that!
One of the things I have thought a lot about is the fact that
I was with Merrill Lynch for 6 years. During that time I busted my butt to get
clients and establish a portfolio. I thought somehow all the work I had put in
meant what I had attained would always be mine and couldn’t be taken away from
me. Then boom! From one day to the next it is gone. To be sure there are a
certain percentage of those clients I could take with me to another firm. What
I really don’t want though is to have the same thing happen in another five to
ten years.
The one thing that cannot be taken away from me is the
relationship I have with my clients. I have taken this week to call those with
whom I have the best and closest relationships. The response has been
outstanding! They are shocked at what has happened. More important than that
is they are very willing to help me out in whatever way they can. That means a
lot to me! This, I believe, will be of tremendous help as I network for
business down the line.
I still need to define exactly how I will explain what I do.
I have been thinking about corporate training and development though I think it
is much more than that. I need to put my thinking cap on and come up with an
exact definition for what it is I will be doing. One of my contacts next week
will be with David Charner who runs a business similar to what I would like to
do.
In the mean time, I have also followed up on another lead to
become a mutual fund wholesaler with Seligman Advisors. I believe this could
be a good middle road for what I am thinking of doing. It will give me the
opportunity to get up in front of groups and sell. I will still be in
financial services which is what I know. I will also continue to sell not only
to their existing clients but also working on establishing new sales agreements
through banks and brokerages throughout Latin America. I believe it could be a
very challenging position which also allows me to do the kinds of things I am
looking for while establishing a base and building for the future. I’ll keep
you posted…
In the meantime, as a part of our severance package, DBM
International had been retained to provide outplacement services for those of
us who had been “severed.” While I had done a quick update of my resume and
sent it on to Seligman International, there was nothing for sure in the deal
and I’m not one to kick a gift horse in the mouth. The only Financial
Consultants who decided to take part in the outplacement were me and Ricardo
Parra. While we knew each other on a casual basis before, we became good
friends as we both searched for new beginnings.
The other financial consultants who did not take part in
the program had a variety of reasons. Some already had jobs lined up while
others were so upset with Merrill Lynch they wanted nothing to do with them.
In particular, a couple of my friends could not even hear the name Merrill
Lynch without flying into fits of rage. They really didn’t understand the
decision and felt they were in a way betrayed. I came to understand it was a
business decision and really had nothing to do with me.
A great deal of the benefit which I derived from DBM and
Andreina Villar, who was our consultant, related to defining what I really
wanted to do in life. Public speaking kept coming to the head of the list in
several different ways. At the same time, I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about
being a public speaker. While I knew I liked the energy and adrenalin which
coursed through my veins as I spoke to people, I didn’t know how to take the
first step. I explored many opportunities and looked at several different
options.
This was a time of deep reflection for me and what was
happening in my life. I had spent 14 years of my life as a Financial
Consultant and now had an opportunity to do something else. From a financial
perspective I was much more comfortable than I had been when I first set foot
in Venezuela and I had doors which would open to me if I had the courage to
knock.
The last two weeks have been somewhat tumultuous for my
brain. The decision on whether or not to start my own public speaking business
has been weighing on my mind.
I have gone through periods when I have been sure it is the
direction I want to take and then through others where I think I am crazy to
take on such a venture. I have come to the conclusion the answer lies
somewhere in between.
I am convinced now I need to have a job in order to provide
income stability. With Alicia and Chanty now 10 and almost 9 respectively, I
need to make sure I am financially prepared to take care of their educational
costs and also to pay off my apartment. In addition, I would like to be in a
position to purchase another residence down the line.
At the time my public speaking needs can be fulfilled through
Toastmasters and also by taking on Public Speaking engagements elsewhere.
Options here in Venezuela include doing training for IESA (Graduate School), CIED (Corporate Training) and possibly for Covey Group or English Resource Center which is run by David Charner.
In the end, I figured out what I really want to do is to
speak and motivate people. To realize this dream I don’t necessarily need to
have my own company. I especially don’t think I want to have all the problems
with logistics and preparation for meetings, including the place, the coffee,
the food, etc.
I want to pursue the opportunity with Seligman and if that
doesn’t go through, go full ahead 100% contacting other mutual fund companies
to market their products in Latin America.
I kept in close touch with Liliana Van Vort and
Seligman. The opportunity seemed to incorporate many of the things I was
looking for while eliminating things I didn’t want. With regards to the things
I wanted, it was in Latin America, had a lot to do with speaking to people and
to groups. In addition, it took me away from day to day contact of managing
individual clients and focused more on the big picture of managing relations
with investment firms and investment professionals.
On February 10, 1999, I had a video conference interview
with Seligman. While there were a couple of technical difficulties, I was
prepared and felt I had done very well in the interview. I had rehearsed
previously and was confident in my ability to be a productive member of their
team.
It took a while for me to get feedback from this initial
interview and this was my first indication that while Seligman doesn’t move
very fast, they sure are slow! In time, however, they did get back with me and
sent me an invitation to fly to New York for a second interview on March 2nd.
Comments for my practice interview videotaped at home:
œ Use
voice modulation
œ Don’t
be so monotone
œ Watch
out for my lazy eye and too much eye blinking
œ More
energy
œ More
motivation
œ Good
use of hands, utilize to emphasize specific points
œ Be
passionate
œ Be
confident
œ Make
sure to direct questions towards benefit to company
œ Smile
œ Don’t
lean to side
I arrived in New York and was met at the airport to be
whisked away to the Kitano hotel. I met with Liliana in the late afternoon and
she filled me in about the people to whom I would be speaking. In addition,
she gave me an idea on the competition for the position. I walked to the
offices of Seligman the following morning and as I strode through the hustle
and bustle of New York, I realized the opportunities available to me with
Seligman or elsewhere were limitless. New York has always inspired me to look
beyond my own frontiers and this time the effect was particularly dramatic.
At Seligman I was immediately impressed with the austere,
serious nature of the office. This contrasted greatly with what I had become
accustomed to in Merrill Lynch, Caracas. Latin people in general are much
friendlier and certainly more disposed to smile and laugh while they work. As
I sat and observed people while waiting to be called in, I was somewhat taken
aback by the cold, matter of fact approach of the people. At the same time, I
was on a mission. My mission was to get an offer. After I got the offer, I
could do as I pleased.
The first person to whom I spoke was Nick Martino. He
was a happy go lucky type of guy and represented the Human Resource side of the
equation. I felt the interview with him went well. It was more informational
than anything. He primarily wanted to know what questions I had, though I was
aware he was also watching my every move.
Next I met with Steve Hodgdon, a Managing Director, who
was to be my ultimate “commander and chief,” though there would be another
person to whom I would report directly. Steve was soft spoken and at the same
time intense. He had an easy smile and was prone to use some humor, though his
style was matter of fact and very direct. I felt at ease in the interview and
was pleased with how it had gone and with my responses to his questions.
Next came Brian Zino, who, while not in my direct line of
command, was also Managing Director and very influential within the company.
While my meeting with Steve was oriented almost entirely toward the business
side of things, Brian was more focused on me as a person. We found common
ground in skiing and, though brief, I felt the interview was effective and I
had done a good job. I had lunch with them later in one of the “private dining
rooms” and was given a tour of the office.
The office exuded a conservative, old line aura. For
anyone who visited the office, the Company portrayed a very serious firm who
would do nothing foolish with investors’ money. Thick wood paneling was
evident wherever clients might wander within the office. Lunch was served by
waiters who had been well trained to do their job and stay out of the way.
Conversations were hushed and the image of control and austerity permeated the
environment.
After the meetings I was once again whisked off to the
airport by a driver in a nice big Lincoln Town Car. While the environment
struck me as perhaps a little too cold and a little too serious, I must admit I
liked the special attention and all the indications of a firm who was not
afraid to spend money to treat its clients right. As I flew back to Caracas I felt positive about my prospects for getting an offer and began to play the
waiting game.
If nothing else, with Seligman, I got great at the wait!
The old line seriousness of their offices was reflected as well in their
cautious approach to making decisions. I followed up on the interview and kept
in touch with Liliana, who was my ally within the fortress. She kept telling
me to be patient. My direct boss, Rick Potocki, was doing a lot of traveling
and they all had to sit down to make a decision. So I waited, and waited, and
waited…
On March 18th an indication of interest came back and
Nick Martino asked me if I would be willing to relocate to Buenos Aires.
Apparently there was some damage control to be done and most of the damage was
down south in Buenos Aires. I indicated I was interested and Nick told me
Steve Hodgdon and/or Rick Potocki would be back in touch with me.
On March 22nd, I received an offer to work with Seligman
as Vice President / Marketing Director for Latin America. While the initial
offer was quite satisfactory, there was still some negotiation to be done. The
salary and guaranteed bonus more than doubled my previous income with Merrill
Lynch. Part of the package was relocation costs to Buenos Aires and it was on
this front where most of the negotiation took place.
In the end, Seligman agreed to pay my costs of
relocation, the cost of renting a home in Buenos Aires, tuition for the girls’
school and a very liberal travel and expense account. After some back and
forth on contracts I was set to go. My first official day of work with
Seligman International was April 15th.
We arranged to move as a family to Buenos Aires after the
girls got out of school in July 1999. In the meantime, I was beginning to get
a taste of the type of travel which would be a part of my job for the next three
years.
My job entailed setting up an office in Buenos Aires and
providing sales and support for all of our dealers throughout Latin America.
My first order of business was to go to New York and finalize all the details pertinent
to my employment. I flew out of Caracas on April 18th and spent the week
learning more about Seligman and going through all the paperwork which made me
official. In addition, since I was to be opening a new office for Seligman in Buenos Aires, there were series of power of attorneys and other legal documents which
needed to be executed.
I met Rick Potocki, my immediate boss, for the first time
in person. I had seen him during my first video interview and talked to him by
phone several times; this was our first face to face meeting. My initial
impressions of him were very positive. He had a quick smile, a sharp wit and a
keen business mind. We had several areas of common interest and, in general,
hit it off pretty good from the beginning.
I also met several of the portfolio managers and support
staff who would be the key to my success thousands of miles away in Argentina. I was immediately struck with the “high society” lifestyle which the upper
echelons of Seligman lived. They were into fine food, good wines and expensive
cigars. Money was no object and we went first class everywhere we went. Limos
picked us up and shuttled us about. Maitre D’s whisked us off to the best
tables and we were treated like royalty. While this was all new to me, it took
me little time to adjust to these luxuries.
While there were several things about Seligman which
would ultimately drive me crazy, like the extremely slow decision making
process, they did not skimp when it came to treating clients right. They
understood how important it was to make the client feel good and they had the
proper mechanism in place to assure their clients were treated to the finer
things in life.
For the World Cup in 1998 Seligman took the highest
producers on a trip to France, which included all the goodies such as the best
accommodations, the finest restaurants and, of course, the best tickets to the
most important games. Clients came to expect this kind of treatment from
Seligman and while many of these luxuries were provided by Rick Potocki’s
predecessor, whose name was Richard Garland, we did our best to provide similar
treatment to our clients.
As I would soon find out, no matter how well you treat
your clients, in the end there is only one thing which matters. The one thing
which will make or break you in a financial services firm is performance. Poor
performance on the funds which were pushed the hardest would be my nemesis in
the years to come.
One particular scary moment was when I called home to
check to see how everything was going. I called home and didn’t get an answer
so I called Haydee on her cellular phone. Chanty picked up the phone and was
crying hysterically. I asked what was wrong and she said, “Mommy says she’s
going to die!” Just as she said those words, I was disconnected. I was scared
out of my mind! I called back and was unable to get through. I kept getting
the answering machine and was getting more and more frantic by the minute. I
was finally able to get a hold of Haydee’s cousin, Guillermo, and he told me he
would find out what was going on. After about 45 minutes, I found out Haydee
had fainted, had a severe asthma attack and was in the hospital. I got a hold
of my friend, Dr. Marcos Levy, and was finally able to determine Haydee was all
right, though she needed to have her gall bladder removed. While it wasn’t an
emergency, it should be taken care of as soon as possible.
I flew back to Caracas on Friday the 23rd, reconnected
with my family and the urgent situation Haydee had gone through. I was off the
next week to Argentina to see for the first time where we would be spending the
next years of our lives. I had agreed to move to Buenos Aires without ever
setting foot in the country! While I had spoken to many people I knew, several
who lived or had lived in Buenos Aires, I had yet to visit the city famous for
Tango, fine wine and late nights.
I was very pleased with all I saw and heard. From the
Remise (Taxi) drivers at the airports to the waiters and hotel wait staff, I
was most impressed by the professionalism of the people in general. Perhaps
the only exception was a rather frosty reception at Merrill Lynch in Buenos Aires. Though I can’t say I blame them. They weren’t happy because the same mutual
fund which was responsible for many of them spending several fine days at the
World Cup in France was now giving them headaches with their clients.
The Argentinean people, in general, have a reputation
throughout Latin America as being egotistical and “full of themselves.” While
I met many Argentines on this first trip and throughout my years in Buenos Aires who were genuinely fine, humble and hard-working people, I also found there
was something to be said for the reputation they had earned.
The following week I was off to Panama to meet clients
and host a cocktail party with our Chief Investment Analyst, Chuck Kadlec, who
was also at the time rolling out his new book, Dow 100,000 Fact of Fiction.
Then I was back to Caracas for Chantalle’s Primera Comunion on the 8th of May.
After spending almost exactly 24 hours at home and having
perhaps just a little bit too much fun at Chantalle’s party, a feat for which I
am still endlessly teased, I was whisked off to the airport to hop on a plane
for Sao Paulo, Brazil. Much to my chagrin, when I got to the airport, I didn’t
have my credit cards! For many years I have kept a list of things to take when
I travel. On this particular day, wallet and credit cards were placed on the
list!
Sunday and Monday were spent in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. My first stay in Brazil, while brief, was very impressive. It was, and
continues to be, one of my favorite places in Latin America. On Tuesday I was
in Montevideo, Uruguay; on Wednesday, in Santiago, Chile; on Thursday and
Friday I was back in Buenos Aires; and on Saturday I returned home.
In one and a half weeks I had been in six different
countries and seven different cities. This type of travel was to become the
rule, rather than the exception, for the next three years. The travel while
exhilarating was also extremely exhausting. The best part of these initial
trips was meeting each of the Financial Consultants in the different offices.
Our biggest client in Latin America was Merrill Lynch, which made going to each
of the offices somewhat of a homecoming.
With a rush from airport to airport and office to office
my career as Marketing Director for Seligman International was underway. While
there were many things to learn and a lot of new territory to cover, I was
nonetheless in familiar territory. Though each of the offices had its own
personality and staff, they were all somewhat similar to what I had experienced
over the previous 14 years as a Financial Consultant.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Haydee and the girls were
gearing up emotionally and physically for a big move. Initially, they weren’t
terribly excited about the move. Haydee is in contact daily with various
members of her family and she was starting to stress about being, once again,
in another country. The girls were cautiously optimistic. While they were
going to miss their friends they were excited about the prospect of leaving.
Haydee and I went to Buenos Aires in June to do some
scouting around. Seligman had hired a company to do the house and school
search with us. By the time we arrived we were pretty well in their hands as
far as our alternatives. We saw several homes in different areas and went to a
couple of different schools. The houses varied from all right to fabulous.
The school we liked the most was St George’s which was
located in a “Barrio Cerrado” (gated community) called San Jorge. The moment
we drove into the place we were in love. While it was somewhat far from where
I would be working, it was wonderful. Once you drove through the gates of the
urbanization it was like being in a pleasure bubble. The houses were all very
nice. Even though it was winter and somewhat cold, there was a lot of greenery
and a general peace emanated everywhere.
We went to several houses within the “country” of San
Jorge and the one we liked the most was brand new. It was a little more
expensive than we were thinking about, $5,000 per month, I felt, however, I
might be able to sway Seligman into giving thumbs up since the majority of the
places we saw were similar in price. In addition, the school was a bit less
expensive than the “American” school, which Haydee didn’t like at all. We left
Buenos Aires with a pretty good idea of what we wanted and were hoping we
would be able to get the house we really liked.
We took pictures of the places we liked the most and
headed back to Caracas and made preparations to leave. Moving from one side of
town to the other generally involves a great deal of planning. Moving from one
country to another intensifies the entire process. Fortunately, this time
around I had a company, which was footing the bill rather than me, as had been
the case when we moved from USA to Venezuela. This made things a heck of a lot
easier. We had people hired to move and relocate us, someone who was hired to
take care of all legal issues involving visas, and a support system which paid
for it all!
I am with Seligman and I see what I thought about five months
ago has come to pass. One more time the power of the mind never ceases to
amaze me.
I started to work with J.W. Seligman on April 15, 1999. It
was a long time coming but I finally got the job. As it turns out, the first
call I made when I was laid off was to Liliana Van Vort of Seligman on the very
same day of D-Day! They made me an attractive offer and here I am.
Oh yeah, by the way, accepting the job means moving to Buenos Aires , Argentina. Since I was hired, I have been to Bs. As. five times. It truly
is a beautiful city. Haydee has been there twice and the girls once. We have
a place to live and have already found a wonderful school for our girls. The
big date for the move is coming soon. The movers come on August 2nd and we
leave on August 7th.
Haydee and I have lived for 7 years in Denver and now 7 years
in Caracas. Must be the 7 year itch!
When August rolled around, we decided it would be great
for Guillermo and his family to accompany us on our initial trip. Guillermo is
married to Haydee’s cousin Mirtha, who is also Haydee’s best friend. While all
of Haydee’s family welcomed me with open arms to Venezuela, Guillermo and
Mirtha, in particular, have been the ones who have provided the most support.
Through thick and thin they have always been there. So, it only seemed natural
they help us settle into our new home.
With our boxes safely tucked away with the movers and a
ton of luggage tagging along behind us, we headed to the airport. When we got
to Buenos Aires, we hopped into a “combi,” which is a little van type of vehicle
and headed to our new home. We were in the middle of winter in Buenos Aires and while it never snows, with the humidity it can get pretty darn cold. We
bundled up and braved the cold to step into our new home as residents. We had
decided to rent some furniture and dishes until our move arrived. Nevertheless,
when we walked into our new digs it was pretty barren.
We looked in the cupboards, which to no surprise, were
empty so we headed to the cafeteria which was part of the club within San
Jorge. This was one of our first indications of “sticker shock” regarding
prices. When we arrived in Argentina, the Peso was pegged to the dollar. So
one dollar was one peso. While this sounds fine and dandy, the problem was it
wasn’t reality and items in many cases cost far more than they would have cost
in dollars. If I’m not mistaken, the first breakfast we had in Argentina, which consisted of coffee and croissants, came to something like $70 or $80.
There were of course 8 of us. When we translated the amount to Venezuelan
Bolivars we figured we could have eaten at a very fine restaurant in Caracas for the same amount of money.
As has become my custom when arriving in a strange land,
my first order of business is getting a vehicle. While my own transportation
to and from Buenos Aires was pretty easy because there was a “combi” which
passed right by our home and made things very easy, I knew we would need a
vehicle. Haydee and I both liked mini vans so we went down to the local
Chrysler dealer and chose a Caravan for which we paid cash. After a few days
to catch my breath, I was once again on the road in the never-ending search for
more clients and assets.
The rest of 1998 was spent holding the hands of my
clients who had purchased the Seligman High Yield fund and doing a half-hearted
attempt to interest them in our newest offering, The New Technologies Venture
fund. It wasn’t a full blown sales job on my part because, while technology
was flying high during this particular time, I wasn’t totally convinced it was
the “right” time and, more importantly, I was doing some major damage control.
My predecessors had sold the High Yield Fund in a big
way. The fund manager, Dan Charleston, had done a terrific job during his
career managing high yield bonds, also known as “junk,” bonds. As often
happens when things seem too good to be true, the tables turned in the high
yield market. Dan had a couple of positions underwater which brought fund
performance down on a relative and absolute basis with regards to our peers and
the market respectively. In short, we were losing money for our clients.
In the financial services business it is often “ok” to
lose money as long as you are losing less money than your competitors and the
index. In this particular case we were not only losing money, we were also
losing more money than the index and our competitors. It is precisely during
this type of situation when clients and investors get hostile. As the
Marketing Director, a great deal of the hostility was directed to me!
I focused on building the relation with our best clients
and this eventually helped, as people generally understand we are doing the
best we can. In other cases, it didn’t matter what I said or what explanation
the fund manager gave, there were certain individuals who wanted nothing to do
with me or Seligman. My typical modus operandi was to call clients and set
meetings with them before traveling. I would talk to them and arrange either
to meet in the office or to have lunch or dinner with them. While this worked
with many clients, there were others who simply didn’t want to talk to me or
who would say, “Drop by when you are here and if I have time, I’ll talk to
you.” The latter were actually more frustrating than those who didn’t want to
talk to me because with them I would spend the better part of a day cruising by
their office to, “see if they had time.”
The other challenge, which I faced initially, was to set
up an office. I chose an office in Laminar Plaza with a company called Regis.
They offered the entire infrastructure including a reception, copiers, a fax
and so forth. We rented space from them and they charged us monthly for all of
the services we used. While the situation in general ran pretty smoothly,
there were many details which seemed to take on a life of their own. Since we
were operating as a branch in Argentina, there were a number of legalities with
which I had to deal, including, but not limited to, tax reporting, labor laws
and accounting.
While it was a tremendous learning experience, it was
also very demanding. One of my biggest challenges has always been to
effectively delegate tasks. In retrospect, I should have hired someone to help
with many of the administrative issues, which would have freed up my time to
deal with clients. Liliana was still in the picture and she helped me
coordinate sales and marketing efforts from New York. While we didn’t always
see eye to eye on everything, I feel we were able to work pretty well
together. She knew the clients and, in particular, during my first few trips
she accompanied me to make introductions.
Haydee and the girls got into the groove of things pretty
quickly. The school was about a block away and the general mode of
transportation for kids in the “country” was their bicycles. The girls made
friends easily and Alicia had her first “boyfriend” whose name was Lautaro.
The school was quite different from the Catholic Girls School they were used to
and they adjusted quickly. This school was focused on diverse areas of
learning and Alicia and Chanty were exposed to much more in terms of arts and music
than they had been in Venezuela.
As for Haydee, she was taken in immediately by the ladies
in San Jorge. Her infectious laugh and terrific attitude spread like
wildfire. Life in the “bubble of joy” for a non-working spouse was pretty
good. Mornings were spent on activities such as exercise, art history classes,
candle making, and the like, while afternoons were chock full of tea parties
and wine tasting. Haydee quickly adjusted to the good life and was a happy
camper.
One of the promises I made to Haydee when we left Caracas was to spend Christmas in Venezuela. So as 1999 came to a close, we checked our
passports, made reservations and got ready to leave the sun and fun of summer
in Argentina for an incredibly wild situation which was brewing in Venezuela.
While I have always claimed, “There is never a dull
moment in Venezuela,” this was a particularly turbulent time. People argued as
to whether or not the millennia was changing, the change in dates from the
1900’s to the 2000’s had many extremely worried about the implications of
“Y2K.” We were just excited to be in Venezuela with family over the holidays,
which, as I have mentioned before, is always a lot of fun.
Just before we left for Venezuela there were two things
which happened assuring an eventful trip. Chantalle got Chicken Pox and it
began to rain in Venezuela. After it rained, it rained some more and then some
more before raining some more. The result of the rain was huge landslides,
which took out massive areas of land. The entire coastal area close to Caracas was affected, including the airport. The landslide completely wiped out several
towns and thousands died. Estimates later placed the number of people who died
at about 50,000, though an exact count will never be known! Many were homeless
and still more couldn’t locate loved ones dead or alive.
In the midst of this situation, we began looking for
alternatives to get to Venezuela. Haydee told me a promise was a promise and
she was still bound and determined to spend Christmas and the New Year with
family in Venezuela. We finally found a way around the closed airport in
Maiquetía on the coast. The solution was to fly first to Aruba and then fly to
Valencia, a city located about two hours drive from Caracas. Our next challenge
was what to do with poor Chanty, who by this time was “very bumpy.” We bundled
her up and did our best to keep her covered and away from people. While we got
a few strange looks, we made it safely to Aruba where we stayed one night
before heading to Venezuela the following day.
We arrived to complete chaos and pandemonium in Venezuela. Even in Caracas there were parking garages completely inundated with mud. Many
cities were completely cut off from the rest of civilization and the mood was
one of death and tragedy. News was dominated by people telling stories of
family members who had been whisked away by the slides. Some lucky survivors
spoke of how they had managed to stay alive in the most difficult of
circumstance. The country buckled down and did its best to handle the
situation and there was a lot of criticism about how the situation was
handled. Nevertheless, many stepped up to the plate to begin rescue efforts
and provide for those most in need. It is often said it takes tragedy to bring
out the best in people and this certainly was the case as 1999 came to a close
in Venezuela.
We put on our game faces on for New Year’s Eve and went
to our cousin Norita’s home where she and her husband Dante put on a big
shindig to ring in 2000. With fireworks blazing in the background, whiskey
flowing freely and an ever-increasing number of kids running around, we bid
farewell to 1999 and said hello to 2000!
During the first week of each year Seligman holds
meetings in New York to get the year going. While I was used to kicking into
gear somewhere around the middle of January, I decided to go anyway just to
make them happy!
It was the first time I met many of the people within
Seligman and it was a time to see and be seen. The meetings were focused
greatly on Seligman’s domestic business within the United States. It dawned on
me the way wholesalers, the more common name for my job in the United States, do business was much different from what we were used to internationally.
The domestic wholesaler for Seligman typically had a territory which might
include several states and typically several cities. Often they would hop in
their car on Monday and visit different clients in their territory before
heading back home on Thursday or Friday. While there were many extremely nice
and very professional people, when I looked at what they did, it certainly
wasn’t my idea of fun.
In addition to the meetings with domestic people, we
stayed on for a few days and talked about the issues we faced in our
international offices. One of the people I met and liked a lot during these
meetings was Joe Lam, our representative in Asia. He was a very hard working,
down to earth type of guy. I enjoyed his company and his sense of humor
tremendously.
During these trips we also had an opportunity to meet
many of the people who supported us while we were at the far ends of the
universe. Vilmarie Salazar was one of the people who helped tremendously,
along with Tim Terrell and, in my case, Liliana Van Vort. We typically got
together to go to lunch and dinner as well as have business meetings. As was
typical, Seligman was generous in the travel and entertainment part of the
business and, as a result, we had a terrific time.
One of the moments which indicated I might not want to be
associated with Seligman for an extended period of time occurred during this,
my first year beginning meeting. When I was hired, I was given a salary and a
guaranteed year end bonus. While this was fine for my first year, I was looking
forward to an incentive for the upcoming year. My compensation since beginning
my professional career had been strictly commission. While this means of
compensation was initially challenging, I came to love the idea of being in
charge of my own destiny and pay.
When I asked about the terms of my bonus for 2000, I was
told it would be the same as the previous year. I shook my head to make sure I
had no cobwebs in my ears and I was hearing correctly. I asked, “Let me make
sure I understand. If I sell a lot or if I sell a little, I will be paid the
same amount of money?” The answer came back, “Yes, that is exactly what we
mean.”
Though the amount of money was abundant, it was now clear
what my pay would be for the coming year and it was completely demoralizing. I
have always been driven by a goal, something to aim for and surpass. The fact
I would earn no more or no less than a certain amount of money was the ultimate
downer for me since I had been compensated for the past 15 years of my life based
on performance. For some reason it didn’t matter I was making more money than
I had often dreamed of, it was the fact there was no more available which irked
me! While I was told the following year there might be a change in the terms
of my compensation, I was pretty well stuck with what I had for the time
being. Fortunately, I was stuck with a pretty handsome salary which included
benefits which covered the lion’s share of my living expenses.
After the meeting, it was back to Buenos Aires to
strategize and plan for the coming year. Much of 2000 was a blur of travel
throughout Latin America on what were often wild whistle stop tours with
portfolio managers, often visiting a different country daily.
While at home in Buenos Aires, we had an excellent network
of friends, most were also ex-pats in a strange land looking to have a good
time, as were we. Inside San Jorge Village we got together on the weekends to
party. Often the festivities would last well into the early morning hours.
Almost a year has come and gone since I dusted off this book
and decided to write a few lines.
Seligman has brought challenges and excitement I never
thought about just over a year ago. Travel to faraway places and new skills
which are developing as time marches on.
While the change has been good, it has also been frustrating
at times. Building relationships and establishing a common ground has been my
greatest challenge to date. As time goes on, however, things become a little
bit more comfortable and things start to flow more smoothly.
The most challenging office to date has been the Merrill
Lynch office in Buenos Aires. They don’t respond as well as some of the other
offices do. There are definitely great cultural differences. While the
experience has been frustrating at times, it has also started to become
rewarding as well. In the past several weeks, I have come to realize it is not
me they are reacting negatively towards but rather it is the way they normally
act. They are not hostile; they are indifferent. I believe the reason they
behave like this is because they are so inundated with visitors and products
that to them I am just another one in the crowd. This is my challenge and this
is what I must change in order to be successful in the office.
I have taken strides to that end and a recent trip with our
Chief Financial Strategist, Chuck Kadlec, has been instrumental in setting the
tone for the type of relationship I would like to have with the financial
consultants. I want them to see me as a partner and a consultant who will give
them ideas to improve and enhance their business. I want to get to the point
to where they look forward to see me not as someone trying to sell them
something, rather as someone to give ideas and guidance which serve as an
integral part of their overall sales strategy.
I am formulating the plan which will allow me to establish
myself in that role as partner and advisor to their business.
One of the most memorable events during this time was my
birthday party. Haydee decided it would be a good idea to have a party to get
together with friends we already had and meet new friends. She carefully
planned everything for a surprise party and had a couple of my buddies take me
for a drink after I got home from work to allow her more time to get
everything ready. As I drove up to our home, I saw the road lined with cars
and instantly figured something was going on. Sure enough, as I walked in
there was a huge party waiting for me.
Haydee had hired people to provide food, music and
entertainment. They were excellent! They catered to all tastes musically and
otherwise. They led games and kept us entertained. Liquor flowed freely and
somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, our friend Joe Dyer began to lead us
into some drinking games. The evening ended with all of us singing and having
a great old time.
During this time I met Bob Schoenfield who became my best
friend in Argentina and who continues to be my wonderful friend today. He and
I had a lot of things in common and we got together whenever we could. He and
his wife Danielle lived about a half a block away which was very convenient.
We both loved all kinds of sports. If we weren’t playing tennis, we were
tooling around on our bikes or finding something else to do. In addition, we
both traveled quite a bit so we were able to hook up several times in different
places, most notably in Br
