I was a manufacturer's rep in the jewelry industry as my first real job. I had dropped out of Boston University with only a 2 year degree. I hated school, I was a straight C student since first grade and one of the greatest days of my life was dropping out.
My old man was so pissed off. I was the chosen one, I was being groomed to take over the family law firm. My dad owned his corporate attorney office and he just assumed I would follow him. He never under stood, I was a low grade moron when it came to school, but I was a AAA genius when it came to making money.
I actually should have gone to Julliard as I was a really good drummer.
My jewelry job gave me all of New England as my territory and the money was really good. After a few years I quit as my boss tried to claim someone I closed was really his client who he could never close because the owner hated him.
Next stop car business outside of Boston. Started in Feb 1984 and by April I was the number one salesman. There were over 20 salesmen and I was hated by almost all as I made them look like a bunch of pikers. A year later I was a truck manager at a Dodge store and I took them from number 35 in N.E to number 3 in about 6 months. I was rewarded by being made sales manager, given a base salary of 50K with 5% of net sales at the end of the month. It was a take it or leave it. I had made so much money with them as they never thought it possible to hit the numbers I did selling trucks. I was making 10K a month plus bonuses which was more than the GM of the store so they of course cut my pay. I was still making good money for the later 80's.
1990 car biz took a shit. We were a 200 plus car store then like over night we were grinding for 80 cars a month. One of my dad's clients mentioned one day that a new pool hall opened near him and he went in and the place was crowded.
I went to every pool hall in New England robbing every good idea I could and watched all the stupid mistakes not to make.
I opened my pool hall in June of 1990 and by July I was making a profit. in 1994 I bought the plaza the pool hall was in and I almost tripled the rents. In 2010 I closed the pool hall and rented out the space. In 2017 I sold the plaza and been retired since. My timing was damn good as if I owned that plaza and not getting any rent money would have been a bitch. I am retired and pretty much a cripple. Too many back surgeries, foot,shoulder all from sports plus being on my feet 70 hours a week in the car biz and then 14 plus hours when I opened the pool hall. I had 19 9 foot professional tables that were all solid oak and carved legs and much more.
Here are a couple of pics.