Wow, Carl, that is a great story. How many of us have to pinch ourselves when we wake up to make sure where we are isn't a dream?
I think I will bore everyone with mine ....
This is somewhat abridged ... there were other events, but this communicates the "gist".
The start is a business failure thanks to the combined factors of a little piece of legislation called "The Growth Management Act" and a business that was woefully under capitalized.
Stage two was a "friend" who offered me a good job and then proceeded to screw me over on the first day on the job. "Gee, Reg, we just can't start you at the salary we discussed".
With business debts and a job that was paying at least $12,000 a year less than what we needed, we had to sell our home and move into a little 1,000 sf rental (after living seven weeks in a borrowed travel trailer parked in a friend's backyard to save up "first, last and deposit").
I hung in with the "friend" for a year. We paid off most of our business debts, but a bout of pancreatitis for my wife, and the fact that I could NOT get the IRS off my back, was making finances way more than "tight".
The first ray of hope was the offer of a business opportunity. Having recently failed I was pretty shy, but I didn't have too many other options, so I jumped. With start-up capital from a partner and a desk in the corner of his office, I took over Northwest Water Systems with three sampling contracts and one billing contract. Total revenues about $1,200 a month.
What turned out to be the second ray of hope was actually total madness on our part. We were presented the opportunity to make an offer on a house my wife had fallen in love with four years previously. I couldn't make anything like an offer the owner (a friend) was asking, and, with the IRS hanging over my head like a thunder cloud, I couldn't close in the foreseeable future. I told the owner, my friend, the reality, and he asked me to offer what I could, so I did. I told him it would NOT break my heart if he told me to take a hike. I knew the value of the house and I valued his friendship above the house. But he accepted our offer and we moved into a house we never dreamed of living in.
In 2000, thanks to the IRS (I will not discuss them in polite company), we had no choice but to file bankrupcty. And I got my first flight in the 185 I have often referred to here. I was bankrupt, I was living in a house I had no idea how I was going to close on (madness!), I was president of a struggling company, though, by this time we had about 30 systems under management and the design/compliance work was rolling in (and I was no longer needing to make shareholder loans from my partner, though I occasionally had to hold my paycheck). And I was SERIOUSLY hooked on aviation.
Since then, things have just been getting better and better. Despite the bankrupcty, I was able to close on a VA loan for the house (I need to post a picture) and the company has steadily grown and turned profitable. I ran into a flight instructor who offered to train me at the rates he paid for his training ($8 an hour) and got to spend a lot time at the controls of a 185, for free. I did have to pay rental on the airplanes in which I trained, but growing profitability covered that expense.
Then I ran into someone who wanted to partner in an airplane and made me a partnership offer I could manage.
Now, I manage a company that earned $750,000 in revenue last year, live in a house I never DREAMED I could afford, have my PPL, and own half of a very cute little 150, and, except for the mortgage on the house, have practically no debt. Seven years ago I was wondering how I could keep any kind of roof over our heads and food on the table.
I would like to claim that this is all because of my brilliance. But it is not. Sure, I have worked hard, but brilliant I am not. I am not sure how it all came together, but there are days it seems a little unreal.
Reg
