To some people, it may seem that my life has been rather unusual. For example, I am not a big fan of fishing, hunting, boating, golfing, recreational flying, or gambling although I have enjoyed dabbling in most of these briefly. Nor am I an aficionado of the fine arts such as ballet, opera, classical music, or even much of the art world; and not surprisingly, I have spent relatively little time in museums, etc.
Some may wonder how in the world I spend my days, but on the other hand, just think of what could be accomplished if you tried every day (and I mean really tried –to the very best of your ability) to achieve other goals and pursue other interests than those above. That is what I have chosen to do ever since I was a teen, and my choices have left me free to fixate on and pursue the other areas of my life which I felt were critical to my overall goals. I have not been just sitting around contemplating my navel! My choices have allowed me to participate in and/or achieve the following:
- Represented my undergraduate university at a national convention on business and manufacturing (during the weekend following the assignation of President Kennedy)
- Had a successful career as a CPA for 6 years in public accounting with one of the world’s finest international firms.
- Enjoyed a successful second career as Chief Financial Officer for 39 years with a group of privately owned companies where I was responsible for the accounting, tax, and computer departments. I also headed up all borrowing activities and progressed from a one lender, $16,000,000 facility in my early career to a $1,300,000,000 multi-tranche facility with over 20 lenders. This is an 80-fold increase. I was also involved in any number of special projects and enjoyed a great deal of satisfaction from all of this work.
- Designed and taught a memory techniques course to people ranging from 3rd grade youngsters through those in their golden years.
- Read over 1200 books since 1972.
- Had a thoroughly enjoyable evening sitting at a table of only 8 people with the former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. A picture of the two of us toasting each other is a prized item hanging on my study wall.
- I enjoy watching football to this day, and I was well into my 40’s before finally abandoning the fantasy that a New Orleans Saints home game would be stopped, and I would answer the call to come down and play linebacker.
- I took up skydiving briefly in my early 20’s. This was in the early 1960’s, well before the age of good communication and tandem jumping. I packed my own parachutes, learned parachute landing falls under the watchful eye of a former Viet Nam green beret, and climbed out of the plane onto a very tiny step holding only a wing strut to make my jumps. This was indescribably amazing!
- Drove 140 mph in a Lamborghini on a racetrack
- Writing this book
In short, life has been a very rich, exciting, and rewarding journey; and I certainly do not feel like I have lived a sheltered or cloistered life in any way, shape, or form. I have simply made choices that made sense to me and which, I thought, furthered my goals.