The Earth School Life-1001

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The Journey Begins

As with all of us, my journey on the Earth plane started the day I was born.

I was born to a woman named Thelma. Neither of us realized at the time, that

it was in the world of Spiritthat the choice was made for me to be born as her

child. There is no such thing as an “accident of birth.” In my case, one of the

reasons for choosing Thelma was that she was to save my life in the years to

come.

Ruben was my father. I was only eleven when he died, and I really don’tremembermuch about him. He

was in the retail business and when hedied, he left my mothera little store on Halsted St. just offMaxwell

St.in Chicago – a neighborhood ofpushcarts reminiscent of New York’sLower East Side.Unfortunately,

my father leftno insurance.

.

My mother earned enough money for the next few years for us to survive(I have anolder sister), but she

wanted more for all of us, so she decidedto move the businessto an area nearer our home.

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It was a ladies’ dress shop. By the time I turned 16 years old, my motherhad gone outof business.

..

There was no money, and I was forced to get a job and help support her.My sister was married by then,

and did what she could through the years after my father’s death, but thestore was a loser and had

drained her of all her money.

.

Although my mother came from a large and wealthy family, they refused any financial help because my

sister had married a man who wasn’t of our faith, and felt my mother was to blame. Their “punishment”

was that both my mother and sister were “disowned” from the family.

As a result of all the stress during my mother’s years in business and also due to the problems

with herfamily, her rheumatoid arthritis became worse.

It became so that through the years, her fingers became so misshapen as to be practically useless.

So it bagan;

.

• My First Job-Stock Boy

  My First Job – Stock Boy

  When I was sixteen, my brother-in-law worked for Goldblatt’s, a retail department store in Chicago. He

  got me a job there as a stock boy.

  I started in the Linen Department working for Meyer Liebowitz. I worked for him for six months and

  thenwas promoted to General Stock. That meant that when somebody needed something done

  anywhere in thestore, they called me.

  The current store manager got promoted and we were sent a new store manager named Robert

  Streighter. He didn’t like the condition of the store at all, so he decided to remodel most of it. Since

  there were onlytwo stock boys in the store, besides the cleanup crew, I had to do most of the work. I

  started working veryclosely with Mr. Streighter. We started in the basement and re-merchandised

  thehard lines departmentslike Hardware, Sporting Goods, Plumbing, Toys, Pets, House wares

  and SmallAppliance Departments.

  I had to build all new display counters and then had to re-merchandise each store fixture I built. So I

  builtthem, painted them, and re-merchandised them. I did fixture by fixture in each of the different

  departments. The job took us about two months per floor, so it took us about six months to finish the

  job.

  .

  After the job was finished, there was no major work for me to do, so Mr. Streighter promoted me to

  Manager of the Hardware Department.

• I Got Drafted

  I Got Drafted

  While I was working at Goldblatts, The Vietnam war was in full swing in South East Asia. American

  were fighting the Communists in the jungles. In thoes days, there was still a draft , allowing theU.S.

  Government to call you to serve in the Armywhenyou were 18 years old.

  
  The day came when my draft letter arrived: “Uncle Sam Needs You!” I went down to my local draft

  boardto take the physical. There were hundreds of 18-year-old boys there. We all passed the physical. I

  willnever forget the busses standing there in the compound surrounded by barbed wire fences,

  waitingto takeus away to die in the jungle. I appealed the action, and set up a time when my case

  could bereviewed atmy local draft board.

  
  The time for my appeal came and I took my mother with me to show them why I had to stay home and

  support her. They took one look at her hands and they granted my appeal.

  If I would have been drafted into the army, my entire life would have been different. But I’m sure one

  ofreasons I chose to be born to her was to make sure I did not go off to war and die in Vietnam. I had

  tofinish my life’s mission before leaving the Earth plane.’

• I Left Goldblatts

  I Left Goldblatts

  After Mr. Streighter remodeled the entire Goldblatt’s store, he resigned and went to work for a

  competitive department store called Goodman’s. Larry Goodman was the founder of a chain of

  department stores in Chicago called Community Discount Stores. He sold the Community stores and

  later opened up Goodman’s Department Store.

  When Mr. Streighter got settled in his new job he asked me to join him. I was just 21 years old, and he

  promoted me to Assistant Store Manager. The store was about 25,000 square feet in size, and did

  about$4,000,000 a year in sale. It was one of the first real discount department stores.

  I cleaned up another store, but this time, I didn’t have to build new counters and display racks, I just

  hadto re-merchandise the hard line departments again. After I finished cleaning up the Housewares,

  China,Hardware, and Automotive departments, the job became a little boring. The bottom line was

  that I hadgotten used to cleaning up the “The Garbage,” and became a real store merchandiser.

  I decided there was no future for me with Goodman’s. I was in the highest position I could achieve for

  a22-year old. They certainly were not going to promote anyone my age to the position of Store

  Manager, soI decided to go back to Goldblatt’s. had over thirty stores).

• I Went Back To The Beginning

  I Went Back To My Begining

  Because I had established a good reputation at Goldblatt’s, I decided to go back, and went back to

  whereI left off as the manager of the Housewares and Dinette Set department. This time, because of

  myexperience they sent me to their number three store (at the time they over thirty stores).

  I did the same thing again – cleaning up “The Garbage.” By this time, I was very experienced in the

  Housewares industry, so the company promoted me to Assistant Housewares Buyer.

  Guess what I did? You got it: I cleaned up the “Garbage” in the rest of their stores. I visited the stores

  andtried to help the department managers with their many problems.

  This started to get boring, but I see now that God wanted me to be good at what I did. He was training

  mefor my next step in life.

  Working as an assistant buyer at Goldblatt’s was also an important experience for me because that’s

  where I met my wife, Mary. She was the best friend of one of the female House Ware managers.

  Two years later, Mary and I got married, and over 38 years later, we’re still together.

  Now that I had a wife, I needed to earn a little more money. What should I do? I didn’t want to work

  at Goldblatts for the rest of my life, so I took a new job doing the only thing I knew how to do.

• I Became A Salesman

  I Became A Sales Man

  I started selling the items that I had been merchandising for the past seven years: Housewares. I sold

  them to Goldblatts, Carson Pirie Scott, Wiebolt’s, and P.A. Bergner’s and a few other companies.

  The line of merchandise I sold was huge, and the only reason that I knew what I was selling was

  becauseof the experience that God had given me cleaning up all those stores.

  I started selling the items that I had been merchandising for the past seven years: Housewares. I sold

  them to Goldblatts, Carson Pirie Scott, Wiebolt’s, and P.A. Bergner’s and a few other companies.

  The line of merchandise I sold was huge, and the only reason that I knew what I was selling was

  becauseof the experience that God had given me cleaning up all those stores.

  I worked for a housewares distributor who sold;

  • Gadgets for the kitchen

  • Corning Ware and Pyrex

  • Cookware sets Glassware

  • Dinnerware and much, much more.

  By this time I had a history with almost everything I sold. My sales catalog was 8″ thick, and I knew

  everyitem in my catalog and how it sold.

  I never really had to sell any of my accounts; they all trusted me and respected me for my knowledge.

  AllI really did was go into their stores and write new orders. I gave them what I thought they needed.

  I did this for two years until I thought it was time to take the next step down the path of life. The next

  stepin my path was always logical, and as long as I did the logical thing, I stayed on what I thought

  wasthenext step in my Destiny or in God’s plan for me, as strange as that plan seemed to be.

• I Started My Own Business

  I Started My Own Business

  I thought it was time to become my own boss, so I took my next step and opened my own housewares

  store called Pot’n Pantry. I filled it with all the merchandise I learned so much about over the last 15

  years. So I started selling housewares to myself. Pot ‘n Pantry was similar to a store that is still

  aroundtoday called Crate and Barrel. But I didn’t copy Crate and Barrel.

  
  The merchandise in my stores was what’s called ‘name brands’. It was the same merchandise I had

  previously sold – lines like Corning Ware and Rubbermaid.

  In my opinion, Crate and Barrel sold, and is still selling, imported and overpriced junk. One of my

  associates wanted to be my partner, who else but the company that I worked for.

  He just happened to have a warehouse full of the merchandise I needed to put in my new stores.

  My wife became pregnant, and we had our first son named Aaron.

  That’s about the time my Guardian Angels started to “play with my head.”

  I found a new shopping center on the south side of Chicago called River Oaks. They were building a

  newsection across the street from the main center and next door to Venture, an early version of a

  discountstore like Target. I thought their Center Court was a terrific location, and since I was the

  second storethat signed a lease, they gave me a great deal. They gave me $30,000 to help build the

  store, so I did it.

  Well, they built about twenty-five stores in the Center Court, but they only rented three. My store

  turnedout very nice. I did a little business, but not enough to pay my rent, but enough to pay my help

  and buynew merchandise when I needed it.

  I decided to try harder so I opened up a second store. I learned the most important thing was

  LOCATION,LOCATION, and LOCATION!

  I found a very busy shopping center called Harlem and Irving Plaza. It had been around for years.

  Theyhad two locations available:

  • The first was on the south end of the plaza nextto a Walgreen Drug Store.

  • The second was next to a fabric storecalled Minnesota Fabrics.

  My Guardian Angels had done it to me again. I logically thought that I didn’t want to be next to a drug

  store and drug store clientele I wanted the women who shopped at the fabric store.

  They were my type of customers.

  It seemed logical, but my Guardian Angles fooled me again, because they knew what was about to

  happen and I didn’t. Harlem and Irving Center decided to expand the shopping center. They enclosed

  the center and made it a shopping mall. My store was now in a long hallway with Minnesota Fabrics

  andRadio Shack. The location was so bad that Radio Shack, Minnesota Fabrics, and my store, Pot’n

  Pantry,all closed. The Walgreen’s location was in the center of the mall where business was

  booming. Ijustwasn’t supposed to be successful in the Retail business.

  I opened three more stores trying to recover, but I just never could, and wasn’t supposed to. I finally

  wentbankrupt for over 1.5 million dollars. I never had a chance to succeed in Retail. The stores were

  veryimportant in my life because they took me to the next step in my Destiny.

• I Started To Drive A Cab

  I Started To Drive A Cab

  I needed to support my family (second son Steve had arrived) and couldn’t decide what I wanted to do

  inlife. In my desperation I decided to drive a cab. It was a boring job, but I needed the money, so I

  hadto dowhatever I could to support them. It was the next step in my Destiny.

  It was in the late 70s when I started. At that time, there was a gasoline shortage in the U.S. The Arabs

  hadcut the supply of oil and there were actual lines of cars backed up at gas stations. They couldn’t

  keepraising gasoline price like they do today, because at the time the prices were frozen. So instead

  ofraisingprices, the gas stations couldn’t get enough gasoline to sell.

  A new movement started called “Gasohol,” a blend of 90% gasoline and 10% ethanol. This product

  wouldincrease our gas supply by 10%. Wow! Since I had a lot of waiting time on my hands, I got

  involved in theGasohol movement.

  I started planning how I could build an ethanol plant. I found where to buy the equipment, and how

  tofund it.

  All my passengers in the cab found it strange to find a cab driver that spoke English, so they almost

  always struck up conversations with me. ‘Chance’ played with me again. One day, a passenger got in

  mycab who worked for the U.S. government. He was our ambassador to what was then called the

  “Caribbean Initiative.” That was supposed to help the poor countries in the Caribbean basin.

  We started talking about what I was trying to do with gasohol, and he started telling me which

  countrieswere too poor to buy gasoline, and who needed to use 100% alcohol fuels. Brazil was

  alreadyusing 100%alcohol fuel. Jamaica was desperate and they would probably have to do the

  same.

  He liked what I had to say, so he set up an appointment for me with the Energy Minister of Jamaica.

  One week later I was off to Jamaica.I met the Minister and came back home with a contract to build

  fiveethanol plants. The total cost of the project was $150,000,000. Now I just had to raise the

  money!Jamaica tried to help, and they gave me a government guarantee for $30,000,000.

  But again, I couldn’t fight my Destiny or my Guardian Angels. Jamaica’s credit was NO GOOD. I

  couldn’tget their guarantee funded by anyone. But that cab ride changed my life.