Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
I'll join you in being nice for 2010. I'm a smart azz. It's who I am, it's a part of my personality.
This thing with DJ went too far and got too personal.
Here's the last thing I'll add to this DJ and this is not coming from any animosity or anger. This is after a night of thinking and praying about how to end this confrontation:
There's nothing wrong with piss and vinegar. There is something wrong with thinking you are better than everybody else.
DJ, you work hard and that's great. But God could bring you and everything you've worked for to your knees in a day if he wants to and there wouldn't be a thing you could do about it. On the other hand he could bless everything you do and you could sail into wealth. It doesn't matter if you are the worst or the best salesman or marketer in the world.
How do I know this?
I learned something about insulting others that I thought were less motivated or less of a success in life than I am. I'd like to share it with you.
When our businesses started to become profitable around 2003 Shelly bought me a Rolex Datejust as a gift for having reached the debt payoff profit point in the dry cleaners. We eventually became watch fanatics and soon had about $25k in watches alone, not to mention jewelry.
I became puffed up thinking what a great businessman I was. One day (in about 2006) as I sat in the car waiting at a guard gate to get into a community to visit a friend the security guard was not letting me through because my friend wouldn't answer the phone.
Frustrated, I made a remark to the guard something like this,
"I know time doesn't mean anything to you, you're just a clock puncher, but my time is valuable, this watch cost more than you make in 3 months!".
The guard looked at me and said
"I'm really sorry sir, and I understand, I'm doing the best I can for you".
And he said it very nicely.
At that moment I knew I had made a big mistake. God had blessed me with everything I had. I sat there stunned for a minute, then the guard let me through.
I asked God to forgive me for being like that and take that kind of thought out of my head. (But the thought of superiority was still in my head - especially since I was already into this Sonitx thing, I thought I was a genius!)
I guess he heard my prayer.
From August 2008 till August of this year I had to sell every single Rolex, Movado, and Breitling watch and all our jewelry (including Shelly's), 2 campers, the boat, golf club membership, extra vehicle, two motorcycles, and had to cash out all our savings.
(God had taken away the $60k monthly line of credit we had used to short-term finance Shelly's customers and to purchase filters in advance. We also got a letter from the bank closing our HELOC. Nothing had changed on our part, we had never been late on any payments and our credit scores were in the mid 700's. But it almost wiped us out overnight. We had to make it up quickly or go under.)
So now, here I sit, the end of 2009. What a moron. I have very little of value anymore. But fortunately God has increased our customer base this year enough to get us back on our feet, this time without the use of any credit at all. Shelly's business will never be as profitable without the credit model and will be sold this year. (And by the way if you are thinking that basing a business on credit is was a mistake to begin with, note that there are lots of businesses based entirely on credit - real estate - mortgages - the auto business, etc. without credit these businesses would collapse overnight. Prior to 2008 there was never any reason to believe that, if payments are kept up and credit scores were kept high, that banks would withdraw credit on a whim. I don't think the credit was a mistake. The mistake was the attitude)
You can bet that next time the Lord blesses me with something He'll get the credit and I won't be looking down on everybody else as if I deserve it more than them. (And it won't be long -I can see his hand at work already building us back up stronger and leaner than we were before.) And this is part of why I have been involved in Roundtables and helping other guys get started doing what I'm doing. Prior to 2008 I kept it all secret and didn't share anything with anyone. Now I feel that was selfish)
All these thoughts were in the back of my head as I posted the first post in this thread. I thought to myself, "This guy DJ doesn't know what he's in for if he thinks he is so much better than everybody else. He needs to knock himself down a peg and respect other guys."
If I had posted THIS post instead of trying to be a smart azz, maybe my point would have been made more clearly and I wouldn't have made a fool of myself.
That's it DJ. Good luck in what you are doing.
This thing with DJ went too far and got too personal.
Here's the last thing I'll add to this DJ and this is not coming from any animosity or anger. This is after a night of thinking and praying about how to end this confrontation:
There's nothing wrong with piss and vinegar. There is something wrong with thinking you are better than everybody else.
DJ, you work hard and that's great. But God could bring you and everything you've worked for to your knees in a day if he wants to and there wouldn't be a thing you could do about it. On the other hand he could bless everything you do and you could sail into wealth. It doesn't matter if you are the worst or the best salesman or marketer in the world.
How do I know this?
I learned something about insulting others that I thought were less motivated or less of a success in life than I am. I'd like to share it with you.
When our businesses started to become profitable around 2003 Shelly bought me a Rolex Datejust as a gift for having reached the debt payoff profit point in the dry cleaners. We eventually became watch fanatics and soon had about $25k in watches alone, not to mention jewelry.
I became puffed up thinking what a great businessman I was. One day (in about 2006) as I sat in the car waiting at a guard gate to get into a community to visit a friend the security guard was not letting me through because my friend wouldn't answer the phone.
Frustrated, I made a remark to the guard something like this,
"I know time doesn't mean anything to you, you're just a clock puncher, but my time is valuable, this watch cost more than you make in 3 months!".
The guard looked at me and said
"I'm really sorry sir, and I understand, I'm doing the best I can for you".
And he said it very nicely.
At that moment I knew I had made a big mistake. God had blessed me with everything I had. I sat there stunned for a minute, then the guard let me through.
I asked God to forgive me for being like that and take that kind of thought out of my head. (But the thought of superiority was still in my head - especially since I was already into this Sonitx thing, I thought I was a genius!)
I guess he heard my prayer.
From August 2008 till August of this year I had to sell every single Rolex, Movado, and Breitling watch and all our jewelry (including Shelly's), 2 campers, the boat, golf club membership, extra vehicle, two motorcycles, and had to cash out all our savings.
(God had taken away the $60k monthly line of credit we had used to short-term finance Shelly's customers and to purchase filters in advance. We also got a letter from the bank closing our HELOC. Nothing had changed on our part, we had never been late on any payments and our credit scores were in the mid 700's. But it almost wiped us out overnight. We had to make it up quickly or go under.)
So now, here I sit, the end of 2009. What a moron. I have very little of value anymore. But fortunately God has increased our customer base this year enough to get us back on our feet, this time without the use of any credit at all. Shelly's business will never be as profitable without the credit model and will be sold this year. (And by the way if you are thinking that basing a business on credit is was a mistake to begin with, note that there are lots of businesses based entirely on credit - real estate - mortgages - the auto business, etc. without credit these businesses would collapse overnight. Prior to 2008 there was never any reason to believe that, if payments are kept up and credit scores were kept high, that banks would withdraw credit on a whim. I don't think the credit was a mistake. The mistake was the attitude)
You can bet that next time the Lord blesses me with something He'll get the credit and I won't be looking down on everybody else as if I deserve it more than them. (And it won't be long -I can see his hand at work already building us back up stronger and leaner than we were before.) And this is part of why I have been involved in Roundtables and helping other guys get started doing what I'm doing. Prior to 2008 I kept it all secret and didn't share anything with anyone. Now I feel that was selfish)
All these thoughts were in the back of my head as I posted the first post in this thread. I thought to myself, "This guy DJ doesn't know what he's in for if he thinks he is so much better than everybody else. He needs to knock himself down a peg and respect other guys."
If I had posted THIS post instead of trying to be a smart azz, maybe my point would have been made more clearly and I wouldn't have made a fool of myself.
That's it DJ. Good luck in what you are doing.
