| Bill's Life and his Lessons Learned, Part II | | | | 'em. Especially when you use at least two sources |
| There are a few people, very exceptional people, | | | | for your information. Reporters call this |
| who are so singularly special that the | | | | "corroboration," and "confirmation." Third, the best |
| complimentary joke is made; after they were | | | | way to find things or market things is through |
| born, the mold to make them got broken. In | | | | advertising. |
| other words, there's no chance for posterity to | | | | With all these money making ventures going on, I |
| make any more of the likes of Michelangelo, | | | | was spending a tremendous amount of time |
| George Washington Carver, Franklin Delano | | | | outdoors. I developed a love of hunting and fishing. |
| Roosevelt, etc. In my case, they threw out the | | | | I loved the woods and being out in nature while |
| "mold," but I fooled 'em and grew back! | | | | "harvesting" the wild blackberries, collecting |
| Seriously speaking, the first lesson I learned while | | | | worms, tending the bees, walking my |
| very young is that in order to sell successfully | | | | egg-and-honey delivery route etc. As I got older, |
| you must be relentless. You have to be downright | | | | I became an adolescent and then a teenager. |
| incredible to be able to keep your integrity and | | | | Really, you ask? No fooling? I say this because like |
| successfully sell something like, "ice in the | | | | practically every other teenage boy, I got |
| wintertime to Eskimos." However, As John Paul | | | | interested in cars. I started to collect junk cars |
| Ghetty, the oil-marketing billionaire, observed, if | | | | and trucks. As I began to tinker with one of |
| you have a high quality product you know people | | | | them, my mother came outside to talk with me. |
| both need and want, repeatedly, it will almost sell | | | | (There's that lesson about the importance of |
| itself." Like the nursery stock we grow at Highland | | | | finding supportive parents. Boy I was lucky with |
| Hill Farm. | | | | both!) My mother said, "Bill you don't want to be a |
| I have learned these lessons. There are basic | | | | farmer. They don't make money. You have to |
| concepts that are important to understand. | | | | study. Go to college and get a respectable job. If |
| Starting when I was very young, I've always had | | | | you don't, you will be a farmer working too many |
| "business." My first business was making and | | | | long hours worrying about weather and crop |
| selling potholders when I was 5-years old. My | | | | diseases and such. Or, you'll be a trash collector. I |
| parents had bought me a small potholder-making | | | | love you." Then, she walked back into the house. I |
| contraption. Rather than just make a few for the | | | | guess she saw the junk cars and trucks I had |
| sake of "arts and crafts," developing my fingers | | | | collected as trash. |
| and hands, I made hundreds and hundreds. I got | | | | Listen to your mother. That's a lesson you |
| real good at making real good potholders, you | | | | probably already knew before reading this. I |
| could say. Whenever I met someone I tried to | | | | picked out a college in the not-too-far from home |
| sell them potholders at 25 cents each. As I | | | | backwoods of Pennsylvania. I graduated from |
| earned more and more money, I started an | | | | Juniata College, near Huntingdon, in 1973 with a B. |
| account at the savings bank in Lambertville, | | | | S. in Chemistry. My wife, Marjorie, also a Juniata |
| always carrying with me lots of differently colored | | | | graduate, is a teacher. We were married in 1977. |
| potholders when I walked into town to make my | | | | We settled in Dublin, Pa. I worked for a small |
| deposits. On the sidewalk and inside the bank, | | | | chemical plant. One weekend we had a yard sale. |
| grownups would inevitably say, "What a cute little | | | | The first item that sold was the bunch of flowers |
| boy," and then, "Why are you carrying all those | | | | that I removed from my wife's window box. |
| pretty potholders?" They sold themselves. The | | | | Here's another valuable lesson that I have learned. |
| potholder sold themselves. The customers "sold" | | | | Be observant. This eye opener was telling us that |
| themselves. | | | | there is a market for plants here. If people will |
| I sold enough potholders for me to buy 2 shares | | | | buy them from your window box, plants "will sell |
| of General Electric stock and 2 shares of the | | | | themselves." I always had a desire to raise trees |
| Atlas Corporation, upon the advice of my | | | | and plants and own a farm, though not be a |
| great-uncle Bill. (See My Uncle Bill's Story, Part I of | | | | farmer like my mother warned me, so we |
| my life and my lessons learned). I got these | | | | decided to "go for it." Another valuable lesson: It is |
| shares of stock when I was 7-years old. My small | | | | good to have a plan... |
| beginning business venture then expanded to | | | | We purchased a small farm near Doylestown, in |
| include looking for Helgermites, or Hellgrammites, | | | | the well-to-do and growing heart of Bucks |
| they're like Redworms, which I'd sell out along the | | | | County, Pennsylvania. We began our "tree farm," |
| road (leading to the Delaware River, of course). I | | | | our nursery. The local newspaper, The |
| picked wild blackberries and sold them along the | | | | Doylestown Intelligencer, became our "store." |
| road too. I bought fishing lures and took them to | | | | Placing small "ads" in the paper under the |
| sell along the Delaware River's east bank, our side | | | | classifieds was our method of advertising. A small, |
| of the river. There were "hot spots" where Shad | | | | cheap 2 line ad such as, "Pine trees delivered. |
| fishermen would gather during the intense "fish | | | | Planted and mulched, $8. Guaranteed. Call |
| runs." It seemed like a good idea to bring along | | | | 215-345-0946," were awfully economical and |
| some blackberries too. The fisherman needed a | | | | phenomenally successful. We tried many ads. We |
| snack. I did too. | | | | found that just about anything can be sold or |
| I parlayed my growing savings and bought 144 | | | | bought using classified advertising. Would it have |
| chickens. A "gross" of chickens came at a | | | | been better to place quarter-page or full-page |
| discounted unit price. I didn't quite realize it at the | | | | sales ads? Would it have made sense to spend |
| time, but I was "leveraging" my money and | | | | money we didn't have yet? I believe the answer |
| buying in bulk, "wholesale." So, here are two more | | | | is no. "Buy as cheaply as you can," I said above is |
| valuable lessons for us all. Buy as cheaply as you | | | | an important lesson. Now, besides trees, we |
| reasonably can. (Did you notice I didn't buy a | | | | market anything at our consignment store in Milan, |
| dozen gross of chickens? That's 1,728 chickens. | | | | Pa. |
| The price per chicken would have been cheaper, | | | | A few years later, we learned another lesson. |
| but I would never have been able to handle them | | | | Friends, Walter and Paul, who make Christmas |
| all!) Also, make your money work for you. Make | | | | Tree ball kits, had us over for dinner. They had |
| your money work just like a transistor works, | | | | years of marketing experience and told us that |
| use a little power to control a lot. My father, who | | | | you have to test your market. Their suggestion |
| coincidentally worked in electronics engineering, | | | | was to run ads for what you want to do or sell |
| had a wonderful friend who bought me a book | | | | and see the response, see if the market "likes" |
| about stock options. John stuttered so terribly he | | | | what you offer. Duh! This seems so obvious. |
| could barely speak, but I will always be grateful to | | | | They were right, though primitive and simple, isn't |
| him for teaching me about the greatest | | | | this similar to what Marjorie and I had been doing |
| investment vehicle of all in the stock market: | | | | naturally with our flowers and ads for pine trees? |
| Options. What a great way to make money | | | | Most people don't test out their markets before |
| work, investing a small amount of money to | | | | they invest. We were lucky we did. So take this |
| "own" rights to shares worth far more money. | | | | valuable lesson and "test." |
| With my 144 chickens, I created an "egg route," | | | | Marjorie and I now began investing in farm |
| using the experience from my potholder business. | | | | properties and leasing out spaces on the farms to |
| I had "saturated" the market. Just how many | | | | help pay for the mortgages so we'd have positive |
| potholders can people buy? John Paul Ghetty was | | | | cash flow. I decided that I would buy an option on |
| right. It is best to sell something people need | | | | a property (thank you again, dad's friend John for |
| repeatedly, like fuel, and like food. I sold eggs in | | | | your lesson) and if I could, find tenants who would |
| the two towns nearest to our little farm, | | | | rent the property. If there was now the positive |
| Lambertville and Titusville, New Jersey. | | | | cash flow, we would exercise the option to buy. |
| I joined the 4H club and started to raise bees for | | | | In this manner we would only buy properties that |
| their honey. Again, not realizing it, I was selling | | | | were "cash cows." We were testing to see if |
| food, something people needed over and over, | | | | each of the properties would make money. |
| like John Paul Ghetty said. As I sold honey along | | | | (Thank you, Walter and Paul.) Additionally, we'd |
| with my eggs, I noticed that unlike some of my | | | | have all properties rented the day we took over |
| friends, I never got an allowance. Then again, I | | | | so we would have no vacancies. Okay, being in an |
| didn't need one. | | | | area with a growing economy helped. |
| As you can see my selling started early and has | | | | All of this real estate "business," all of this |
| simply never stopped. Family and friends of my | | | | investing we're doing is not "rocket science." It is |
| parents helped me. My small ventures were very | | | | the planned application of simple ideas. Or, to say |
| important to me and I learned the valuable | | | | it differently, it is the implementation of a plan. As |
| lessons I'm sharing with you. | | | | they might say at the Wharton School of |
| There was a great lesson in another book my | | | | Business, this is "Planning and Control". Okay, |
| father gave me, The ABC's of Beekeeping. It | | | | enough of the repetition from Highland Hill Farm's |
| mentioned that if you wanted more bees, just | | | | Department of Redundancy Department. Just |
| put an advertisement, an "ad," in the newspaper. | | | | consider that we did not invent any new products |
| Just have the "ad" say "Wanted Bee Swarms," | | | | or provide any better services. We spend our |
| with your phone number below it. Well stupid me, | | | | time, we "invest" our time "up front," beforehand, |
| I believed everything I read and I therefore I did | | | | whether it's a tree, a plant, or real estate we're |
| just what it said in the book. Within a few days a | | | | going to market. We followed our plans and |
| woman called me from Lambertville and said she | | | | always invested our time before our money. I |
| had a bee swarm, could I come and get it? I | | | | always tell people to start at the public library. It's |
| followed the guidelines my father taught me and | | | | a gift of many books to all of us. The price of all |
| from the book. I captured that first swarm, and | | | | those books is very low too. They're free to |
| many, many more. Bees at the greatest price | | | | borrow. Remember that you don't have to read, |
| discount possible, free, were available for my to | | | | for example, "The International Plant Propagators' |
| use to make honey and make money. | | | | Society Volume 54, 2004 edition, 88888,000001 |
| The above paragraphs contain a number of more | | | | pages," to be up to date. Do read a wide range |
| unmentioned, as yet, valuable lessons. First, it's | | | | of books. Even if only simple, "How-To books," |
| important to find parents who are supportive of | | | | like the how to select how to plant, how to sell, |
| your efforts. I was lucky, but if you're not as | | | | types of books. |
| blessed, find "mentors" as so many other | | | | My final lesson is, always ask questions when you |
| successful people have. Second, it is important to | | | | can't find the answers yourself. I've asked |
| read books. Give books as gifts too. Don't believe | | | | thousands of questions. Then, listen to the |
| everything in 'em, do believe most of what is in | | | | answers. |