Wayback machine - Me on CBS

Here is a brief video from my distant past that you might find amusing. At one time I was a very successful builder, my subdivisions won SAM awards for sales and I had some of the highest profit margins in the area. I believe that the year this video ran on the national news with Dan Rather was 1992. My last project was 73 houses and they sold out in a matter of weeks.

Then my bank, Home Federal, which had financed all my projects, was taken over and essentially went under during the S & L crisis. Here you see me hat in hand, unsuccessfully trying to secure a loan at the worst possible time, just as the federal government was instituting a whole passel of draconian regulations and cash requirements that made it virtually impossible to find financing anywhere. The only people who could get a loan at that point were people that didn't need one.

This was on the heels of my limited partner losing a multi million dollar fortune to a swindler. He won a unanimous jury verdict but in the end, only the lawyers made out and I was forced to remake myself and find a new career. This is during cancer and in the midst of my divorce. You never know, one day you are up...next thing you know you are gasping for air.

Vlad taped this off the news, way back when. He graciously digitized it for me today so that you could see it. Thanks bud. I know I was skinnier then, thanks for noticing. The actual filming was over an hour but it was distilled into a concise six seconds or so. 

This was the beginning of the end, buy me a shot one day and I will tell you the rest of the story, if you are interested and if I feel so inclined.