Chris Writing Anything

When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

When I think of the word ‘successful’, there’s one person that comes to mind. He started with nothing, yet, without receiving a single handout, he’s living easy. Not to say he won’t work hard; despite being in his seventies, he’s still pushing himself. In this post, I’ll write about a very successful man.

I remember the eighties. More to the point, and no, this post is not about Sylvester Stallone, anyways, I remember the Rambo movies. I can almost see your perplexed face…

With the Rambo movies in mind, I remember infomercials, they’re still on TV. And my father, man, I never understood it, but some of those advertisements really won him over. One of those long and boring ads was about a survival knife. It was basically this dagger with a sawtooth on one end….just like a Rambo knife.

On the knife’s handle, right at the butt, was a compass, and, if you twisted the compass, you’d find a ton of goodies inside. Tackle, matches and all sorts of items were inserted into the shaft. I was like twelve, and my sisters were younger…dad bought everybody in the family one.

Why do I bring that up? For one huge reason. If you truly believe in yourself, and scour life looking for your happy ending, you can certainly attain your dreams. I’ve learned that from my dad. And I also remember people scoffing at his notions. And his greatest decision was borne from an infomercial.

You see, some guy, who was pandering to the not so well off, promised, if you bought his book, he’d teach you how to make a killing in the Real Estate market. I remember my dad watching that ad, I thought the man was going to jump into the television.

He bought the book, and despite not being the most literate man, read it three times over. He then put its lessons to good practice. At the height of my dad’s property ownership, he may have owned fifteen residences. When he cashed out, well he made a substantial amount of money.

From there, he took the money he had earned, and invested it in the stock market. Along with raising a few golden retrievers, that was his only stream of revenue. He did it for years, and, now, the man does what he wants. He’s comfortably retired, has a marriage that has lasted over fifty years and has grandchildren attending college…I’d say that’s pretty successful.

So, on many occasions, when in a jam, I think, “What would Dad do?” Or, just as importantly, “What would my dad not do.“ So, yeah, a man who started with nothing, and has earned a little bit of cash, that’s a guy to look up to.

Have an Excellent Day!