I think we might have covered this before, but...
Manufacturer's Representative for global passive electronic components (both pcb level and industrial) manufacturer, also support lines in the interconnect, transformer, and interactive display assemblies to OEM engineering. I'm in the business of demand creation so therefore I do not generally dabble in the demand fulfillment, that is handled by franchised distributors.
Started my career right out of college as a R&D engineer for a machine tool manufacturer back in the '70's, that didn't last but a few years when they went belly up due to the Japanese invasion at the time. Was out of work for one full year, almost lost my house but by selling almost everything else I owned managed to hang on to it. Shifted gears...literally, friend spotted me a grub stake to buy a load of perishable goods. Well I bought a semi truck/reefer trailer and a future load of tomatoes out of Tracy, California. Problem was, I never drove a truck before and I was here in Wisconsin and the load out there. Trip leased a load of LTL out of Milwaukee and headed west, within a couple of days I managed to empty out in Livermore and paid for, along with retrieving my load of tomatoes. Sold that load to a broker in the Central Market in Montreal, QP. 'Course I had to buy permits along the way, and figure out how to keep the tomatoes green with very little yellow stripes, good thing my grub stake friend was experienced(he guided me by the phone). Made the delivery, paid off the grub stake and had enough to buy a load of strawberries when I got back to the States. Over the next thirteen years I built that little start up to 11 trucks, 26 trailers, and twenty two employees, along with twenty odd owner operators leased to me. Then NAFTA happened and my margin dropped to low single digits when the big boys came to rain on my parade, at the same time I was going through a nasty divorce (ok, they are all nasty) and my soon to be ex, wanted half the income of the business to support her and her teenage (really 23, she was 40) boyfriend. So I had a fire sale, sold everything for salvage value (.10 on the $1), split the difference with her but was now out of a job.
Next career: Field Applications Engineer...traveled all over the west setting up trenchless technology solutions for utility rehabilitation. Every where from Rock Springs, Wy, Mt. Home, Id, San Diego, Ca, even saved the old prison (now a post office) in the Presidio by SF. Did such a great job, they made me Western Sales Manager. Put 250k miles a year in an airplane flying to dealer networks, engineering seminars, and trade shows...even two weeks a year where Ji lives. That all came to an end on September 11th, 2001...along with almost my entire retirement savings that went "poof" when the bubble popped.
Since then I've been pretty much in the electronic components business, primarily in Avionics, COTS, and Military spec applications.
Live 2/3 of the year on a small lake near the confluence of three townships (Eagle, East Troy, and Mukwonago) in Wisconsin, right outside the Southern Kettle Moraine State Forest. The rest of the time I have a few hundred acres in far northern Wisconsin with a cabin on it, north of where Bigha lives an hour or so.
Now what I spend most time doing is shoveling this sh*#:
Instead of playing with my guns!
I will have been retired 5 years in July. We live in the Pensacola, Florida area on the bayou. The picture in my signature on the left was taken on my dock. This is a view from my dock. A lot of us seem to live in paradise.
. Everything is back to normal now, thank the good Lord.
