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