A Life Wasted

Mid 1985-Late 1986

After Clay recovered from surgery and things got back to "normal" I had to focus on making money because we were broke.  Typically I excel when my back is against the wall but this time I had trouble making anything happen.  I still had the office I never used, equipment, customers, and ownership of an exceptional vertical market software package I could sell to executive recruiters.  What I didn't have was operating capital and momentum.

The details are of little import, but for months I failed to sell any software.  During this time the Greenville newspaper did a feature article on me titled "Local businessman thinks on his feet." They were excited to have a software developer in town (the only other high-tech operation in town was the video store) so they came to my office to do an interview.  The story was suppose to be about my business but the reporter was so taken by my desk that it became the story.  I'd built the desk myself and it was unique because it was a stand-up desk.  Though I am sure somewhere someone else had had the idea for a stand-up desk too, this was something I came up with on my own.  At the time every one who saw the desk said they had never heard of such a thing.  Years later when stand-up desks became popular in Atlanta my mom told everyone, "that was my son's idea."

We rented a house in Conyers, Georgia, a rural community east of Atlanta.  Another unlikely place Mary and I favor, back in the woods far enough the house is barely visible from the road.  Home number twelve in nine years.  To help keep our growing family straight, we now had five children, Emily (8), Clay (4), Becky (3), Kelly (2), Luke a few months old.  With five children the logistics began to become a challenge, too many children for a car.  We tried the mini-van route, but Mary didn't like the small van.  From this point forward our family car of choice would be a full size van, and Mary's favorite was the one ton, fifteen passenger Dodge Maxi Van.  While we were shopping for a decent Dodge Van I fell into the largest single deal of my life.

I had just purchased my first car phone.  They weren't called cell phones back then, though that's what they were. They were called car phones because they were so large it's the only place you could have one.  Soon after I bought my car phone Motorola introduced the "bag phone," a reduced size car phone fitted in a large bag with a phone receiver on a cord.  Silly looking thing, but in 1986 it was the equivalent of an Apple Watch.  After spending $1,200 on my first car phone, I passed on the bag phone.

After leaving the installation shop with my new car phone I needed to use my new toy.  I called home, but Mary wasn't there.  I called my mom, then my brother, neither were home.  It was late Friday afternoon and most people were stuck in Atlanta's heavy traffic, as was I.  Since I didn't know anyone else with a car phone I couldn't reach anyone.  Remembering a potential customer I had wanted to follow up with I tried them.  The customer was glad I called.  They had to spend their money before the close of business that day and didn't like the bids they had received so far.  I was only a few miles from their office, so I stopped by.

I was one of four Altos dealers in the Atlanta area.  This company needed Altos equipment and could only purchase it from one of the four dealers.  The customer had its own software its own programmers and technical people.  They didn't require any support at all, just the bare equipment.  The other Altos dealers wouldn't give them a price break for a no work deal, so they had hoped I, being a small operator would.  What they needed was $250,000 (wholesale price) of Altos equipment.  They offered me $25,000 to order the equipment.  I agreed without hesitation.  My car phone paid for itself and I could get Mary the big van she wanted.  I was sold on car phones and Mary loved her van.

At first I made a few more sales to executive recruiters, one in Atlanta and the other in St. Louis.  I had also sold several airport management software systems I had written after becoming a pilot: Key West, Naples, and Long Island, New York.  During this time the software Lance and I wrote was beginning to take shape.  We made a few local sales, the software was $3,200 plus profit on the computer.  One of those early insurance customers asked us to integrate a new computer phone answering device into our system.  I saw this as a distraction, but Lance followed up.  It was a computer board with a standard phone plug that integrated computer and phone.  A great piece of hardware that lacked application software.