A Life Wasted

USA Computers 1987 - 1988

In 1987 USA Computers sold three vertical market software and hardware combinations: Insurance Agency Management to A.L. Williams agent offices, Personal Agency Management to executive recruiters, and Fixed Based Operator (FBO) to the people who managed the general aviation flying, maintenance and fuel services at airports. My favorite market was the FBO's because I loved aviation and used the market as an excuse to fly and hang out at airports. The software we developed wasn't that great because the customer didn't have a great need to computerize, so sales were low. During this time we sold few of the Personal Agency Management software packages. Another company started selling a flashy alternative, so that market dried up. Without question our money maker was the A.L. Williams software.

Lance and I decided we didn't need an office, so saved that expense. Nor did we need employees. We did hire a commissioned salesman, but that didn't work out well. We were making sales, growing and busy, but we were doing it alone. We were spending a lot of money on sales and installations. I did all the sales and some of the installations. For the important customers Lance would usually fly out and do the installation even if I was already in the area. When this happened with a west coast customer we didn't make much money because of the travel expenses. This was my fault as I'd been short with a few customers during software training, so Lance handled the critical ones. Meaning the big A.L. Williams earners who had a down-line we could sell to.

Art Williams, the founder and President of A.L. Williams liked to make regular changes to the way his field offices did things. At first we saw this as a detriment because we constantly had to change the software to meet his new rules. It didn't take long before we saw this as an opportunity. We solved this problem by requiring our customers to pay a $50 monthly software maintenance fee. This fee gave them access to tech support and free updates to software we had to update anyway. They understood it because they knew their boss caused the changes and $50 a month to do those changes was a steal. It worked great for us because we had to make those changes anyway to sign on new customers, so updating existing customers via modem was simple. We had so many customers that the $50 monthly maintenance fee became a factor in our income. Because of the constant need for software updates and the need for customer technical support Lance and I split our responsibilities. He was by far the better programmer and had done the lion's share of the software itself, so it was clear he needed to do the monthly updates. But he was also much better at customer support. (Lance would later make a fortune with his own customer support business.) I on the other hand was terrible with customer support. I had no patience with stupidity and was quick to express this to our customers. So Lance was better in the shop. My strength was sales, but I also had the pilot's licenses, which made travel easier. This put me on the road.

It was my family who suffered in this deal because I traveled constantly. Mary was patient and tried to understand, but she also made it clear that we had to figure out something else soon. She wanted me home. I wanted to be home too, but I also wanted to fly and travel. I justified my travel because of our business needs, but the truth was that I liked it too. It was a serious conflict with me. I loved my wife and children, I always missed them when I was away, but I equally enjoyed the open sky from my Cessna or the open road from my car. Even now I hate to admit how much I enjoyed the travel, but it's a truth I am sure Mary knows from experience. My wife is seeing red as she reads this. Of that I am sure.

At that time we had a slight problem at home. Our rented house was deep in the woods. We've always liked isolated country living, but there is a downside. Others who prefer an isolated lifestyle can be a bit testy. The problem was over a pair of German Shepherd's who'd made it a weekly ritual to tear up our trash bags and spread trash across our yard. After the second time I started trying to catch the dogs. Somehow they managed to outsmart me so they kept getting away with it. One morning when I was working on a computer in the living room Mary whispered that the dogs were on the deck. The house had an elevated back deck, so we moved the trash cans there in hopes of dissuading the dogs. That they would attack our trash there was too much for me.