| Bill's Life and his Lessons Learned, Part IIThere are a | | | | what is in 'em. Especially when you use at least two |
| few people, very exceptional people, who are so | | | | sources for your information. Reporters call this |
| singularly special that the complimentary joke is | | | | "corroboration," and "confirmation." Third, the best |
| made; after they were born, the mold to make them | | | | way to find things or market things is through |
| got broken. In other words, there's no chance for | | | | advertising.With all these money making ventures |
| posterity to make any more of the likes of | | | | going on, I was spending a tremendous amount of |
| Michelangelo, George Washington Carver, Franklin | | | | time outdoors. I developed a love of hunting and |
| Delano Roosevelt, etc. In my case, they threw out | | | | fishing. I loved the woods and being out in nature |
| the "mold," but I fooled 'em and grew back!Seriously | | | | while "harvesting" the wild blackberries, collecting |
| speaking, the first lesson I learned while very young | | | | worms, tending the bees, walking my egg-and-honey |
| is that in order to sell successfully you must be | | | | delivery route etc. As I got older, I became an |
| relentless. You have to be downright incredible to be | | | | adolescent and then a teenager. Really, you ask? No |
| able to keep your integrity and successfully sell | | | | fooling? I say this because like practically every other |
| something like, "ice in the wintertime to Eskimos." | | | | teenage boy, I got interested in cars. I started to |
| However, As John Paul Ghetty, the oil-marketing | | | | collect junk cars and trucks. As I began to tinker with |
| billionaire, observed, if you have a high quality product | | | | one of them, my mother came outside to talk with |
| you know people both need and want, repeatedly, it | | | | me. (There's that lesson about the importance of |
| will 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 study. |
| understand. Starting when I was very young, I've | | | | Go to college and get a respectable job. If you don't, |
| always had "business." My first business was making | | | | you will be a farmer working too many long hours |
| and selling potholders when I was 5-years old. My | | | | worrying about weather and crop diseases and such. |
| parents had bought me a small potholder-making | | | | Or, you'll be a trash collector. I love you." Then, she |
| contraption. Rather than just make a few for the | | | | walked back into the house. I guess she saw the |
| sake of "arts and crafts," developing my fingers and | | | | junk cars and trucks I had collected as trash.Listen to |
| hands, I made hundreds and hundreds. I got real | | | | your mother. That's a lesson you probably already |
| good at making real good potholders, you could say. | | | | knew before reading this. I picked out a college in the |
| Whenever I met someone I tried to sell them | | | | not-too-far from home backwoods of Pennsylvania. I |
| potholders at 25 cents each. As I earned more and | | | | graduated from Juniata College, near Huntingdon, in |
| more money, I started an account at the savings | | | | 1973 with a B. S. in Chemistry. My wife, Marjorie, also |
| bank in Lambertville, always carrying with me lots of | | | | a 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 small |
| town to make my deposits. On the sidewalk and | | | | chemical plant. One weekend we had a yard sale. |
| inside the bank, grownups would inevitably say, | | | | The first item that sold was the bunch of flowers |
| "What a cute little boy," and then, "Why are you | | | | that I removed from my wife's window box. Here's |
| carrying all those pretty potholders?" They sold | | | | another valuable lesson that I have learned. Be |
| themselves. The potholder sold themselves. The | | | | observant. This eye opener was telling us that there |
| customers "sold" themselves.I sold enough potholders | | | | is a market for plants here. If people will buy them |
| for me to buy 2 shares of General Electric stock and | | | | from your window box, plants "will sell themselves." I |
| 2 shares of the Atlas Corporation, upon the advice | | | | always had a desire to raise trees and plants and |
| of my great-uncle Bill. (See My Uncle Bill's Story, Part I | | | | own a farm, though not be a farmer like my mother |
| of my life and my lessons learned). I got these | | | | warned me, so we decided to "go for it." Another |
| shares of stock when I was 7-years old. My small | | | | valuable lesson: It is good to have a plan...We |
| beginning business venture then expanded to include | | | | purchased a small farm near Doylestown, in the |
| looking for Helgermites, or Hellgrammites, they're like | | | | well-to-do and growing heart of Bucks County, |
| Redworms, which I'd sell out along the road (leading | | | | Pennsylvania. We began our "tree farm," our nursery. |
| to the Delaware River, of course). I picked wild | | | | The local newspaper, The Doylestown Intelligencer, |
| blackberries and sold them along the road too. I | | | | became our "store." Placing small "ads" in the paper |
| bought fishing lures and took them to sell along the | | | | under the classifieds was our method of advertising. |
| Delaware River's east bank, our side of the river. | | | | A small, cheap 2 line ad such as, "Pine trees delivered. |
| There were "hot spots" where Shad fishermen would | | | | Planted and mulched, $8. Guaranteed. Call |
| gather during the intense "fish runs." It seemed like a | | | | 215-345-0946," were awfully economical and |
| good idea to bring along some blackberries too. The | | | | phenomenally successful. We tried many ads. We |
| fisherman needed a snack. I did too.I parlayed my | | | | found that just about anything can be sold or bought |
| growing savings and bought 144 chickens. A "gross" | | | | using classified advertising. Would it have been better |
| of chickens came at a discounted unit price. I didn't | | | | to place quarter-page or full-page sales ads? Would it |
| quite realize it at the time, but I was "leveraging" my | | | | have made sense to spend money we didn't have |
| money and buying in bulk, "wholesale." So, here are | | | | yet? I believe the answer is no. "Buy as cheaply as |
| two more valuable lessons for us all. Buy as cheaply | | | | you can," I said above is an important lesson.Now, |
| as you reasonably can. (Did you notice I didn't buy a | | | | besides trees, we market anything at our |
| dozen gross of chickens? That's 1,728 chickens. The | | | | consignment store in Milan, Pa.A few years later, we |
| price per chicken would have been cheaper, but I | | | | learned another lesson. Friends, Walter and Paul, who |
| would never have been able to handle them all!) Also, | | | | make Christmas Tree ball kits, had us over for dinner. |
| make your money work for you. Make your money | | | | They had years of marketing experience and told us |
| work just like a transistor works, use a little power | | | | that you have to test your market. Their suggestion |
| to control a lot. My father, who coincidentally worked | | | | was to run ads for what you want to do or sell and |
| in electronics engineering, had a wonderful friend who | | | | see the response, see if the market "likes" what you |
| bought me a book about stock options. John | | | | offer. Duh! This seems so obvious. They were right, |
| stuttered so terribly he could barely speak, but I will | | | | though primitive and simple, isn't this similar to what |
| always be grateful to him for teaching me about the | | | | Marjorie and I had been doing naturally with our |
| greatest investment vehicle of all in the stock | | | | flowers and ads for pine trees? Most people don't |
| market: Options. What a great way to make money | | | | test out their markets before they invest. We were |
| work, investing a small amount of money to "own" | | | | lucky we did. So take this valuable lesson and |
| rights to shares worth far more money.With my 144 | | | | "test."Marjorie and I now began investing in farm |
| chickens, I created an "egg route," using the | | | | properties and leasing out spaces on the farms to |
| experience from my potholder business. I had | | | | help pay for the mortgages so we'd have positive |
| "saturated" the market. Just how many potholders | | | | cash flow. I decided that I would buy an option on a |
| can people buy? John Paul Ghetty was right. It is | | | | property (thank you again, dad's friend John for your |
| best to sell something people need repeatedly, like | | | | lesson) and if I could, find tenants who would rent |
| fuel, and like food. I sold eggs in the two towns | | | | the property. If there was now the positive cash |
| nearest to our little farm, Lambertville and Titusville, | | | | flow, we would exercise the option to buy. In this |
| New Jersey.I joined the 4H club and started to raise | | | | manner we would only buy properties that were |
| bees for their honey. Again, not realizing it, I was | | | | "cash cows." We were testing to see if each of the |
| selling food, something people needed over and over, | | | | properties would make money. (Thank you, Walter |
| like John Paul Ghetty said. As I sold honey along with | | | | and Paul.) Additionally, we'd have all properties rented |
| my eggs, I noticed that unlike some of my friends, I | | | | the day we took over so we would have no |
| never got an allowance. Then again, I didn't need | | | | vacancies. Okay, being in an area with a growing |
| one.As you can see my selling started early and has | | | | economy helped.All of this real estate "business," all |
| simply never stopped. Family and friends of my | | | | of this investing we're doing is not "rocket science." It |
| parents helped me. My small ventures were very | | | | is the planned application of simple ideas. Or, to say it |
| important to me and I learned the valuable lessons | | | | differently, it is the implementation of a plan. As they |
| I'm sharing with you.There was a great lesson in | | | | might say at the Wharton School of Business, this is |
| another book my father gave me, The ABC's of | | | | "Planning and Control". Okay, enough of the repetition |
| Beekeeping. It mentioned that if you wanted more | | | | from Highland Hill Farm's Department of Redundancy |
| bees, just put an advertisement, an "ad," in the | | | | Department. Just consider that we did not invent any |
| newspaper. Just have the "ad" say "Wanted Bee | | | | new products or provide any better services. We |
| Swarms," with your phone number below it. Well | | | | spend our time, we "invest" our time "up front," |
| stupid me, I believed everything I read and I | | | | beforehand, whether it's a tree, a plant, or real |
| therefore I did just what it said in the book. Within a | | | | estate we're going to market. We followed our plans |
| few days a woman called me from Lambertville and | | | | and always invested our time before our money. I |
| said she had a bee swarm, could I come and get it? I | | | | always tell people to start at the public library. It's a |
| followed the guidelines my father taught me and | | | | gift of many books to all of us. The price of all those |
| from the book. I captured that first swarm, and | | | | books is very low too. They're free to borrow. |
| many, many more. Bees at the greatest price | | | | Remember that you don't have to read, for example, |
| discount possible, free, were available for my to use | | | | "The International Plant Propagators' Society Volume |
| to make honey and make money.The above | | | | 54, 2004 edition, 88888,000001 pages," to be up to |
| paragraphs contain a number of more unmentioned, | | | | date. Do read a wide range of books. Even if only |
| as yet, valuable lessons. First, it's important to find | | | | simple, "How-To books," like the how to select how |
| parents who are supportive of your efforts. I was | | | | to plant, how to sell, types of books.My final lesson |
| lucky, but if you're not as blessed, find "mentors" as | | | | is, always ask questions when you can't find the |
| so many other successful people have. Second, it is | | | | answers yourself. I've asked thousands of questions. |
| important to read books. Give books as gifts too. | | | | Then, listen to the answers. |
| Don't believe everything in 'em, do believe most of | | | | |