Taking Care of Business: Family

I left home to make my fortune at age 17. Unlike my wealthy peers,, my Dad never wanted me to have a trust fund or spend my life waiting for an inheritance. He wanted me to be a pioneer, like my grandfather and his father. I cannot confirm this, but I guarantee the first settlers in Oregon did not have a trust fund because a trust fund keeps a man from doing the one the one thing man needs to in life before he dies— grow up.

My father raised me with business knowledge and my grandparents taight me with class and etiquette. My mother, however, did not do any house work or spend anytime raising her children. As a child I just thought she didn’t like me. As an adult, I can see that she’s not very smart. My dad probably didn’t notice that she was not intelligent because my mother didn’t speak English when they first met. They had a translator. As her English got better, I’m sure he must have realized he didn’t marry some sweet soft spoke. Panamanian girl; he married a really dumb person whose only hobby is shopping and gambling. That’s my mom. That’s why I was in a rush to leave home and make my fortune.

I left home at 17 and had a networth of million dollars before I was 30. The problem was that I had no parenting. I had no guidance. I only knew how to make money and how to look and dress appropriately. But the lack of parenting resulted in me not having any real friends. I didn’t drink or do drugs when most 20 something’s social life regolfed around drinking functions. I had money, multiple properties, a sailboat but no real friends or a relationship.

I had one childhood frind that was the son of my parent’s friends who I stayed in contact over the years. He introduced me to his fraternity friends. I loved that. I had never seen men so bonded like brothers. We played sports. We ate good food. We traveled. So I packed up my bags and moved to Seattle and lived on a sailboat while I constricted an after-hour nightclub because my new friends would love it. I had an idea to buy a commercial warehouse and convert it into a live workspace by day and nightclub by night. It was a lot of work just coming up with the idea. But the real work was converting an old warehouse into Seattle’s most talked about underground nightclub. But when you do something you love, it’s not work. And I loved these men.

We had a couple good raves before I got transferred to Manhattan, where I would be alone again. So I asked a girl I had been dating for about a month to move with me. Big mistake. Probably ruined my life. But I allowed her to take advantage me financially because I was so desperate to have a friend. Again, this goes back to bad parenting from my mother. As a side note, instead of friends, I had therapists— for years. I learned that eventually everyone will realize their problems stem from their relationship with their mother.