Saturday, April 24, 2010

FIRE YOUR BOSS AND HIRE YOURSELF!

In 1982, I wrote FIRE YOUR BOSS AND HIRE YOURSELF.

I needed a book to accompany my successful motivational speaking tour.

I had recently left the dark skies of New York City for the matchless climate of San Diego, California.

I was riding high in my personal and professional life.

Seven years in and no sign of an itch, I had married my bride after a whirlwind 20 day (you read right) courtship.

Taking the journey with us was our 5 year old son who had been delivered on the same day as my dad's birthday.

Life had never been as sweet.

My unique CPA practice back in 1982 consisted of hundreds of income tax returns.

But not just any tax returns.

I hand picked my clients.

If you weren't an entrepreneur who wanted to make more money in 1983 or a slave to wages who was willing to become an entrepreneur, I told you to take a walk to another CPA.

I was an arrogant son of a gun in 1982.

Many think little has changed in the 30 years since.

This was Miami and we lived in a swimming pool house on a large tract of land.

We had left New York after the birth of our son in 1977.

I am afraid the weather and the perpetual grayness were contributing factors.

I am a lover of weather.

Sunshine is the backdrop to my day and it matches my positive state of mind.

Too many gray days in New York, too much rain and February is as brutal as Washington crossing the Delaware.

We settled on Miami in October, 1977, but there were problems.

The drug traffic (see Scarface) was in full bloom.

The bugs were the size of small vehicles.

The humidity probably gave birth to Kramer's line while entering a sauna at Jerry's club (It's like a sauna in here).

I had taken a job at a national CPA firm.

With my newly minted MBA and passing the CPA exam (a 3 day test and one of the toughest professional exams to pass) on my first attempt, I started the $13,000 a year position as staff accountant.

I never hated anything more than that!

Used to the personal freedom I enjoyed as a teacher in the South Bronx and later Bushwick, Brooklyn. now I was stick in a cubicle, auditing multi-national financial statements.

In the morning at the ridiculous hour of 7 or 8 AM, the first question I was blasted with was:

How long do you think you can work until tonight?

You see tine to a CPA is money.

That didn't settle too well with me.

Holy, moly! It was only 7AM and you want to know how late I will be working when the sun goes down twelve plus hours from now.

Are you out of your mind?

So one day, 10 months after I took this position, I just up and quit.

Just like that.

No prospects.

No other job.

No other plans.

I wrote about that day in FIRE YOUR BOSS AND HIRE YOURSELF.

One million readers later, entrepreneurs still tell me that it was this scene where I resigned in the office of the merciless partner in charge, who kicked me to the blistering streets of Coral Gables, was the moment they decided to pursue their dream of working for themselves.

I never get tired of hearing that.

On that most fortuitous day, I walked our of the offices of my boss and made one last detour on my way to mental and financial freedom.

I stopped at a Coral Gables private school which happened to be in the need of a teacher of high school literature.

My graduate degree was all business.

But I had taught for three years in New York City and I had undergraduate degrees in English and American History.

For the next five years, until the school closed after a 25 year run in 1982, this became home.

Later this year, the school plans a reunion for all of its graduates.

If I am not doing my one man show that weekend (GIFT TO MY DAD), I plan on attending.

Such sweet memories and you can read about them in my new edition of FIRE YOUR BOSS AND HIRE YOURSELF to be released on June 1.

I will tell you soon how you can get your hands on an advance copy of this classic book for all entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs in training...............

By 1982, my entrepreneurial CPA practice was booming and our headmaster who had fallen in love with my metal imagery vocabulary course was paying me full salary to teach one class per day to what had become the most popular class on campus.

One day, my wife answered the door to our Miami home and was confronted by a strange man with a bulge in his waistband.

Before she could slam the door and call for Miami-Dade police, she heard him scream.

We are going to kill your father, lady!

Apparently, unknown to us, my wife's father was the target of a crime syndicate for a drug deal gone bad.

The only problem was that my father-in-law lived in Fort Lauderdale, was a retired tool and die worker and the only drug he knew was prescription Coumadin.

We had no intention of filming a sequel to the Miami based Scarface starring Al Pacino, now a big hit in drug infested South Florida.

I decided to keep rolling the dice.

In our brand spanking new Cadillac, we took off for our new home in the most ideal climate known to man.

San Diego, California.

Here we come...............

I took the almond hued Coupe up to Tampa from Miami.

We left our Miami home in late afternoon after the movers headed out.

By late evening, we had zig zagged through the state and arrived for night one of our first class trip west.

Berns Steak House.

Do you want to treat yourself to a once in a lifetime experience?

Bern's Steak House!

The sumptuous repast was nearly 30 years ago and I remember our personal waiter.

It was as if he was our personal valet.

One suggestion.

Don't visit Bern's after a 5 hour trip from Miami.

I was exhausted, but satiated.

In the morning, we were on our way to New Orleans and another culinary experience.

Chameleon Grill is still going strong after Katrina I am glad to say.

We visited in July 1982 and the bacon cheeseburger melted in your mouth.

The Superdome glistened under the searing July sun.

We were on our way to the Houston Astrodome.

Give me a city and I want the ballpark.

The Astrodome is no longer home for the Astros.

But it sure was grand.

Next stop El Paso.

Now that's a sauna.

Here was the dilemma.

Stop one more night in Phoenix or take it the extra mile(s) and descend into San Diego.

When we passed Phoenix, it was 118 degrees.

When we pulled into a little restaurant called DZ Akins, it was 71 degrees.

Paradise.

San Diego.

Climate Controlled by God.................

California
where the sun will warm you (kiss you)
and the winds called santa anna
will make you feel like you're at home
come on to California
wherever you may roam
california is calling you home


So I had the girl and married her in 20 days
I had the kid (six pounds four ounces and now 5 years old)
I had written a top selling book lauded by a new industry called MLM
and I was living across from a 2,000 foot peak in the most wondrous climate in the USA
and I was arriving in style in a brand new 1982 Cadillac Coupe

I had FIRED MY BOSS AND HIRED MYSELF

now you can read the entire story.

And this weekend it is available to you for $5

My new book GIFT TO MY DAD IS $5

Next year's THINK YOUR FUTURE is $5.

Want all three? %10.

Send $10 ASAP to my paypal.com account which is stevetarde@yahoo.com


GIFT TO MY DAD ebook will be mailed immediately.

The other two ebooks will be emailed June 1

And my one man show GIFT TO MY DAD previews in San Diego on June 20

Ask your network marketing events planner to contact me.

That is a one show which will land you new leaders.

And so will each book.

Get all three.

See you back here tomorrow.

What will I write about?

You never know.

I might be writing about you..................

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