Now that you hitched on to Sal and he is as crazy as ever..... you really need to give your degree back to Wharton. Phil, go out and get some business you loser.
How about Rhode Island. You are taught from a very young age how to "skirt the rules". Later on, as we got older, our "uncles" (all family friends were your Uncle) would speak about "numbers", horses, dice.
This was the way you learned how to communicate with people. When you became a "Man" you would hear whispers of people driving down south to pick up cigarets from Virginia, North Carolina. The way it worked was, you would get a van, fill it with non taxed tobacco. Bring it back north and sell them to Bodegas in New York City, Jersey, Connecticut, by the time they were back in Providence, the van was empty and they had stacks of hundreds. Then it turned into Multiple vans per week. At some point when enough money was saved, the boys started backing candidates to run for local political offices. Once this happened, it was a brave new world.
All the wise guys, and Everyone was a wise guy, would have a racket. Whether it was paying some "juice" on building permits, Getting untaxed liquor brought into the state, shake downs on buildings, store fronts, businesses. The boys had a stake in everything. We grew up idolizing the guy on the "corner", not the guy delivering the milk!
A few made it out alive with a solid education on the "streets". This was valuable, but what if somehow you were able to get a real education. Maybe an education from one of those white glove, prestigious institutions. Well then you would be able to parlay the "street smarts" and the "prestigious Institutional" learned smarts into something really special. So you take that knowledge, and you try and grow something, maybe which you know nothing about.
Bam, you are now trying to run a Circus, when you have never even been a performer. Once you realize that the circus doesn't seem fun anymore, you then decide to get in the cage with all the animals.
You see, at a certain point, your "street smarts" and your "white glove education" should have collided and said "hey, wait a minute, all is not what it seems" and then use your "street smarts" to gracefully and legitimately remove yourself from the follies. But unfortunately for you, something made you revert back to being a small child from that great little town up north. You thought about the card games, numbers, horses and sports teams. The stories of all the money that was made by figuring out "schemes"to make a buck.
You said to yourself as each problem came up, "how do i get out of this one". A little switch here, a move of a number there. Hey, no problem, we will pay them, and give it to that person, "no one will ever know" Sign off on things that maybe should not have been signed off on. Now, you have come over to the other side in a desperate attempt to be a success.
Unfortunately, we can not all be a success, and as the Rolling Stones told us "You Cant always get what you Want". What you should have done, is concentrated on the next line, "But if you try sometime, you might get what you need". Is that not the Salient point? To get what you need? How much is needed?
We all want to feel important, smart, respected. At some point you should have done the right thing. It was screaming at you, and you decided to take what should have been the road less traveled in Rhode Island when you were growing up. However you went for the cover up, the denials.
And that is the story of Phil!!!
How about Rhode Island. You are taught from a very young age how to "skirt the rules". Later on, as we got older, our "uncles" (all family friends were your Uncle) would speak about "numbers", horses, dice.
This was the way you learned how to communicate with people. When you became a "Man" you would hear whispers of people driving down south to pick up cigarets from Virginia, North Carolina. The way it worked was, you would get a van, fill it with non taxed tobacco. Bring it back north and sell them to Bodegas in New York City, Jersey, Connecticut, by the time they were back in Providence, the van was empty and they had stacks of hundreds. Then it turned into Multiple vans per week. At some point when enough money was saved, the boys started backing candidates to run for local political offices. Once this happened, it was a brave new world.
All the wise guys, and Everyone was a wise guy, would have a racket. Whether it was paying some "juice" on building permits, Getting untaxed liquor brought into the state, shake downs on buildings, store fronts, businesses. The boys had a stake in everything. We grew up idolizing the guy on the "corner", not the guy delivering the milk!
A few made it out alive with a solid education on the "streets". This was valuable, but what if somehow you were able to get a real education. Maybe an education from one of those white glove, prestigious institutions. Well then you would be able to parlay the "street smarts" and the "prestigious Institutional" learned smarts into something really special. So you take that knowledge, and you try and grow something, maybe which you know nothing about.
Bam, you are now trying to run a Circus, when you have never even been a performer. Once you realize that the circus doesn't seem fun anymore, you then decide to get in the cage with all the animals.
You see, at a certain point, your "street smarts" and your "white glove education" should have collided and said "hey, wait a minute, all is not what it seems" and then use your "street smarts" to gracefully and legitimately remove yourself from the follies. But unfortunately for you, something made you revert back to being a small child from that great little town up north. You thought about the card games, numbers, horses and sports teams. The stories of all the money that was made by figuring out "schemes"to make a buck.
You said to yourself as each problem came up, "how do i get out of this one". A little switch here, a move of a number there. Hey, no problem, we will pay them, and give it to that person, "no one will ever know" Sign off on things that maybe should not have been signed off on. Now, you have come over to the other side in a desperate attempt to be a success.
Unfortunately, we can not all be a success, and as the Rolling Stones told us "You Cant always get what you Want". What you should have done, is concentrated on the next line, "But if you try sometime, you might get what you need". Is that not the Salient point? To get what you need? How much is needed?
We all want to feel important, smart, respected. At some point you should have done the right thing. It was screaming at you, and you decided to take what should have been the road less traveled in Rhode Island when you were growing up. However you went for the cover up, the denials.
And that is the story of Phil!!!