Holy shit! That’s Mike!” I was flipping through the channels… and there he was. A friend of mine. University of Michigan MBA. Extroverted personality par excellence. Former middle manager at Ford, trying to sell used cars on a public access station. ‘Welcome to the P.T. Barnum world of no shame!” I thought to myself… and God knows I’ve already been there. First there was a Mini (nice car!). Then a PT Cruiser (at least they shined it up). Then the 2078th Impala that was for sale in South Carolina. Then…
I got bored in about five minutes. So I decided to go for a drive and see what passes for business these days in Myrtle Beach. “I need to drop off a couple of letters.” I told the wife… and so the journey to the post office began. At first I noticed the businesses. 200 restaurants. The largest were all you can eat buffets that hocked any type of gimmick to attract the public.
The few skinny American women to be found anywhere on the strip were already there at these eating depots… dressed in mermaid outfits. Giant crab billboard signs and dancing lobsters (in 100+ degree heat!) crowned an endless stretch of cheap T-shirt and chotchky stores. Tatoo parlors. Title pawns. Fast Food joints. A few doctor and dentist offices to service all the collective stupidity. God what a mess.
I realized something in that moment. I’m no better. Even though virtually everyone there was feeding on the trough of cheapness, so was I. The only difference was that I had greater awareness of their habitual parasites, and a far less better understanding of my own.
The addictions of building a business and yet being tethered by my own self-anointed cynicism. A love for making all things better (people, things, situations) had been halved and quartered by a lazy douchebag partner who made an easy living for all my auto auction work. Thankfully, I also had a highly successful car dealership with no partner in sight. Along with an emerging rental car business greatly inspired by the Meir Panim article which had simply taken off like a rocket. My work life was definitely chaotic… but interesting. But I also had way too much stress thanks in great part to the behaviors of other people.
For a talented car guy, I was obviously being pretty friggin’ dumb by stretching myself out so thin and with so little joy to show for it. But then again, it’s very hard to say no to the ideas and opportunities that are in your head. Especially when the bank account swells thanks to your persistence in ‘willing’ those ideas. That success becomes addictive and all consuming. It’s a devil of fiery stress that gathers strength with every passing thought. To the point where the business mind simply never shuts off. You re-think the stresses. Go over the scenarios… and pretty soon you miss half the afternoon with your family.
My late Dad did one thing for 60 years. He imported food. One brother has been in radiology for nearly 20 years now. He has saved countless lives… and is a great family man to boot. The other brother is a bum. But at least he’s been consistent at it since graduating college. For me… the entrepreneurial gadfly… I literally spin the plates of several cottage industries in the hope that none of them get smashed by this recession. Lucrative? Yes. Interesting? Sometimes. But with three spinning plates in the car business… my clarity and focus are starting to go deep south.
And so the mid-life crisis begins. It’s simply amazing what can come to your consciousness on a short drive to the post office.
Your observations of Myrtle Beach are spot on and made me laugh. I was in Surfside to deliver a scooter a couple of weeks ago and was surprised at the amount of traffic. I guess even in a recession people still take vacations.
Well, cheap vacations anyway.
Mr. Lang, at least you have your own thing going for you, and 3 plates to spin. If one falls and shatters, hopefully the others will sustain you until you get another one going (or not). There is always going to be a place for cash cars, and a good eye for a great value seems to be one of your attributes. Stay focused, my man, hopefully this recession thing will even out and the economy will head back up again soon. All of us in the car business need it to. You’re in much better shape than many of us though, being in the lower end of the business, if things stay this way for a long time. Those $30,000 new cars aren’t looking as good to people lately as they once did.
Sounds like Myrtle Beach lives up to its reputation as a redneck riviera. Either that or a scene out of “Idiocracy.”
Panama City/Destin are (or rather, pre-BP, were) the Redneck Riviera.
Myrtle Beach is more commonly referred to as ‘That God-Forsaken Shit-hole.’
My 83 year old Mom has fond memories of childhood vacations in Myrtle Beach. Of course, back then, the main drag was a dirt road.
Perhaps things have changed in the intervening years.
Myrtle beach was still pretty passable in the late 1980’s but even then it was tacky and North Mytle Beach wad the nicer (or more boring depending on your perspective) place.
I think started to go horribly wrong when it decided to try to be Gatlinburg by the sea.
Drive two hours south and spend a day in Charleston (my home). Much nicer than Myrtle Beach…go down to Market Street and enjoy my favorite place, A.W. Shucks! Spend time walking the flight deck of the USS Yorktown…drive up 61 from Charleston to Summerville and marvel at the tree-lined road… I’ve never really understood the attraction to Myrtle…it reminds me of a coastal Dollywood.
As for work…best advice is to be happy in what you do for a living, then it never really feels like work. Too many of us go around hating what we do, and spending that much time out of your life being miserable is, well…miserable!
Funny you mention that. We actually spent a couple days there before heading up to MB.
Charleston is an absolutely wonderful city. Great restaurants. Extremely pedestrian and tourist friendly. A lot of nice things to do within walking distance.
Yep, I would take Charleston over Myrtles in a New York millisecond!
Though I live in Canada’s version of Texas (Calgary) with the culture to boot, I will always be proud to be a graduate of the College of Charleston. Ask for shrimp grits and gravy at a restaurant here for breakfast and watch the “confused puppy” look come from the waitress.
Sounds like mid-life crisis to me. Been there, done that.
“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune…”
It’ll pass. Have some fun. Get a sports car, not a mistress. And treasure your family. That’s what’s important. No one wants an epitaph that reads “I should have spent more time at the office.”
“The addictions of building a business and yet being tethered by my own self-anointed cynicism.”
Not sure that I’ve ever related to a sentence on this blog so completely. Luckily, my partner isn’t a douchebag. Thanks for the great read Steven.
Maybe its time to buy a Miata?
Or an RX7/8.
I highly recommend it. Just bought a 90 Miata for $3800 in great shape. I’m enjoying it more than the slightly modded 07 Mustang that I just sold……..
UM MBA?
Schooled in the ways of failing upward, it has finally given him his comeuppance.
Maybe he’s a nice guy, but the School of DET has been a failure for 30 years. It is equivalent to a Geico School of Cavemen degree.