I am an Economic Liberalist and fairly certain that I have always been an entrepreneur. And, perhaps,”I am a creator, inventor, and innovator” as the primary songwriter and lead vocalist of The Kinks: The most underrated Rock ‘n’ Roll band of all time, Ray Davies, sang in Starmaker.
At age 7, I started a door-to-door business buying and reselling used toys. I later added to the product mix by selling polliwogs I caught in a nearby pond.
At age 10, I answered an ad in a comic book and secured my own franchise selling custom-imprinted Christmas cards. Although the income at about $30 an hour was pretty good for an elementary school kid in the 60s, the business was very seasonal and only door-to-door.
At age 13, when L’eggs pantyhose dominated the hosiery industry with its unique egg-shaped packaging and marketing that allowed it to sell for a premium price in virtually every type of retail outlet, I started a business importing and selling equivalent quality pantyhose at a fraction of the cost. Again, the pay was good, but I sure took a lot of teasing from my friends.
At age 16, I bought my first rental property by purchasing a $30,000 house for $1,500 down and assuming the loan. I certainly wouldn’t have qualified for a loan – I wasn’t even old enough to legally sign the purchase-sale agreement. Fortunately, no one asked my age. I sold that house for $60,000 when I was 21, realized a $30,000 net profit (2,000% return on investment), and purchased a triplex apartment building.
Over the years, I continued buying apartments in California and Nevada. In 2021, I sold all my California properties and started investing in Downtown Reno commercial buildings. I also started Gung-Ho Real Estate to oversee my commercial and multi-family residential properties.
When I bought a condo in the “Heart of Downtown Reno,” I discovered the closest public self-storage facilities are at least a mile outside of the downtown area. So, in 2022, I created Gung-Ho Storage to build self-storage facilities that are within walking distance for people living, working, and moving in to the rapidly growing Downtown Reno area.
Along the way of growing up, I also did the typical paper route (what else was I going to do at five in the morning?) and worked as a checker at a local grocery store which provided the income necessary to put myself through college (UCSC) and law school (UC Hastings College of the Law) with the assistance of Full Academic UC Regents’ Scholarships for both colleges.
In 1982, when I graduated from law school and passed the California Bar Exam, the personal computer software industry was just taking off and I co-founded Bindco to supply the custom 3-ring binders used for computer software manuals.
As the high-tech industry grew, so did Bindco. After we became the world’s largest supplier of custom binders, we added printing, packaging, media duplication, assembly, and fulfillment.
Bindco’s Silicon Valley location also afforded me intangible personal benefits because I was able to meet, work directly with, and learn from so many bright and talented entrepreneurs during their startup and early growth stages.
Many of the entrepreneurs I was fortunate enough to work with and learn from became industry leaders: Steve Jobs (Apple and NeXT), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Bill McKiernan (CyberSource and Authorize.Net); Phillipe Kahn (Borland and Starfish Software), and Jim Clark (Silicon Graphics and Mosaic/Netscape).
By 1998, Bindco had grown into an international company with annual revenue of $78 million. I sold my Bindco equity and retired at age 41.
In 1999, bored after only 6 months of retirement, I decided to create Gung-Ho as a “virtual company” that would utilize the power of the Internet to integrate disparate best-in-class brick-and-mortar suppliers to provide one-stop printing, packaging, software manufacturing, e-commerce, and fulfillment solutions.
Gung-Ho was immediately a profitable success with first year revenue exceeding $8 million. As Gung-Ho grew, it was consistently profitable, operated without incurring any debt, and, most importantly, never lost a client based upon its quality or performance.
In 2022, after 40 years of successful leadership in the printing industry, including the technologies related to print production and distribution, I decided to focus on expanding my real estate holdings, and their related business entities, in Downtown Reno, Nevada.
Today, in addition to growing my real estate holdings and related real estate businesses, I enjoy consulting with other entrepreneurs – especially those that support Rebuilding Downtown Reno or manufacturing products in the USA.
And for the “personal stuff” I am willing to share on the Web, I only sleep about 4 hours a day, so I have plenty of time to get things done and have fun too!.I prefer active sports like running, swimming, cycling, hiking, snow skiing, water skiing, and scuba diving. I also like the adrenaline rush I get from skydiving, hang gliding, and bungee jumping (including the highest jump in the world).
I love to travel internationally, especially to third-world areas, and have explored every continent in the world except Antarctica (at least not yet).
For domestic travel, I enjoy getting in the RV and exploring all the beautiful areas in the United States.
I am an avid reader, primarily of biographies and other motivational non-fiction. My favorite book, which I heartily recommend, is Atlas Shrugged by the visionary Ayn Rand.
And I love virtually all types of music, especially rock and roll, with what I call, “a basic biological rhythm beat,” by bands like The Rolling Stones (who I have seen nearly 40 times over the past 50 years but never with guitarist and founder of The Rolling Stones, Brian Jones) and AC/DC (who I have seen many times over the decades they performed but never with lead singer, Bon Scott).
