My Brief Story
I’ve had readers email and ask about my professional and personal life and how I can help them. Well, for all you who are interested here’s a few details. Don’t yawn.
The story of my life isn’t something for the bestseller list. Although I have been told I’ve led an interesting life I feel yours is better than mine
Some of it is funny, unbelievable, most is boring. Being an eccentric mentally dysfunctional person isn’t really that exciting.
My story isn’t that different from anyone else’s. Or yours. The only difference may be in how I’ve learned how to use its craziness to enhance my existence, survive all the crap life and still be able to live most days with a reasonably positive outlook. The negatives? Oh yes, many but I’ve figured out the negatives and how they are compatible with positives. And teach you a thing or two about caution, people and life’s realities. Why fool myself into thinking it’s all good, all the time?
Everyone has a story to tell. Lots of people have lives that would make mine look like a party in dullsville. I’d say the only difference between you and me is this; I have taken my weaknesses, what I know, what I’ve learned and what I hope to contribute to humanity or maybe bore them to death, and tell it through my writing.
Institution…Life
I cannot speak for you or anyone else, all I can do is relate in words what I’ve done to survive this institution we call life. We are all similar in wants and needs – to be liked, loved, appreciated, achieve success and live a long and happy life the way we want. So if it doesn’t kill you first, let’s go on a wild ride through my sanitarium.
What my life has done for me I hope will do for those of you who aren’t necessarily looking for kick in the ass, just a bit of mental enhancement to give you the will to get up tomorrow and say to yourself, “Ah hell, why not?”
As for my secular and personal life, a large part of it revolves around cars. I’ve made my living restoring, hot rodding customizing, buying, selling, trading, dreaming and basically just fooling around with cars all my life.
And even though you may find this quite juvenile, rebellious in fact, (I like rebel) building a high-performance hot rod, massaging a junk vehicle into a cool custom or spending an unreasonable amount of time and money restoring a classic vehicle will teach you plenty about succeeding and failing in life and business. It’s challenging and satisfying with life enhancing qualities.
Remember this about life – never take this crap too seriously. The hard stuff is just therapy for when you cannot get out of bed.
Now don’t get me wrong, I do have a life besides cars. I’m family first. I have the same sweetie wife since 1976 and 3 grown children who have given us a life of joy. So it ain’t all about the wheels.
Here’s a summary of me:
~Born in Houston, January 1957
~The oldest of 9 siblings, 2 steps, and one half older brother (12 in all that I know about),
~Born of a 6’- 3” Dad who was a trend setting “rebel” with long hair past his shoulders, wore earrings, tattooed pro-wrestler in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. He was a unique person and had a very vivid imagination of life (he was on LSD from a head injury in 1966 so you know where I can go with this conversation). Dad had a way of surviving by never working from 1965 on. What would you expect from a Louisiana coon-ass? (I guess it’s true what they say about French people)
~Mom dished out 9 of those kids and she is still healthy, physically anyway.
~Quit school at 14 to help support the family (And you thought depression era kids did that)
~Currently live in the beautiful hill country between San Antonio & Austin
~Married to Rachel since 1976
~3 grown children
~Managed to live without a job since 1978 (Not like my Dad, I work, sometimes)
~I wake up in the morning without an alarm clock. Some days I’ll even go back to bed after a cup of coffee…just because.
~I never ask for money from the stuffy fat asses at the bank
~Live and grew up in Texas but have been all over this great country doing business with a mix of awesome and some really “ignor-anus” people
~I’m still working on life
~I come and go as I please and pretty much do what I want, when I want.
~I’m type 2 Diabetic on insulin. I have severe Diabetic neuropathy in my lower extremities and eye retinopathy as well. I am limited mobility wise which has changed my life professionally and personally. Even though most of my life I ate right and exercised, no smoking, hardly any alcohol and never did drugs, I still got this crap. It isn’t fun. But I think it was natures way of telling me I need to focus on my writing and helping others.
Although I live the life of a creative bum I’m not wealthy if you’re talking about money. That’s not the reason I’m able to live my lifestyle. I live this way because that is the way I choose to live. Come hell or high water, I have to survive just like the rest of you.
Through all the BS, hard times, going broke many times, losing it all, I still maintain a trait I secured since childhood that I still use even now; I’ve never forgot how to hustle.
I survived life because, even in childhood, I had to get through the day by hustling. Life is about the hustle. Because I never knew what my Dad had in store for us when we came home from school, I had to think quick and learn how to tell him what he did notwant to hear. By that I mean when we did something wrong he would grill us (torture) into telling him what he already knew and that was the worst part.
Life was on a regualr basis pure hell with Dad. He had a very sneaky habit; he asked questions so we would say what it was he wanted to hear. He was big into psychological games with us kids. I had to figure out how to say things to him in way that would turn the situation around in my favor. Sometimes it worked and other times, well, you know the outcome.
As with most things in life, you have to come up with ingenious ways to get through the muck. I don’t mean doing something underhanded, although sometimes you gotta fake it ‘till ya’ make it.
The hustle I’m talking about is getting out there with all your hang-ups and mental challenges and keep it going no matter what is throw in your face or who stabs you in the back. You just keep driving down that treacherous and sometimes lonely road of life.
So you may be asking “How can a schlep like this live the life of a dysfunctional loafer without at least have a million or two sitting in the bank drawing interest so he can live like a prince?” Well, it all comes back to knowing how to survive and thrive with what you got and who you are and how you do it without compromising your self-worth.
Exactly how do I afford the alarm clockless fabulous life of the “wish rich and kinda famous?” Well here ya go…
MY BIZ
My main business since 1978 has been master of the brush. Actually it took years before “master of the brush” came along. I certainly did my time working long days without seeing much money. But I toiled.
I do what is called “Custom Hand Painted Pinstriping.” I do that on all types of vehicles and just about anything that will sit still long enough for me to lay my artistic touch to.
The pay is good when I’m busy. Some weeks are better than others. I have no rules, no time schedules, and my customers have no problems with that.
When business was good in the 1980’and ‘90’s, $5000 – $10,000 per week was not uncommon working 3-4 days per week. Even fewer days in some cases. That much money was not every week. When it was good it was good. When it was bad it was worse. The money went as fast as I made it.
I striped at car shows, had customers all over the USA and basically lived on the ‘glamorous’ road. But I was free and the work I did was the envy of all who watched me. It really wasn’t work. The hardest part was all the driving. I always drove custom vehicles wherever I went. That gave me an edge while cruising down the road. Unlike most, my career has been one of more personal fulfillment than monetary satisfaction.
Of course it did not start out that way. We starved a few years, got kicked out of our homes (several), lived in the car a few times, drove junk vehicles that broke down in the middle of nowhere, (I used to lift license plates and inspection stickers way back in the early years because I had no money) but I always figured out how to manage without a job.
I remember many times taking my last two or three bucks, putting a few gallons of gas in my green beat-up ’64 Chevy pick-up and driving behind the refineries in Houston looking for signs at businesses that needed redone. I chose sign repainting because I figured although I looked like I knew what I was doing to the customer, I really didn’t. Repainting them was easy for a guy who never actually laid out a sign from scratch..
I even painted billboards for an auto parts chain. Now this is where my determination and somewhat naivety play’s a big role in survival. These signs were 60-80 feet in the air, made of wood with a narrow catwalk and me…well I’ve always been fearful of heights. But I was hungry and had wife at home who was hungrier and although it was very, very hard to climb a shaky ladder all the way up to the cat walk, I did it.
The climb was the easy part. Once up there, the wood was rotten and I had to work around that. I had to take my ladder and climb to the highest point on the sign and paint the backboard and do the lettering, which was damn scary. Not only that frightening chore, I had to learn how to lay out six-foot tall letters when in fact I had never done such a thing.
Nevertheless, I made it work and at times I hired my in-laws to help rebuild many of those signs. So I made money from the rebuild and the painting. Hard work but we made it.
I remember one job north of Houston. It was a $2400 dollar job (back in 1980 that was all the money in the world to me) and all we had was money for a motel, which I think was $20 bucks. We, the wife and I, brought our own sandwiches and water. She did not help with the sign just support. Anyway, I got it done in two days and was paid my money. We were happy but had to get all the way back to south of Houston before the bank closed so we could have money.
There we were heading down I-45 south in a beat up ’71 Pontiac Catalina, no a/c, with a 20 ft. ladder on top (it stretch to 40’) and man we were running on fumes. I had about 75 cents in my pocket. We barely made the bank in time to deposit the check, get some money and celebrated by going to Red Lobster. (It was the new thing back then)
That is only one of a hundred stories that helped me build my business, build my character and through it all gave me the power to deal with and benefit from my mental challenges.
It has been a long haul mainly due to the fact that I’ve always been somewhat of a loner. After I got rid of the 3 body shops I owned in the 1980’s (that’s another story) I pretty much did everything workwise by myself. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I had help at some of the big car shows but for the most part I’ve always been the lone wolf in business.
The life was long and arduous – building a business, providing for the family and doing it all by myself without employees and people to ask for help.
Of course having a business that requires certain talents has it’s drawbacks. You just cannot ask for help and expect to get it because the work I do is very obscure and there are no people looking to be hired for such a thing. I’m proud to say through it all I made it and raised those 3 kids on what I made.
I’ve slowed down now due to health probs and limited mobility. Of course the money doesn’t come as often but my life is much less stressful than before. (I still have no problem stressing myself out though)
See, when I was at my peek I traveled all over Texas and beyond chasing the dollar. That took a toll on my mental and physical well-being. I did that for 24 years and most of it riding the roads alone.
In my profession there is a bit of celebrity associated with it. You are looked on as a gifted “arteest” and own a talent not many people can do. I’m paid great money to paint lines on vehicles that some people have invested $100,000 dollars into. If you go to www.mikeyspinstriping.com you’ll see firsthand what I do.
All that fame and fortune is nice but over the years I’ve come back down to earth and discovered the hard way…it goes faster than it comes.
In the middle all the excitement, I still had the taste for business and did get involved in several ventures that, to say the least, were educational. Some good and others not so great.
I’ve had the big shops, big jobs, big time customers and big dreams and bigger failures like everyone else, but as time went by I found out something about myself – as long as I can get up in the morning, six feet above ground and know that this day is the first and best day of the rest of my life, well it ain’t all that bad.
In my personal quest for sustenance, wealth, happiness, self-observation, motivation, direction, and the will to just get out of bed in the morning, success and all its virtues has been elusive to say the least. I think many of you will agree it is a tough road to ride and it is getting even more difficult to not only achieve a measure of professional and personal success, but to keep it locked up in your life forever.
The unique characteristics I describe here have indeed been my inner demons when it came to achieving wealth, happiness, sanity and understanding the curse of emotional distress. Although you may have experience similar or worse - the stuff you have within yourself – those are the important qualities – the attributes you already possess necessary to enhance total existence.
This is a small part of what has gone on in my life. Yes, it’s hard for any mortal to put up with all the dark days but like I said before, your spouse, friends and family can help you see what you are made of. But only you can open the door and find the answers. It is there.
Now go out and do something crazy. – Mikey www.carisms.com
