played with radioshack build an electronic toy kit (alarm, fm tuner, misc. other things on a piece of circuit board -white board thingy) in 3-5th grade
rewired my first surround system out of a bi-amped panasonic boom box, and built center and rear speaker cabinets with radio shack drivers and cross-overs in 7th grade
Began DJ'ing private parties and bar mitzvah's when I was 14 and 15, decided not to invest $5-7000 in DJ equipment and lighting and expand and instead I took that money plus some loans and bought my first vehicle at 16.
Tinkered with my truck and built multiple stereo systems for myself and friends vehicles and did the install with a few buddies; also created and analyzed multiple business plans with regards to car stereo sales and installation. graduated high school and went to college to become a civil engineer...needless to say that didnt workout to well, nearly flunked out my first quarter (bit of a shock coming from nearly straight A's in high school).
4 months later I got a job at Circuit City working full time doing sales (while still going to college full time but changing my major to business economics), and was the number one associate in my region for my department within about 6 months, set records etc. Wasn't allowed to be promoted asshole boss at the time, so I left on a tuesday and started working for the good guys on friday 3 days later.
Spent the next year leading the department, and more or less running the department until I transferred schools (UofWashington to UofArizona). worked on and off during school breaks for the next year and a half, graduated with a degree in business and marketing and moved back and started back into sales/install/and unofficial department/sales manager while looking for a "real" job. 2 weeks later 9/11 happended and potential job postings disappeared.
Spent the next 2.5 years doing sales and managing at the good guys while taking the occasional interview that showed up. November of 03 the writing was on the wall and I began analyzing the custom market but from the standpoint of the average consumer and there was and still arent many firms serving these customers...its hard to get enough customers to stay busy initially, but i decided to take the risk in febuary and offered to be layed off and started my business with 10k in savings and a 3 month window to give it a try to see if it will work. I was fortunate to get referrals from the good guys and then referrals of referrals have mostly kept me busy the last 4 years.
Over the last 2-3 years I've been anticipating many negative trends for the segment and as some may remember from a post a while ago I am back in school now getting my MBA from the UofWashington while still running my business, and planning for the future (hope to graduate the end of this summer). My guess is I will end up in brand or product management with a manufacture in our industry or some other consumer packaged goods or services firm. My business will then morph into more of a hobby business in theory becoming more profitable per hour of billable labor which will be used as a nice supplement to buy toys with.
Long term is anybodies guess...maybe I'll make millions with a golden parachute and restart the retail side of my business with a boutique showroom as something to do for fun between vacations. We can always dream!
