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So the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close. How has your life changed over the last 10 years? What about your life is better, what is something you want to fix?
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A great question.
In 2000, I was at the top of my game in the custom electronics world. My work had been published in every big newspaper and magazine I had ever wanted to be in (NY Times, Wall St Journal, This Old House magazine, Arch Digest, Home, Met Home, Better Homes and Gardens, Architectural Record, etc). I had just completed a project for Disney that was (back then) the 3rd most popular attraction at Innoventions in Epcot. I was also a columnist for 3 major industry magazines (2 consumer, 1 trade).
And I had a flourishing "S" business that I knew I wanted to leave.
Not because I hated what I was doing (I totally loved it, and got paid silly amounts of money). But because I wanted to change my life from the happy go lucky single guy to (eventually) a family man with less of a jet-set lifestyle.
Had to find the right lady to do that with, first. Went out w/some really great ones, but none seemed to be the right fit (I'm an oddball, what can I say!)
2000 was an interesting year. I was doing so well that I took 3 months off to do a road trip w/my best buddy (we've known each other since we were babies-- have pics of the two of us, at 1 year old-- sitting on a snow bank). Took a train from Michigan (where he lived) to CA (where I lived). Rented a mustang convertible and drove Route 66 and Hwy 1. Had an awesome time-- and didn't really have any deadlines, save for my writing work. That was pretty cool-- at the beginning of our trip, I wrote and submitted one of my columns. By the time we reached my home in Napa, the last week of our trip, that article was on the store shelves. My buddy couldn't believe it!
Writing had been a goal of mine-- and I remember telling my buddy this when we were roommates in the 1980s. When he held that magazine, and saw my face on the top of the column, he said, "You know, when you first told me you wanted to be a writer, I thought you were full of sh*t. But you really did it!" Then he laughed and handed the mag back to me.
2000 was also a good year for me, biz wise. My self employed biz brought in over $500K (I had no employees). I owned 2 houses (both in the Napa Valley), and was just about finished remodeling one of them (the other was mostly done, but still needed a few tweaks to really make it nice).
I rang in the millenium (2000--2001) at Disneyworld, w/my gf at the time. Had a special place in my heart, since I'd achieved that long-time dream of working w/Disney. Working side by side w/the imagineeers-- and being at the top of the credits for the exhibit-- that was a thrill. A real accomplishment.
The Disney exhibit was originally slated for a 3 year run (their technical things have short lifespans). But it was so popular, the extended it for another 4 years. They even got Roger Ebert in the studio to narrate the intro.
2001 highlights: One of my clients flew me to Paris and Budapest to study the Opera Houses (he wanted me to design a miniature version on his property). Budget was $2,000,000.
When I got back from Budapest, the stock he owned had fallen A LOT (his co was bought out by Nortel, and he had a million shares-- no, not making that up-- 1 million shares of Nortel).
When I left for the Paris trip, Nortel was around 80. By the end of that year, Nortel was less than a third of that price. He cut his project back severely.
I also had another client in 2001 that was a Nortel millionaire. He had to cut back big time, too.
2001 was the year I turned 40, and it was the first time I felt like "Ugh-- I'm getting old-- what am I doing w/my life!?". So I decided to celebrate the entire year. Had multiple birthday parties.
Still couldn't find the right gal.
I flew a lot back then. Mostly first class because I had so many air miles, they gave me free upgrades. I got back from an international conference at 2 am, Sept 11, 2001 (5 am New York time). I fell into bed, exhausted after a long day of travel.
A few hours later, my phone started ringing--- friends from all over were calling to make sure I was OK. I had no idea what they were talking about.
One of my closest industry friends and colleagues had been on United Flight 93 on Sept 11. He'd changed his flight at the last minute, and was on a different plane when Flight 93 crashed and the FAA ordered all of the planes out of the sky. He was stranded in Canada, where his plane landed. He was very, very freaked out over his luck changing flights.
I would have been, too.
That week was interesting. I remember walking out of my house, walking through the vineyards, and looking up in the sky, knowing there were no airplanes up there. Very spooky, as you can almost always see contrails here (hundreds of flights every day to San Francisco and nearby airports).
A lady I was just getting to know totally freaked out. Her parents were traveling in Italy and she pretty much went unglued. Told me she couldn't talk to anyone right now-- and would not for the foreseeable future. Don't call, don't write. Leave me alone. Goodbye. As I said, 9/11 really freaked her out.
She did call me 3 months later, but by then . . .
I understood her feelings, but felt very different myself. For years, I'd traveled the world, and had pretty much come to grips with the fact that I could be sitting in a cafe in Paris and it might just go <BOOM>. Stuff like that happened in other parts of the world. I traveled knowing this. I embraced it-- it was either live life to the fullest, or stay in my bedroom afraid to go outside.
But this kind of thing hadn't happened in the US, so I saw lots of friends really get messed up. Their world view changed-- they felt unsafe, vulnerable for the first time in their lives. Me, I had grown up in Detroit during the race riots, and now I lived in CA earthquake country-- and had survived a few whoppers. So I'd already had to deal w/the "my life could be over in an eyeblink" kind of thing, both home and abroad.
The same week as 9/11, I got an email from a gal who lived about an hour and a half from me. She'd seen my profile online (I was listed on match.com), and wanted to get together. We wrote a few times, then had a really long phone call. I was amazed that she pretty much felt the same way I did-- that life was precious, but little had changed. Her prep for this was different-- both her dad and big brother were firefighters. So for her entire life, she knew that one -- or both-- of them might not come home. It was something that was a part of her life.
She moved in with me a few months after that, and we married a year and a half later. We buried her mom just 10 months after I met her. And we buried her dad just 3 years after that. Both cancer. Both very fast. It was not fun.
But I was glad that I was in her life, to help her through those times.
We bought our first houses in 2003, and later that same year, bought a B&B a few blocks away.
Over the next few years, we bought an apt building, and 3 more houses. Sold 4 of our other houses. Remodeled them into another B&B (20 rooms). As you all know-- we just finished that a few weeks ago.
And after lots of trying (and thanks to IVF), we had a beautiful daughter, who just turned 3 a few months ago.
To recap: Started out this decade single, world-famous for my craft, and wanting to have a family and do something different with my life. Net worth about $300K.
Ending this decade happily married, no longer famous (never was important to me), w/an incredible daughter that really puts my life in perspective. Own a lot of property w/my wife/best friend/business partner. We're probably worth between 5 and 7 million, after paying off all the debt.
So has my life changed for the better over the last 10 years?
Yep.
-Russ H.
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