Chapter 1

It was a beautiful spring in Michigan when the college in which I was teaching took a financial turn for the worse. Gifts to the college in support of the arts were lagging behind the budgetary needs. As Dean of the School of Music, I had become burned out dealing with the lack of finances to support our work. I knew the department could not continue to support all its faculty members so I offered to resign and seek employment elsewhere. The President of the college was regretful that the school was in such financial straights. To let him know that I was okay with my decision, I told him what my wife has a habit of saying. I said, "Some things are meant to be, Doctor Kilgore." With that I shook his hand and left his office.

Colleen was the Assistant Dean at the time, so she became the Acting Dean in my place. The president felt that the college had enough in reserve to sustain her salary for the duration of the academic year, so she stayed on.

While considering where I might start looking for a job, it came to me that I had once considered becoming a salesman several years before. It so happened that an old friend of mine was the owner/president of a high-end electronics store in Mt Clemens, Michigan. It was only 25 miles from where we now lived, so I called his company office to set up a time to visit with him.

When he heard who was calling he got on the phone and spoke with me briefly. He gave me a time and date to drop in and I wrote it down. On the appointed day I dressed for an interview and headed for Audiomart - Men of Sound.

The president, Chris Crismon, was very busy that day and, though he had promised a 10:30 AM interview, it was almost noon before he had time to see me. When I walked into his office, He smiled and rose from his chair to greet me. "Ed, I am sorry you had to wait so long. I'd invite you to lunch but I don't even have time for that today. What brings you here?"

I didn't tell him right away because I wanted to chat first. We talked about the past and I brought him up to date on what was happening in our lives. Then I told him why I was there and I asked him if he had any job openings in one of his seven stores. He said that he might have an opening or two but he wanted to know how much experience I had in sales before he committed himself. I told him that I really didn't have any experience, but I was willing to make him an offer he couldn't refuse.

"What's that," he queried?

"Let me work for you for two weeks for nothing and, if it doesn't work out, I'll walk away and you won't owe me anything," I told him. "I'm willing to work any or all hours the store is open just to learn what I need to know to sell your products to the public."

He burst out laughing and stated, "In all my years in business I've never had an offer like that. How about I just pay you minimum salary during the first two weeks?"