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laborers. Not infrequently, my older
brother would tell me, “Mr. X lost all
of his money.” My reaction was that
I should go help Mr. X find all his
money. Despite Roosevelt’s New Deal
and my sentiments, there was little
success in curing The Depression,
which was diminished, finally, by the
activity of World War I.
After finishing school and three
years and five days in the U.S. Navy,
John Colucci Jr. and I flew to the
West Coast to try to make contacts
with plywood mills to sell their plywood
in the East. (John, having been
raised in the plywood business here at
home, was very bright and attractive
Not infrequently, my
older brother would
tell me, “Mr. X lost
all of his money.”
My reaction was
that I should go help
Mr. X find all his
money.
and I appreciated the guidance.) We
spent three weeks visiting mills, with
no success, and were about to return
home disappointed at failure when we
visited one of our last prospects. While
waiting to see the head of the mill, we
started talking to the nice lady secretary,
who was interested in our mission
and suggested that we call on a
company that was being organized and
might be a prospect. We went forthwith
to visit this prospect and ended
up representing this new mill.
A year or two later, we joined
other partners, including my brother
Kenneth, and purchased a mill of our
own. This was moderately successful.
I bring this to light to emphasize that
luck has much to do with success;
if you keep your ears open to bright
people and do not ignore suggestions