My 40’s

                We were only in Asheville a few months when I hit the 40-milestone. While depressing, I look at people like Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Aniston and others, and I can see why folks say that “40 is the new 30”. I have even ordered Meaningful Beauty, have found a new stylist in Grady Parham on a recommendation from Mike’s wife, Joy. Brady began to flourish right away in the business and made over $30,000 in the first six months. This qualified us for a trip with all expenses paid to Paris in March, just after his birthday on the 7^th. We decided we would open the restaurant in April and the personal delivery business in August. Additionally, Brady and I vowed to give ourselves a few years to enjoy our marriage, each other, develop a stronger bond between ourselves and God, and TRAVEL!

                Asheville has much to offer in the way of food, so we began having “date nite” each Friday to begin to see how we could be different. Our concept was different, but we needed our food to be also. We began search for a chef. While Brady insisted that he come by the restaurant each nite at 5:30 PM, I also made him promise that he would be on the front steps of 377 Quill Gordon Court by 7. He reluctantly agreed, but did so knowing that he need to grow his financial planning firm thru Mutual of Omaha. The Oracle might come into town and request Brady to manage a few billion. One can dream, right?

                March came quickly and we boarded a plane going to JFK in New York and then on to Paris, France. I imagined eating the fresh pastries, drinking espresso in Palazzos throughout the city. It is the “City of Lights” after all, and I would have to do all the tourist attractions as well. There was the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and of course the food and wine. This is where we would find Michelin Star chefs and wines that date back to the 1800's. I dreamed of drinking Sauternes with dessert and watching Brady enjoy a nitecap of Navan with a Cohiba cigar from the balcony of our hotel. Brady would have to attend a few meetings, of course, but he would mostly be free to browse the city with me. We would certainly take advantage of all Paris had to offer.

                The Michelin guide showed twenty-seven 3-star restaurants in Paris with many also being on the James Beard Award list. It would not be hard to find appropriate vittles, I surmised.

                While we were in Paris, one restaurant that I wanted to visit was that of Jose Andres’. A Spanish chef, he was trained classically, and not by trade. He had become the biggest proponent of the molecular food movement and was perhaps the second most renowned chef in the world at the time, behind the infamous Thomas Kelleher. I had never been to Napa, and I had never been to the French Laundry; but Brady and I vowed that we would make reservations and travel there the following year.

               

                Both Guy Savoy and Jose Andres’ (Ceasar’s Palace) had opened restaurants in Las Vegas. For some odd reason, the revitalization of “America’s Playground” had been successfully courting chefs for nearly ten years; and they were coming without precaution in droves. Marcus Samuelson, Anthony Bourdain, Tyler Florence, Chef Morimoto, and others, just to name a few. It remained to be seen who Steve Wynn would court to be his “5-Star, All-Star”, but he was on the prowl. I imagine it will be someone who could entertain the Asian population, as he had also opened a new casino location in Macau as well. It would be someone that could deliver the appropriate cuisine for his clientele in both locations.

                

Wynn Hotel was the hottest on the strip at this time. Brady and I had even been looking on Travelocity and Trivago for last minute deals to Vegas with a flight and hotel option just to visit Wynn Casino, Steve’s hallmark property. I mean, I’m not sure how he found a prime location on the strip and managed to raise a $2 Billion behemoth in a matter of months; but, if anyone can do it, it is Steve Wynn. He was perhaps the best businessman on the planet. Polished, mercenary, intelligent and with the sole intent on making large amounts of profits for himself and his shareholders. Arguably, Warren Buffett is the smartest businessman on the planet, followed by the late Steve Jobs, the Visionary; Larry Ellison of Oracle and also Bill and Melinda Gates, who are now philanthropists instead of the sole owners of Microsoft.

                Brady and I would not find any deals, so we decided that we would just pay a fair price to visit Wynn in the near future.

                The Louvre in Paris was perhaps my favorite, the Eiffel Tower came in as a close second, and the food and wine….well, a tie for first. It was only a 6-day, 5-night vacation, but we managed to cram as much into that vacation as we could. It was also like a second honeymoon.

                April came quickly and soon would be time for rainy days and May flowers. We were doing some landscaping around our home. We had purchased quite the home at $650,000 and it had become our single largest asset. I intended to run the restaurant for a few years, sell it, and then we had plans to again sell Brady’s practice and move to Walla Walla, Washington; as Brady’s ideal job is to become a Master of Wine, Sommelier at least at some level, and operate wineries and a B & B in both Walla Walla, Washington and Mendoza Argentina. Both were up and coming AVA’s, and we wanted to purchase the land and capture the rise in market prices even before we bottled a single run of vino.

                We called the restaurant “Cibo”. It is an Italian name, but we planned to offer cuisine from all different styles from all over the world. Local fish from the South, Europe and Argentina. Brady decided that he would prepare the wine list and also pick the pairings for the three-course meal each night. At first, he was not making it home till about 7:30 PM, but with a few tongue lashings, he managed to begin to make it home by 7. The way our restaurant was set up, even the chefs and servers were finished at a decent hour. And as you may or may not know, most people in the restaurant industry are also purveyors of fine wine and spirits, and tend to imbibe too much as well. But a short schedule from 4:00 PM to perhaps between 10 – 11 PM, would keep them on their toes and allow them time to rest each day; and nite if they so chose, and to return to work the following day.

                The summer was short and August came quickly. We began turning a profit on the restaurant in September, and the goal was to use the profits from the restaurant and the personal delivery service to purchase the land and begin planting grapes in February the following year in Mendoza. Then grapes would be planted in May in Walla Walla.

                

I came to appreciate Brady’s business acumen. While I mentioned earlier that his father was an engineer, numbers was Brady’s main focus. He knew how to turn a dollar into ten. The personal delivery service became profitable within the first three weeks as we had no overhead. We used our own vehicles initially and within three months Brady was able to buy cars for the business. We paid our employees by the hour and gave them bonuses for scheduling their own runs. It seemed like everything was falling into place.

                

Brady had taken in $12 Million in assets in his financial planning practice in the first twelve months. Not unheard of, but certainly a valiant effort was made, and the plans he placed in motion came to fruition. In addition to that, he had written quite a bit of insurance in the months of October to December 15, as that is the open enrollment period for Medicare Supplement and Part D prescription drug insurance. Obamacare had changed the rules in the insurance business, and was basically hamstringing the economy from an insurance prospective.

                Notwithstanding, Brady was building a large practice at a rapid pace. I was running the restaurant and we had three cars and six employees for the personal delivery business. Brady projected that we would make about $750,000 that year and the goal was to pay off the house and be free and clear of all encumbrances and debt. The Bible says, that it is not good to owe. And with over 650 monetary biblical principle in the Great Book, Brady intended to follow each one to the letter. Brady began to focus his practice on single women and widows. He even purchased a limousine to pick up the widows in his book of business to get them to their appointments and even additional appointments around town. He had taken this idea of a personal delivery service to the next level. Because of this level of service, the widows in his business grew in droves. Additionally, for the younger single women; focusing on divorcees and those that were single and needed financial advice, he started a seminar series based on the popular book, “Smart Women Finish Rich”. Written by an author by the name of David Bach, he covers financial principles designed especially for women. While diversity has certainly helped women in the workforce, they still earn approximately thirty percent less than men in the same level, or position of employment. Whoever said that life isn’t fair was absolutely correct, and that is the singular reason why I wanted to cease my employment with Crook & Chase and become and entrepreneur.