Getting off topic again ...
It's really wet in Florida now. It has been raining for several days and maybe several inches have fallen. I haven't been reading my gauge. This is supposed to be the dry season. After August 4, when it was supposed to be the wet season, the rains stopped and north Florida turned into a desert for a while. El Nino. Well, at least people didn't have to worry about hurricanes.
Let me tell you a little about my background so you know a little about where I'm coming from with this GRNO.
In 1975, I went to work for a little startup named Avantek. The CEO, Larry Thielen, and I were early risers, and sometimes he would come to Engineering to chat since the place was deserted. At the time I was a one engineering man show, chief cook and bottle washer of a line of products that sold for between $70 and $110 and cost $5 to fabricate and test because of automation. I was offered a block of stock somebody wanted to sell, but because the stock wasn't publicly traded and I would have to take out a second mortgage, I turned it down, opting to buy a little out of my paycheck each week. Big mistake. BIG mistake.
Larry and the other founders, including his secretary, retired independently wealthy. The block of stock I was offered in 1975 for $27 was being publicly traded in 1981 when I sold my stock at $32, but had split by a factor of forty eight (48) times. I promised myself I would never, ever pass up an opportunity like that again.
Avantek was subsequently mismanaged into the ground by professional managers and eventually swallowed up and scavenged by HP.
Then in 1987, I went to another little startup with excellent management which attracted a fantastic engineering staff, but the Cold War was ending and I chose not to exercise my options. The company eventually restructured, dumping all its government business, and now makes ultra linear power amplifiers for civilians. It was renamed Spectrian and trades on the NASDAQ as SPCT.
What does any of that have to do with GRNO? Maybe I see it as my last chance, a chance I never really looked for as others did. I didn't have big dreams as others did in Silicon Valley, I just wanted to get along. Is it too late to dream? Do fairy tales actually come true? I'm saying I've seen it happen. It could happen to you.
Charles |
