Where Do I Sign Up?

I think I knew when I was about ten that somehow or another I would be involved in selling cars for a living, but my first real experience into the intricacies of the car bizz was when I was in my early twenties.

I was a carpet cleaner then, and production manager for a small business. I made decent money but I worked really hard, long hours, and I knew I wanted more. My new father-in-law was a car dealer. He was a wholesaler who knew everyone and made really good money.

He was his own boss, and I found out later that he had been a GM of a huge Chevy store when he was in his early twenties. He couldn’t do the job, not because he wasn’t talented enough or old enough, he just couldn’t stay sober. He was a binge drinker and he would be drunk and drinking for a week, then he worked for a week. When the Chevy store decided to part ways they basically handed him his own used car franchise and he became a wholesaler who had an “in” in every store in town.

So he was set, he could work when he could and drink when he had to and make really good money. He lived near his bars which were all pretty much around auto row where all the car dealerships were. He did not drive ever when he was drinking. He also didn’t usually do business when he was drinking either.

One day, though, he called me. I don’t know why I was at home, but I was, and he needed a ride. He was at his home bar and drunk. He got pretty sloppy and though it was in the morning he was drunk, drunk.

I told him I’d come get him and jumped on my Goldwing and went to pick him up at the bar. When I got there he told me to take him to a certain dealership just down the avenue a mile or two. I drove him there and he went inside. The whole way down the street I was hoping he wouldn’t fall off the bike

He came out a few minutes later and enlisted me to drive a car for him to another dealership near the bar I had picked him up from. He gave me some keys and pointed out some car parked at the back of the lot. He went with me and while we were headed out he said he paid $400 bucks for the car. I don’t remember what it was but it seemed a decent car to me. I was impressed at how cheap it was.

We got to the other lot with the car and he went inside. A few minutes later he came out with another man and walked around the car. Then he asked me how it drove and I said it seemed good to me. My father-in-law handed me some other keys and pointed out a car on the front line and told me to back it out. It was our ride back I suppose.

We drove the other car back to where we started and he went inside. He came out and stumbled over and told me to take him back to the bar on my bike. So I did. And he bought me a drink and gave me a hundred bucks. I made good money then, maybe four hundred a week sometimes. A hundred bucks was like a nice little fortune. And he told me he sold the first car for $700, a $300 profit, and bought the second car for $500 and sold it back at the first place for $800. In forty-five minutes he made $600 bucks.

Where do I sign up?