mikegarcia25.com

13 August 2007

Orlando Business Journal - Eye Candy Rebirth

After moving to Florida to continue working with custom vehicles, I found Eye Candy Customs. Once a top-dog in the industry, the owner's son had turned the company from king to crap with his lack of attention, poor attitude, arrogance, and other bad habits I won't go into detail online. I tried my best to turn the company around, with such innovative tactics as to sponsor a young Marine before returning home from Iraq, a la "Pimp My Ride," and creating a foundation for an online storefront.



You can only do so much with so little, and ended up leaving the company shortly after due to frustration with the owner's son having no concern for wasting nearly $17,000 a month in unnecessary overhead costs and blaming me for issues that other, failed managers had caused. You live and learn, and move on to the next opportunity!

21 February 2007

Sharing the Wealth

thanks to Nick L. for posting this note earlier today.........


A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and was very much in favor of the redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the addition of more government welfare programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

He responded by asking how she was doing in school. Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing?"

She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus, college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over." 

Her wise father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair! I have worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!"

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, "Welcome to the Republican Party."