Well, whaddaya know...the pendulum really does swing back...
I got to spend time hanging out with my cousin last night. Roy's a great guy...always been one of my favorites out of all my cousins. And, for a while, he seemed to be a 'golden child'...he married a beautiful girl, had a couple of beautiful baby girls, and was buying a house that, once he had it paid off, he could turn around and sell for a hefty profit and move into another place.
He's always been a hard worker. He used to install carpet for a living...then he finished his schooling and started working with computers. The timing seemed incredible...everyone was looking for someone to help with web-pages, to do repairs to their systems, to troubleshoot their networks...
And then came the notorious 'dot-com' bust. The company Roy was working for went belly-up. And for years, he struggled to keep enough work, of any sort, to keep a roof over his family's heads...carpentry, tile-laying, cabinetry, and any other odd job he could find. He tried regular jobs...and every time it seemed he'd found one that would finally get him back out of the hole, the company went under.
A couple of years ago, he started working for a venture capitol firm. These are guys that would find properties (like mines, not houses) for sale, businesses that wanted to buy them, and people who had the money to invest in the businesses, and bring all the elements together. It was slow going. Those are tough elements to coordinate. For several months, they were working on one project at a time. A lot of their clientele was international, which meant conference calls had to be at all hours of the night (when you're trying to get someone to invest millions of dollars, you do it on their timetable). There were weeks on end where he would be at work by six am on Monday, and average about three hours a night for sleep all week long.
They had to move out of their house, and dump it on the market to avoid a foreclosure, moving back in with her parents. That's a situation that's guaranteed to put stress on a relationship...and before the stress got too bad, they moved back out, to an apartment that was just barely big enough for them and the kids. And Roy was still working his ass off, knowing that if he put in the effort, somewhere along the line, the payoff would come.
Well, they're out of the apartment. They have another beautiful baby girl, born right after Christmas. The business is growing...slowly, but it's growing. They added a new partner a while ago, who deals specifically in real estate. Just when Roy found himself in desperate need of a larger place to live, that partner found a beautiful home...HUGE, new, well-appointed (the detail work around the fireplace is cast bronze, among other wonderful details). It's the kind of place I'd think about buying if money was no object (like that's ever going to happen in theater...)
And because of Roy's tireless, ceaseless efforts on their behalf, from Day One, often at the expense of his family, the company is picking up the house payments. Roy was almost serene, in a way...yeah, he had concerns he still worries about; but there was an almost awe-struck humility in his voice when he talked about the house and how he ended up in it. Roy's not a proud man...but he's not often openly humble, either.
It was good to see that the pendulum really does swing back the other direction. Granted, nothing on that scale has ever happened to me...but I've never been in as desperate a situation as Roy was...and I've never worked as hard to get out of it as he has.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
I got to spend time hanging out with my cousin last night. Roy's a great guy...always been one of my favorites out of all my cousins. And, for a while, he seemed to be a 'golden child'...he married a beautiful girl, had a couple of beautiful baby girls, and was buying a house that, once he had it paid off, he could turn around and sell for a hefty profit and move into another place.
He's always been a hard worker. He used to install carpet for a living...then he finished his schooling and started working with computers. The timing seemed incredible...everyone was looking for someone to help with web-pages, to do repairs to their systems, to troubleshoot their networks...
And then came the notorious 'dot-com' bust. The company Roy was working for went belly-up. And for years, he struggled to keep enough work, of any sort, to keep a roof over his family's heads...carpentry, tile-laying, cabinetry, and any other odd job he could find. He tried regular jobs...and every time it seemed he'd found one that would finally get him back out of the hole, the company went under.
A couple of years ago, he started working for a venture capitol firm. These are guys that would find properties (like mines, not houses) for sale, businesses that wanted to buy them, and people who had the money to invest in the businesses, and bring all the elements together. It was slow going. Those are tough elements to coordinate. For several months, they were working on one project at a time. A lot of their clientele was international, which meant conference calls had to be at all hours of the night (when you're trying to get someone to invest millions of dollars, you do it on their timetable). There were weeks on end where he would be at work by six am on Monday, and average about three hours a night for sleep all week long.
They had to move out of their house, and dump it on the market to avoid a foreclosure, moving back in with her parents. That's a situation that's guaranteed to put stress on a relationship...and before the stress got too bad, they moved back out, to an apartment that was just barely big enough for them and the kids. And Roy was still working his ass off, knowing that if he put in the effort, somewhere along the line, the payoff would come.
Well, they're out of the apartment. They have another beautiful baby girl, born right after Christmas. The business is growing...slowly, but it's growing. They added a new partner a while ago, who deals specifically in real estate. Just when Roy found himself in desperate need of a larger place to live, that partner found a beautiful home...HUGE, new, well-appointed (the detail work around the fireplace is cast bronze, among other wonderful details). It's the kind of place I'd think about buying if money was no object (like that's ever going to happen in theater...)
And because of Roy's tireless, ceaseless efforts on their behalf, from Day One, often at the expense of his family, the company is picking up the house payments. Roy was almost serene, in a way...yeah, he had concerns he still worries about; but there was an almost awe-struck humility in his voice when he talked about the house and how he ended up in it. Roy's not a proud man...but he's not often openly humble, either.
It was good to see that the pendulum really does swing back the other direction. Granted, nothing on that scale has ever happened to me...but I've never been in as desperate a situation as Roy was...and I've never worked as hard to get out of it as he has.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
posted by Curtis at 10:37 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home