I was born in Long Beach, California and grew up in a little beach town nearby. My dad had a drug store. So, when I was 17, I went to Pharmacy school and became a Pharmacist. This was a big mistake, as I disliked being a Pharmacist. I did love the front end of the drug store with its merchandising challenges and variety of goods one could sell.

The only way out for me was to get more stores. And, at 5 stores, I was able to stop being a Pharmacist and then concentrate on what I was good at ... "merchandise selection" and the "marketing" of same. Whoopee!

Along about that time, I started selling antique furniture and small antiques in my drug stores. To my astonishment, they sold like mad. So, I then opened a large antique warehouse store (over 4 acres) in an old bakery building in Los Angeles, on the west side. Yipes!

It took off like wildfire and I then ended up with a nice chain of antique stores. About 15 years later, I sold the antique and drug store chains to publicly held companies and retired. Now, we live in Hawaii 9 months a year, enjoy biking and windsurfing (almost daily) and I especially enjoy riding the "big" waves. In the winter, I also do a lot of helicopter skiing in Canada.