JOURNEY TO

SUCCESS

 VISIONS OF A NATURAL BORN SALESMAN

 AUTOBIOGRAPHY SAL AYALA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOURNEY TO SUCCESS

2002 SAL AYALA

 Design: Erika Ayala

 “Sal Ayala guarantees that you will laugh, cry and at the same time you will learn that when there is a will, there is always a way ”

All rights reserved, including the

right to reproduce this book or portions

thereof in any form, except for the

inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

 

All inquiries should be addressed

to undream@hotmail.com

SAL AYALA

 

                                                           I met Sal a number of                                                                                          years ago. It was in the lobby of the Hotel Irazu, in San Jose, Costa Rica. The first thing I noticed as he approached my table was his physical size. Sal is a small man; this impression lasted about 10 seconds.  Once he arrives at your table, one is immediately captured by his energetic personality, it grabs hold and just wont let go. He has more energy than anyone I have ever met. I don’t mean to get ahead of myself, so excuse me if I regress a few years.

Born in the city of Guatemala, the year, lets say around 1929, I say that because there seems to be a debate over just how old Sal really is; if I were him, I would keep the debate going, he doesn’t look a day over 50. If one were to measure his age in terms of energy, he comes around 30. At the time Sal came to being, the world was in a depression. Of course, if one is born in a poor, third world country, what’s a depression?  He had one big advantage he didn’t know he was poor, while the rest of the world was rich.

 

 

 A very important value was instilled in Sal at a very young age, the importance of family, especially mom. He knew one of the key ways that he could help his mom and the rest of the family was to succeed.

Sal looked around and, where others saw nothing, Sal saw opportunity. Where others were afraid of failure, failure was not an option for him.

In this autobiography Sal has a lot to share about the paths that lead our future, no matter how or where you are, this book may guide your spirit into success.

Now is when the story really begins.

 

                                                            T.D.

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 

 

                                               I dedicate this humble book with love and affection, to my wife Rosy, who stood by me in good as well as in rough times, I thank you “amor”, to my sons Mark and Sal Jr. for being the best they can be, and specially to my daughter Lucky, who is now in heaven, and to my daughter Erika who is the one responsible for convincing me to share my experiences with my friends and family, before I left this world; I give to you all, the main events in my life.

 

                                                              CONTENTS

 

 

LIFE STAGES

 

1.        In the beginning in Guatemala                 8

 

2.        Life in Mexico City                              32

 

3.        Dallas, Texas                                        44

 

4.         Denver, Colorado                              52

 

5.        San Francisco, California                 80

 

6.        New life in Costa Rica                                   130

 

 

 

 

 

 

                

 

 

ONE

 

IN THE

BEGINNING

IN GUATEMALA

 

 

 

Ten Years old, Guatemala City,

La Reforma Boulevard, Poem Recital

IN THE

BEGINNING

                            When I entered this world my life’s journey on this planet, the world was chaos.  The stock market crash of October 29, 1929 had just taken place.  People shot themselves; people jumped out of windows, the good life people had known had come to an end.  It was the beginning of the great depression.  A profound expression was born out of the great depression, “dirt poor”.  When I became old enough to have a vague understanding of what happened I wasn’t too concerned because most of the people in my country were born dirt poor and we didn’t know the difference.  It was a normal way of life for us in Guatemala.  Looking back I think it was a blessing for us.  At the time my family consisted of my parents and an older brother and sister.  I don’t remember much before I was five years old, so for me that’s when life really began.  I began to see the family structure and sibling rivalry and to see my place in the family unit.  Not that I understood the complications of a family, but I saw my father promising to reprimand my older brother for his wrong doings, but never seeming to get around to it.  No wonder my father picked up the nickname “good disposition”.  The one thing my father was really good at was sleeping.  I could never figure out why, but I do remember putting several pins in the pillows so as to wake him up and hopefully he would get out of bed.

I was six years old when one day my sister, who was 13, came running into the house.  Her eyes were full of tears, she had gone to the hospital to visit my father and found out he had passed away.  My mother told me that the hospital had given my father the wrong medication and that was the cause of his death.  For most of my life I believed what my mother told me concerning my father’s death.  One day, 60 years after my father’s death, I was talking to my sister.  I found out that my father liked to drink and the doctors had told him if he had one more drink he would die.  This was the first time in my life I came to the realization why my father spent so much time in bed.

In the early days insurance companies were non-existent.  My family was completely broke.  My half brother went to live with his mother and to top it all off, exactly 30 days after my father’s death, my mother gave birth to my youngest brother.  For many years I thought that he was really only my half brother because I thought it was not possible for him to be born after my father’s death.

For many years we lived in a one room dwelling, sharing a bathroom with many other families.  My mother never worked, or at least it did not seem to me that she worked until I realized how much it took to take care of us.  The one thing she knew how to do was sew.  Through my youngest brother’s godfather, my mother got the concession for making uniforms for the Army.  She would make the uniforms at home so she could keep an eye on us.  Food was very scarce. Our daily diet consisted of roasted tortillas with salt and oil.  You would not find any sugar in our house.  We were lucky to have water to drink.  It wasn’t always good water, but we didn’t know the difference.

Every Sunday we would get up at 4 am to attend the 5 am mass at the cathedral. After church, on the way home, we would always stop at the bakery. My mother always bought day-old bread because it was cheaper.  It was always difficult for my mom, but to the best of her abilities, she kept food in our stomachs.  At this time we were all in school.  When we would get a break from school, we would go on vacation.  Or at least that’s what my mom called it.  This time would be spent at my grandfather’s humble farm.  There I learned to milk cows, to make cheese and to kill birds with a slingshot.  There were other days that I would spend at my grandmother’s sister’s farm where her sons, who were older than me, taught me how to hunt for rabbits.  The rabbits would always come out of the wilderness after a good rain.  It was during this time I remember going down to the river.  Whenever I could I would ride the cow and on the way I would sing the old song “Tropical path”.

When I was 9 years old my uncle, who was a colonel in the army, volunteered to take me to live with him to make life easier for my mother.  My uncle was in charge of training the Indian army in the village of Atitlan.  This village was located many miles from the city and it had remained the same since the days when Columbus had discovered the Americas.  There was only one way to get to Atitlan and that was by canoe.  I remember in school that none of my classmates could speak Spanish and I had a very difficult time getting along with them.  One day a group of us were sitting across from the school when a North American couple approached us.  They proceeded to tell us that they were going to throw some coins in the air and for us to be ready to pick them up.  When the couple raised their hands, I told the Indians not to touch the money because it was evil.  Much to my surprise the Indians did not pick up the money.  I quickly picked up the money, ran to the nearest store and bought some candy.

My uncle was transferred to the religious town of Antigua.  This town was not exactly a hot spot for young men such as myself.  Our important day of the week was Saturday.  We would watch the girls on Saturday afternoon.  They would march from the boarding school to the only movie house in town.  On my 11^th birthday, I went back to live with my mother.  She was still making uniforms for the Army.  Every Saturday I would volunteer to carry the big bag of uniforms to the Army headquarters located about 15 blocks from our house.  My mother, through hard work, managed to keep all of us “alive” through some very tough years. 

One day the doorbell rang and I ran to open the door.  Much to my surprise, it was my grandmother.  She had come to live with us because my grandfather had left her for a younger girl.  She lived with us for about 25 years.  Years later when my grandfather’s girlfriend died, he came to ask forgiveness from my grandmother.  My grandmother told him that before the eyes of God, he was her husband and that here is where he belonged.  Right after my grandmother’s arrival, her sister also came to live with us.  She was very ill and where she was living there was no doctor.  Someone had told her to drink goat’s milk.  Since we were living on the outskirts of the city, every day after school I would go by a farm that had some goats.  I would roll up my pants, take off my shoes, and hop the fence with my pail and run like hell.  After getting some milk I would head home.  I am not sure my efforts did much good, my grandmother’s sister died soon thereafter.

I do not remember things seeming all that bad.  Somehow we always managed.  If we were good during the day, my grandmother would tell us bedtime stories. On occasion we were allowed to walk across the street to listen to the fairy tales on the radio.  If we were really good, our grand prize was to watch a silent movie sponsored by one of the stores in town.  We also would build kites and fly them on Sundays with the rest of the kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MY FIRST VENTURE

AS A SALESMAN

 

                              I would spend sleepless nights thinking of ways to help my mother.  It broke my heart to watch her spend everyday and night sewing Army uniforms.  If my mother had an errand that needed to be done, I would do it.  I would always do it in record time.  I would never walk, I would always run, I wanted to impress my mother.

I was thinking about what I could do to make life better for my mother.  I also knew because of my age no one would give me a job.  One day while walking through the streets of the city I saw a boy selling newspapers.  He had no shoes and was badly dressed. I thought to myself, I could do that.  I went up to the boy and introduced myself.  We became friends.  He told me that he was buying the papers for three cents and selling them for five cents making two cents profit on each paper.  At that moment, I realized that my prayers had been answered and I knew what I had to do.  The following day after school I went directly to the newspaper company, not knowing where to begin but that didn’t matter.  There were at least 100 kids waiting for the papers to come out of the press.  I remember waiting patiently at the end of the line hoping they would not run out of papers before they got to me.  Finally it was my turn.  I bought 3 papers. Actually there were two reasons why I only bought 3 papers. First I only had 9 cents.  The second being I was afraid I would not sell the 3 papers and loose my 9 cents.

Knowing the kids who got their papers ahead of me were covering the 25 blocks around the paper company, I decided to use a different approach.  I knew I was a fast runner.  I decided to get as far away from the paper company as my feet would carry me.  As I went running through the streets I could hear the other kids yelling very loud the name of the paper as well as the front-page headline.  I thought my strategy worked pretty well.  In less than one hour I had sold my 3 papers.  Normally I would get home from school the same time every day, but today I was 2 hours late and my mother was very upset with me.  I explained to her about my decision to sell newspapers.  She thanked me.  The next day she wished me luck and blessed me.

All the kids who sold papers were poorly dressed and the majority did not have any shoes.  My mother made sure I was always clean and had a pair of shoes.  Actually I looked pretty good.  I always stood out from the rest of the kids.  The other kids used to make fun of me and because of my clothes and would call me a sissy.  I decided I was going to sell my papers in a different manner than the rest of the kids.  Instead of waiting for the customers to come to me I would go to them.  I started knocking on doors, my speech went something like this: “Good evening Senor or Senora, my name is Salvador and I’m calling on you to make you a proposition that you cannot afford to turn down.”  I would say, “You read the newspaper, don’t you?” and they would reply, “Of course.”  Then I would continue, “As you can see I’m an 11-year-old kid.  My father died some time ago and I am selling newspapers to help my mother raise my brothers and myself.  From today on I will deliver the paper to you every day between 4 and 5:30 pm and at the end of the week I’ll stop by and collect the money.”  Upon hearing my story, the people would almost be in tears.  Because I had touched the person’s heart, I would get a kiss, a hug as well as a verbal contract for delivering their newspaper.  The biggest problem was I was somewhat small and the papers were heavy.  This did not deter me from continuing to knock on more doors.  Before I knew it, I had twenty-five set sales everyday.  Now I was making a fortune, 40 to 50 cents per day.  All my earnings went to my mother.

 

SETTING GOALS

 AT AN EARLY AGE

 

                            At this early stage of my life, I did not know the meaning of the word goal. But I seemed to naturally challenge myself.  My newspapers I viewed as a business, and I would not go home until I had earned one dollar each day.  Sometimes it would get to be 10 pm to 11 pm at night and I would still be 10 to 15 cents short.  I had to make my dollar.  I soon realized after 8 pm, I probably wasn’t going to sell any more papers.  By 8 pm if the people didn’t already have a paper they weren’t going to buy one.  So I knew I was going to have to get more creative.  At the time, there was a small lottery held each week.  So after 8 pm I would start selling lottery tickets. 

The Second World War had started.  There were a lot of soldiers stationed at a base in Guatemala.  The soldiers were always drinking lots of beer at the local bars.  I decided the sales of peanuts would go well with beer, so I started selling little bags of peanuts to the soldiers in the bars.  Between the paper deliveries to my set customers, my street sales, the lottery and the peanuts, it was easy for me to make my one-dollar by 10 pm each night.  I was so proud and happy to deliver that dollar to my mother.  Just think about it, I was making almost 30 dollars a month.  This was a small fortune.  Most men in the town did not make what I was making each month.

My brother, who was a year and a half younger than me was amazed to see me with so much money.  He asked me if I would take him with me so he could learn the business.  The first thing I told my brother was that the kids who sold newspapers usually came

from ghettos and were generally discriminated against, by society.  A few days went by before I invited my brother to accompany me on my route.  It was about 5 pm.  I gave my brother 2 papers and told him I would meet him at 8 pm in front of the electricity building across from Central Park.  By 8 pm I had sold all my papers so I headed to the park to meet my brother.  As I approached the park, I could not believe what I was seeing.  Apparently my brother was ashamed to be seen by his friends selling newspapers.  So instead of trying to sell his papers, he hid them under his coat.  I remember getting very upset with him.  I told him he would never make it as a salesman.  My brother told me it wasn’t just his friends making fun of him, but he was afraid of talking to strangers.  I told my brother to give me the papers and watch what I did.  It was now 8:15 pm, it had started to rain, it was cold and it was getting dark.  I was not going to let this go.  I was going to show my brother how to sell newspapers.  As a couple approached the corner, I stood in front of the people.  I held the paper up to their face but they paid little attention to me, and walked right by.  This really didn’t bother me, rejection was something that never concerned me.  I was determined to show my brother the power of persistence.  I chased after the couple, telling them it was my last paper and it was getting late and I had to be in school early in the morning.  To make sure I didn’t leave anything out, I told them my mother was going to be very upset because I was not home yet.  I continued walking with the couple for the next block.  I was paying little attention to their indifference and they finally gave in.  They handed me a nickel and I handed them a paper and they told me to go home.  I gave the nickel to my brother, who had been following me at a safe distance.  He told me he was concerned because he thought the couple might hit me.  I told him not to worry because I was too small for anyone to hit.  Another couple was walking on the other side of the street.  I told my brother to give me the last paper.  I followed the same pattern as before, and sold my last paper.  We then headed home, my brother being very happy with the 4 cents I had earned for him.

 

THE COIN CON

              I would spend hours on end thinking of new ways in which I could make my dollar in the shortest amount of time.  Early one evening, while counting my money, I noticed the Guatemalan dime was exactly the same size as the Guatemalan penny.  They both had the same code of arms on the one side and on the reverse the word dime and penny respectively.  The dime was made out of silver and the penny out of copper.  When I looked at the two coins side by side it gave me an idea.  I shined the penny so much it almost looked like the dime, especially on the code of arms side.  You have to realize, during those days Guatemalan money was on par with the U.S. money.  When I was working the bars selling my peanuts, a lot of the U.S. service men would pay me with U.S. coins.  I had given this a great deal of thought before incorporating my new scheme for making money.  I say scheme because it was not exactly honest and would in fact be cheating.  After considering the prospects for a while, I came to the conclusion that the U.S. service men have lots of money and what little they would loose to me would not hurt them.  Before putting my new plan to work, I spent a week practicing.  I would put a dime in the palm of my hand, and then snap it into my sleeve as quickly as I could.  After I felt comfortable with my slight of hand trick, I went looking for my first victim.  I walked into one of the local bars and saw a U.S. soldier who was half drunk holding a beer in his hand.  I went up to him and asked him if he would please change my U.S. dime for a Guatemalan dime.  As he handed me the dime, I snapped it into my sleeve switching it with my shiny penny.  I showed him the penny telling him that he had given me a penny by mistake.  He would quickly apologize to me and give me another dime.  I tried my trick several times and it worked perfectly.  It was working so well, I had even given some thought to becoming a magician.  Not being happy with a nine-cent profit, I mean my trick was working so well, why not expand on it?  The Guatemalan quarter was exactly the same size as the Guatemalan two-cent piece.  They had similar characteristics as the penny and the dime.  You guessed it, I did the same trick with the quarter and the two-cent piece.  One big difference, I was making 23 cents profits per transaction.  In fact business was so good that sometimes by 6 pm I had already made my dollar plus enough extra money; I could go to a movie.  My favorite movie star was Shirley Temple.  She was my first love.

 

 

 SOMETIMES GOD HAS A

WAY OF

WARNING US

 

                                           One of the events that has helped guide the way I have lived my life, took place when I was 12 years old. It happened one night as I was walking the streets of the city. Things were going great. I was making money. I was helping my family. I was on top of the world I could not ask for any thing better. As I turned a corner, I stumbled upon a man who was lying across the sidewalk. With a quick downward glance, I could tell the man was either sleeping or drunk. The air surrounding the man had the fowl smell of beer. I knew the man was drunk. I really felt sorry for him. As I stood there looking down at the man, my mind had visions of his family, his wife and children patiently waiting for his return. I am sure they must have been worried. I am also sure this wasn’t the first time and it would not be the last time.

It was at this moment I looked skyward and said a prayer to the ¨All Mighty¨, I asked God to make sure that I would never walk in to this man shoes. Continuing with my skyward thoughts, I made a pledge to God and myself. I would never drink alcohol, never smoke and never use profanity. God knows that I have kept my pledge. Now days as a joke, and counting my fingers I tell my friends that I don’t drink, smoke or swear that I have never stepped out on my wife, and that I only have one big problem. I am a big liar.

 THE MILITARY

SCHOOL

                                 

                  During the time when my mother had a sewing contract with the army, she met a colonel.

  He had been sent to jail for nine months because of political reasons.  Shortly after his release from jail, he and my mother got married. The colonel came to live with us.  My younger brother and sister did not like the idea of a stranger coming to live with us.  As for my youngest brother and myself it was okay, we welcomed him to our home.  The colonel, having been in the army since he was 16 years old, could not get a job.  Apparently the only two things the colonel could do well were give orders and drink.  He would always send me to the store to buy his beer.  When I did this, I was told to never let my mother know what I was doing. 

Through his connections he managed to get me a scholarship to the local military school.  Most students were 18 or older, I was just 13.  I remember the day I arrived I received a seven-millimeter Remington rifle which was two inches longer than I was tall.  Along with the rifle I was given a book, the Army’s Code of Conduct.  I had to memorize this book as soon as I could.  The students at the school got promotions through seniority. And just about everyone was a corporal, sergeant or officer.  I used to think for the longest time I was the only private at the school.  At home I had just one colonel giving me orders, but at school there had to be at least 100 people giving me orders.  The worst of these junior soldiers were the ones in charge of discipline.  These guys had no soul, I was sure they must have received their early training from Hitler or someone very much like him.  I think the only reason they would have their little meetings was to devise new and more painful ways in which to punish us.  If we did the slightest thing wrong, one or more of us would be subjected to their disciplinary actions.  Most of these actions bordered on being barbarian. One punishment they would have was for us stand with our arms and legs apart holding a rifle up in the air.  As our arms would start to tire, the weight of the rifle would cause our arms to slowly fall.  There was a sergeant with a pin in both hands; his job was to make sure our arms did not fall.  If they did we could expect a sharp pain in the bottom of our arms.  I remember hanging from a bar holding a rifle on each shoulder and every time I fell off the bar, the sergeant was there to kick me until I crawled back onto the bar. One of the more vicious punishments was nicknamed the “whipping run”.  The guys with seniority would form two lines.  They made us remove our clothes and run down the center.  As we ran between the lines, we would be hit with thick leather belts.  By the time we reached the end of the line we would be covered with deep belts and cuts all over our bodies.  The final blow would come at the end of the line.  We would be thrown into a large tank of cold water.  If someone had been disciplined during the day it would not stop there because if they had been disciplined, there was further discipline required.  We would have to sleep in a cell, inside an empty barrel with no clothes. Everyday before we could go home, provided we hadn’t gotten into trouble, we had to do exercises on the parallel bars plus usually fight one of the bigger boys. Of course, in my case that was just about everybody.  By age 14, I was very tough and disciplined.  I would not put up with anything I didn’t like.  Maybe there was a point to this hellhole school. 

During vacation my stepfather had gotten a construction job working on the new Roosevelt hospital.  He got me a job on the site making three dollars per week; I was better off selling newspapers.  My job was to pick up all the crooked nails I could find around the site and use a hammer to straighten them.  Each night before going home I would turn in a report stating the number of pounds of nails I had straightened out.  I remember receiving my pay in a small brown envelope.  I would give the envelope to my mother she would open it and give me a quarter for my weekly expenses. 

In 1944 the president of the country was over thrown and the military school was closed.  I ended up in the streets again. I did not want to go back to my old job in construction.  I decided to apply for a scholarship at one of the governments boarding trade schools.  I received the scholarship and one month later I started school.  While I was there I learned to repair cars as well as run a lathe.  In the morning we would attend classes and in the afternoons we would work in the shop.  Actually I really enjoyed this school.  We learned a lot and always had time to play soccer.  I really loved the game of soccer and would not miss an opportunity to play.  After my experiences in the military school, the kids in the trade school seemed like wimps to me.  What this really meant was if there was any fighting to do, I was the one doing it.  Most of the kids who smoked, would do it behind my back, they knew if I caught them smoking they would probably end up eating the cigarette.  In fact, I was so tough the rest of the kids gave me the nickname of “little steel”.  When graduation time came I asked my mother to please not spend any money on me.  She had talked about buying me a new suit.  I told her it would not be necessary because I was going to borrow a suit from a friend.  Actually I had something else on my mind.  Upon graduation I went to my mother and asked her for a favor.  I told her I wanted to go to Mexico and try my luck.  She thought about it for a while and finally agreed.  She gave me the fifty dollars I needed and wished me good luck.

 

LIFE IN MEXICO CITY

 MY FIRST TRIP TO A

FOREIGN COUNTRY, 1949

                I remember it was an hour before I had to leave.  I went to say good-bye to my brothers and sister and especially to my mother.  When I saw my mother I could see she had tears in her eyes.  I told her not to be sad that things were going to be fine.  As my mother put her hands on my head I fell to my knees.  She said a prayer and wished for a safe journey.  The day before a friend had given me a small suitcase made out of cardboard.  With my worldly possessions in a small suitcase and 50 dollars in my pocket, I was on my way to Mexico City.  I must admit I was a little scared; I had never been on a train before.  I was going to be a long way from home and I was by myself.  One of the stops the train would make was the port of Vera Cruz.  I hadn’t paid any attention for the first few hours of the trip.  As time went by and miles dragged on, I noticed a man who seemed to be keeping an eye on me.  After a while the man approached me and we started talking.  He asked where I was going and I explained to him I was on my way to Mexico City to look for work.  We continued to talk for the next few hours.  The man told me he owned a machine shop in Vera Cruz.  He suggested that if I was not in a hurry to get to Mexico City, I might spend some time in Vera Cruz.  He said he would give me a job, provide a place to live and I could make some pretty good money.  I thought about the offer and it seemed like a good opportunity, so I accepted.  Another three hours passed before we reached Vera Cruz.  I didn’t know it but I was about to learn my first major lesson about life away from home.  The first thing we did after getting off the train was head for the nearest hotel.  This seemed a bit odd to me.  We had no sooner checked in and got inside our room, when the man grabbed me and started to touch me.  Little did he know he was fooling around with “little steel”.  The man ended up on the floor grabbing his eye where I had hit him.  I headed back to the train station as fast as I could go.  The train was still at the station; I hurried and got back on the train.  I did not care if I ever saw Vera Cruz again. 

I finally arrived in Mexico City and I could not believe my eyes, the giant skyscrapers and what seemed to be millions of people walking down the streets and more cars than I’ve ever seen.  Then there was me not knowing a single individual and not having a clue about which way to go.  My cardboard suitcase had pretty much fallen apart by now, and I was carrying all my things in my hands and draped over my shoulders.  I started to walk to what I believed was downtown.  I noticed many hotels and they didn’t look too expensive.  I tried to get a room but the clerks would just laugh at me.  I was turned down several times.  Then finally someone told me that all of the hotels I had tried only rented rooms by the hour.  This confused me and of course I asked why?  I was told these hotels only rented to working girls and their customers.  At the last hotel I tried I did meet a nice clerk who told me of a lady a little south of the hotel that rented rooms by the month.  The clerk gave me the address and after a long walk I got to the lady’s house.  I got a small room that I had to share with a guitar playing Mexican guy who was 7 years older than me.  There was no place to take a bath in the house, so every 2 or 3 days I would walk 4 blocks to use the facilities of the public bathhouse, where people like me of limited means could take their baths.  The day after my arrival I started to look for work.  I was already running short of money.  I got myself a newspaper and started reading through the employment ads.  I found a company that was looking for sales people with or without experience.  I put on the best clothes I had and went for an interview.  I was hired immediately and after a very extensive training class of a whole 15 minutes, I went to work.  With no more tools then a magazine with pictures of the products I was trying to sell, I hit the streets to make my fortune.  Most of the people did not have a lot of money.  Part of my sales approach was to convince the people to take advantage of our easy installment payment plan.  At the same time the customers would have the opportunity to participate in raffles in conjunction with the official monthly lottery.  The company paid no salary; my commission was 10% of what the buyer would give me as a down payment.  I started to walk and I remember walking several blocks before I mustered up enough courage to knock on my first door.  I was so afraid; I hoped no one would be home to answer the door.

 MY FIRST SALE

My first couple of houses I would knock lightly on the door.  I would count to ten very fast and if no one answered I would quickly leave.  I thought to myself, am I going to do this or not?  If I was going to do this, I needed to put my heart into it and give it my best effort.  I decided I had to make a sale.  Intuition told me when the door opened I should back off a few steps to assure the person at the door I was not there to hurt anyone.  Then I would give them my sales pitch. “ Good morning my name is Salvador and I represent pots and pans, one of the leading companies in Mexico, I am calling on you on their behalf to let you know about a wonderful opportunity to own some of the finest kitchen items available on the market today.  We have a special promotion going this month; you may purchase any of these items with our special installment plan.  It is really a kind of layaway plan.  At the same time you will be qualified to participate in our monthly drawing.  If your name comes up before the completion of your contract, the items will be delivered to your home absolutely free of all charges to you.”

  The lady I was talking to got such a kick out of my accent that she invited me into her home. She offered me some coffee and at the same time asked me where I was from.  I told her to take a guess, she mentioned the town of Tampico and I told her she was absolutely correct.  With that I closed my first sale.  Now full of enthusiasm, 20 pesos in my pocket, I couldn’t wait to knock on my next door.  When I got to my room and started to take the pesos out of my pocket, my roommate was there.  We hadn’t really had time to get to know each other, so naturally my roommate was suspicious of why I had so much money.  I invited him to have dinner with me and from that day forward we became very good friends.  He was amazed at how much money I had earned.  I made in one day what the average worker would make in one week.  One day I decided to visit the company’s warehouse.  When I entered the warehouse I was shocked to discover it was virtually empty.  Then it hit me like a rock, most of the products I was selling didn’t exist.  How could the company do this to these poor people?  These people did not have a lot of money and could not afford to be taken.  I immediately quit the job.  I was not going to be part of an operation whose real purpose was to rip people off, people who were very much like myself.  You’ve heard the expression “a little white lie won’t hurt anyone”.  This was not a white lie; it was stealing. 

Reading the paper, I found an ad by a company that manufactured parts for cars and trucks.  They were looking for someone who was an experienced lathe operator.  I went to the interview taking with me a picture of me operating a lathe.  It had been taken while I was at the trade school.  I told the owner that the picture had been taken in Texas, at one of the factories that I had been employed.  He showed me the lathe and asked me to give him a demonstration, I showed him I knew what I was doing and he hired me on the spot.  He was Jewish and seemed to take an immediate liking to me.  So much in fact, that in two weeks the owner gave me my own set of keys to the factory.  This allowed me to come to work as early as I wanted so I could complete my work by noontime.  This worked out perfectly for me as it allowed me to have my afternoons free to pursue furthering my education.  I registered at the mechanics school on Ave, Reforma.  If one were to take all the required classes, it would take three years to graduate.  I knew I had a great deal of experience, so I decided to have a talk with the principal of the school.  The principal was so impressed with my background that I was given two years worth of credits for my experience.  It took me less than a year to graduate with honors.  Having a diploma in my hand, I had no problems getting a job as a third class mechanic.  My mother came to visit me and we talked for hours; I could tell by the conversation that my mother really wanted me to come home. 

A few months passed and I found myself on a train headed for home in Guatemala.  The year was 1950.  As soon as I got back a friend suggested I try to make it on one of the country’s soccer teams.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.  My love for soccer goes back as long as I can remember.  With the help of my friend I was able to pass the test to play for Aurora, one of the top teams in the country.  The pay those days was not exactly great; in fact it was about 5 dollars per game.  I didn’t have to worry about getting rich.  Having been a member of the high school all-star team, I knew a lot of very good players.  I recruited as many as I could.  Now I was playing soccer and held two jobs with one of the government institutions.  My life was very busy, but I was very unhappy.  The more I thought about it, I knew there had to be a better life waiting or me. 

THREE

 DALLAS TEXAS

 

OPPORTUNITY HAS A UNIQUE WAY OF SHOWING UP  1952

 

            One evening while talking to a bunch of guys who would routinely gather at the corner near my house, I met a new friend.  He told me he had some money and wanted to buy a car.  He had one big problem; he didn’t know how to drive.  He was looking for someone to go to Texas with him to buy a car and drive it back to Guatemala.  I immediately volunteered.  A week later we flew to Mexico City.  We then caught a bus to Dallas, Texas.  The bus trip to Texas was a long one.  In the course of the trip everyone on the bus got to know each other.  A gray haired man who was sitting behind us overheard our conversation about going to Texas to buy a car.  The man changed his seat to the one next to me.  He introduced himself as Spencer Allen from Dallas.  He told us he knew a number of people in Dallas who could help us get a good deal on a car.  Since we did not know anyone in Dallas, we accepted his invitation.  Mr. Allen had been studying Spanish, not very successfully I must add.  So me with my bad English, and him with his terrible Spanish, managed to carry on a reasonable conversation.  Once in Dallas, with Mr. Allen’s help, my friend had his black Ford.  In a short period of time Mr. Allen had done a great deal for us.

 After some additional conversation with Mr. Allan, I found out he owned a lawnmower shop.  He also represented a company that sold lawn mowers in Los Angles.  Mr. Allen and I hit it off very well, and he asked me if I might be interested in going to work for him.  He suggested that with my background in auto mechanics I could easily learn to repair lawn mowers.  I felt great; at last my prayers had been answered.  I drove my friend’s car back to Guatemala.  Once back home, I proceeded to sell my bicycle, my watch and clothes I didn’t need.  I caught the first train I could to the Mexican border. The last time I went through Mexico I entered and exited through the same checkpoint.  My tourist permit was good for 3 months; unfortunately I had remained in Mexico on an expired visa.  The emigration office in Mexico had my name registered as an illegal.  Because of this I would not be allowed back into the country.  I caught a train back to Guatemala. When I got back home my mother was out of town.  I purchased a one-way ticket to New Orleans.  In those days one had to spend the night in Havana, Cuba before continuing to New Orleans.  On the plane I met a very funny individual; he had been visiting Guatemala.  We stayed at the same hotel in Havana.  He was carrying a machete that he had bought in Guatemala.  He ran around the hotel telling everyone that I was the son of the president of Guatemala.  Part of his story was that I was attacked and he came to my rescue with his machete.  Upon landing in New Orleans I had one more problem to contend with.  The emigration officers were asking every tourist how much money they had in their possession.  One had to prove they had enough money.  The U.S. did not want anyone to become a burden on the State.  I knew I only had 25 dollars and could not get through emigration.  I started a conversation with the lady who was standing in front of me in the emigration line.  I asked her to please allow me to go through with her as her nephew.  I told her I did not have enough money.  She agreed and together we went through the emigration.  Once again I was in the U.S.  I caught the first bus to Dallas.  Upon arrival in Dallas, Mr. Allen was waiting for me.  Mr. Allen had already arranged a room for me; it was close to the shop so I could easily walk to work.  My starting salary would be 35 dollars a week.  Mr. Allen spent a great deal of time with me.  I was having the time of my life; we would eat out at a different restaurant each night.  We were taking Spanish classes together.  In our spare time we would go to the ice skating arena.  Can you picture this young soccer player on ice skates?  I spent most of my time with my butt on the cold ice.  We would take many sales trips all over the state.  We were selling lawn mowers to retail outlets.

Mr. Allen had a very strong Texas accent.  He would speak very slowly when addressing me; he wanted to make sure that I understood everything he said.  One night we went out to dinner and I sensed that something was about to change.  After dinner we discussed my situation concerning emigration.  His attorney told him the only way I could stay in the country was for him to adopt me.  But if he were to do that it could potentially create a number of problems for him.  The conversation ended with Mr. Allen telling me I had to leave the country.  I asked if I could please have 10 days and he agreed.  I immediately contacted an old friend from boarding school, who happened to be living in Denver.  I explained my situation, my friend whose name was Willie said that if I could make it to Denver, I could stay with him.  When my 10 days were up Mr. Allen and his wife took me to the Dallas bus station.  As we said our good-byes they both had tears in their eyes.  As soon as they left I went inside and bought a one-way ticket to Denver.  Willie was living in the basement of a home owned by a Mexican-American couple.  When they saw me they were very surprised to see how much we looked alike.  We both looked like we were Italian.  On occasion this would work to our advantage.  Willie knew all the angles.  He had been a farm laborer for many years.  During those years, mostly spent in Montana, he had been deported many times.  I told Willie that I didn’t have a social security card, he said not to worry he would help me get one.  Even then there were ways to beat the system.  After about three days we drove to the town of Fort Lupton; it was about a one-hour drive from Denver.  We went to the local post office, which also processed applications for social security cards.  I filled out the application with Willie’s help.  I was instructed to return in one week to pick up my new card.  If I had known it was this easy I would have done it on my first trip to the states.  I was afraid, but Willie seemed to know what he was doing.  I looked up the name Salvador in the dictionary; the closest I could come to my name was Savior.  This was going to be the English translation for my name.  At the time I did not know that Savior meant Jesus.  The following week Willie and I drove to Fort Lupton to pick up my new social security card.  I was now Savior Aguilar, born in Texas.  With a social security card in my pocket it was time to find a job. 

This was not as easy as I thought.  I walked the streets looking for anything where I thought I might be hired.  Construction workers thought I was too small for the heavy work.  I tried a bakery but my English was not good enough.  Finally the manager of an automobile repair shop hired me.  The manager talked so fast I had trouble understanding him.  One day he asked me to change a tire on a car, instead I changed the clutch.  That was the end of that job.  It was back to the streets.  Finally I ended up at a battery factory where they asked me if I was fast with my hands.  I explained I had just come from an apple-packing factory in California, where fast hands were mandatory.  So I was hired.  The supervisor, Robert Lacey, was very strict and he also talked very fast.  I would make mistakes in the items called for.  In those days we would get yelled at with all kinds of ethnic slurs, but I ignored them and tried my very best to be a good worker.  I would always smile.  A week later the employees of the battery factory went on strike.

FOUR

 DENVER, COLORADO

SOCCER

TEAM EXPERIENCE

 

             After the Second World War there were many people from Europe living in Denver.  Also there were soccer teams from many different countries.  My friend Willie was playing on the Italian team.  He knew I was a good player and with his connections, I was asked to play on the Italian team.  The manager on the German team was very impressed with my athletic abilities and approached me with an offer to play on their team.  The words “rewards” impressed me so I switched to the German team.  With the workers at the battery factory on strike, I realized I was again unemployed.  I contacted the manager of the German soccer team to see if he could help.  He said he had a job for me and he would pick me up the following day.  I was up early and ready the next day, not having any idea where the manager was taking me or what the job was.  It turned out to be the Denver Arsenal where I filled out forms and had pictures taken and a number put on my chest.  It was only then that I found out what they did at the factory.  They manufactured all kind of ammunitions, bombs, etc.  That went a long way in explaining the number of injured people I would see in the area.  I was ushered into a big tank and told my job was to ensure that no one threw any trash or garbage near the tank as it was full of atoms and if it caught fire, it could blow up the city of Denver.  I was frightened since I had given a false name on my social security card and felt I was working illegally in the states.  So every time I went to a new department and had to show my ID I was afraid I might be taken for a spy.  After a few days I handed in my resignation, citing stress as the reason.

 Fortunately, the strike at the battery factory was over and I could return to work there.  The Germans wanted to help me with my expenses but they were not quite sure what to do.  They moved me in with a Polish player, his wife and their baby.  The baby and I would hit the sack at the same time each night about 7 pm.  There were two reasons I would go to bed so early.  I wanted to be well rested for work and soccer, and I did not want to be out at nighttime in fear that I might be asked for my papers. 

Dave Montoya was another Mexican-American I met while working at the factory.  He spoke no Spanish but understood it.  He became a good friend as well as my tutor.  He had just graduated from high school.  One night he invited me to go watch a football game with him and his friends.  When he picked me up there were two of his friends in the car.  We were watching the game when Dave’s friends seemed to disappear.  Dave told me not to worry.  He said he and the others would meet up with me outside after the game.  When I came out to the parking lot I saw them standing next to Dave’s car.  When I opened the car door to get in there was hardly enough room for me to get in.  The car was full of hubcaps.  While I was watching the game, Dave and his friends were stealing hubcaps in the parking lot.  I had never been so afraid in my life.  If the police stopped us, we would end up in jail, worse yet I would be deported.  Dave drove me home.  I told him not to invite me to another game.  What he was doing was not worth jeopardizing my position in the U.S.  He apologized and we continued our friendship. 

I noticed at the factory, Mexicans were performing most menial jobs.  It was white guys who had the better jobs. Since I didn’t know what it was to be discriminated against, I just kept working to the best of my abilities.  I knew it would not be long before I had one of the good jobs.  During this time Robert Lacy and I became good friends.  My number one priority was to be as supportive to my family in Guatemala as I could be.  I continued to send my mother all the money I was earning.  After 8 months on the job, I was laid off.  I decided it was a good time to call my good friend in Dallas, Texas.  When I called Mr. Allan, he was surprised to hear from me especially when he found out I was living in Denver and not Guatemala.  Once he learned I had my social security card, he said to come down and he would put me to work.  I didn’t have the courage to ask him for bus fare.  I knew I would figure out a way to get there.  I went to the closest pawnshop and sold my watch and ring for 5 dollars.  I started to walk down the highway towards Colorado Springs.  I was lucky to come across a man who was fixing his truck on the side of the road.  He felt sorry for me and gave me a ride to Colorado Springs.  Having 5 dollars on me upon reaching Colorado Springs, I went and bought a ticket to take me as far south as 5 dollars would take me.  I ended up about 50 miles north of Amarillo.  I stayed on the bus until we reached Amarillo.  There my luck ran out, there was a bus change.  I started walking towards the highway to Dallas; I was going to try my luck hitch hiking.  I came to a gas station where there was a bus filling up.  The sign on the bus said Dallas.  I noticed the door was opened and the driver was nowhere to be seen.  Without thinking I headed up the stairs and to the back of the bus, I put my head down and waited.  The next thing I knew I was in Dallas. 

As soon as I got off the bus I headed straight for the shop to see Mr. Allen.  His apartment was located on top of the shop and I was told he was attending a convention in New York and would not be back for a week.  I was very hungry and had no money.  I went to the supermarket down the street and stole some lunchmeat.  I walked around the neighborhood looking for a room to rent.  The first place I tried a lady answered the door. I convinced her to rent me a room and I would pay her at the end of the week.  My room had a gas heater; I believe the lady discovered I was using it to cook my lunchmeat.  Each morning I would find a glass of milk and a bowl of cereal next to my door.  When Mr. Allen returned and heard my story he immediately took me out to dinner at one of the nearby restaurants.  As time went by I began to miss my friends in Denver.  After about 4 months I contacted my old employer in Denver, Robert Lacy.  He responded by telling me to return to work as soon as possible.  Mr. Allen was disappointed to see me leave, but understood my situation.  My good friend Dave had been drafted into the Army.  There were a number of other factory workers also drafted.  The factory was now hiring ladies because of the Korean War.  There were a number of people who wondered why I had not been drafted?  I would tell them I was 4-F, you know bad feet, they did not know the difference.  I decided to get away from the Latin environment in order to practice my English.  I went to a boarding house and got a room I shared with 3 other guys.  There were a total of about 20 guys living in the house.  They seemed to get a kick out of me.  They told me I was the only Mexican they knew who was not proud of himself.  I would do anything for money.  Almost anything.  I would run errands, wash their cars or even shine their shoes.

I met Billy Garcia while working at the factory.  I was always lending him money I knew I would never get back.  His brother James, who lied about his age, joined the Army when he was 16.  By the time he was 18 he was out of the Army with an honorable discharge.  He had trouble adjusting to civilian life, so he rejoined the Army.  He gave Billy the responsibility for selling his car.  It was a little hot rod Ford, which Billy offered to sell to me for 300 dollars.  I told Billy I would give him an extra 50 dollars if he would do a couple of things for me.  The conditions were as follows:  1. No one must know about the transaction.  2. Billy would give me his brother’s original Army discharge papers.  3. Billy would help me get the car registered under the name of James Garcia.  Billy agreed to everything.  I got my drivers license as James Garcia.  I had the discharge papers reduced in size to fit into my wallet.  In the discharge papers there was a statement about an identifying tattoo, it was a heart on his upper left arm.  I went to a tattoo shop and had a heart put in the same place.  I still have the tattoo today.  At the factory I was Savior Aguilar, born in Texas.  At the German club I was known as Panchito.   My new I.D. was James Garcia, born in Denver.  In reality my name was Salvador Ayala, born in Guatemala. 

Since my friends were from Germany, I started to pick up the language.  At the same time I was learning English.  At times I would find this very confusing.  If I had spent more time working on my German, I think I would have mastered it.  I met a number of individuals from South America.  They were attending various universities in the surrounding areas.  Between my friends there was always a Friday night school dance I would be invited to.  Whenever I was asked what school I was attending, it would always be the school of mines.  When asked why my hands were so rough, I would reply because of my work in the garden.  Through my limited years, soldiers had been good to me.  I decided I wanted to do something in return.  I volunteered to work at the local U.S.O.  There I would meet many

lonely soldiers who were spending their birthdays and holidays away from home.  They also missed their loved ones.  There was another benefit; I knew no one would look for an illegal at the U.S.O.  Three years went by and one day Willie and I were having a conversation, by the end of the conversation Willie had talked me into going back to Guatemala with him. 

MEXICAN

CITIZENSHIP, 1954

 

           We drove the car through Mexico.  We decided to stop in the city of Guadalajara.   I went to the local Army headquarters where I met a colonel.  I told the colonel that Willie was a friend of mine.  Willie was traveling under the name of Reynaldo Lopez.  I continued to explain to the colonel that Willie wanted to take me to the U.S.   I had been born in Chiapas, Mexico, but as he knew the civil registry of the town had caught fire sometime ago, I could not get my birth certificate, which I needed to get my passport.  I needed his help in securing proper identification so I could get my passport.  I did not want to miss the opportunity to travel to the U.S.  I was almost in tears and had an innocent look in my eyes.  He asked me if I had 50 dollars and a picture of myself.  I put the money on the desk and I did have a picture of myself in my pocket.  He gave me a new Mexican ID card.  I don’t remember what name I used, but now I could go anywhere in Mexico with no problems.  It was getting in and out of Mexico that would cause me problems.  Willie and I made it to Guatemala.  Willie then drove his car back to Denver.  I remained in Guatemala for about two months.  On December 25^th, Christmas Day, I caught a train to the Mexican border.  I knew I could not enter Mexico legally.  I decided on a new course of action, one I had not tried previously.  I would swim across the river and bypass the border checkpoint.  I had two plastic bags with me, in one bag I put my pants and wallet, the second bag contained my shirt and shoes.  I paid a kid to swim across the river with the bag that contained my shirt and shoes.  As I reached the other side of the river I could see the kid heading back.  The problem was he still had my bag.  I had just been ripped off.  So there I was on the right side of the river with no shirt or shoes.  I wanted to get as far away from the border as I could.  I started to run through the jungle.  It didn’t take long before my feet were bleeding and I became very tired.  I was beginning to wonder if I was even going in the right direction. About this time I came across the highway. I now knew where I was.  It didn’t take long before I saw the bus to Tapa Chula headed my way.  I flagged the bus down and got on.  I was on my way.  We hadn’t traveled very far before the bus slowed down to a stop.  I got very scared when I saw an immigration officer board the bus.  He looked very closely at everyone on the bus.  When he got to me, he asked to see my ID.  I showed it to him.  Then he asked me why I was all wet and where were my shirt and shoes?  I told him I had been swimming in the river and someone had stolen some of my clothes.  He smiled and let me return to the bus.  The bus driver told me he would have sworn on his mother’s grave that I was not Mexican.  As soon as we got to town, I headed for the central market.  I bought myself a shirt and some shoes that I knew had been made locally.  Now I was ready to go again.  I headed to the airport to catch a flight to Mexico City.  At the airport a soldier was checking everyone’s papers.  The man sitting next to me was nicely dressed in civilian clothes.  The soldier asked him for his papers, the man got very upset.  He told the soldier that he was a colonel in the Army and should be shown some respect.  I immediately began a conversation with the colonel.  I told him many people make mistakes.  Perhaps the soldier thought I was with him, the way the soldier bypassed me.  I don’t think he wanted to be yelled at again. 

As soon as I got to Mexico City, I went straight to the bus station and bought a ticket to Laredo, Texas.  When I got on the bus there was a young Mexican sitting in the back of the bus.  He came up and took the seat next to me.  He told me that I looked liked I might be going to the states.  That is where he was headed.  When we got to Laredo, I did not want to go through immigration using my James Garcia identification.  I was afraid of getting caught.  I was going to try to cross the border on my own.  I had heard of people getting killed while trying to cross the border at night.  I decided I would try to cross it in the middle of the day.  There were some kids playing with a ball in the river.  On the bridge there were policemen watching them have a good time.  I approached the kids and told them I would pay them if they would help my friend and I get across the river.  They said they would do it.  We started to play ball with the kids.  Sometimes the ball would end up on the U.S. side.  I would go over to the U.S. side pick up the ball and return to the Mexican side.  We did this several times.  The police got so used to us they really did not pay much attention to us.  About the tenth time, I remained on the U.S. side.  None of the police saw me.  I threw away my Mexican papers and became James Garcia one more time.  I caught the bus to Denver. 

When I arrived in Denver I had 50 dollars to my name.  I went to the local Salvation Army and bought myself a suit, shoes shirt and tie.  It was New Year’s Eve and I would be celebrating it with my friends at the German club.  On January 2, 1955, I reported back to work at the factory.  Everyone was happy to see me.  Dave was back from the Army.  Dave and Billy always wanted to know why I always spent so much time with the Europeans.  The problem was in those days discrimination was at its peak.  I remember seeing signs on the front of different businesses, no dogs or Mexicans allowed.  Mexicans always resented the fact that white people always looked down n them.  As a result, some were very wild.  They were always picking fights with the white guys.  For example, Dave was kicked out of a bar.  He got so upset he went to his car and got a hammer and threw it through the front window of the bar.  Another time Dave got a parking ticket.  He got so mad that night he took a hammer and broke all the parking meters for two blocks.  He left a note for the police explaining why he had done it.  Dave would have been a lot better off if he didn’t own a hammer.  I wanted to show Dave and Billy that Europeans were as nice people as a lot of Americans.  One night I invited Dave and Billy to the William Tell.  I wanted them to spend some time with some of my European friends so they could see what I was talking about. 

I wanted to go to school at night, but every afternoon when I got home from work I was so tired; I would lie down and rest for a while.  My arms were so tired I could not lift them up.  I would wrap them in towels because it would make them feel better.  I started taking English lessons from a lady by the name of Mrs. Bower.  Mrs. Bower was teaching night classes in Spanish at the University.  One time she got sick and asked me if I would like to take over her class for a week at the University.  The students seemed to enjoy my teaching.  They would laugh at my stories.  When the week was up, Mr. Shultz, a very wealthy man, approached me and asked me if I would be willing to give him and his family private lessons at his home.  I consulted with Mrs. Bower and she thought it would be a great idea.  Twice a week I would go to their home to give them lessons.  The family and I got along very well.  At the University I met the manager of a Sears store and he also inquired about the possibility of private home lessons.  I began to worry because I was taking students away from Mrs. Bower.  She told me she was not worried because she had plenty of students.  The store manager was engaged to a very pretty girl.  The three of us would go out to eat and sometimes take in a Spanish movie.  Sometimes he would be so tired he would pass on the lessons.  The times this would happen he would still pay me.  I could not believe I was so lucky to have found such a good friend. 

Six months later the boarding house was sold.  I was given two weeks to find a new place to live.  I told the Sears manager about my situation.  He suggested I move in with him, I could give him Spanish lessons and he could give me a place to live.  I was very happy to get such an opportunity.  I bought myself a bed and moved in.  Three months went by and everything was going great.  Until one night he called me into his room and told me he might have a fever because he was very cold.  I covered him with all the blankets I could find.  He was still complaining of being cold.  Then he asked me to sit next to him to help try to keep him warm.  As I sat down he grabbed me and told me he was in love with me and not his girlfriend.  I told him this was very sudden and I needed a little time to think about things.  I went to take a shower and told him to wait for me.  I went to the bathroom and turned on the shower. As fast as I could I went out the bathroom window.  I ended up spending most of the night in a cafeteria trying to get over the shock of what happened.  The following day when no one was home I went and collected my things. 

At the factory there was a key piece of equipment used in the manufacturing of batteries.  It was called the Tiegel machine.  A German-American living in San Mateo, California, was the machine’s inventor.  At the time his son Ralph Tiegel Jr. was attending Stanford University in California.  During the summer break of his junior year, his father sent him to Denver.  His father wanted Ralph to get a first hand view of the factory operation.  Since I was the only employee that had his own apartment with an extra bedroom, the company asked if I would mind putting Ralph up for the summer.  It was fine with me.  Through the course of the summer we became pretty good friends.  I introduced him to all my friends in the German club.  After he left for school, I received a very nice letter from Mr. Tiegel; thanking me for the hospitality I had shown his son. 

  BACK TO

GUATEMALA, 1956

 

            A year went by when one day I was introduced to a very nice couple.  Through the conversation we were having, I ended up telling them about my situation.  I explained that for many years I had to keep lying just to survive.  I was so afraid of being caught and being deported.  They made some inquiries with a friend of theirs who was an attorney.  They told me all I needed was someone to give me an affidavit of support stating I would not become a burden to the United States.  They told me they would be willing to supply me with the needed affidavit.  They gave me a copy of their last year’s income tax return plus a bank statement indicating their current financial situation.  With these papers in my hand I went to the Mexican Consulate and showed them my Army discharge papers.  The papers proved I was an American citizen.  They gave me a tourist card as James Garcia.  Now I was free to travel in and out of Mexico.  I drove to Mexico City.  Upon arriving I went to the Guatemala Consulate.  There I got a tourist card to visit Guatemala.  My youngest brother came to greet me at the Mexican border.  I was driving my car across the bridge entering Guatemala when I saw my brother.  I stopped to pick my brother up. It was great to see him again.  My brother told me while he was waiting, he had been talking to some of the immigration officers.  They knew me from my soccer playing days.  They had wondered what had become of me.  They had not seen me play soccer for a long time.  You’ve heard the expression “It’s a small world”.   Well it is.

 The head immigration officer was a guy that I had gone to primary school with.  I went with my ex-classmate to his office.  I told him the whole story.  I gave him all the background of why I was using the name James Garcia.  He told me not to worry; he said I could come into the country as Mr. Garcia.  The day I got to Guatemala I went to the U.S. Embassy.  I told the people at the Embassy that I had received this paperwork in the mail from a couple I knew in Denver.  I gave the paperwork to the officials.  They looked at the paperwork and then smiled at me.  Congratulations son, you are going to live in the United States.  Within a week I had all my papers in order.  At last I was going to live in peace without fear.  I spent the next 3 weeks preparing for my trip to the United States.  I took all the old paperwork I had been using for years and burned it.  I did not want any evidence to come back and haunt me in the future.  The one thing I still have today from all those years ago is the tattoo of a heart.  Actually I’m glad to have the tattoo.  I look at it and it serves as a reminder of where I’ve been and where I am today.  The immigration officials probably went crazy trying to locate James Garcia, who entered the country and never left.  You can’t imagine the feelings I got after I took my first steps into the street of New Orleans.  So many thoughts came to mind, about all the things I had gone through.  I was having a cup of coffee and before I knew it I had tears in my eyes.  They were tears of happiness. 

THE CHICAGO EXPERIENCE

            I knew if I took the bus to Denver I would have to go through the state of Texas.  This seemed to be the long way around to me.  So I decided to take the train.  I didn’t realize that taking the train from New Orleans to Denver would mean I would have to spend eight hours in Chicago.  Having never been to Chicago, I decided to use my eight hours and do a little exploring.  I started to walk up and down the streets near the station.  It seemed that every other store was a pawnshop.  I noticed a bunch of people gathered in front of one of the shops.  Apparently they were having some kind of auction inside.  The shop was packed with people.  Before I knew it, I found myself in front of the line.  As I looked up there was this man standing on a small stage.  The best I could tell he was auctioning a man’s gold Bulova watch.  He was trying to get 100 dollars for it.  No one seemed to be interested in the watch, at least not for 100 dollars.  Since no one was bidding, the auctioneer told the audience he was going to be very generous.  For the same 100 dollars he would throw in a lady’s gold watch, both watches for the price of one.  Still no one would make an offer.  Then the man challenged the audience.  He said he didn’t think anyone in the place had 100 dollars.  I said to the man I do.  The man looked at me and said let me see your money.  He acted like he didn’t believe me.  So I reached in my pocket and pulled out my hundred-dollar bill.  Before I knew what happened the man grabbed my money from me and dropped two watches in my hand.  At the same time he said sold to the man for 100 dollars.  The two guys standing next to me offered their congratulations and before I could say a word, I was being ushered out the door.  It didn’t take me long to figure out that I had been taken.  They saw me coming and before I knew it they had taken most of my money.  I had just been conned. I have a little experience when it comes to the con game.  With my two phony gold watches, made in Chicago, I headed for the train station.  I waited at the station until it was time for my train to leave.  I could not afford to lose any more money.

 BACK TO THE FACTORY

 

           Back in Denver I found the company had been sold to a man from Chicago.  Robert Lacy had been promoted to general manager.  When I walked in, you could tell he was happy to see me.  He immediately took me to his office and the first words out of his mouth were okay you SOB you have been lying to me the last six years.  I want to know who you are, where do you come from and what is your real name?  After hearing my sad story he apologized for all the names he had called me.  He thought I was not educated because of my lack of English.  After giving me a big hug, he asked me to go with him to meet the new owner.  Having Robert on my side, I asked the owner if it might be possible to sweep the factory floor after my regular shift.  I could really use the extra money.  He said if it was okay with Robert, it was okay with him.  I needed the extra money to send to my family.  About a month later while I was sweeping the factory floor, the owner’s daughter came in.  She was a 16-year-old red head.  I was very surprised to see her.  I would see her at the factory, but during the day, not in the evening.  When I asked her what she was doing at the factory, she said she was there to see me.  To her I seemed a lot different than the rest of the Mexicans at the factory and she wondered why.  Apparently she had been observing me for quite some time.  She noticed I always came to work with clean clothes, brushed my teeth after lunch and always took a bath before going home.  She told me she would like to get to know me better.  She asked me if I would like to go out and have a coke after work.  I said that would be great.  She picked up a broom and between the two of us the cleaning got done in no time at all.  From that day on, she would show up at work every evening.  We would spend about an hour in the cafeteria.  We would have some ice cream or a coke.  I was very happy I got to practice my English every night.  

On September 16^th the anniversary date of Mexico’s Independence Day, there was always a big celebration by the Mexican-American community.  I was invited to their big party.  I told Carolyn that I would be unable to see her because I was going to the party.  She asked me if she could go with me.  I told her no because I did not think it would be a good idea.  Carolyn insisted that we go together.  When we showed up everyone was surprised.  I remember all the girls coming up to say hello to her.  Everyone was congratulating both of us.  The following day, I was the most popular guy at the factory.

 My brother Sergio and a friend, who I knew, came to visit me.  Because of the Korean War, the factory always needed more people.  Both my brother and his friend got jobs.  One evening I was at the William Tell with a friend of mine, we were talking and watching the people dance.  We focused on two girls who were dancing together.  When the music stopped they came over and introduced themselves to us.  We ended up spending the evening talking and dancing with the young ladies.  At the end of the evening the girl I was with gave me her phone number and asked me to please give her a call.  I called her early the next morning.  We went out the following afternoon.  Her name was Emily and she had just turned 18.  For the next month we spent all of our spare time together.  In the mean time my brother and his friend had left for San Francisco.  I set them up to meet Willie the master, also my friend.  He had been living in San Francisco for some time.  Emily had been having problems with her family for some time.  She asked if I could help her get out of Denver.  I called my brother and made arrangements for Emily to stay with him for a while.  She no sooner got to San Francisco then she started calling me everyday.  She told me how much she missed me and that I should come to San Francisco.  Even before the calls I had already made up my mind to get out of the battery business.  I just didn’t see any future in it.  I received my high school diploma from Denver High.  This was possible through testing and credits I had earned while in Guatemala.  I went to see the owner of the factory to tell him of my decision to leave.  When I went into his office, he got up from his desk and greeted me with a warm handshake.  Then he proceeded to tell me that he knew everything about his daughter and me.  He told me there were no secrets between his daughter and him.  He told me he thought I was a hard worker and a gentleman.  He told me he wished that I would stay and maybe things would get serious between Carolyn and I, we could get married and take over the running of the factory.  I thanked him for the kind words.  I told him politely that marriage was not in my plans for the time being.  I was leaving for San Francisco to see what I could do. 

Prior to my departure the Denver Soccer Association gave me a diploma stating I was the best gentleman player to ever perform in Denver.  It was an honor but I ended up throwing it away because the name on it was James Garcia.  I had to get going, it was going to be a long drive.  It was wintertime and the roads out of Denver were covered with snow.  Driving conditions were absolutely terrible.  My car had no heater.  So I put on two pairs of pants, two sweaters and a jacket.  I really thought this would keep me warm but still ended up freezing.  I remember going down a hill and I didn’t have any chains on my car.  By the time I got to the bottom of the hill I had lost control of the car and ended up in a ditch.  There wasn’t much I could do.  So I decided to wait for someone to come by that might help me.  There wasn’t much traffic, in fact about an hour had passed and not single car had gone by.  Finally I noticed a car coming down the hill.  It looked like it was traveling too fast.  As it neared the bottom of the hill it started to slide sideways.  It was coming right towards me; there was no place for me to go.  The next thing my car lurched sideways as the oncoming car hit me.  I got out of my car to inspect the damage.  At the same time the people in the other car got out of their car.  The first thing the man said to his female companion was “Merry Christmas honey”.  I had no insurance but the couple that hit me did.  They ended up paying for the repair for both cars.  I immediately bought a set of chains.  I had no problems the rest of the trip.  I made it safely to San Francisco bay area. 

FIVE

 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

MY LIFE IN

SAN FRANCISCO

My friendship with Ralph Tiegel pays off

 

                 I had to get to San Francisco by way of Oakland and the Bay Bridge.  Crossing the Bay Bridge made me nervous.  I must have done something wrong.  A policeman starting following me and then pulled along side and signaled for me to pull over.  I took the first exit off the bridge and pulled over.  He asked to see my license and I showed it to him.  He looked at it and handed it back to me.  He said I was driving too slowly.  I apologized and told him I was not used to so much traffic.  He let me off with a warning and said I could go on my way.  I told him where I was going and he gave me some directions.  I finally found the place.  I found six guys sleeping in one room.  Now there were seven. 

My brother took me to see Emily who was staying in a very cheap hotel.  She was very glad to see me.  We talked for a while then I told her I would see her later.  The guys had met a very nice lady by the name of Grace.  Grace had a very pretty daughter, who was 16 years old.  The same day my friends took me to the lady’s house.  There I met a man from El Salvador.  The next day the man took me to meet the board of directors of their soccer team.  I told the lady about my friend Emily.  The place where Emily was staying caused me a great deal of concern.  I talked to the lady about the possibility of Emily coming to stay with her.  She thought about it for a while and then finally said okay.  The lady worked for an Italian poultry shop.  The lady not only got Emily a job at the poultry shop, but also my brother and the rest of his friends.  Within two days I had a soccer team, my friends were working and Emily had a job and a nice place to live.  On the third day I started looking for a job.  The first thing I did was to call my friend Ralph Tiegel in San Mateo.  He was happy to hear that I was in San Francisco.  He told me that his family would like to meet me, so he invited me to have dinner at his house that night.  He gave me directions and asked that I would show up around 7 pm.  When I arrived I was very impressed.  They lived in a very beautiful home.  During our dinner conversation Mr. Teigel and his wife thanked me for taking care of their son while he was living in Denver.  Mr. Teigel was very influential with people in the battery business.  They all used his equipment.  He told me that he had done some checking and knew what an outstanding employee I had been at the factory.  He was going to call the manager of a battery manufacturing operation in San Leandro and give me a recommendation.  The next day the manager called me for an interview.  I believe the interview went very well. During the interview I asked the manager how many batteries his best worker could produce?  He told me between 2 and 3 hundred units.  I told him I could do 1500.  He hired me to start the following Monday.  When I arrived at the factory on Monday morning, it would seem that everyone was expecting me.  I don’t know or maybe it was just my imagination but everyone seemed to be looking at me in a funny way.  I found out later what they were thinking.  Here’s the big bragger from Denver that’s going to make 1500 batteries in one day.  I don’t think I was starting off on the right foot with my new co-workers.  They didn’t think it was humanly possible to make 1500 batteries in one day.  In Denver the employees were mostly Mexican-American, the work force here was made up of immigrants from Portugal.  I told the manager I would not have any problems doing what I had promised.  I would need a couple of weeks to familiarize myself with the equipment, process, procedures, and the people.  Two weeks went by I couldn’t make a move without being watched.  The people were waiting for me to do as I had promised or fall flat on my face.  The guys at the factory did not like me.  I wasn’t sure if it was because I was different or because I might make them look bad.  It was a different story with the girls.  They were used as helpers on the machines.  Their job was to load the cells into groups.  These loads of cells were very heavy.  Every chance I got I would help the girls with them.  The guys would load the groups into the machines.  It didn’t take me long to notice that the Denver operation was more advanced than the one here.  The girls were always changing the separators.  The guys were continually melting the post to the cells.  In Denver the separators were protected from the flame by an iron shield.  Because of the shields there was never any down time for separator replacement.  I did not tell the manager about the equipment difference.  Instead I told the manager I had an idea that would improve the efficiency of the operation by at least 25%.  Besides if I were going to make good on my promise and get the guys off my back, he would have to support me concerning my new idea.  I made drawings of the iron shield. We took the drawings to the machine shop and had the new shields fabricated.  When we were ready to install the new shields, referred to as my new invention, no one thought it would work.  There were some people who called me crazy.  After installing the shield on one machine and trying it out, to everyone’s astonishment, it worked.  The company no longer had to change the separators.  The girl’s time could be spent doing more important things.  The company became more efficient and saved a great deal of money.

 Having proved my point to the manager, I was ready to make good on my promise.  I asked the manager to find me the biggest torch tip possible.  From that day forth with the larger flame, I had only to make one pass.  The old set up required three to five passes.  The combination of my ideas increased production over 400%, I made my 1500 batteries.  The girls were very happy for me.  They kept pushing me to ask the manager for money for my innovations.  I did not feel comfortable in approaching the manager for money.  They insisted so much I finally talked to the manager.  I told him it was very expensive for me to travel every day from San Francisco to San Leandro.  The manager was extremely happy with me and did not want to lose me, so we reached an agreement.  The manager would pay me 35 dollars a week in cash, provided I met one condition, no one was to know about the extra cash.  That was fine with me.  When the girls asked me what happened, I just gave them a big smile and said nothing.  All the machine operators had one helper; I had two because I was so much faster.  Five months went by, and then one day the manager came and took one of my helpers.  He said he needed her on another job.  With only one helper my battery production started to fall.  I went to talk to the manager about the situation.  He welcomed me into his office, he told me he had wanted to talk to me for some time.  He asked me to take a walk with him to the warehouse.  The warehouse was jammed packed with batteries.  The factory was making them faster than they could be sold.  We were building a huge inventory.  The factory now had too many people and he was forced into laying some of the workers off.  I felt very bad when I found out that some people had lost their jobs. 

Over the course of the last year Emily had the opportunity to get to know me much better.  All our friends seemed to be heavy drinkers.  Emily really liked the fact that I didn’t drink.  She had developed a great deal of respect for me.  One thing we both had in common was we were very lonely.  We decided to get married.  Being lonely probably wasn’t the best reason in the world to get married, but we did it anyway.  The Club of El Salvador took care of all of the expenses for the wedding including a big party at the club.  History is a good teacher; getting married at this time was not one of my smarter ideas. 

 

 

SAFEWAY

STORE

                   One day on my way home after work, I decided to stop and do some grocery shopping.  I stopped at a Safeway supermarket.  Safeway is one of the largest supermarket chains in California.  I went around picking up the items I needed.  When I got to the checkout stand, I handed the clerk my company paycheck.  The clerk was suspicious of my check, he didn’t believe I lived in San Francisco and worked in San Leandro.  The clerk called the manager for check verification.  The manager was a nice looking man and he asked me to come with him to his office.  We ended up talking for about an hour, and at the end of the conversation, he asked me if I would like to come to work for Safeway stores.  He asked me to come back in a week with my papers.  In the mean time he would turn in a recommendation to the district manager.  For the next week I could hardly sleep.  I kept thinking about this young kid with very humble beginnings who might get a job where I actually had to wear a tie and I could have a real future.  I went in for my interview with the district manager.  He asked me if I had ever worked in produce.  I told him you have to be kidding, I came from a farm family that did nothing but grow produce.  In reality I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was talking about.  He told me to go see Mr. George Bentzen the manager of Safeway’s store located at 24^th and Castro.  On the way to the store I stopped and got some cardboard.  I stuffed small pieces in my shoes to make me look taller.  I was a bit surprised when I met Mr. Bentzen, he was shorter than myself.  I introduced myself and he told me he had received a good recommendation from his boss concerning me.  Mr. Bentzen was from Denmark.  He asked me to fill out an application.  In the section where it asked about any special interest, I listed I loved to play soccer.  As soon as I was done I handed it to him and he began to read it.  When he saw my comment about soccer, he asked if I knew the Celtic team from Ireland.  He told me they were European champions and they would be playing next Sunday against the All Star team.  I told him I knew them, and he asked if I was going to the game.  I told him I would be going to the game because I was a member of the All Star team.  He pulled out a copy of the local newspaper and turned to the sports section.  There was an article about the soccer game, included was a list of players.  He scanned down the list of names and there was Sal Ayala.  It stated that I was the newest member of the team and one of the fastest inside rights ever to come to the Bay area.  He got very excited and called all the employees and told them they had a celebrity in the store.  He not only was a celebrity but a new employee.  He also called his wife and told her all about me.  He asked her to pick up two tickets to the game.  He told me to go home and rest.  He said I would need it for Sunday’s game.  I was to report to work on Monday mid-day at 12 pm sharp.  Monday morning I came to work still not knowing the meaning of the word produce.  I came to work as the third man in the produce department.  Two big guys would start early in the morning, and I would start at 12 pm. The morning guys would unload the trucks.  The fruits and vegetables came in large crates, which the guys would stack on top of each other.  I was too small to do the morning guy’s job.  I had to use a ladder to reach the top crates.  With a basket in my hand I would climb to the top crate and little by little I would manage to get the items down.  I was the happiest guy in the world.  I got to meet all kinds of people.  I enjoyed getting fresh vegetables for the ladies.  I was very proud of my produce department.  My shelves were well stocked and produce always looked fresh.  It pays to be a good employee. 

One night when I returned from work, I found a well-dressed man waiting in my living room for me.  It would seem when you do your best, opportunity is always knocking.  He introduced himself as the owner of the N. Silver Battery Company of San Francisco.  He told me he had been looking for me for some time.  He had come to offer me a job based on information given to him by my old boss in San Leandro.  I told him I already had a job and wasn’t looking to leave.  I told him I had just gotten married and could use the extra money.  So I made him a proposition.  If he would let me work 4 hours each morning, I would produce more batteries than any of his other employees could in two days.  We shook hands and had a deal.  The very next morning at 7 am I started to work at my new part-time job.  Most of the employees were from El Salvador.  I knew most of them from playing soccer.  The guy in charge assigned one of the other workers to be my helper.  When this guy saw how fast I was he apparently decided I didn’t need his help and went on break for the next hour.  I spoke to the manager about this situation.  His solution to the problem was to assign two guys to help me. That didn’t work very well, now I had two guys always on break.  The manager told me all these guys came to him begging for a job.  Once they were hired they really didn’t want to work.  They didn’t care; their union protected them.  The owner and I became very close; in fact he gave me a set of keys so I could come into work early if I wanted to.  He would always leave me instructions as to what product I should be working on.  For the next three months things worked out pretty well.  I came to work one Monday morning and found a new machine placed right next to mine.  The manager told me because I was so fast I probably would not have a problem running two machines.  So now I had four helpers and two machines.  I would run one machine while the other was being loaded.  The setup was working very well.  Then one day someone called the union.  The union had sent a man to the factory.  Someone had filed a complaint against me.  I was told I was being paid to run one machine, not two, and I was taking a job away from another individual.  I was told if I didn’t listen to him I would have a serious problem with the union.  I got the message.   I thanked the owner for the opportunity he had given me and I left the factory never to return.  Besides, I was tired of working 12 to 14 hours a day six days a week. 

About one year after the date of my marriage, my son Mark was born.  Keep in mind my marriage wasn’t exactly a perfect one.  My wife had many problems.  Not the least of which were our different nationalities.  Emily’s family left Germany during the war.   They ended up in Russia; Emily was born in Minks, Russia.  Even though she was just a baby, she seemed to never get over the fact that Germany lost the war.  Emily was only 19 when Mark was born.  I don’t think she was ready for the challenge of raising a child.  One day she left for Denver and there I was left with my 3-month old son.  Not knowing what to do, I asked my mother to come to San Francisco to pick him up and take him back to Guatemala.  Mark spent the next three years there.  His mother did keep in touch with me and always asked how Mark was doing.  I guess Emily needed time to herself.  After three years she decided she was ready to be a mother.  She went to Guatemala and picked up Mark. She and Mark went back to Denver.  About a week later I went to Denver to see them.  I found Mark living with his grandparents.  That presented it’s own set of problems.  Mark could only speak Spanish and his grandparents only communicated in German.  While in Denver I went to see a friend of mine from Poland.  I told her I would be leaving in a couple of days, but I would return to pick up Mark and take him back to San Francisco.  Mark’s mother had given me permission to take him to San Francisco for two months.  My Polish friend told me she had never been to San Francisco.  She said she could save me the trip to Denver if I would allow her to bring Mark to San Francisco.  She had asked her husband and he had said it was okay with him.

   MARK TAKES A CITY TOUR 

                         A month later, Mark and my Polish friend arrived in San Francisco.  I rented a room from a lady and hired her niece to take care of Mark while I was at work.  One day when I got home from work, I found the babysitter crying.  Some how Mark had gotten out of the apartment and was lost.  She had called the police to report him missing.  I made several calls and at one of the stations I was told they had him.  The house where I was living was at the end of Market Street.  Mark had gotten out and decided to take a walk down a very busy street.  The police saw him crossing the street by himself and started to follow him.  In their opinion he seemed to be lost, so they picked him up.  I was extremely happy to get him back. Mark was not going to be making trips alone, at least not for a while. 

The lady living with us was very nice and so was her husband, although I think he had a drinking problem.  Whenever he drank a little too much he had a very strange habit.  He would go straight to the refrigerator and open the door and throw all the contents all over the kitchen.  It was a sight to watch them wipe milk off the walls and mop eggs off the floor. 

Two months later I took Mark to Denver.  From this time forward I would make many trips back and forth between Denver and San Francisco.  Emily got remarried to a North American.  I met him once.  He seemed okay to me.  The real problem was Mark did not have a real home.  He not only lived in different cities, states, families, he also lived with different nationalities that spoke different languages.  His stepfather used to send me nasty letters calling Mark and I all kinds of names.  I never bothered to answer them.  It was probably hard on him as well as Mark.  The environment they were living in was always changing.

 

 

THE LATIN AMERICAN

EMBASSY

 

           It really wasn’t the Embassy; I just called it that name.  It was an apartment that a friend and I had rented at the corner of 18^th and Castro.  It was a large apartment it had five bedrooms and two baths.  It was always full of people.  It became the gathering place for all the friends who had emigrated from Latin America.  They were all looking for a better way of life.  My friend and I always kept our door locked.  At any one time you could count at least 20 people in the front room.  There was that many or more that were living there.  The beds were never empty. With this many people there were all kinds of characters.  George did not like to work.  He spent all of his time in Dolores Park picking up whatever the kids would leave there after lunch.  He would pull grass from the ground and mix it with sugar in a blender and drink it.  He thought if it was good for the cows making milk, it had to be good for him.  While I was working at Safeway, I would put the garbage out in the parking lot.  I would always put a bag of meat and bones with the garbage that would be picked up by the guys.  Every one of them had their own way of surviving.  I remember seeing the guys tying a bone with a string and hanging it from the ceiling on a pulley so it could be lowered into a boiling pot to make soup.  The bones were good for four or five day’s worth of soup.  Then the guys would go to the parking lot to pick up a new batch of bones.  Another guy would come into the apartment during the week to pick up his friend to look for work.  They had an argument one day.  His friend said he would no longer pick him up, he really didn’t want to work and he was not going to waste his time.  I was running an informal employment office.  I had many friends who were managing restaurants.  They would always call me when they needed extra help. 

 

 THE SEAL

MEAT

 

                       One of the guys got a job at a place that was selling seal meat.  The guy was always bringing seal meat home.  The guys were so tired of eating seal meat, that one day they took the bloody meat, put it in a bag and threw it in the garbage can located on the back porch.  A lady from across the yard called the police and told them someone had thrown a body into the garbage can.  The police came to the apartment wanting to know about a body.  Of course no one wanted to talk to the police.  Most of the guys were hiding under their beds.  I took the police to the garbage can and showed them the bag of seal meat.  Not much of a body for a police report.  The police asked me why everyone was hiding.  I told them that most of them did not have any papers.  The police just laughed and said, illegals were not their responsibility. 

In the mean time I had gotten a number of promotions.  Grocery items would come into the company once a week.  I was in charge of making all the new prices.  I memorized every price.  When someone needed a price check I was the one they called.  Three nights a week I was in charge of stocking the shelves.  I was given four guys to supervise.  I would always send one guy home and the rest of us would do all the work.  The way I organized the work it was fun for us.  At midnight we would have a feast.  We would cook the best steaks and have the most expensive ice cream for desert.  It wasn’t uncommon for us to work hours we didn’t get paid for.  So I didn’t mind the free meals. 

Safeway was structured like most organizations.  You know who was the bottom man on the totem pole.  I had to please the assistant manager, he had to please the manager, and he had to please the district manager.  I had to work Sundays.  At first this didn’t bother me, but as time went on I saw more and more people come in and buy food for their picnics the more it got to me.  As time went by I knew I needed to change my life.  Finally I was promoted to assistant manager.  Big deal, all this meant was I was working harder, getting paid less and not enjoying myself.

I decided to learn as much as I could about real estate.  I bought myself a book to study so I could pass the real estate test.  I learned the primer book inside out.  I spent a year studying the book.  At the end of the year I figured I was ready.  At the time they only gave the test twice a year.  So as soon as I could I paid the fee and took the test.  I promptly failed it.  I did a little checking and found out there was a real estate school.  If you went to their school they would guarantee you would pass.  So I enrolled in the school.  After going to the school for a month, I took the test again and passed with flying colors.  The school knew what it was doing.  The teacher told us what the test would cover and if you paid your money, you would pass. 

 

 THE REAL ESTATE EXPERIENCE

 

             I asked the real estate company if they would let me work out of their office during my spare time.  They said it was okay with them.  I remember attending a course where the salesman told us to never play with a pen while talking business.  One day I met a lady from Puerto Rico.  She told me she was having problems with the water in her home.  I told her I could probably fix it for her.  I went to her house and started checking out the water system.  I determined the water supply was okay up to the sidewalk.  I put in new piping from the sidewalk to the house and the problem was fixed.  She wanted to pay me but I told her it would be my good deed for the day.  She said the least she could do was buy me something to eat.  We decided to take my car to the restaurant.  On the way she noticed several pictures of houses from the multiple listing service.  The back of the picture told all the important information about the property.  I told her I was selling real estate on a part-time basis.  So far I hadn’t been successful because I hadn’t sold a single piece of property.  She asked if I would take her out to look at some properties.  So the next day I took her to see one of the houses that she had seen in the pictures.  And very much to my surprise she bought the house.  I got so excited I started to think that real estate was the way to go.  I started to make inquiries into the several real estate companies located in the city.  I came across a magazine with the pictures of all the salesmen of a company called Dreith Norton Realty.  I went to see Mr. Dreith and asked him for a part-time job.  I started to work the following Saturday.  I asked my boss at Safeway for a demotion.  I needed more time off.  He really didn’t want to do it.  He even offered me a promotion, which I gratefully declined.  From that day forward, I worked nights at the store and during the days I worked at the real estate company. 

My friend, who I rented the apartment with, owned a small airplane.  I thought he was a pretty good pilot. Although I didn’t know a thing about flying except you got on a plane and it took you from point A to point B.  One day he flew his plane to Central America and on his return flight he crashed into a volcano and killed himself.  I gave up the apartment and found a new place to live. 

I met a kid from Guatemala.  When he returned home he talked about me so much to his family his 17 year-old sister started to write to me.  We wrote each other every week for about a year.  It was easy to see she came from a well-educated family.  After a year without a vacation I thought it was time to take one.  I decided to visit my new pal in Guatemala.  We went out several times during my stay in Guatemala.  When I got back to San Francisco we continued to write.  It was about a month later when I received a phone call from a girl who had just gotten to San Francisco.  She told me she had a letter for me from my girlfriend.  I went to pick up the letter.  When she gave me her address it seemed familiar to me.  When I arrived I immediately recognized the house.  As it turns out this girl came to live with her Aunt.  Her Aunt was a lady I knew very well.  The girl handed me the letter.  After reading the letter, I told the girl one of the instructions in the letter was to show her around the city.  Within two hours I was dictating a letter for my new lady friend.  In the letter she told her boyfriend she had met a new guy and would not be coming back.  The girl and I began to see each other on a regular basis.  Her aunt started to worry about the relationship.  The Aunt was responsible for her niece and since I was an older divorced man, the Aunt would not approve of the relationship. 

I remember one time I was having problems with a girl because her aunt was married to a North American and she wanted the same kind of relationship for her niece.  I went to the extreme of taking the girl to a cemetery.  I showed her several tombs and asked her to read the names on the tombstones.  I pointed out to her there is German, an Italian and an American, what is the difference; sooner or later we all end up here.  No one is better than anyone else.  Before the eyes of God we are all created equal.  After hearing my eloquent speech, it didn’t make any difference what her Aunt thought.  We decided to get married.  I sent her to Guatemala to ask her mother’s permission for us to be married.  Her mother was from Guatemala and her father was from the United States.  A few days later I got a telegram from the girl asking me to come down.  Her mother had given her blessing for us to be married.

I went to Guatemala and hired an attorney to perform the ceremony.  During the ceremony, I found out she was three years younger than I thought and she found out I was five years older than she thought.  It didn’t make any difference; we got married anyway.  We returned to San Francisco to start out our lives as husband and wife.  Right after our return to San Francisco my son Mark came to live with us.  His mother was having a lot of problems.  The biggest was the relationship between Mark and his stepfather.  We lived happily as a family for the next two years.  Then came the day when his mother and stepfather came to reclaim Mark.  Things would be different this time.  I was not going to give Mark up.  If it were a fight they wanted, a fight they would get.  We went to court and the judge took into account Mark’s age and awarded his mother custody.  I remember Mark hanging from my neck begging me not to send him back to Denver.  I told him for the time being there was nothing I could do about it.  The loss of Mark really bothered my wife and me.  We wanted a family. We had tried for the past three years and nothing had happened.  We went to see a doctor.  According to the doctor everything was in working order and we should not be having any problems.  My wife told me since we didn’t have any kids and she was still very young she would like a divorce.  We went to Tijuana, Mexico.  For the length of our marriage everything my wife wanted she got.  Why should getting a divorce be any different? 

I was working nights at Safeway stocking shelves and marking merchandise.  I chose a helper I knew might be a good prospect.  I knew he was looking for a house and I learned everything I could about the different types of loans.  I now knew about FHA, GI and Cal/Vet loans.  Any person who had served in the Armed Services could qualify for a home loan.  That meant they could buy a house with no money down.  And in the case of California Vets they had even more benefits.  They could get a 4% loan for 40 years.  I was talking with many of my co-workers; I was determined that they had overlooked many of the loans available for them to purchase a home.  Most of them were married and paying rent.  I used to sit with the guys at night while we were on break.  I would explain the benefits of home ownership versus renting.  Some of them got so excited they wanted to go looking for houses the very next day.  The word got around, not just at my store but to clerks at a number of Safeway stores.  Before I knew it I had a very good source of potential buyers.  Mr. Dreith would use me as an example.  Working part-time I was closing more deals than a lot of the agents who worked full time.  Every Monday morning Mr. Dreith would give us his speech regarding the amount of sales we had for the previous week.  He seemed to pay special attention to those of us who hadn’t made any money.  I remember him telling them if they were not ashamed to come home each day without having made a sale then maybe they should find another line of work.  Afterwards he would play a motivational record, which was supposed to keep us going for the rest of the week. 

Up until then, I really didn’t know or understand my potential as a salesman.  One morning Mr. Dreith called me to his office.  He had a number of questions for me.  He asked me who washed my car?  I told him I did.  He told me I was worth a lot more than one dollar an hour.  He told me if I really wanted to make money, use what God gave me.  If I were going to use my hands I would not make it in this life.  He strongly suggested that I quit my job at Safeway and work full time in real estate.  The following day I went to work and submitted my resignation papers.  At the bottom of the form there was a paragraph advising me that because of my record with the company, that in the future if I would like to come back I would always be welcome.  At the bottom of the form I wrote °NEVER°.  Normally I didn’t believe in burning bridges but I decided to make an exception in this case.

 

 THE VISAS

                            I had become a U.S. citizen.  All the people I would work with would call me Sal.  So I went to court and legally had my name changed to Sal.  This has been my final name for the last 35 years.  Right after I became a U.S. citizen I became a Notary Public.  I dedicated myself to helping Latin Americans who wanted to bring relatives to the United States.  I focused on those people who may have not had the means or the knowledge as to what to do.  I started helping some of my friends in the following manner.  If the husband wanted to bring the wife or any other close relative he needed to have a letter from the bank stating that the individual had at least 1000 dollars in the bank.  I would loan the person 1000 dollars to put into his account.  After three days the party would request a letter from the bank.  After receiving the letter the individual would return the money to me.  Then through another friend a letter would be written indicating the party wishing to enter the United States would have a job waiting for them upon arrival.  I would prepare an affidavit of support, attaching the bank letter and the letter of employment and a copy of the last year’s income tax from the person signing the affidavit.  With this package of information we had no problems getting visas.  I did all this because I knew how desperate people could become when they are forced to live away from their loved ones.  For a number of my friends I would co-sign loans so they would be able to get on their feet financially.  I remember one time walking through the streets of San Francisco and meeting a guy whose wife was in the hospital and needed someone to co-sign a loan from H.F.C.  I helped him out and as my reward I ended up having to pay his bill.

 

 

THREE DAYS TO

FINANCIAL FREEDOM

 

              After my last divorce I found myself with lots of bills and no money to pay for them.  Most of the money I had earned in real estate had run out.  I was still selling property but most of the sales at this time were being done by contract of sales.  I didn’t get much of a commission on this type of transaction.  I had paid 150 dollars to see Mr. Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich.  After meeting him, he became my idol and his book my obsession.  One day I found myself thumbing through all these coupons books.  These were the coupons that you sent in to the bank with your payment each month.  I owed money on everything in the house including the carpets.  All of a sudden an idea came to me.  I called one of the guys I had helped with his wife’s visas.  I remember him telling me his kid could not play in the yard because his landlord would not allow it.  I asked him if he ever thought about becoming a landlord instead of a tenant.  He told me that would be impossible because he did not have any money.  In those days a person could buy a house with 1000 dollars down payment.  I asked him if he really tried, how much money could he save each month.  He told me the most he could save would be 50 dollars a month.  I offered him 100% interest per month if he would go with my plan.  He would also be able to buy a house.  Actually I was going to force him to buy a house.  I was going to give him one of my coupon books from Bank of America.  The payments were 50 dollars a month and I owed Bank of America about 500 dollars.  Every month he made the 50-dollar payment I would give him a note for 100 dollars.  The note would be payable in one year. Of course I wasn’t really going to pay him, at least not out of my pocket. All I had to do was find him a house within a year.  My commission would be around 1000 dollars.  Besides he would have to buy a house through me if he was going to get his money back.  When the guy left my house he was happy and I was happy.  I then called another guy and by the time I was finished with the forth guy, people were calling me.  They wanted in on my deal.  Within three days I was basically debt free.  I still had people calling me.  I told the guy first in line to come to my house I would think of something.  The individual came to my house and I explained to him that I didn’t have any more bills, but I sure could use some clothes.  We went to a men’s clothing store on Market Street.  There I proceeded to charge 800 dollars worth of clothes on my friend’s credit card.  I promised to pay my friend 1500 dollars when he purchased a home from me.  I wish you could have seen me picking up all kinds of ties, shoes, shirts and trying on several silk suits.  Most of the guys were a little upset because the lending institutions were not making many home loans.  Mr. Dreith called me into his office.  He knew I had recently gone through a divorce and wanted to know why I was in such a good mood. I explained to him what I had done.  He invited me to be the speaker at the following Monday’s sales meeting.  Everyone loved my story.  In fact I became sort of a local celebrity.  Every time someone would come to see me one of the salesman would say “there’s someone with his little book waiting for you”.  With a lot of desire to succeed, a clear mind and no bills to pay, I moved into the house next to the office.  I would make my business calls from home, it was less expensive than using the business phone.  I would read my book °Think and Grow Rich°.  I would tape what I had read and at night while I was sleeping I would listen to the tapes.  To me it was amazing the number of people who would call me at night to ask me about a house they saw advertised in the paper.  In fact a great deal of my business came from taking business calls at night.  I remember getting a call early one morning.  In fact it was about 2:30 am.  A man called wanting to see a house he had seen in the newspaper.  I asked him if he knew what time it was.  His response was if someone really wanted to sell their house they would be willing to show it no matter what time it was.  While I had him on the phone I kept looking at the listings.  I was looking for an empty house that we may have had listed in the same neighborhood.  As luck would have it, I found one.  I made arrangements to meet the man in the office in 30 minutes.  About 30 minutes later this nicely dressed man and his family showed up at the office.  He apologized for the inconvenience while explaining that he was working two jobs and it was the only time he had to look at houses.  At five in the morning he had a contract in his hands and I had a check for the down payment in my pocket. 

Ralph Cons was a teacher at the University.  One day he called my office wanting to see a home that was advertised in the paper.  I happened to be the one taking cold calls that day.  I took the call and told Mr. Cons the home was only 10, 000 dollars.  When I took Mr. Cons to see the house I was never so embarrassed in my life.  The house was a fallen down wreck, an absolute piece of junk.  If I had taken the time to preview the home I would not have shown it to him.  Mr. Cons was not a happy man.  He shared his disappointment with me.  I told him I agreed with him 100%.  I explained to him the real purpose of the ad was to help identify potential buyers.  If it were not for the ad we would have not met.  Now he could tell me exactly the type of property he was looking for.  I told him from that day forward, I would be working for him.  I would find him the exact house he was looking for.  There would be only one condition, he would use only me and not deal with any other agents.  Mr. Cons agreed.  Ralph was looking for something that was not too expensive, basically a fixer upper in a good neighborhood.  He was an investor type of buyer.  He was looking for something that he could turn for a quick profit.  Two weeks later I called him and he bought his first home from me.  We became friends and about a year later, he bought his second home from me.  Shortly thereafter he bought a third.  Then I came across a good deal on a house through FHA.  Ralph said he would take it.  The day I called him to tell him the papers were ready for him to sign he told me he had changed his mind.  I didn’t care about losing the commission the problem was a series of transactions were tied to this deal closing.  It involved a number of people.  I tried every angle but Ralph would not listen to me.  I finally told him I would have to come over for him to sign the release forms.  He agreed as long as I would not mention the house deal.  Sometime before he had told me he had been very poor and worked his way through college by cleaning tables and sweeping floors in restaurants. 

We were having coffee and his four-year-old son was playing on the floor.  I asked Ralph to look at his son.  I asked, “How old is he?”  Ralph said, “Four, why?”  I replied,” Wouldn’t it be nice when your son reaches 18, if you could just hand him a check for 50, 000 dollars, saying this is for your education.  You wouldn’t want your son to go through what you did would you?  Look Ralph, you’re not putting any money down, and I have a tenant who is going to pay the monthly payment, this deal is not going to cost you a cent.  If you look down the road ten years, the property will do nothing but increase in value.  Your kid will have that good education and a bright future.”  Ralph said, “I knew it, I knew it! I did not want you to come to my house because I knew you would end up convincing me to do this deal.”  Ralph signed the papers.  About six months later, Ralph called me up and said if I ever come across a house on the outskirts of the city to give him a call. 

After the Monday morning sales meeting I was reviewing the new listings for the week.  We were getting ready to go on tour.  One of the listings caught my eye.  The house and its two acres were located in Pacifica.  As soon as the tour got to the house I knew it was perfect for Ralph.  I told the agents on tour I was not feeling well and the tour should go on without me.  I immediately called Ralph and told him to stop whatever he was doing and come over and see this house.  Ralph came over and looked at the house and told me, Sal, I want it.  Before the tour got back to the office I had it sold.  Twenty-five years later I went to see Ralph.  He thanked me for all the homes I had sold him.  He was retired and receiving a good income from the homes which its current value was in the millions. 

 

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED,

DON’T GIVE UP JUST KEEP ON TRYING

 

           A salesman had a house on Vienna Street listed for 30,000 dollars.  I presented an offer for 25,000 dollars to the salesman.  The agent and myself went to present the offer to an Italian man by the name of Mr. Cianchi.  I don’t think Mr. Cianchi liked me.  Every time I tried to say something he would tell me to shut up.  He was not going to take one penny less than 30,000 dollars for his house.  During our meeting he must have had six glasses of wine.  As he drank I kept pushing the sale.  After about three hours Mr. Cianchi got mad and kicked us out of his house.  The salesman left, I sat in my car trying to think of a way Mr. Cianchi would accept the offer.  I thought that making a sale is just like using a bucket to get water from a well.  If you drop it you have to start all over again.  So I went back and knocked on Mr. Cianchi’s door. He opened the door and as soon as he saw me he asked what I wanted.  I said, “Mr. Cianchi, selling real estate is my business, and it’s what puts food on my table, buys clothes for my family and pays for their education.  You know this house is not going to sell today or next week or next year.  The price you are asking is ridiculous and you know it.  But you will blame me because today I was not professional enough in my efforts to show you this house is not worth what you are asking.  I ask, would you be so kind as to take the time and help me; I don’t want to make the same mistake with someone else in the future.  Please tell me how I failed.”  A tear rolled down my face, as I looked into his face he started to cry.  He asked me to come in.  He asked me for the contract and he signed it then he told me to get out of his sight.  I did exactly what he told me to do; I got into my car satisfied. It was one of the toughest closes I ever made. 

Everyday was a struggle.  The buyers always thought the houses were overpriced.  The seller always thought the offer was too low.  My friend Chuck made an offer once; the seller didn’t like the offer and got tired of listening to Chuck.  So the seller went to bed.   Much to the seller’s surprise when he got up in the morning Chuck was still waiting on the couch.  Some time ago I saw a movie, The Tin Man.  That movie reminded me a great deal of the salesmen we had in the office.  There wasn’t an angle or trick they wouldn’t use to make a sale.

 

 IMAGINATION

 

            It was another one of those days I was working the floor taking cold calls.  Cold calls are people calling in because they saw one of our ads.  A lady called up saying she had just arrived from out of town and she wanted to see one of the houses advertised in the paper.  After thanking the lady for her call I told her I was the general manager and since she had traveled a long way just to see the property I was going to send her to my number one man and that she couldn’t go wrong following that man’s advice.  I told her the man’s name was Sal and he would be picking her up in a few minutes.  Everyone in the office was listening and when I finished talking to the lady they all burst out laughing.  I left the office and an hour later I was back with a signed contract in my hands.

By helping others you will help yourself.  I found out it was a lot better to work with clients who had little money for two reasons.  By not having a lot of money they were not very choosy.  Also I gave them what I could and they were happy that they got it.  On the other hand, people with lots of money think they own the world and tend to be choosy, bossy and arrogant.  It takes a great deal more time and energy to sell them anything. 

All your life you’ve been told not to sign anything because it would obligate you.  Whenever I made a presentation I would never tell anyone to sign.  I would lay the contract on the table, hand them the pen and tell the client to press hard to make sure the ink would go through all the copies.  Once the customer had the pen in his hands I knew I had the sale.  What else was the person going to do with a pen except write with it? 

  A SALESMAN HAS TO

BE AN ACTOR

 

       

                       There were two apartments that had been for sale for a long time.  I was not sure why they hadn’t sold.  I knew the company that had the listing let the agreement expire without a single offer.  I was called to list the property.  A week later I took a couple from the Philippines to look at the property.  I gave them the complete package including the bus schedules, locations for churches and schools, and where the closest shopping center could be found.  The man told me he did not like the linoleum floors in the kitchen.  They were old and stained.  I told him I would not sell him the house with an old kitchen floor.  I asked him what color he would like his new floor to be?  He said white and his wife said blue; they started to discuss the color options.  I took Pedro into the living room and I explained to him that he and I were breadwinners of the family.  The wife would spend the most time in the kitchen so why not let her pick the color of the new floor.  There would be other areas in the house where he would be making the decisions.  He seemed to be happy with my suggestion.  We then continued our walk through the house.  I pointed out a number of things that needed to be fixed.  There were about 10 items.  I made sure to include those in the contract.  I knew I would be paying for the repairs, but I also knew the repairs would be less than 100 dollars.  The owners were asking 60,000 dollars for the house.  I suggested to the couple that they should offer 50,000 dollars.  I told them to give me a check for 5,000 dollars and I would make the offer that night.  As soon as I knew something I would call them.  I went to the office and asked the secretary to call the owners and tell them I had a pretty good offer to present to them, and that I was going to be in the neighborhood around 7 pm and would like to stop by the house and make the presentation.  Also please have all concerned parties present.  I did not want them to get the chance to ask me what the offer amount was.  I was going to get my foot in the door first.  When I arrived at the house all the family members were there.  That included two sisters and three brothers.  Their attorney was also present.  The house was part of an inherence; the attorney was there to act as the executor.  I started to tell them why the property was on the market for over six months, the primary reason being it was overpriced.  I pointed out to them the property was not worth what the seller’s want but worth what the buyer’s willing to pay.  About this time the attorney jumped up and told me to cut the B.S. and tell them what the offer was.  I handed each one of them a copy of the offer.  As I expected the executor saw the price and turned red in the face jumped up again and started to yell at me.  He said the offer was ridiculous, that the property was worth 60,000 dollars and not one penny less.  He continued on with his outrage.  I was an amateur, I was no salesman and I should be ashamed of myself for presenting such a lowball offer. 

I politely waited for him to finish his commentary.  I asked him if he was done talking.  He said yes, why?  Well, because I had one question for him, that’s if he wouldn’t mind answering it.  He said go ahead.  If you were sick would you like the most famous doctor to look at you or an amateur?  You don’t know who I am, I happen to be the best real estate salesman in San Francisco.  I handed every one of them a magazine with my picture on the cover.  The caption read “Mr. Salesman”.  It was one of many times that I was honored for being top salesman of the month.  I then collected my magazines and turned to the attorney and told him I was not going to put up with any more of his insults.  It would be better for me to tear up the contract and leave.  I had other clients where my efforts would be more appreciated.  I wasn’t going to waste any more of my time here.  I pretended like I was going to leave.  I turned to walk out the front door and as I took my first step I managed to drop the magazines on the carpet.  As I bent over to pick up my books I could hear the attorney telling his family that they should accept my offer.  I handed the copies back to everyone and told them to press hard because there were six copies.  I wish you could have seen Mr. Attorney making sure his signature had made it through all six copies.  After receiving the signed copies I showed them the check and I told them they would be receiving their money in ten days.  I then told then I had to leave because I had another appointment.  The real reason was I didn’t want to be there any longer than necessary.  I didn’t want to give the people an opportunity to start asking me questions.  You never know.  They might change their minds.  I left the house, jumped into my Cadillac and laughed all the way home. 

Rick was a Mexican-American who came to work for the company.  He was from Texas and carried a big chip on his shoulder.  It was like he didn’t like himself for being a Mexican.  He married a French girl to prove he was just like anyone else.  Even though he seemed to hate everyone, we managed to become pretty good friends. Getting listings seemed to be what he did best.  He spent most of his time at the house next to the office using the telephone.  He had a unique style on the phone.  He was nasty to everyone.  He never said good morning or how are you or anything nice.  He thought those formalities were a waste of his time.  He would get right to the point, do you want to sell your house?  If the answer was, no, he would hang up and make another call.  He and I had a business arrangement.  If one of his listings sold I would get half the commission.  If I sold a house he would get half the commissions.  It was a good deal for me because he was better at getting listings than I was.  Besides I always got first shot at his listings. 

He had just listed a house belonging to a lady whose husband had just died.  He took me to the house and then told me he could not get in because the lady was still upset about losing her husband.  I brought someone to look at the outside of the house and he trusted me and made an offer.  Rick and I went to present the offer and in the middle of the conversation she told us she wasn’t sure she should sell the house.  After all, she and her husband had spent most of their lives in the house.  I told her in order for her to get over the loss of her husband and get on with her life she needed to sell the house and start over someplace else.  In addition the young couple that bought the house would take very good care of it.  I noticed the living room was full of pictures and statues of saints.  I suggested we might ask the Almighty what she should do.  I pushed Rick and the lady down on their knees and after a few seconds I picked both of them up and told the lady the answer had come.  She should sell the house.  She looked at me and said I think you are right I will sell.  Rick and I left the house thinking that perhaps we had gone a little bit too far.  It was a good thing that during our performance Rick and I did not look at each other, if we had we probably would have started laughing.  A sale at almost any cost is a sale.

A lady had given me a listing for her house.  The day I got an offer for her house, I wanted to make sure she would accept it.  The lady lived about four hours from San Francisco and I didn’t want to make the four-hour drive for nothing.  So I called her and presented her with two offers,  one fake offer and a one good one.  The fake offer to make her feel good about the real one.  When I called her and told her by law I had to present all offers I told her I would read the bad offer first.  That one I advised her not to consider, it was a bad deal.  I told her the second was much better and worth considering.  She was happy to take the second offer.  And for myself I didn’t mind making the long drive, because when I got back I would have another done deal in my pocket.

 

GETTING REFEERRALS BY DISCLOSING THE CLOSING COSTS

 

           Most salesmen lie to their clients about closing costs.  The agent tells them one thing and the client doesn’t find out the truth until they are signing the final papers.  At that point they want their house and sign off leaving a sour taste in their mouths.  I would do the exact opposite.  I would tell the clients to expect about 900 dollars in closing costs.  When I would present the final papers to them the closing costs would be about 200 dollars less than what the client was expecting.  That always made the client happy.  I would tell them I knew the manager of the bank and I told the manager the clients were good friends of mine.  I would ask the manager not to charge the full two points instead charge only one point for making the loan and to make up the other point by charging someone else who had more money.  I would do this because I knew they had other friends or relatives who might be in the market to buy a house and they would be referred to me because of the good deal I helped them get on their loan.  Many times my clients would have friends or relatives come to town that would be in the market to buy something.  They would arrange to have them meet me.  When you get a referral like that half the battle is already won.  I don’t ever remember having to make cold calls; I always had plenty of referrals.

 DON’T EVER ABUSE THE

 PEOPLE’S TRUST

 

              Most of the salesmen were surprised at the number of times I would come into the office with a signed blank contract and the buyers down payment in my pocket.  The reason being if the house was for sale for 40,000 dollars I may type in an offer for 30,000 dollars.  I would really have the consent of the buyer to offer 38,000 dollars if I had to up their offer.  I just wanted to fight for my clients as much as I could.  If they could buy a house under the market value, they would be able to resell the house in a much shorter period of time.  When that time came of course they would use me. 

One time an author of one of the best selling books on selling came to our office to give a talk.  One of the other agents asked the author for his opinion on why I was able to lead my clients wherever I wanted them to go.  He also wanted to know why they seemed to trust me so much.  The man asked me to stand up and I thought he was going to congratulate me.  I was surprised at what he had to say.  He warned me to be careful because I was a very dangerous person.  Since people trusted me so much, if I ever got into trouble I might be tempted to deed a piece of property into my name.  I remember one of the guys saying at the meeting if Castro had as much control over his people as I had over my clients, he would never have had a problem in governing his people.

SIX

 

NEW LIFE IN COSTA RICA 

          During my days at Safeway Stores I met a very nice lady from Costa Rica.  Her husband had been killed in an accident.  She had four children, the youngest being two months old.  She didn’t have much money, so every time she came to shop at the store I would try to help out a little by throwing in a little extra at no charge.  Many of her relatives came to visit her.  I was always the one who would show them around while she was at work.  I learned a lot about Costa Rica through them.

Mark had come to visit me and I decided that it was time for us to take a vacation.  I had a nice Chevrolet convertible, so I made the decision that Mark and I would drive to Guatemala.  We had an uneventful trip through Mexico.  The weather was nice and we were enjoying ourselves.  When we arrived at the Guatemalan border we were given a tourist license plate, which was placed on top of our California plates.  We were on our way.  We were passing through a small but very busy town; I inadvertently ran a traffic light that was hidden behind a tree.  Of course there had to be a policeman right there.  He immediately stopped us.  He asked us to get out of the car.  I showed him my papers and when he checked the plates with the California papers of course they did not match.  People started to gather around the car.  I could hear some of them talking and they were saying maybe I was a member of the gorilla fighters.  I think they may have come to that conclusion because my car license plates had been covered up.  We were taken to the Army headquarters followed by half the town.  At the Army facility we were brought before a colonel. Once he reviewed all of our documentation, he apologized for any inconvenience and sent us on our way.

 In the city my mother’s house was located about two blocks from the local Army headquarters.  When I was living there I always made the turn right in front of the headquarters.  As I approached the end of the street a bunch of soldiers came after us with their guns drawn.  They made us get out of the car and put us against the car.  I tried to explain who I was but they were too busy searching the car inside and out.  I was ready to cut this vacation short and head back to San Francisco.  I had no idea what was going on in my country.  Something else seemed very odd to me the streets were empty.  Where were all the people?  Finally one of the soldiers recognized me and let us proceed.  We were feeling relieved when we got to my mother’s house.  I knocked on the door and when my mother opened the door you could see this great big smile fill her face.  My mother told me there had been fighting and unrest.  The Army had initiated a 12 pm curfew.  The Army was heavily patrolling the city.  My mother told us it is dangerous to be on the streets at any time.  After two days in this environment I was going crazy.  I was thinking it might just be better if we got out of there.  I was also thinking about my friends in Costa Rica.  I left Mark with my mother, went to the airport and bought myself a ticket to San Jose, Costa Rica.

 I didn’t have a clue to where my friend’s relatives lived in Costa Rica I figured I would look for them once I got there.  When I arrived at the San Jose airport I grabbed the first taxi and had him take me to one of the hotels downtown.  I went to a restaurant near the hotel to get something to eat.  I needed to figure out how I was going to find the relatives of my friend.  Then I remembered one of my friend’s nieces telling me that her brother was a famous soccer player in Costa Rica.  I did recall his name was Walter.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember his last name.  At the restaurant I started talking with various people most of whom were soccer fans, and before I knew it I was in a cab headed to Walter’s house.  His sister was very surprised to see me.  I think she wanted to show me a Costa Rican hospitality.  The following morning she picked me up at the hotel and took me around to see the city.  It also afforded me the opportunity to meet some of the relatives who had heard about me for years.  In the morning we went to the zoo and in the afternoon we went to meet some of my friend’s family.  We went to one of their homes; we were in the living room having a conversation, when a very pretty girl with big eyes was coming down the stairs.  I could not take my eyes off her.  She was so beautiful.  That evening the group decided that I needed to experience some of the local nightlife.  They took me to one of the tropical dance halls.  The girl that I couldn’t keep my eyes off was named Rosie.  I remember the table next to us had a bunch of cadets from Venezuela.  They kept coming over to the table where Rosie and I were seated.  Also seated with us were Rosie’s sister, her sister-in-law, and Walter’s sister’s cousin.  For two hours I kept them laughing with my jokes, when I wasn’t on the dance floor.  I had danced with all the girls except Rosie.  I was waiting for the right moment to attack.  When the band played “Strangers in the Night”, I knew the time was right.  I asked Rosie to dance with me.  I asked her if she knew why I had waited so long to ask her to dance.  She moved her shoulders up and down and replied she didn’t know.  I told her that I believed that one should save the best dance for last, and one would enjoy it the most.  I told her she was the most beautiful girl I had ever met.  I asked her to be my girlfriend.  She said okay and from that moment on we were a couple.  I told her to take a good look at me, I had been divorced twice and I had an 8-year-old son.  I said to her, “You have no idea what kind of man I am.  I don’t know anyone here so you’ll just have to take my word on it that I’m a great guy.  In my humble opinion, I am the cream of the crop.”  In the very next sentence I asked Rosie to marry me.  Rosie’s reply was short and to the point, “Yes I will marry you.”

I went back to Guatemala and picked up Mark and drove to Denver.  I dropped him off and headed back to San Francisco.  I would write Rosie a letter almost everyday.  A month later Rosie and her sister came to San Francisco to visit their Aunt.  I took this opportunity to call Rosie’s father.  I told him what the situation was and I asked him for his blessing.  I was going to marry his daughter.  The poor guy didn’t have a chance to say no.   When I made the call I knew it would turn out this way.  A few days before I started to think what would be the best gift I could give Rosie.  I knew what that would be; I brought her mother to San Francisco for the wedding.  This way I could accomplish a couple of things: one, Rosie would be happy and secondly, her mother could see for herself that her daughter was in good hands.  Her mother came to San Francisco.  With the help of an interpreter three days later Rosie and I were married.  We rented a small apartment around the corner from the Safeway Store where I used to work.  The apartment was very small but I was very happy there because the lady who lived next door was a friend of mine and did a good job of looking out for Rosie while I was at work.  We were married on September 9^th it was two months later my wife told me we were going to have a baby.  My birthday is on October 9^th.  As soon as she gave me the news I told her we were going to have a little girl and she would be born on my birthday.  I used to joke about it with everyone.  On October 9^th early in the morning my wife started her labor pains.  I started laughing and telling her I had been right.  Sure enough on the early morning of October 9^th, Ana Lucrecia was born.  The house next to Rosie’s Aunt became available, I bought it and we moved in with no furniture.  We slept on the rugs for a few days and Ana used to crawl at night and sometimes we could not find her.  A year and a half later Sal junior came along and we were happy to have two great babies. 

THE INSURANCE GAME

              Things at the real estate company started to slow down.  Actually there were some problems at the company.  Mr. Dreith decided that from now on the company was just going to use one lending institution.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, the lender started to load up the closing cost.  Some of the charges were being hidden.  Half the time we had trouble explaining the increase to our clients.  A group of us decided to go out and form our own company.  We called it Embassy Reality.  There we had to close our own deals and the amount of paperwork we had to do was unbearable.  It didn’t take long before I became fed up with the whole deal.  I didn’t want to have all my eggs in one basket, so I took a part-time job selling insurance for Mutual of New York.  I was doing pretty well there because I could sell insurance to all the people I had sold a home to.  The general manager of the company wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing or how I was doing it.  So one night he accompanied me on a call. He wanted to see me in action.  I asked how much time he was going to spend with me.  He said it would be about two hours.  I said that’s great, I will be able to sell at last three new policies.  With my manager watching I started making calls.  Everyone I was calling I already knew, everyone of them was a previous client.  I would start my conversation by telling them that something new had come up which was not available when they purchased their home.  I asked them if it would be okay to put on some coffee and I would be over in about 30 minutes.  I set up appointments with three different people.  I explained to the manager that I thought it was difficult to sell insurance because dying isn’t something people like to think about.  My real focus was selling clients on the value of having mortgage insurance.  As we were drinking coffee I would explain to the client that the following month their house payment would increase by 20 dollars.  With this small additional amount of money if anything were to happen to the breadwinner of the family, their house would automatically be paid for.  This would take the burden off the remaining spouse.  I would then hand them a pen and at the same time tell them that this policy was absolutely in their best interest.  They would sign and we would be on our way.  It basically went the same way for the next two appointments.  The following morning I was called into a meeting.  It was requested that I be put in charge of training all new employees.  I did this for a while until my picture appeared in Sports Illustrated.  After that my schedule became too busy.  This is when I first realized I was truly a naturally born salesman.  I also understood the tools I used might not be for everyone.

TRUSTING SOUL

             My brother, Sergio had been writing to my sister-in-law.  One day he told me that he had always admired my taste in women.  The women he had seen me with, aside from being attractive, they seemed perfect, they had no faults.  Of course that wasn’t true, but he thought so.  He wanted to marry my sister-in-law and wanted to know if I thought it would be okay.  I told him I thought she would be good for him.  He asked me if I would please talk to my sister-in-law and open the door for him.  I called her and in a few days my brother was on his way to Costa Rica to get married.  They have been married for over 34 years and are still very happy.  I have always believed that if you want something bad enough, you will figure out a way to accomplish it.  I used to think because I didn’t have any bad habits and worked very hard, that I deserved the best.  I still think that’s true today. 

 CLUB AMERICAS 

           Through my connections I came across a person who had made a couple of charter flights to Guatemala with very little success.  He asked me if I was interested in getting the bylaws of the Club and that he would be very happy to give them to me at no charge.  I looked them over and saw an opportunity to form a Club not only to make money but also to help people who could not afford the fare charged by the only Airline, which was serving the area.  At the same time it came to me that the Salvadorian Colony was the largest one in the city and consequently it would be better to run the charters to El Salvador.  I had played soccer with a guy who had a little office right inside his mother’s restaurant.  This guy was from El Salvador and knew lots of people from his country as his office was used mainly to prepare tax returns.  I had him read through the papers and when he had finished I asked him what he thought.  He told me that it sounded great to him.  I suggested to him that we would make a good team and offered him a partnership.  He immediately accepted my offer.  That same afternoon I moved into our little office.  Our new business was started.  All we needed now were some customers.  When I said the office was little I wasn’t kidding.  Our office gave new meaning to the word small.  If you looked up the word small in the dictionary you would see a picture of our office.  There was barely enough room for two chairs a small table and my typewriter.  For the first week I felt pretty bad, I even had thoughts that maybe I had made a mistake.  I was not one to give up without a fight.

In those days Pan American Airways had a monopoly on Central America.  The newspapers would not accept our ads.  We decided to take a different approach.  We were going to call ourselves a Club.  A Club that would be offering discounted fares on flights to Central America.  We had our forms made up; we just needed customers to sign up.  We had to get creative.  At the time there was only one Spanish speaking radio station in San Francisco.  So we advertised over the radio.  Our first four spots ran on Wednesday evening.  When I got to work Thursday morning I could not believe my eyes.  There must have been 50 to 60 people lined up outside the restaurant waiting to talk to us.  They wanted to join our Club, and many wanted to buy tickets for our first flight.  We must have sold all of our seats in less than three days.  We paid Trans International Airlines 100 dollars per seat and we were selling them for 150 dollars per seat.

THE FIRST FLIGHT

                                          I arrived at the airport, early in the morning, I didn’t want any mistakes.  I wanted this first flight to be perfect.  I personally checked in every single passenger.  Since I was doing the checking in, I would allow the passengers to take more than their allotted 40 ponds of luggage.  Of course that stopped after I got caught.  After checking all the passengers I went looking for the plane.  I had been told it would be there.  I did some checking and found out it the plane had not arrived yet.  I asked the guy in charge and he told me not to worry the plane was coming from Hawaii and he would let me know the minute it arrived.  About 30 minutes later the guy called me and wanted me to go to the runway with him.  The plane had landed and to my horror I saw a bunch of cows being unloaded from it.  If the passengers knew the plane they were going to fly on had been full of cows my business would be ruined.  About two minutes later a team of guys showed up with hoses and plenty of soap.  Next, a truck showed up with all the seats.  Using a conveyer belt setup, within a few minutes the plane looked just like any other plane.  Twenty minutes later the plane was full of passengers.  Prior to the plane leaving a man from the company handed me a stack of papers and told me to give one form to each of the passengers.  Before handing out the papers I read through them.  I couldn’t believe it; due to problems with landing rights in El Salvador we were going to land in Guatemala.  Then we were going to bus all the people to El Salvador.  I was going to make sure we were well on our way before saying anything.  I waited almost an hour before I had enough courage to tell the people the flight plans had changed just a little bit.  The problem just got compounded by the fact not all the passengers on the plane were Salvadorians.  We had some 180 Salvadorians, 30 Guatemalans and the rest of them were from various Central American countries.  There were a number of passengers who had connecting flights out of El Salvador. I was holding their tickets.  Things were a real mess. 

Talk about facing the music, this was not going to be fun.  I took the microphone and got everyone’s attention. Boy, did I get their attention.  As I tried to explain what was happening, the Guatemalans were very happy but the Salvadorians were very upset.  Some of them got so upset they wanted to hit me.  Had it not been for a friend of mine from Nicaragua, a very big man, I probably would not be here writing this story.  When we arrived in Guatemala, the man in charge of ground transportation had five big buses waiting for us.  He wanted everyone including the Guatemalans to go by bus to El Salvador to pick up their luggage.  They got very upset because it did not make sense to take a five-hour bus ride to pick up their luggage.  One of the airport officials who had relatives on the flight ordered the luggage belonging to the Guatemalans removed from the plane.  I told them to keep an eye on the local newspaper.  There would be an announcement about their time and place of departure sometime during the next 30 days. 

I made a deal with the local airlines.  For ten dollars per person they would get a one-way ticket to El Salvador.  At the airport it looked like there was a war going on.  I announced over the loud speaker that we were going to send women and children first.  The ten-dollar charge applied to everyone.  The money would be returned to them in San Francisco.  The problem was the plane only held 20 passengers.  The plane kept on going back and forth all day and night.  Late that night I caught the last flight out.  When I arrived in El Salvador, there were hundreds of people waiting at the airport.  They were on top of fences, buildings and hanging from trees.  It had been announced in the local newspaper the first stretch DC8 was going to make it’s first landing ever in El Salvador.  Everyone wanted to see it.  In addition to the onlookers the passengers and their relatives were waiting for their luggage.  When they asked me about their luggage, I got this sinking feeling in my stomach. Then I realized their luggage was sitting on a runway in Guatemala.  I told them their luggage would be arriving on a scheduled flight at eight am the next morning.  The following morning at eight am, the little plane arrived with no luggage, then the passengers really got upset.  I ran to the airplane and went to Guatemala, the same day I returned with a plane full of luggage.  I was the only passenger.  There was no room for anyone else.  The Salvadorians got their luggage then I headed for Nicaragua and Costa Rica where some of the passengers were waiting for me.  Believe me, that was the only flight where not a single piece of luggage was lost.  Most of them felt sorry for me and not one had requested the ten dollars I had offered them. 

In reality I got many calls from passengers apologizing and congratulating me for having the professionalism and strength to face the problems I had to contend with.  These problems were not of my making; I can thank the airlines for that.  It seemed that every flight had its share of problems.

 During the Arab crisis, we sent an empty plane down to El Salvador to pick up passengers we had brought down the month before.  When I heard the plane coming I went to the runway to watch the plane land.  The plane was just about ready to touch down when all of a sudden the nose shot upward.  I could hear the engines screaming as the plane lifted skyward again.  It circled the airport for about 30 minutes before it finally landed.  The captain came running out of the plane.  You could tell he was very upset.  He headed straight for the tower.  I believe he was going to have a talk with the flight control manager.  I was close enough to overhear the conversation that took place.  First of all the captain said their English was the worst he had ever encountered, their sloppiness almost killed his crew.  What happened was the plane was low on fuel and they had requested permission to land in Guatemala.  The airport there was out of gasoline, so the pilot made a decision to fly straight to El Salvador.  The countries are only a few kilometers apart and when landing in El Salvador the flight controllers of Guatemala interfered with the plane’s radio frequency.  He was getting instructions from Guatemala’s tower while landing in El Salvador.  The pilot was trying to land following the wrong instructions.

Since the airfares were so inexpensive we had a full flight.  Most of the passengers had not seen their relatives in a long time.  There were at least 40 relatives at the airport to say goodbye to their departing families.  As things turned out, we were stranded in El Salvador for three days.  The airport had run out of everything, from drinking water to gasoline.  Things were so bad, many airport employees stopped coming to work and that number increased each day.  To keep enough employees at the airport to maintain the plane and the passengers, I started giving away blankets and what ever else I could come up with to the employees.  In the mean time, I had received many phone calls from relatives who were waiting at the San Francisco airport for their relatives return.  The people at both ends of the flight were not in a very good mood.  I told the passengers in El Salvador not to be upset and please don’t blame the government.  The world was going through a crisis.  There was no one country to blame.  On the third day Guatemala agreed to sell us enough gas to get to Texas.  We took off and while we were taking on fuel in Guatemala, I went to the market and purchased as much fruit as I could carry.  Try to picture me handing out apples and bananas to all the passengers.  I thought my very first trip couldn’t be topped for mistakes.  This one had to be a close second.  It really separated the men from the boys. 

We were making a flight every six months; they all were for 30 days.  We moved our offices twice in one year.  My partner and I decided to incorporate a travel agency with our Travel Club.  It was an easy way to expand our business.  My partner became the manager of the travel agency, while I remained the president of the Travel Club.  Little by little my “friend” and partner was pushing me out of business.  I ended up in the front of the office.

 

THE WONDERS OF A GOOD IMAGINATION

           I requested a meeting with Trans International Airlines.  When I arrived there were five people waiting for me.  One of my key questions was why were my passengers only allowed 40 pounds of luggage per person?  The response I received was that was the number they came up with based on the weight limitations of the average plane.  I asked them to take a look at me.  I told them I weighed 150 pounds and the average Latin was about the same size as me.  Then I asked one of the gentlemen to stand up and tell me how much he weighed?  He stated he weighed 250 pounds.  I said fine you can sit down now, and by the way you owe me 100 pounds.  I asked another individual the same question and as it turned out every one of them weighed at least 100 pounds more than me.  The manager stood up and said I had convinced them.  They raised the luggage allowance for my flights to 60 pounds per passenger.

In order for the Club to be legal, we had to have other activities besides flying.  I rented a building and called it The Drove Hall.  It was a hall that would be used for social events.  Every Friday and Saturday we would hold dances.  It didn’t take long before my new wife and I found ourselves behind the bar selling beer.

MY EUROPEAN ADVENTURE, 1974 

          We bought 100 seats on a charter flight from San Francisco to Germany.  In 1974, Germany was the site of the World’s Soccer Championship.  We had no problems selling the seats to 100 avid soccer fans.  We did have a couple of minor problems.  We didn’t have any hotel accommodations, or as far as it goes, we didn’t have any tickets to the games.  We implied to our clients those items were taken care of.  I was forced to make a quick trip to Germany.  In three days I got hotel rooms in the small town of Minez, not far from Frankfort.  In addition, I picked up enough tickets for all our clients.  In less than three days I was back in San Francisco.  I immediately enrolled in a language class.  I needed to brush up on my German.  San Francisco is a very cosmopolitan city; consequently we had all types of nationalities on the flight.  It was quite a mess, about half the people did not speak English. At times I would find myself using a rather complex translation process.  I had one non English speaking Greek client, who when he wanted something he would ask his English speaking Greek friend, who would speak to me and in turn I would respond in German.  I want you to picture me going through the chain of command, especially when they were trying to convince a girl to go out with them. Keep in mind this whole tour was made up of single guys.  Most of the guys in the group were Latin.  The hotel manager was not used to handling such a disorganized group.  A continental breakfast was included in the price of the room.  It was a buffet and one could see the big piles of crispy bread as well as a large variety of cheeses and marmalade.  Since no one seemed to be watching the group, the guys all made sandwiches to take to the game.  When we returned the manager was waiting for me.  He informed me that our group had eaten their share and more.  In fact, there was no bread or cheese left for any of the other hotel guests.  The manager had to go to the local bakery and buy food for the rest of the guests.

 

The following day the manager made it a point to watch our group, he did not want a repeat of the previous days activities.  If they wanted double portions they had to pay for it.  Most of the guys were getting drunk every night. Sometimes I would find them sleeping on the stairs because they couldn’t make it up to their rooms.  The charter was for 30 days, so I left everyone in Germany and with a friend took a tour of Europe.

 

 

THE TRAVEL AGENT’S TRICK

             I sent telexes to several hotels advising them I would be coming to inspect their hotels. I would tell them I was the president of a travel Club and had several groups express an interest in visiting their country.  My friend from Mexico was not familiar with the trick used by some travel agents to get free food and accommodations. I told him to remain silent that I would do all the talking.  The first place we hit was the town of Lucerne, Switzerland.  We were given a suite overlooking the lake.  The following day the entire staff was waiting to join me for breakfast.  We would have a good meal and talk business.  After breakfast we all went to a nicely appointed business room.  I kept trying to negotiate the very best deal for my people.  They had to believe I was really going to bring groups to their hotel.  We finally agreed on the rate for a very nice package.  We shook hands and of course they never heard from me again.  Nowadays having worked in a hotel I can spot a phony travel agent a mile away.  I am sure that many of them have gotten away with free rooms, food and tour packages as I did in my younger days.  My friend could not believe we were traveling all over Europe, staying in the finest hotels, with all kinds of free meals and not having to pay a penny.

 

THE LUCKIEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE

One night while walking through the streets of Seville, Spain I found myself playing soccer with the kids.  It was at that moment that I realized my kids deserved a better life than the one they had, living in San Francisco.  Living in the city was like being trapped in a cage.  To top things off, the Government had just passed a law about school integration, which meant I was going to have to bus my children across town, which didn’t make any sense at all. 

I went back to Germany to watch the final game between Germany and Holland.  On the way back to Minez, there were six of us riding in the same rail car.  When I first arrived in Germany we all purchased three-week rail travel passes.  I had the only valid pass; the rest of my friend’s passes had expired. The validation of the pass begins the moment the conductor punches the first hole in it.  During the first week every time the conductor came by I had my U. S. passport sticking out of my front pocket and pretended that I was asleep.  So for the first week my pass had not been punched.  Germany won the championship.  When the conductor came to ask for our tickets, I showed him my pass.  I gave him a big hug congratulating him for Germany’s victory.  I also gave him a drink.  While I was hugging him, I handed my pass to the next guy.  The next guy did the very same thing that I had done.  By the time the conductor got done with the last guy he was pretty much drunk.  The conductor was feeling no pain and we got our seven-hour train ride on one pass. 

On the flight back to San Francisco, I couldn’t sleep.  My mind was racing about 100 miles an hour.  I had to come up with a way for my family and I to move to Costa Rica.  When I arrived back in San Francisco, my partner was waiting for me at the airport.  On the ride back into the city he told me that our Club had been declared illegal.  Somehow the authorities had found out that we had backdated some of the memberships.  By law, to use the service and facilities of the Club an individual must have been a member for at least six months.  He told me that our next charter for El Salvador had been canceled.  He ended up sending our tour by using a commercial carrier.  This was just the start of my partners’ good news.  The next thing he told me was somehow the money we had in the bank had been lost and since I was the president of the Club and he was the owner of the travel agency, what were we going to do?  I told him we would discuss it the next day.  The next day we had a meeting and I told him I had thought it over and decided to sign the whole company over to him.  He could do with it what he wanted.  I gathered up all my things and headed toward home.  As soon as I got home I went to my wife and asked her how she would like to move to Costa Rica.  I think the timing was right.  I had just left her with the two kids for the last month; she was ready for a change.  She was ecstatic; she was going to get to move back home.  She got so excited she was jumping up and down screaming in disbelief.  The same day I called a friend of mine who had been looking for a house.  He had always liked my house.  He bought it that evening.  The friend that bought the house was a carpenter.  He came over the next day and helped me put together wooden boxes to ship our furniture. While we were building the boxes the lady from across the street came over to ask where we were going.  This was a bit odd.  There had been only one other time this lady ever came to our house.  That was when Mark was practicing on his drums. Anyway I told her we were moving back to Costa Rica.  My father had been elected President of Costa Rica and he needed my help.

 I sold my car and bought a small station wagon.  We put the two kids in the back with my wife’s youngest sister and we headed south.  For the first hour we entertained ourselves by singing South of the Border.  After 10 days we arrived in Costa Rica.  Everyone was happy to see us.  I was a little bit nervous, I had only 15, 000 dollars and wasn’t sure what I was going to do for a job. 

Two days after my arrival in Costa Rica while reading the paper my wife found an ad where a company was looking for someone with experience in real estate. I answered the ad and made an appointment with a North American by the name of Archie; his offices were located in the Irazu Hotel.  He was such a nice person; we hit it off right from the start.  He wanted to hire me right away, but I kept on kidding him telling him that he didn’t know who he was talking to, that in order for him to hire me he had to work a lot harder on the interview.  During the conversation I mentioned to Archie that I also had experience in the travel business, and then he told me he was the owner of the Swiss Travel, a Tour Company that had a desk in the lobby of the Hotel.  He offered me a job as manager of the company and I accepted on the condition that I would work on commission only and that he would let me run the company without his interference.  Since his company was almost in bankruptcy he accepted the deal.  I returned home and told my wife’s family that on Monday I would be working as Manager of a Tour Company.  They told me they knew I was a positive person but I was still unbelievable to get a manager’s job so quickly. 

Monday morning I came to work and Archie introduced me to the tour guides.  Their names were Alvarito, Adolfo, Alberto, Miguel and Chumico.  I told them that I was coming from a country where everything had to be done on time.  Since 95% of our clients at the hotel were North Americans, from now on I wanted everyone to be in the office early every morning.  They were to present themselves in a professional matter.  At the end of each day all the buses were to be cleaned and ready for service.  Each morning we were to be ready to handle any and all tours that were scheduled for the day.  I had no sooner finished my little speech when Adolfo, who seemed to be their unofficial leader, spoke up and told me I would be very lucky if they all got to work by ten am.  At first I thought he had to be kidding, but after I was done talking to them, Alvarito took out his scheduled tour.  The other four seemed to disappear.  I had a City tour scheduled to depart at two pm.  I went to the parking lot to get the bus.  I moved the bus to the front entrance of the hotel.  At two pm sharp seven ladies showed up for their City tour.  I loaded them on the bus.  The tour was ready to begin.  Unfortunately the tour guide was not there.  I went into the bus and told our clients that their tour guide would be there any minute. For the next 30 minutes I entertained the ladies with my charm and wit.  At 2:30 the guide was still not there.  I had never driven a bus more than ten feet and worse I didn’t know the first thing about San Jose.  I knew one way or the other the ladies were going to get their tour.  I closed the office and went on my first venture as a tour guide.  I didn’t know where I was or what I was going to say.  These ladies were anxious to learn something about Costa Rica.  Never being one for a loss of words, I would figure out something to say.  I had no sooner gotten started and it began to rain.  I turned on the windshield wipers.  They did not work.  I tried to roll down the window and all that I ended up with was the handle in my hand.  I was actually driving with my head out of the window to see where I was going.  When I made a turn in front of La Sabana Park, downtown, one of the ladies asked me about one of the statues.  I turned around and saw a man with his hand up.  I told her that he was Costa Rica’s yoyo champion.

 The boulevard entering the City is very wide and in those days it was lined with very beautiful homes.  I picked the nicest one and told them that’s where the President of Costa Rica lived.  The next one I pointed out belonged to the Minister of the Interior.  I figured if it sounded good to me it would sound good to them.  I made it to the National Theatre, which was built at the turn of the century.  We went into the National Theatre where I showed them a room and told them it was where Columbus used to hide with his concubine.  Everyone took pictures of the room to show to their neighbors when they got home.  I got out of the theatre in a hurry before one of the ladies caught me in a lie.  I took them around the City pointing out all the interesting buildings, not that I knew what any of them were.  I ended up getting lost.  We ended up in a very poor section of the City.  I told the ladies I was trying to give them a complete and honest tour.  I wanted to show them all parts of the City, the good along with the bad.  It was starting to get late and I knew we should be heading back to the hotel.  One minor problem, I didn’t know how to get back to the hotel.  Just as I was thinking about stopping and asking someone for directions, I saw a sign showing the way to the airport.  I had been saved. There was only one road to the airport and the Irazu Hotel was on that road.  We got back to the hotel with no further problems.  As the ladies were getting off the bus they were all reaching into their purses to give me a tip.  I was kind of embarrassed because I had never been tipped before.  They wanted to see my boss because they had never met such a guide with so much knowledge and who was so proud of his country.  The next day they wanted me to take them to the Irazu volcano.  Later on that evening I found out the yoyo champion was really one of the ex presidents of the country. 

The next morning I wanted to stay away from the ladies because I didn’t have a clue as to where the volcano was.  The tour was supposed to leave at 8 am.  Again there was no tour guides to be seen.  Later I found out the one thing you can count on with the guides, they would get drunk every night.  I didn’t know what to do, it was getting late and the ladies were all gathered around me waiting for me to go on the tour bus with them.  I knew my lucky charm was working; a tour guide from another company by the name of Porfirio was there to pick up another group of tourist and head for the volcano.  He told me how to get to the volcano.  He told me not to worry he would see me on the way up to the volcano.  Following Porfirio’s instructions I made it to the city of Cartago.  I left the ladies in the church and went around with instructions in my hands like Porfirio said.  I found a sign on the back of the church pointing to the volcano.  Having never been to a volcano before I did not know what a crater of a volcano looked like.  After driving for about 45 minutes I saw a hole on the side of the road.  I stopped the bus and asked the ladies to get out because I wanted them to look at the crater.  I was there talking to the ladies when Porfirio went by with his group.  He stopped and asked me what I was doing there.  I told him showing the crater and he said the hole was not a crater.  He told me quietly so the ladies didn’t hear.  He told me to follow him.  I told the ladies the eruption had taken place a long time ago there, but to get back on the bus and I would show them the real McCoy.

 

 THE COMPANY

                                 Swiss Travel was almost broke. Poor Archie had been taken to the cleaners.  The buses were old and always in need of repair.  The guides had a deal with the local gas station where they were getting phony bills and charging the company.  The guides and the owner of the station would then split the money.  I found a bill for a battery that was installed on the bus.  According to the bill, the battery was installed two months earlier.  I went and checked the battery on the bus.  The battery was three years old.  I found the same situation with the tires.  Sometimes the guides would seem to get lost with the bus.  I would get a call from one of them telling me that the bus had broken down.  At first I believed them, later on I found out that they were selling tours on the side using the company’s buses.  It was so bad I started to read books about Costa Rica and I became a real tour guide.  I learned the tours by heart and told all kinds of jokes and if the tourist liked them I would repeat them to the next tour. 

In Costa Rica one may find some big concrete balls, they can be found all over the country.  It has been estimated that their age is somewhere between 600 and 1000 years old.  They were here before Columbus arrived.  Everyone has a different opinion depending as to their origin.  Every tourist wants to know about the balls.  I would tell people that I was the only one who really knew about where they came from.  If the tourist were from California, I would tell them they had been made in California and someone had rolled them all the way to Costa Rica.  After they had got a good laugh from that, I would tell them that one time a Russian scientist met with a United States scientist and the Russians stated that since there was no volcanic material in them, they could assure everyone they had come from outer space.  The North Americans said the Indians had made them before Columbus had come.  One of the Russian guys got upset and he kicked the ball, and as the ball turned over there was a sign that said, “Made in Japan”.  

  PAN AM WORLD

                                   In the early days the main travel program to Central America was called “Pan Am World”.  Pan Am came to Guatemala with a package that consisted of 12 days.  For an additional three dollars you could travel to Costa Rica for three days.  It was very difficult to keep tourists in Cost Rica for more than three days.  The tourist business infrastructure was, for all intents and purposes, basically non-existent.  The only tours we had were Poas and Irazú volcanoes on a muddy road,  Puntarenas and City Tours.  We did have an additional tour and that was the train ride to the Port of Limon on the Caribbean Coast.  That tour was not very popular because it required the client to spend the night in Limon.  They would have to pay for a night in Limon even though they had already paid for the nights lodging in San Jose.  Walter was in charge of the local flight with Lacsa Airline.  I went to see him about the possibility of structuring a different arrangement. I would guarantee him a number of seats if he would change the scheduled afternoon departure to an early morning departure.  Walter agreed and with that we started promoting the Limon train ride tour for one day.  Archie got a hold of a girl by the name of Polet; she had a real flair for writing.  We had her take the tour so she would have a better understanding of what we wanted her to write about.  Within a few days after her return she came up with a great story about a tour.  She explained that in this tour one could actually experience the different faces of life in Costa Rica.  On the trip no two miles were alike.  Then she went on to explain the fact that during the construction of the railroad more lives had been lost than on the building of the Panama Canal.  I put our brochures on the counter and handed them out to the hotel’s guests.  I was amazed how we went from selling two to three trips per week to as many as eighty per day.  This was a great tour for the tourists, they would leave early in the morning by air, spent about one hour in Puerto Limon and then would catch the train back to San Jose.  This tour was a great deal for Swiss Travel.  We did not have to use any of our equipment and very little of our time.  We were selling the tour for 40 dollars and our cost for the one-way airfare and the train ticket was 15 dollars.  We were making a very nice profit and Sara the tour guide became very famous.  Today Swiss Travel is recognized as the founder of the famous train ride tour.

Right after the train tours took off, I met a very nice guy by the name of Mack Kelly from Stuart, Florida.  Mack and I up to now had kept a close friendship.  He was always willing to give me a helping hand when I needed it.  He sold lots of tours for me and at times would even play tour guide when I was short handed.  When he did this he didn’t even bother to take any money from me.  Nowadays he still lives in Stuart.  Over the years Mack became very successful in the real estate business and takes frequent trips to Costa Rica to see me.

   SALESMAN VRS AN ORDER TAKER

                         Once I had the office pretty well organized, I decided it was time for me to get an assistant.  I hired a young lady by the name of Sonia.  She had just finished high school and spoke some English.  I knew she could cover the desk in my absence.  Depending on how busy we were I would spend a lot of time away from the desk.  Sonia had no experience as a sales person, and I knew that when I hired her.  I did not have much time to train her.  So in the beginning she was my order taker.  A couple would come to the desk and ask to go on the City tour.  She would write the ticket out and they would be on their way.  With my knowledge of the country, it’s history and geography as well as the complete information on the tours; I would do whatever it took to close a big deal.  When someone approached me to ask a question about a tour the first thing I would ask him or her was how much did they know about Costa Rica.  The second thing I would do was grab a map and escort them to the restaurant to have a cup of coffee.  I wanted to make them as comfortable as possible.  The front counter was not the best place for that.  I would then ask them how long they would be staying in the country.  I felt my job was to make sure they saw every corner of the country and to make their trip an educational one.  They weren’t going to learn anything about Costa Rica if their entire stay was spent by the pool.  If they were to take several tours I would grant them a 10 % discount to help them to stretch their dollars a little more while in Costa Rica.

In those days there were no computers.  I had to be creative, so behind the counter I drove 31 nails to represent every day of the month.  All the tour slips for the day would be put on the appropriate nail. After all, I was not making a salary just commission.  All the time I was thinking of new ways for the company to make money.  Of course I needed to make money as well as make our guests have a memorable vacation.  When they went home they would tell their friends what a great time they had and that they were already planning their next trip. 

  PERSONALITY 

                          Ever since I can remember I always tried to watch my personality, whenever I came across someone whose personality was out of this world I tried to print it in my mind.  I think without a doubt personality is one of the most important ingredients that a person may possess to succeed in life.  I know that the personality I was born with is not the same one I possess today. Throughout the years I have tried to improve it.  I am not a genius but over the years I have developed a good insight into people, which has been invaluable in making long lasting friendships as well as making a few sales.

I am sure you have heard the saying “the best things in life are free”, well it’s true.  At the top of my list is” a smile”.  A smile has done wonders for me throughout my life.  I am not exactly sure when it happened but I learned to smile at an early age.  I remember when I was attending primary school the principal asked my mother to come see him.  He wanted to know why I was always laughing.  I remember standing in front of my mother and the principal. He asked my mother to look at me.  He told her I think he is laughing at us.  Once I tried to cash my payroll check and the clerk was holding the check in his hands while he called my boss to verify it.  The clerk looked at me and cashed the check.  He said to me that my boss had said that if I was smiling it was me.  Another time I had just started a new job and my boss told me to do something and I gave him a big smile and walked away.  Afterwards he told everyone that his new employee was crazy.  He had given me an order and I just laughed at him.  I have always thought it is better to laugh at adversity instead of getting upset by it.  Besides, a smile to me means I like you, it is nice being with you, it is a pleasure doing business with you, etc. 

 IT PAYS TO GO THE EXTRA MILE

                        To my way of thinking going the extra mile can mean a lot of things.  To me it means doing something you really don’t have to do and seldom if ever are you paid for it.  You don’t do it for the money; you do it because it is the right thing to do.  It can be coming to work at four am every morning and staying late at night.  Or taking the guest to another hotel when the Irazu was over booked.  Picking them up the following morning to bring them back to the hotel.  It is these kinds of services that people remember and appreciate.  I was asked many times what I was doing behind a desk selling tours when I had so much talent doing other things.  I always said I was waiting to be discovered.  Sure enough about a year and a half after I started working for the Swiss travel, the Herradura Hotel opened its doors.  Mr. Nathan, the general manager of the Irazu left and became the manager of the new hotel.  Don Bernardo the owner of the Irazu was in desperate need of a sales manager.  Don Bernardo and I had become very good friends and he had taken me with him all of over the country in his private airplane.  We were talking about his problem and he was telling me his ex-manager had lots of experience.  The guy was not only the general manager but also in charge of sales.  With his background and experience, Don Bernardo was sure he would take many Irazu’s clients with him to his new hotel.  I told him no one was indispensable; he can be replaced.  I offered to help Don Bernardo with his problem.  Before I knew it we were discussing the possibilities of me going to work for him.  I remember seeing the expression on his face, he told me that I had no idea what I was worth.  I told him to try me out for three months.  Let me do the job with no interference and I will show you what I am capable of doing.  We shook hands and thank God up to his death in 1983 he had nothing but good will towards me. 

  MY FIRST AND ONLY TIME IN JAIL 

                              My wife and I went to Panama to promote the hotel.  We checked into a hotel near the airport.  It was Sunday so we hired a cab to show us the sights of the City.  The driver was very nice so I hired him the next day to take me to visit my long list of travel agencies.  The driver showed up early the next morning and picked me up and we headed for downtown so I could begin working.  We had visited six agencies and we were headed for the seventh when a military truck with two soldiers stopped us.  They asked me to get out of the cab.  They had me put my hands in the air.  They then asked me to see my identification.  I had been in such a hurry that morning I left my passport and papers at the hotel.  The only thing I had with me with my name on was my business cards.  One of the soldiers got very upset with me reaching into my pocket and trying to pull out more identification.  The soldier figured there must be something wrong because I had no other form of identification.  They ordered me to get in the back of the truck.  They then took me to Army headquarters. 

I kept a smile on my face as they asked me many questions.  I never once lost my temper.  I was waiting for the next soldier to question me when I heard a voice from one of the three men sitting in the balcony.  They also were dressed in military uniforms.  With all the metals they were wearing they must have been generals.  One of them said to bring the prisoner in.  When I heard that I walked in laughing to myself.  The soldier stood next to me telling the generals that he was a very alert soldier and always concerned about the security of the country.  He told them he had followed me for some time.  They had observed me going in and out of several businesses.  He told them I looked suspicious to them.  Apparently the soldiers were concerned about what I might be hiding in my briefcase, so they apprehended me.  When they asked me for my identification, I had none.  The soldiers continued their story. They told the generals that all I did was to smile and lie to them.  I was ordered to open my briefcase, which was full of hotel brochures as well as rate sheets.  Then one of the generals asked me about my nationality and I told them I was born in Guatemala but I was a U.S. citizen and a resident of Costa Rica.  The general then sent me to another department.  There a man called my wife at the hotel and told her I was in jail and to come to the Army headquarters with our passports.  She was coming out of the hotel when the cab driver was coming in to find her to explain what had happened.  On the way the driver was apologizing to my wife, telling her that I probably was going to be very upset.  My wife told him not to worry her husband could handle any situation.  When my wife arrived at Army headquarters she showed our passports to the proper authorities.  She was then escorted to the holding cell where she found me laughing in the middle of a group of prostitutes who I had been entertaining for the past hour with my jokes.

 

 

MY FIRST

PROMOTIONAL TRIP

TO THE U.S.A.

 

           Most of our supplies were based in Florida.  The first thing I did was to get a list of all the travel agents who were working with us and arranged to meet with them.  The earthquake in Guatemala basically destroyed our business.  People just assumed that because one country in Central America was damaged, that all Central America was damaged.  Every time a shot was fired in a country north of us our programs got canceled.  A lot of our programs were tied to other countries.  Programs that were designed for tourist to spend so many days in one country and so many days in Costa Rica.  I decided it would be to our advantage to initiate Costa Rican programs only.  The strategy worked pretty well for us.  Now days we have many good programs with our neighbors.  During my visits to the travel agents everyone wanted to know whatever happened to Mr. Nathan.  A week later Mr. Nathan called me to congratulate me for the work I had done.  In a short period of time I had put my name all over the map.  I used to think he was some kind of ghost, no matter where I was his name would come up.  I tried very hard to make friends with all those in the industry.  In less than a year I became more popular than Mr. Nathan. 

Two months after I was appointed sales manager for the hotel, I moved my family into one of the suites in the hotel.  We lived there for eight years.  Living in the most popular hotel in Costa Rica did have some fringe benefits.  I got to meet a number of   notable people including Miss World, Miss Universe, Lee Marvin and many others.

I had been with the hotel for about a month when a friend of mine who was the manager of the Sheraton Hotel in El Salvador called me.  He told me he had some charters coming in from New York and wanted me to come to El Salvador to meet the owners.  They were interested in another destination for the following year. 

 

 

ANOTHER DEGREE

FROM THE SCHOOL OF EXPERIENCE

 

             I flew to El Salvador and made an appointment with the managers of Nation Leisure Corporation out of New York.  The meeting was set for 10 am by the swimming pool.  I got there a little early.  I had all my tools ready to sell Costa Rica as their next destination.  Four men who were all wearing dark glasses met me.  They were the general manager, Stuart Graft; the assistant manager, Joe Nedel; followed by two men who looked like bodyguards.  We began our meeting.  I introduced myself and started talking about the beauty of Costa Rica.  Stuart got up and said to me, I don’t give a damn about your country.  I have people and if the rate is right I will use your country.  If not, I will go someplace else.  I offered him a package rate of 25 dollars per room per night.  I didn’t want to lose the deal, so we finally settled on 15 dollars per night including a continental breakfast.  He also asked me for 30,000 dollars from the tourist department for promotional purposes.  I returned to Costa Rica all excited.  The very next day I went to see Carlos Lara, the President of the Tourist Department of Costa Rica.  He offered to pay the money.  Everything was working out just fine.  About two weeks later, Mr. Lara called me and asked me to come to his office.  I went to his office and he had some bad news for me.  They could not pay the money because the rest of the hotels would get jealous and it could probably cost him his job.  What happened was, the person in charge of the new tourist office in Miami had come to Costa Rica and the hoteliers had complained to Carlos.  To be fair, they said, she should stay in several hotels to become acquainted with them and not just one hotel.  In the meantime, Joe Nedel continued calling me asking me for money.  I told Joe the only way he was going to get any money was for him to come to Costa Rica.  Joe had no idea the problems he had caused me with his request.  I asked Mr. Lara to have a meeting with Mr. Nedel and all the managers of all the hotels.  I asked him to make the deal with Joe but with the consent of all the hotels.  He agreed and Joe came to Costa Rica.  I picked him up at the airport and took him right to the meeting.  Joe started talking about the charters from New York, and up to that time no one had brought weekly charters into the country.  Every one there had a hard time believing Joe was telling the truth.  Mr. Nathan, in a very sarcastic manner asked Joe when these charters would start arriving in Costa Rica.  Joe reached into his pocket and handed everyone there a brochure with the picture of the Irazu Hotel on the front.  Immediately the managers told him that if the Tourist Department was going to pay the promotional money he would have to use all the hotels.  Joe got up and told them that the Irazu was the largest hotel in the country.  When it was full, the entire overflow would benefit the rest of the hotels.  They agreed and when everyone had left, Joe apologized to me.  He told me he knew he had been pretty rough on me during our many phone calls.

The country had never seen so many people at one time.  We were receiving 180 tourists per week, many times two and three flights a week.  One time they advised me that we were getting two charters instead of one.  I told them we had no room at the hotel, Stuart responded by telling me that was my problem not his.  Another time when I went to the airport, two planes arrived when I was only expecting one.  I only had room at the hotel for half the passengers.  I brought everyone to the ballroom to apologize for the inconvenience.  All the passengers from the planes had telegrams in their possession stating that due to an uprising in El Salvador they had been rerouted to Costa Rica.  Another time, a plane was headed for Peru but somehow it ended up in Costa Rica.  I took care of it.  Whenever the airport ended up with more planes than were scheduled I was the guy they called.  The people would climb out on the terrace so they could see the beach.  Someone in New York had told them that the hotel was near the beach.  The charter business from New York was great for about two years.  One Sunday night both Joe and Stuart appeared on “60 minutes” the investigative program.  They were asked to explain why so many of their passengers were being stranded all around the world.  Right after the program their company closed and I never heard from them again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 WHAT DOES GOD HAVE

IN MIND FOR YOU

 

              As you know by now I spent my very early years where I was born in Guatemala.  It is interesting that the primary school I attended was named Costa Rica.  I played soccer for a second division team by the name of Costa Rica.  During one of my trips to Costa Rica in 1970 the hotel Irazu was half built.  I remember sitting next to the swimming pool having a cup of coffee.  I would watch the tourists having a nice time enjoying the beautiful weather.  I started to think as to how nice it would be to work in a hotel meeting all kinds of people from different countries, not knowing that four years later I would be working in the hotel. 

  MY FIRST PROMOTIONAL

TRIP TO CANADA

           Don Bernardo, who always thought way ahead of his time, decided that he was going to build a Hotel on the beach against everyone’s opinion.  It was finished in 1978. Since there wasn’t a decent road to get to the hotel, many times we landed with guests on the beach in front of the hotel in very small planes.  With a hotel on the beach I decided it was time for me to go to Canada to look for tourists who perhaps wanted to get out of the cold weather. 

I remember my first trip.  It was wintertime and it was very cold.  Coming from Costa Rica I really didn’t have any winter clothes.  I didn’t have any gloves with me and I remember switching my briefcase from hand to hand trying to keep them warm.  It used to break my heart every time I went into a travel agency where they had big promotions for the Caribbean.  When I tried to talk about Costa Rica they would always confuse it with Puerto Rico.  They did not know where Costa Rica was located and even worse half of them had never heard of Costa Rica.  I walked through every major city in Canada putting the name of Costa Rica on the map.  I felt very good because at a minimum every travel agency was opening a file on Costa Rica with brochures of the Irazu and the Jaco Beach Hotel. 

Through my persistence and determination Voyager Travel of Ottawa finally took an interest in Costa Rica.  At my request, Ray Sally, the owner, came to Costa Rica.  He was favorably impressed.  He wanted to start booking Spring Break tours, but he felt there was one problem.  The swimming pool at Jaco Beach Hotel was too small.  After some negotiations he advanced the hotel 25,000 dollars to make a larger swimming pool.  The hotel was not prepared to take care of so many people.  We were short of employees.  A few days before the first charter was scheduled to arrive we went to the only school in the village and hired 15 kids to work as waiters and waitresses.  They would come to work wearing their school uniforms.  I moved to the hotel and acted as the hotel interpreter.  The Canadians got such a kick out of the kids they asked me to line them all up so they could give them a standing ovation before they left.   From then on, the kids were known as “The kindergarten staff of Jaco Beach”.

In those days the average man from the village of Jaco was making about one dollar a day.  When their wives were working at the hotel and bringing home salary and tips of about 15 dollars for two days work, their husbands would get very upset and want to know where the money was coming from.  They did not like the fact that their wives were making more money than they were.  It is very satisfying to look back today and see the number of those early young people having had their first job at the hotel.  Today some of them hold responsible management positions and others have gone on to own their own restaurants.  In one way or another the hotel served as a bridge for a better way of life to those who recognized the opportunities the hotel had to offer. 

 

LOYALTY

TO PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS PAY DIVIDENDS

 

              Why is it so many employees work in environments where the fear of being fired is always present.  If we do our jobs to the best of our abilities we become valuable assets to the company.  The company does not want to lose good employees.  Also, other employers within the industry who are always looking for that individual that stands out in a crowd will recognize us.  This may sound simple enough, but how many times have you seen mediocre employees barely earning their paycheck.  Having said that, remember loyalty belongs to people not companies.  Today, companies first concern is the bottom line.  When is the last time you heard a company say “what can I do for my employees today”? 

 

 

BELIEVE IT OR NOT SOMEONE IS ALWAYS WATCHING YOU

 

            In 1978, the owner of one of the major hotels in the city use to sit in the cafeteria of the Hotel Irazu.  He would watch me work and was always asking me what time did I get off work.  He wanted me to consider going to work for him.  I sometimes felt like a girl who was always being asked out on a date.  Almost everyday the guy would be sitting there having his coffee and everyday he would ask me to accept his invitation.  One time he invited my wife and me to a Sunday mass. After mass we went up to his suite at his hotel for coffee.  His suite was beautiful; it had chandeliers from Italy.  The carpets were from Persia.  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys.  He tried to give them to me.  He said to me, here are the keys to the hotel, my car, and my suite.  They are all yours just please come to work for me.  I told him I was flattered at the offer, but I would have to decline.  In addition to the above, he offered me seven times what I was making and I still turned him down.  In hindsight maybe I should have taken the offer.  But my way of thinking is that money isn’t everything.  The owner’s of the Irazu were like family to me.  The success of the hotel wasn’t only due to my efforts but the free hand I was given by the family in running the hotel.  The family had been very good to me and I felt the family was depending on me for the continued success of the hotel. 

One time the owner of a hotel in Guatemala sent me round trip tickets to come down and take a look at his operation.  He made me a very good offer.  The offer was 5,000 dollars per month plus five dollars per night per room after the fiftieth room.  Consider the hotel had 250 rooms.  By turning down several offers I earned the reputation of being loyal to the company.  It has really paid off, I am currently doing my 26^th year with the hotel.  These last 26 years have been the happiest years in my life.

MY YOUNGEST DAUGHTER ERIKA

                          In 1978, upon returning from a business trip, my wife gave me the news that she was pregnant.  We were very happy to be having another child.  Sal junior was already nine years old.  Erika was born on March 2, 1979.  At the time we were living in the hotel.  Erika took her first steps on the fourth floor. 

 

 

Rodrigo

Carazo

President of

Costa

 Rica

 

 

ONLY IN

COSTA RICA

 

          One time when Don Rodrigo Carazo was the president of the country, he came to the hotel to talk to a group of about 150 travel agents from the U.S.A.  His interpreter did not show up and I was asked to take his place without even knowing what he was going to talk about.  I knew he was a very eloquent speaker.  Prior to him entering the ballroom, I asked Mr. Carazo if he would please not over do his speech, I did not want to fall behind in the translation department.  I was determined to make the best of this opportunity to show the travel agents that Costa Rica was different from the rest of the countries of the world.  So after the president would finish a paragraph I would follow the ups and downs of his voice and in short period of time I had everyone laughing, including the President.  The President spoke perfect English but because of the countries laws he had to make all speeches in Costa Rican Spanish.  I happened to miss one of his words during his speech, then pointing at me with his finger, he said peace also, and gave me a big hug in front of everyone and told me you are a son of a gun.  The next time I saw him was when I brought Miss Universe to meet him and as soon as he saw me he started to laugh remembering what I had done in the past. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEEK AND YOU SHALL FIND

Trip makers from Vancouver, Canada

 

             In one of my promotional trips to Vancouver, I met a man by the name of John Deveral.  I invited him to come to Costa Rica and he accepted my invitation.  I took him all over the country and convinced him to make a series of charters to Costa Rica.  He agreed and for two years the Canadians came in bid numbers.  At the same time John was very successful running weekly charter flights from Vancouver to Hawaii.  At the time he was using a Boeing 727 aircraft.  He had so much business that he decided to buy a Boeing 747.  In the next three months he went out of business and cancelled all charters to Costa Rica.  The promotion about Costa Rica was all over Vancouver.  During one of the charter flights that managed to arrive in Costa Rica, I met a guy by the name of Bob Wirth.  Bob was a division manager for tours of Canadian Pacific.  When John’s business went bankrupt, I talked to Bob about taking over the Vancouver charter business.  He agreed, under one condition.  I went to Canada to help with the promotional activities.  I spent three weeks going to all the little towns of western Canada such as Nanaimo, Victoria, Seskatchuan and even Prince George.  Even today, I think I am the only Costa Rican to ever go to Prince George.  This charter business only lasted four months.  Apparently, the company had other destinations that were more important to them.  So once again I was left with no business coming from the Vancouver area.  Just about this time Lacsa the Costa Rican airlines started direct flights from San Francisco, California to San Jose, Costa Rica.  I went to see Jose Girald, the marketing director and Rudy Dent, the sales manager for Lacsa Airlines.  I told them I had a friend who had been sending small groups with the charters and would like to explore doing some business.  I asked him if I sent him some airline tickets would he come to Costa Rica.  I told them I would convince him to make a package using their airlines.  They agreed and Mr. Jay came and was given the red carpet treatment and from that day on he became one of the great promoters of Costa Rica while it lasted.  Things went great for about a year, then one day when he had a group in Jaco Beach, the electricity went off for three days and he refused to pay a large amount of money he owed us.  I tried every way possible to persuade him to play ball with us.  I even offered free rooms for the following year, but he was determined not to pay his bill.  The same group went to another Central American country and basically did the same thing.  The owner of that hotel was not as forgiving as I was.  The owner had Mr. Jay thrown into a Costa Rican jail.  I went to see him and to help him out, but he refused to see me.  He probably thought I was the one who had put him in jail.  I had nothing to do with the matter. 

 

VEL AIRLINES

             One day in May, 1982, Don Bernardo the owner of the Irazu Hotel came to se me.  He told me he had just bought the rights to a Costa Rican airline.  With the rights he was given the small plane that he had flown to Europe a few years back.  He handed me a list of parts that he wanted me to bring from Miami.  I went to Miami and picked up some tires and a few other parts and headed back to Costa Rica. 

Frank, a friend of mine, was bringing charters from Texas using a DC8 stretch.  Don Bernardo wanted to have an airline so he gave his landing rights to Frank so we could use the DC8.  Unfortunately, Don Bernardo would not see his dream become a reality.  Right after Don Bernardo’s death, I took over and found lots of problems with the permits.  The main problem was that the local airlines did not want any competition.  I flew to Dallas, Texas with a team of mechanics from Costa Rica and after they checked the plane the F.A.A. gave us the worthiness certificate.  That was the paperwork we needed to get the plane registered in Costa Rica.  I was in charge of hiring the flight attendant personnel.  The plane was flown from Texas to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  There it was painted and we named it the Don Bernardo.  We then took off for Costa Rica.  On the flight to Costa Rica the plane got very hot and the air conditioning was not working.  When we landed, the plane was smoking.  The heating problem was fixed.  But the real problem came from the government.  The plane sat there for almost three years while we tried to get all the required permits.  At the end of three years, Frank put an ad in the papers of a number of countries trying to sell the plane.  A man came from Mexico representing some corporate interest.  I don’t know what kind of deal was worked out.  As it turned out, the plane was in good shape.  Frank sold the plane to the man from Mexico and that was the end of the Costa Rican Airline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don

Bernardo

My dear

Friend

 

 

 

 

THE

 DEATH

OF A PIONEER

 

             In 1983, Don Bernardo was retuning from Jaco Beach with a few friends.  He was flying his small plane.  Flying was one of the things Don Bernardo loved to do.  The weather was not very good, it was very windy all afternoon.  As the plane touched down the wind carried the plane all the way to the end of the runway.  The plane hit one of the iron posts that were holding up the fence.  The post bent and went through the planes windshield striking Don Bernardo on the head.  Don Bernardo passed away that night.  None of the other passengers were injured.  I am sure that wherever he is, Don Bernardo is a happy man.  He was a very religious man and he loved his flying.  He was not afraid of anything.  When he was flying to the beach there was a route he would take through the mountains.  Whenever he flew he believed God was with him.  There was a “V” shaped passageway through the mountains.  He would take it because it was a short cut.  He knew on the other side of the mountains it would be cloudy with low visibility.  One time he was asked by one of his passengers if he wasn’t afraid to meet a plane coming from the other direction.  He simply said that’s not possible because he was the only one that ever went through the “V”.  Everyone else went the correct way.  Besides, when he was in the air, God forgot about everyone else and looked after him.  His death hit me very hard.  Yes, he was my boss, but more importantly he was my friend.  Dona Daisy, his wife, had no idea as to what went on at the hotel.  I started to give her an education in the hotel business.  I took her to many countries and introduced her to all the contacts she should know.  I would introduce her as the president of the company.  After Don Bernardo’s death the company took a sharp turn, I’m not saying if it was good or bad, but certainly different.  A lot of new blood came in with their ideas.  Agustin, the youngest son who was attending the University of Lucerne in Switzerland, returned to Costa Rica.  He became the new Vice President. 

 

 1985

 

             Because of the problems in Central America and the terrible road to the beach, the Jaco Beach Hotel was a few months behind with the bank’s payments.  For a while I just did not know what to do to keep the hotel full.  Time-sharing came to our rescue.  In those days there were only a couple of hotels offering time-sharing in the country.  I called one of the salesmen and he came to my office to make me a presentation.  I asked him to leave the contract, as I would like to study it a little bit more.  I read it several times, I made a few changes and with Agustin’s consent I started my new venture, which saved the hotel at least for a few years. For almost two months I did not travel and I was neglecting the sales for the Irazu so I decided to hire a man by the name of William as manager for the project, as well as a team of salesmen. 

 

 

 

 ALWAYS SELL

UNDER FAVORABLE CONDITIONS FOR YOU

 

               William and I were training the sales people, as most of them had no sales background.  I realized that in order for them to believe my teaching I had to prove myself to them, so we made a 30-day contest.  While most salesmen had to visit the possible buyers, I invited some of my friends to come to the hotel.  They were my guests and were seated in my office with no interruptions.  How could they possibly say no to a friend, especially knowing that they were getting such a good deal.  That month I made 49 sales and according to William, the national record for sales of time-sharing was broken by me.  This was only because I sold under favorable conditions for me. 

Why in the world are salesmen so hated by buyers?  Simply because most of us are homemade, as there are no universities granting courses where a person can graduate as an all around salesman.  Therefore, most buyers have a certain way of avoiding an interview as the majority of the time they are busy and don’t want to waste their time with a salesman who because of his lack of experience does not have the right approach.

Why is it that most salesmen think that the hardest part of a sale is closing it?  Because right from the start they have not given a good first impression and yet they expect to make a sale; and then they wonder why they could not make it.  Whenever a salesman meets for the first time with the buyer there is always some type of friction and if the salesman does not give a good first impression, he will never have the opportunity to have a good second impression.  On the contrary, if right from the beginning he hits it off with the buyer he will have assistance instead of resistance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 THE PROBLEMS IN NICARAGUA WERE HURTING THE TOURIST INDUSTRY IN COSTA RICA

 

             One time, a person from New Orleans came into my office and when he looked at the map on the wall in my office he said to me, I didn’t realize we were so close to Nicaragua.  Is it safe to go downtown?  As the marketing director for the hotel, I was beating my head against a wall trying to think of ways to attract guests to the hotel.  In my mind, one becomes what you think about.  I spent restless nights trying to find a way to generate income for the hotel. 

One day a lady who was with the Colombian Consulate called me and wanted to meet with me.  When we met she told me she was living in a hotel downtown.  I don’t remember her name but she was very nice and told me that I had been highly recommended by some of my travel agent friends in Medellin, Columbia.  She was trying to find a less expensive place to live.  She told me she really could only afford 450 dollars per month.  At the time our lowest rate for a room at the hotel was 30 dollars a night.  While we were having lunch, a possible solution came to me.  The hotel had about 20 rooms in the basement, which were being used as storage rooms.  I told the lady that she could have one of those rooms for 450 dollars a month.  I took her and showed her one of the rooms.  She agreed as long as I got all the junk out and painted it.  She paid me for the first month.  This made me happy.  I rented one more room, a room that could not have been rented any other way.  The room needed a hot plate and a refrigerator.  The hotel had no money to purchase them.  I got a personal credit from the warehouse around the corner from the hotel. At one time I had a credit of 12,000 dollars.  All of a sudden we had some money to meet the payroll.  When I finished painting my new tenants room, I painted the one next to hers and I had no problems renting it.  I kept going one room after another.  Before I knew it, the basement was clean and every room was painted.  They all had hot plates and refrigerators. I put an ad in the paper offering utility apartments for rent.  I didn’t mention the name of the hotel in the ad.  At 450 dollars per month I was offering a nice studio apartment with such amenities as tennis courts, swimming pool and restaurant.  Plus the landlord was a great guy.  Before I knew it, I had several of the Consulate personnel renting apartments.  It was kind of the United Nations of Costa Rica.  When I had rented all the basement apartments, I moved up to the first floor.  These rooms had balconies.  I did away with the balconies to make the rooms a little larger.  With the additional space on one side I placed a sink with a hot plate and on the other, the refrigerator.  With the ad in the newspaper the apartments were renting so fast I could not keep up with the demand.  To make a long story short, at one time I had 60 apartments rented.  The cash generated by the apartments helped us get through the crisis.  Many of the tenants were retired and had come to Costa Rica to look at the possibilities of establishing themselves in Costa Rica.  It was very convenient for them to get their start at the hotel.  Since most of them had nothing to do they spent a lot of time in the lobby.  A side benefit to that was it made the hotel look like it had a good occupancy rate.  The lobby was always crowded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 MONEY ISN’T THE

MOST IMPORTANT THING

 IN LIFE

 

             You might ask yourself, if my life has been so successful, where is the money?  Let me tell you, the Bible says you can only serve one God and money is not God.  Through all my life I have dedicated myself to helping others.  The real pleasure in life is in giving, not receiving.  The true value in life is what you give to others.  I also learned that what one hand does should not be known by the other.  I have been blessed with a loving family and I have many friends all over the world.  Money is only a means to an end.  I have the end by the tail as through my life I have encountered many situations where I got what I wanted through friendship.  In my life I have received the truly important things that money just can’t buy.

 

 

 

 

 

NEVER JUDGE A BOOK

BY ITS COVER

You could lose a million dollars

 

            In 1984, a man dressed in coveralls, wearing sandals and smoking a cigar, walked into my office.  He told me he was the president of the Duck Club in the U.S.A. and wanted to hold a convention for millionaires in Costa Rica.  He wanted to review our facilities and see if they would meet his requirements.  I knew for a fact that our facilities at the Irazu were not the most suitable to lodge the type of people he was talking about.  I was also certain that there were a few other hotels whose facilities were as good if not a little better.  I treated the man with the utmost respect.  I know that a human being is God’s greatest creation and regardless of who the person is or what they look like you have to treat them with respect.  I showed the entire hotel to the man.  I emptied his ash tray several times and with a big smile on my face I did all I could to assure him if he held his convention in my hotel I would personally make sure it would be a success.  I accompanied the man to the parking lot and shook his hand and told him regardless if he chooses our hotel or not he had a friend in Costa Rica.  I added that if he needed anything at all to please give me a call.  One week later the man came back and his exact words to me were “you are the only one who knows what is going on in this country”.  Of all the people I talked to not one of them knew what they were talking about.  I am prepared to do business with you.  He told me that during the month of June he would be bring 3000 clients to Costa Rica.  I will need the entire 350 rooms as well as all the suites you have.  I will leave it up to you to handle whatever other accommodation requirements that will be needed.  I gave him the room rate as well as the suites and he agreed.  Then he asked me how much I would charge for a banquet meal.  I gave him the price and he said to make it three dollars more just make sure it is good.  After we agreed on everything I asked him for a check in the amount of 35 thousand dollars.  He reached into his pocket and made out the check.  I couldn’t believe that this was a real deal.  As soon as he left I went to the bank to deposit the check.  I was thinking perhaps this was some kind of joke.  Well, no joke, the check was good.  I was a very happy man.  The real purpose of Robert White’s club was simply to put buyers and sellers together in the same venue.  Make it easy for them to do business.  Through an ad in his magazine he invited all the members of his club to meet in Costa Rica. He charged the sellers 2000 dollars per week for a table where they could sell shares of stock or whatever else they were trying to sell.  He assured the sellers he would deliver them a ton of buyers loaded with lots of money.  One month after Robert left Costa Rica the reservations started to come in from all corners of the world.  The sellers took all the suites so they could entertain the buyers.  In those days we only had a few airlines flying to Costa Rica, so many people had to wait a long time to arrive in the country.  Virtually all the flights to Costa Rica were being overbooked.  The sellers arrived two days prior to the opening of the convention, as did Mr. White.  Robert met with all the sellers before the start of the convention.  He told them the buyers were coming to buy and had lots of money.  If they couldn’t close a deal it was because they didn’t know what they were doing.  If that was the case they shouldn’t even be here.  Robert brought in top-notch speakers who were experts in various investment opportunities.  He also had a panel of advisors who could answer any of the questions the buyers might have.  Each seller had ten minutes to talk to the audience about his or her special investment opportunity.  The sellers also used this opportunity to invite the audience to their stand or to their suite later on for some wine and lobster.  Of course they made the promise that they were going to make money and told them to make sure they brought their checkbooks with them.  During the first convention of the Duck Club I got Frank a table for free to sell stock in the company.  Robert White announced to everyone that the club was going to have its own airlines.  In his opinion the country did not have enough air transportation.

 

 

 SINGLES

NIGHT OUT

                                Robert requested a singles party night including naked girls.  We went through quite a bit of trouble in acquiring the appropriate permits for this kind of activity with the local municipality. We decorated one of the ballrooms with red curtains and mirrors to make it look like a nightclub.  I was in one of the meeting rooms when Robert’s wife came to see me.  She was very upset to see one of the ballrooms full of naked women dancing.  I did not want to tell her it was the type of show her husband had ordered.  She had Robert ask me who had ordered the show.  I told them they had ordered a singles night out and there was probably a misunderstanding. In Costa Rica when a singles night out show was ordered naked girls were part of the show.  Then his wife explained to me, no, no  Mr. Ayala, a singles party means you have single men meeting single women.  They ordered the show canceled and when Robert’s wife left Robert apologized to me for the inconvenience. 

The convention went on for five years.  They helped put Costa Rica on the map.  I was having a great time.  I was making many new friends.  The sellers were pretty much the same people each year and since I attended some of the conventions that the club held in the United States, I was always in contact with them.  One of the guys that really made a difference in my life was an individual by the name of Chuck.  The first time he came to the country he was selling shares of Primo Pizza Pie and Eskimo Pies.  I remember him bringing me coolers full of ice cream to every convention.  Little by little he was moving up in the clubs hierarchy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 AN EXPERT IN 

FINANCES

 

            One time I was talking to Robert regarding the high interest that some of the finance companies were paying in the country.  He asked me if I would be willing to speak about interest rates and other financial topics at the next convention and since I wanted to please him I told him I would.  Prior to the convention, I received a magazine with the names and pictures of the speakers and found a picture of myself listed as an expert in Costa Rican finances.  The next thing I knew I was part of the panel.  When it was my turn to speak, I simply told the people that in Costa Rica a person did not have to have lots of money to retire because of the high interest rates some of the companies were willing to pay.  I explained to the audience about the advantages they could have available to them by living in Costa Rica.  The turn out at your individual workshop depended a great deal on your subject matter and your presentation.  I was very surprised when about 25 people wanted to meet with me.  When I met with them they were a little surprised by my approach.  As you can see there is no wine, lobster or even any coffee.  I told them I wasn’t there to sell them anything.  I was there to be their friend and help them out in any way I could as in related to Costa Rica.  All of a sudden I became an advisor to many of them.  They would come to my office to tell me they had looked at a particular opportunity and wanted to know if it was okay for them to invest their money into it.  Many people think that people with money must be intelligent.  Well I’m here to tell you that may or may not be true.  During the conventions I met many millionaires who simply put were not that smart.  It’s like they were at the convention to see how fast they could throw their money away.  You could see them coming down the hallway, you know the ones that had the targets painted on the front of them.  The real sharp salesmen at the conventions were there for one reason; to get as much money from theses millionaires as they possibly could.  It was clear to me that many of the participants of the convention had a hell of a lot more money than they had smarts.  They were investing in anything and everything that was offered to them.

Robert always had his pockets full of money.  During the entire convention I was always near Robert.  If something came up that required some cash I would let Robert know and it was taken care of.  It was during the sixth year of our relationship that Robert, Chuck and another one of their friends went to Belize to look at a land deal.  They were out in the countryside when out near the woods came three bandits.  They were all carrying guns.  They told Robert to give them his money.  Robert told them to take it out of his pocket.  With that they shot and killed Robert.  Chuck and the other guy were robbed and tied up.  At least they were not killed.  It was a tragic way for Robert to have his life ended. 

 

 

 SELDOM

WILL FRIENDSHIP

BETRAY YOU

 

             After Robert’s death the club was sold and my friend Chuck became the vice president.  He continued to come to Costa Rica.  One time we sent all the overbooks to a hotel located two blocks away.  When the manager saw the amount of people who were staying at the Irazu he invited the president of the club and Chuck to come over for dinner.  They both went and according to them the manager gave them a lot to drink and offered them the world if the following year they would hold their convention there.  He showed them various meeting

rooms, he offered them lower rates than they were paying at the Irazu, etc.  As soon as they left the hotel they called me up and told me what had taken place and they told the manager that they would accept on one condition; that the other hotel offers me a comparable position.  They knew and I knew that was not going to happen.  The president of the club died and Chuck took over.  To this day Chuck is one of my very best friends.  He continues to be very successful in the stock market and continues to take vacations in Costa Rica.

Each guest has their own story on why they have come to Costa Rica.  The following one takes the cake.  I attended a convention in Los Angles sponsored by the Duck Club.  After I got through talking about Costa Rica a lady and her husband approached me, and the lady said to me that if I was an indication of what Costa Rica was all about, she was ready to move.  I mentioned the apartments to them and sure enough within a month the couple were in Costa Rica.  The husband George told his wife to go back to Los Angles and sell everything and while she was taking care of those things he would stay in Costa Rica.  Many of the guests who were single were always trying to get George to go out with them.  He would tell them he was a very happily married man and just wouldn’t do that sort of thing.  Three months went by when one day George came into my office sounding like a totally different person.  He told me his wife was coming to Costa Rica the following week and he loved her very much, but he had fallen in love with a Costa Rican girl and didn’t know what to do.  His wife arrived and I had flowers in her apartment and fixed it very nicely to welcome her.  George came into my office and asked me not to make his wife so comfortable as he wanted her to go back to the states as soon as possible.  George had rented an apartment around the corner from the hotel and was living with his girlfriend.  So here George was with his girlfriend in the apartment and his wife was in the hotel.  About four days after his wife arrived they planned to go to the beach and swim and play some tennis.  George asked me to tell his wife that the plane had only one extra seat and there would be no room for her on the plane.  His wife was not very happy about the prospect of sitting at the hotel while George went to the beach, but finally she told George to go ahead and enjoy himself at the beach.  That morning a bunch of us saw George coming out of the hotel dressed in shorts with a racket in his hands and wearing a cap.  We were all laughing at him because we all knew George had never played a game of tennis in his life.  Two days later he called his wife and told her that because of the rain the bridges had washed out and the landing strip was closed.  It would be three or four more days before he could get back.  The whole time he was staying with his girlfriend at the apartment.  George’s wife went back to the states and they got a divorce.  George married his Costa Rican girlfriend and lived happily in Costa Rica ever since. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oscar Arias

President of

Costa

Rica

Handing me the

Award as

Promoter of

The Year

 

 

IN OCTOBER

1986 WE FINALLY

HIT THE JACKPOT

 

          My friend Antonio brought his friend Jejudi to meet me.  He happened to be the buyer for one of the largest tour operators in Canada.  The name of the company was “Fiesta Tours”.  At the time, I was living in the hotel.  Since Antonio and Jejudi were about my size, I took the two of them to my suite.  I had them change into shorts and sandals because they were on vacation.  We then headed for the beach.  From that day on, Jejudi and I became friends.  For years I kept after Jejudi trying to convince him to set up a tour program to Costa Rica.  The real problem was earlier in the companies history his boss took a group of travel agents to the country of Honduras.  The tour had nothing but problems.  The country had a curfew and the lights were turned off at 8 pm.  His boss was so upset with the trip when he got back he told his staff there would be no tours to Central America again.

When I found this out I asked Jejudi if he cared if I made a video for his boss; I wanted him to take the video back to his boss.  It was fine with Jejudi.  I borrowed a video camera and addressed Mr. Len Nathan, the vice president of Fiesta Tours, in the video with the following:  with a big smile on my face I said to him, hi Len, you and I have not met yet.  However, we have a mutual friend, your buyer Jejudi.  He thinks that Costa Rica is the cream of the crop and so do I.  Why in hell don’t you come to Costa Rica and take a look at me.  I am just like you, I can talk and walk and I took a few steps and between you and me there are no differences.  Just follow me, as I would like to show you around.  I kept talking like Len was in front of me.  I went to one of the rooms at the Jaco Beach hotel and I sat on the stool.  I flushed the water and said to him, it works.  Then I stepped into the shower and turned it on.  See, hot water, and lots of it.  I walked all over the beach telling him about the advantages he would have if he would initiate a tour program to Costa Rica.  After talking to him for over a half hour, I broke my voice and said to him, Mr. Nathan I have done my work, the rest is up to you, take it or leave it.  If you leave it you will be making a big mistake because Costa Rica is a great destination.  I am giving you the opportunity to rediscover this country and become a hero.  Good-bye.

            When Jejudi returned to Canada he had a meeting with the managers.  Len was aware that Jejudi had been in Central America.  Len made it a point to tell Jejudi that he wasn’t interested in hearing anything about Central America.  He asked Len for ten minutes of his time.  He then put the tape on.  Len called me two weeks later and told me you son of a gun I don’t know who you are but you have convinced me and I will put together a tour program for Costa Rica.  The first charter group came with around 180 travel agents.  Jejudi had advanced us some money to get the Jaco Beach hotel in shape, he kept on advancing us money until finally he said I’m sorry but my boss just doesn’t want to put any more money into this project.  When the travel agents came we had a big party.  Even the President of Costa Rica was there to greet them.  When the agents arrived at Jaco we ran them through the first floor right into the swimming pool.  The reason being we had only remodeled the first floor.  The agents were having such a good time that they really didn’t take time to inspect the entire hotel.  The travel agents went back to Canada having been very impressed with our hotel and Costa Rica.  They had been to many other destinations but they seemed to lack what the Jaco Beach Hotel and Costa Rica had.  They were sold on Costa Rica as a holiday destination.  The charters started coming in every week and for the most part every plane was full.

            In January 1987, the President of the country, Mr. Arias was awarded the Noble Peace Prize.  After that everyone wanted to know more about Costa Rica.  The charters were coming in at the rate of one to two a week.  We had to turn people down.  They would take up the entire Irazu Hotel as well as the Jaco Beach Hotel.  When Mr. Nathan arrived in Costa Rica his first words were, I want to meet the man who’s making all this money for me.  With the hotel’s permission, he hired me to search for rooms and sign contracts for his company.  He was always short of rooms, especially ones at the beach.  That year I received an award from the President of the country as the best promoter for our country.  I received a standing ovation from the crowd in appreciation for the work I had done. 

AN EXPERIENCE NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN

 

            The date was November 16, 1986.  My wife’s brother invited the entire family to his house to celebrate my father in-law’s birthday.  My daughter, Lucky, was having a great time asking everyone to dance with her.  She was also taping notes on the walls telling everyone that the party would be over shortly.  She bought a painting from her cousin.  We were already in the car and she returned to say goodbye to everyone present.  We had just moved into our house after having lived in the Irazu Hotel for almost nine years.  We had left the hotel at her urging because she had too many friends at the University and wanted to have a place to entertain them.  Anyway, when we got home she showed me the painting.  I did not understand the meaning of it.  She explained it to me the following way; it’s something like when you transfer yourself from this life to the next one.  We were looking at the painting when her boyfriend called and asked her to go out.  She went out with him.  I stayed home talking with my wife, thinking about the fact that we had such a great family and everything in our lives was going so well.  Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing.  It was the hospital asking for me to come to the hospital at once.  Our daughter had been involved in an automobile accident.  I got dressed and went to the hospital thinking that perhaps she had gotten a few scratches.  When I got there I was very surprised when the doctor asked me if I had any heart problems.  He took me by the arm and led me up to the third floor where he met another doctor.  They spoke to each other for a few minutes and then turned to me and told me they had done all they could do. Things were a lot worse than anyone could have imagined.  When I got home my in-laws were sitting on the couch looking very helpless and my wife was on her knees with a rosary in her hands praying to God to please have mercy on us. A few minutes later many members of the family and friends came to the house to offer their sympathy after hearing that Lucky had passed away.  Lucky was very close to my wife.  They would dress alike and were always together sharing their secrets.  I was thinking that my wife would never be the same again.  The following day we went to the funeral home where many of our friends and relatives had gathered.  My wife came to tell me she had already delivered Lucky to God and wanted to know if I waned to do the same.  We both kneeled before the coffin and said thank you God for the time you loaned Lucky to us.  The 18 years that she spent with us were 18 wonderful years.  We thought that she was ours but we have come to understand her time was up and we have faith that she is in a better place now.  We know that we cannot go against your plans.  When we got up after talking to God, we felt such a strength that came from within it gave us the courage to welcome everyone who came to be with us during our sorrow.  I stood in front of the coffin greeting everyone and I remember telling my wife that we were very lucky to have suffered like Jesus did and that we now have an angel in heaven who would always be watching out after us.  We were amazed at the amount of support that we received from all of our friends.  We even got a letter of condolence from the President of the country.  In the past I had not spent much time reading the Bible.  I stayed home for almost 40 days reading the Bible.  I would lie there stretched out on the floor with the Bible in front of me.  I was trying to figure out why our lives had taken such a bad turn.

 THE  ENTERTAINER 1978

         On one of my trips to Germany I purchased a small harmonica. It was so small that it only had three holes in it.  I learned to play it without using my hands.  I would move it back and forth with my tongue.  I took it with me on many of my promotional tours.  Every time I had the opportunity I would play it.  Sometimes it would be for family members and other times it would be in front of a large audience.  The audience used to get a kick out seeing something they had never seen before.  There were two shows that were the most memorable for me.  There was a hotel manager’s convention in Bogota, Colombia in 1989.  I had been promoting Costa Rica in Colombia since 1977.  I had been very successful in my efforts.  They asked me to arrange the promotion for all the Central American Countries.  Prior to the convention, everyone promised to bring some kind of entertainment.  I flew from Curacao in the Caribbean to Bogotá.  I figured that since everyone was bringing some type of entertainment and I had arranged the whole thing that I didn’t have to worry about it.  Apparently everyone else was thinking the same thing.  We ended up with 300 travel agents and no entertainment.  I believe opportunity was knocking on my door.  I was going to put the name of the Irazu Hotel and Costa Rica on every mind by means of a performance.  For my part it was the right thing to do.  To every travel agent there I volunteered to be in charge of the show so long as everyone would follow my instructions.  They all agreed.  It was show time.  I introduced myself to the audience and then I introduced each one of the hoteliers.  I told the audience that we were doing a tour throughout the country of Colombia.  Since the Columbian girls were so pretty, during the previous shows we had lost all of our musicians and I was the only one left.  So I would be their entertainment for the evening.  I told them I was going to play a small harmonica and since it was so small they were going to have to help me out or the harmonica just wouldn’t cooperate.  I requested that they concentrate on their part and not laugh at me.  I informed them that I had played in theaters around the world.  Once while I was performing at the Opera House in Paris someone in the front row of the audience laughed so loud it caused me to swallow my harmonica.  The only problem with that was every time I inhaled or exhaled my stomach played music.  Meanwhile, back to the current performance.  The hoteliers had been standing behind me still not knowing what I was up to. Then I told the audience that the hoteliers didn’t know it but they were about to become famous.  At this time I had a large box brought to me on stage.  The box was full of pots and pans that I had borrowed from the hotel kitchen.  You should have seen the surprised look on the hotelier’s faces when I started to pass them out to each one of them.  With the harmonica in my mouth and a microphone in my hand I started playing a square dance song called “Here I Come From Alabama”.  I was jumping all over the stage as the microphone had a long cord.  The audience was clapping to the tempo of the music as were the hoteliers were with their pots and pans.  I was dancing as fast as my feet would carry me.  The performance was so well received that we ended up doing it several times.  The audience was in hysterics and of course there must have been over 100 requests to see my small instrument.  The performance was so successful that we ended up performing it in all the major cities of Colombia.  I became very famous but more importantly it helped me spread the name of the Hotel Irazu and Costa Rica.

My next big engagement and I say that with tongue in check, was in Vancouver, Canada.  My trip to Canada was to serve two purposes.  First I was a keynote speaker for a group of Canadian travel agents and secondly I was bringing the Costa Rica dance group, the Folkloric Dancers of Costa Rica for their first dance performance ever in Canada.  Ida Lupino a famous star from the Canada was putting on a show and the dance group had been invited to perform on their national television network.  The group of us arrived in Vancouver two days before they were scheduled to perform.  I was scheduled to give my speech at the opening day of their local travel convention.  I had performed my harmonica and dance routine so often that I had gotten very good with it.  I decide to use it at the opening of the convention.  What happened next I could not have anticipated.  My opening number was a booming success.  Everyone thought it was the hit of the evening.  There were a couple of people in the audience that were not part of the travel industry.  Actually they were staff members of the Ida Lupino show.  I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently they were also impressed with my performance.  So much so that when the dance group and myself showed up at the show auditorium the next afternoon a member of the staff called me into his office.  He told me that he had seen my performance the evening before and thought I was hilarious.  They wanted to make a change in the show; instead of having the dancers perform they wanted to have me take their place in the show.  I was very flattered, but I told them that it would not be possible.  I told them that the dancers had come a long way and were representing the country of Costa Rica.  The dancers gave a wonderful performance.  For my part, it was the right thing to do.

 

 

 THE BRIDAL FAIR IN

 OTTOWA CANADA

 

                                      Every year a bridal fair would be held at the Château Lorie Hotel in Ottawa, Canada.  Fifteen hundred young ladies in some cases not so young, who were going to get married, would register in advance to participate in the fair.  They were allowed to invite two single girls each.  This fair was the largest of it’s kind in Canada.  It was always held in the wintertime.  I thought it would be a great place to showcase Costa Rica with its warm weather and it’s great beaches.  As the girls entered the hotel they would walk down an isle visiting various booths that were promoting products and services relating to weddings.  The first booth was a bakery where the future bride would turn in a coupon and in return would receive another coupon good for fifty percent discount on her wedding cake if it were purchased from that vendor.  There were at least 45 booths offering wedding dresses, pictures, flowers and other related items.  At my booth, I was offering the brides honeymoon trips to Costa Rica.  At the same time I would hand out a raffle ticket to each individual.  The winning ticket would be for two round tickets and accommodations at our hotels in Costa Rica.  As the ladies went by I would tell them a joke and give them a kiss for good luck.  As the 4500 girls completed their walk through the line they would enter the grand ballroom.  The ballroom had a big ramp down the middle and someone was playing the wedding march on an organ.  A beautiful lady’s voice was directing the show.  As a beautiful model bride walked by the announcer would describe the dress, the material it was made out of and the place where it could be purchased.  This went on for two hours, showing all kinds of items including purses, shoes, bathing suits, and even bikinis.  At the end of the show the announcer asked if I would please come up to the podium.  I was introduced as the person who had traveled the farthest not only to participate in the show but also to award the grand prize.  When I walked up the stage I received a standing ovation from the crowd.  In my unrehearsed speech, I told them that the step they were about to take was a dangerous one, it was a step I had taken many times.  I told them it would be well worth their time to listen to someone with as much experience as myself.  I then continued with one of my stories.  Since I was so dark, people would assume right away that I was from a foreign country.  In fact prior to coming on stage, I was talking to someone and during the conversation I told the person that I was awarding the grand prize.  This person asked if I was nervous at all making a presentation in front of 4500 girls.  I told her that I was used to doing this all the time and I had never gotten nervous.  Making this type of presentation was part of my job, I told her I had made these presentations all over the world.  Then she asked me if I was not nervous, what the hell was I doing in the ladies room?  Everyone laughed and wanted to know more about Costa Rica.

 THE WATER PUMP

                                            I cannot stress enough the importance of friendships in ones life.  Please think about this for a minute.  If you dedicated yourself to making new friends and tried to make at least five friends a day, in one year you would have 1725 new friends.  In ten years you could run for office, after all you would have 17, 250 new friends. 

            One afternoon when the hotel was full the pump for the main water line went out.  Try picturing 700 people bathing and shaving in the swimming pool.  We called the pump manufacturer in Kansas City and they promised to have the pump waiting in Miami the next day.  It was Friday afternoon and I had promised to take my family to the beach the following day.  On Saturday morning I told my wife that we were going to the beach but we would have to leave a little later than we had originally planned.  There was something I needed to take care of.  I called a friend of mine and asked him to meet me at the Miami airport.  He met me at the airport and we drove to a small town about two miles from Miami to pick up the pump.  I had only one and a half hours to make it back to the airport and catch my return flight to Costa Rica.  On the way to the airport I made a stop at a supermarket to get my kids some cookies and chocolates.  Upon checking in at the airline counter, I was told that I could not take the pump on a passenger flight because it weighed more than 200 pounds.  The only way to get an exception was to talk to the captain of the plane.  If it was okay with the captain then it could be loaded on my flight.  As it turned out the captain was a friend that I had known for a number of years and he gave me his permission to have the pump loaded into the cargo bay.  Upon arriving at the airport in Costa Rica I still had the problem of getting the pump through customs.  I was thinking the customs officials would make me leave the pump at the airport and ask me to come back the following week to pay the import duty.  Again friendship came to my rescue. I knew just about everyone at customs and after explaining my situation to them, they all six of them carried the huge pump to a truck that was waiting for me.  One hour later there was water at the hotel and everyone was happy.  My wife and kids had been waiting for me.  My wife wanted to know where I had been all day.  I told her to get in the car and that I would explain on the way to the beach.  Once in the car I opened the bag I had with me and handed the kids some of the cookies and chocolates.  They wanted to know where they had come from.  They could not believe what I had gone through.  The point is if I had all the money in the world, I would not have been able to accomplish what I had done without friends.  Those friendships played a main role in granting happiness to the hotels’ 700 guests and piece of mind for the general manager. 

 

 

 MY FRIEND

IN PUERTO RICO

 

                                        I had reservation for a single room at the Caribean Hilton Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  When checking in at the front desk, I was told that my room would not be ready for three hours.  So while I was waiting, I decided to call my friend Jerry.  Jerry wasn’t home.  Instead I talked to his mother.  His mother told me Jerry was at the very same hotel where I was waiting for my room.  He had just been made the assistant manager.  I gave him a call and when he saw me he jumped over the counter to greet me.  He put me in the Presidential suite.  It had three floors, a Jacuzzi, a solarium as well as a dining room facing the ocean.  I was completely lost as I had more square room to myself than anyone else in the entire hotel.  I walked up and down several times thinking that it was such a waste not to be there with my family.  That night I decided to take a walk.  As I was making my way through the casino, I heard someone calling my name.  It was Al Baldini, a guy I had sold real estate with in San Francisco.  I had not seen him in many years.  We were both eager to talk about the good old days.  He then invited me to have a drink with him in the bar.  I had an ice tea and he had a beer.  He proceeded to spend the next hour telling me about all his accomplishments.  He told me about how many houses he owned along with his own company.  He suggested that I had made a mistake moving to Costa Rica and I could be as successful as he if I had stayed in San Francisco.  The conversation had reached a point where I decided it was time to show Al my humble accommodations.  I told Al that it was getting a bit noisy in the bar and that perhaps we could continue our conversation in a more quiet setting.  I suggested that we go to my room.  As soon as we entered the suite he started to clean his glasses, he was almost stuttering.  I politely asked him to follow me.  When we got to the third floor I asked him to sit at the dining room table that was facing the 180-degree view of the ocean as well as the main drag of San Juan.  The sun was just about ready to set and the view was spectacular.  Al, not being the shy type, apparently knowing how much my suite cost per night, asked me how I could afford a suite that cost over $2000 dollars per night.  I explained to him that maybe I didn’t have as much money as he did, but what I lacked in money was more than made up by the number of friends I had.  In my capacity as the Marketing Director for a hotel chain in Costa Rica, I had made friends all over the world.  Wherever I traveled in the world I was given the red carpet treatment.  I remember him telling me that he would make sure that all my old friends in San Francisco would know about how well I was doing.  I told him that really would not be necessary; most of them already knew it.

 

 DON’T JUST MAKE

THE SALE,

 FOLLOW THROUGH

 

                                         When the charters from Canada started to come to Costa Rica, they were arriving at the airport around 2 am in the morning.  Many times when the plane had already touched down on the runway, the immigration officials as well as the customs people were playing soccer in one of the main lounges.  As the tourists started down the stairs towards the immigration counters, I stood there with my best smile welcoming everyone.  From there I would move over to the customs area, where I had been given one of the counters and I became the person in charge of customs.  In this capacity, I had a great time.  I played all kinds of jokes on the tourists.  For instance, I would tell a couple that they could not bring two bags in the country and when the man started to get upset I would tell him that he had a choice, he could bring in the two bags as long as he left his wife with me.  As soon as everyone was aboard the buses, I jumped into my car and headed for the hotel.  When the buses arrived, I was at the main door of the hotel greeting them.  They still did not know who I was.  Then in the evening when we had a welcome party, I showed up with a microphone in my hands welcoming everyone once more.  After a week in San Jose, we had to move everyone to our Jaco Beach Hotel.  As they were leaving, I stood at the front of the hotel and said good-bye to everyone.  As soon as they left, I jumped in my car and went to the beach.  When they arrived, again I was the one at the front door of the hotel welcoming them once more.  They began to think I was some kind of ghost.  I really enjoyed doing this but the only sad part about the whole thing was that every week I had to start over selling myself to the next group.  I made plenty of friends and up to now I keep in touch with quite a number of them.  The company in Canada was very thankful that everyone returned bragging about the Costa Rican hospitality.  Luis was the General Manager of the hotel and sometimes he would accompany me to the airport to meet the charters.  We used to play all kinds of jokes on each other.  In fact, one time we picked up a Canadian girl who had no reservation at the hotel.  We gave her a ride and it must have been around 3 am in the morning.  Luis was driving and the girl was sitting next to him.  I was sitting in the backseat.  The highway was very dark and the car started jerking around.  Luis asked me to check the back tires.  He thought we might have a flat tire.  I got out of the car and I no sooner got to the back of the car and Luis drove off and left me there.  I had a long walk back to the hotel, but I promised myself to get even with him and I did.

 ALWAYS PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH

                                          All my life I have believed that if you want something bad enough and think about it every day and night, it will come true.  I preached that philosophy to my son Sal from the day he was born.  I told him that all he had to do to get whatever he wanted in life was to constantly think about it and his wishes would come true because there is a law of attraction.  The trick to it was to make sure you were thinking about it all the time.  When he turned 18,  he wanted me to buy him a car that one of his classmate’s father had for sale for $5,000.  He kept after me for almost a month and he kept on telling me to come up with a way that I would not have a problem getting him the car.  I kept ignoring him but one time while I was watching T.V., he stood in front of me and asked me how in the world was I going to get him the car if I was spending all my time watching T.V. and not thinking how I was going to help him get his car.  Not wanting to disappoint my son, I took $1,000 and we both went to see his friend.  The first thing I did was to have a cup of coffee with the parents I wanted them to know I was an honest man.  We then went out and looked at the car.  It seemed to be in good condition.  I explained to the seller that the only way I could buy the car was to pay them $1,000 down and $1,000 a month until the $5,000 had been paid.  I told them that I would insure the car and the title would not be transferred until they had been paid in full.  They agreed and my son had his wish along with his car.

THE ACCORDION

                                                   A short time after that I began to think about what my son had said to me about watching T.V., I realized that in fact I was watching too much television.  I decided to do something that would amuse me and at the same time would help me relieve stress that would develop during my normal workday.  For a long time I didn’t realize just how much stress I had.  Because of the nature of my position at the hotel, there were always situations to be resolved.  Consequently, I decided that I always liked accordion music because it was an instrument that had long been forgotten and also because it was complete and soothing to the ear.  On one of my trips to Canada, I bought a second hand instrument as well as an instruction book.  I began to review the notes that I had learned a long time ago.  After a year of practicing, I found myself playing at the hotel’s cafeteria.  Everyone got a kick out of me and some of my friends use to come to me with coins in their hands.  One time I went to a convention in Orlando, Florida and at lunchtime I walked near Church St. where the tourists would hang around.  I saw a black man playing the accordion on the sidewalk.  I asked him if he knew where I could buy some sheet music for the accordion.  He told me that he played by ear and could not read music.  We struck up a conversation and he told me that he had been playing all morning and wanted to know if I would mind helping him out for while.  I agreed and as I started to play, people started to gather around, the black guy was sitting next to me with a box in front of him.  The people were throwing money into the box.  After about an hour of playing I put my tie and my coat on and as I shook hands with my new friend he told me to come back that evening and there would be more tourists and that he was willing to share the profits with me.  I went back to the trade show thinking that I would never go hungry in Europe as I always could make a living playing the accordion on any one of the main streets there.  It might sound funny to you, but the more we prepare ourselves in life, the more we can insure our survival.

 

 

 NEVER TURN YOUR

BACK ON YOUR

BOYS

                                             My son Mark had been trying to obtain a license to operate an inbound tour company.  He was not having much luck.  He asked me for some help because of my connections in the government.  A short time after that, his licenses were granted.  During the same time my son, Sal, was pushing me to help him get started in his own business.  The three of us had a meeting and my two sons and I became partners in the travel agency.  Right off the bat, the new business grew so fast that in a few months they had more business than they could handle.  Because of my position at the hotel, I had to keep an arms length relationship with their travel business.  Two years later, I started to get calls from their suppliers about unpaid bills.  It was then that I came to realize that their company was nearly bankrupt.  Mark, being a Christian, thought that everyone was honest like he was.  The manager of the agency was the accountant’s sister.  They were selling tours below cost.  The agencies buses had been purchased with little down payment and the mortgage on them was in U.S. dollars.  I asked them to give me a list of what was owed and it was over $200,000.  Just the bill for the Irazu hotel was $45,000.  I called everyone on the list.  One hotel owner charged me interest on the owed money; another one brought an attorney with him and asked me to sign a note.  Mario, the owner of a boat in Puntarenas told me that he knew I would pay him what was due.  For over a year, I paid him with my retirement checks from the U.S.  Two of my friends in the U.S. came to my rescue, Mack and Keith.  I will never forget them.  To my way of thinking a person’s name should never be destroyed.  It took a while but everyone got paid.  Mark replaced all the bad employees and now the travel agency is very successful.

 LIKE EVERYONE ELSE

                                          Throughout my life, I had my share of adversity, but this adversity has contributed to my development as a person and as a human being.  These challenges have helped me to understand the troubles that may come into our lives.  Since my climb to success and peace of mind started at the bottom of the hill, I can understand my friends, my co-workers and all those individuals who I may have been fortunate enough to influence or bless me with their presence in my life.  I have learned that everyday holds surprises, as we never know what the Almighty has in store for us.  Life is not a piece of cake for anyone and like many people in the world nothing has been served to us on a silver platter.  Perhaps if I had been born wealthy, I would not have found so much enjoyment in life.  For the last 26 years, I have worked faithfully bringing tourists to Costa Rica and to my hotel.  Yes, I say, my hotel, because after 26 years, that is the way it feels to me.  These last 26 years have been the happiest days of my life.  It hasn’t always been easy, but we have survived through out the years and I am happy to have had the opportunity to contribute to the growth, development and betterment of the country I love, “Costa Rica”.

            Thank you for sharing my experiences with me and if by reading this, your lifestyle has changed by even 1%, then I can say to myself, “Wow, Sal, you did it again.”