I’ve been up for a couple of hours with the SIMH without words, floating in and out—I can hum it all the way through, but it took till just now to remember who and what it was! How can one forget Clapton? It is “you look Wonderful Tonight”—by the one and only Eric Clapton. Strange stuff, this SIMH. And I’d say that comes in way down the list of my favorite’s by him.
No Tears in Heaven, followed by If I Could Change the World are my two favorites.
But enough about song/singer-isms
When certain events take place and remind me of things in the past, or a national phenomenon occurs and I remember “before,” I’m sometimes in awe of what I saw/heard/talked about and by the time that has past since these things occur.
Somewhere around 1965, I met a young man home from the military and working for a manufacturing plant in Danville, IL. He had been in Japan, and as was common then, brought home stereo equipment. etc., which could not yet be obtained reasonably in the USA. We were associated by church, but because I managed a store which sold cheaper radios/stereos we talked often about businesses and business ideas.
John once asked me if I thought a small store with just limited grocery items, maybe a couple of gas pumps, sitting in a strategic location “on the way to and from work” would be a good idea for Danville. I responded by being as positive as I could be, but with some reservation. Then, about 5 years later, my then boss built a shopping center in Louisville, KY which had (of all things) a self-serve filling station. I said, “that’ll never work!” He laughed and said “it’s already working.”
Then, I heard about “7-11 Stores” —how strange is that? Open at 7, don’t close till 11. and you know they almost went bankrupt. It was about 5 more years before I was told by an “expert” that what saved them as a chain was gourmet coffee! Imagine, coffee saving an entire chain of stores!
Today, there are 66,000 7-11 stores. Wonder if John made any money off his idea.
And how many self-serve filling stations are there? All. Except in New Jersey, the only state left where you cannot fill your own gas tank.
What an amazing economy we live in? And just about as phenomenal a story as any is this: 38 million of us have home-based businesses. We are on entrepreneurial steroids!
The Lord said we should “study to be quiet” and “do your own business” and “work with you own hands”—and He said, “if any would not work, neither should he eat.” So, now we know how we came to be such avid business people. The Lord is in favor of it.
And, speaking of eating: there are 26,744 Subways (that’s a sandwich shop, in case you don’t know) in the U.S.
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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