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About The Admin (NetProfit Update News Listing Service) A Brief Entrepreneurial Biography As you probably already know by now, my name is Andre' Gilliam. I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. I left my home town after my second year of college, and I have lived in northern California for many years now. I have two brothers and two sisters, and I am the oldest. I also have three teenage daughters of my own. Some of my hobbies include playing chess, listening to all types of music, exercising, sports (favorite: basketball), trying to play drums & piano, astronomy, writing, and I have been trying for years, without much time or success, to learn martial-arts. So that is a little information about my personal life, but I will now move on to the main subject of this writing... I have worked at many different jobs in many different places, but I have always considered myself to be an entrepreneur no matter what type of work I was doing. For the most part, I only worked regular jobs so that I could have enough money to pursue my entrepreneurial interests. I have been entrepreneurial-minded ever since I was a young child. I first got hooked on mailorder when I started to send away for different items on the back of cereal boxes and comic books. I enjoyed the great anticipation of waiting to see the products I finally received back in the mail, and I later started to send away for business opportunities I saw in different magazines. Little did I know that I would be hooked for life!! My very first job was as a paper-boy when I was 10-years old. I considered that job as my own business, because I was given the opportunity to run my own route. The only help that I received was when my supervisor dropped off my papers at my house everyday after I got home from school. It then took me an hour to fold all of the papers, and fill-up my double-sided shoulder-pack with half of them. Next, I had to walk with that heavy shoulder-pack for many blocks while I delivered my papers to half of the houses on my route. Then I had to go back home to fill-up my shoulder-pack again with the remaining papers, and finish my route before it got dark. My route was a mile or more round-trip, and it took me about 90-minutes of fast walking to complete. (I still had my homework to do afterwards!!) I received my paycheck every two weeks in the mail from the "Shopping News" newspaper agency. So due to the fact that I was trusted to do my own paper-route everyday (monday-friday) without anyone breathing down my back, I thought of it as my own first business. When I was 13-years old, my brother William and I worked together for three summer months as a cherry-picker on a farm in Bremerton, Washington. We had to get up at 3:00am each morning (Mon-Fri) to walk over a mile in the dark to downtown Seattle to catch a ferry-boat to the city of Bremerton. SideNote: The reason that William and I had to walk is because there were no buses running at that early time of the morning. Since there was also no vehicle traffic, we walked down the middle of the well-lighted street, because that was safer than walking on the dark sidewalk. After the ferry reached Bremerton, we were loaded into the back of an extra long & wide covered pick-up truck with benches on both sides to sit on. Along with many other young boys, William and I were transported about 20-miles out to a farm. When we finally reached the farm around 6:00am, we would all pick up a large bucket, climb one of the many cherry trees, and start picking cherries for 50-cents per bucket... Anytime a bucket got full of cherries we had to climb down out of our tree, take the bucket to the processing table that was set up in the middle of the field, and get a pay ticket. Your accumulated pay tickets at the end of each workday determined how much cash you were paid... We worked 9-hours a day including two 15-minute breaks, and one 30-minute lunch break. My two favorite things about that job were that we got free cherries, and we got paid daily. At the end of our workday we were all paid in cash, loaded back up again in the back of the pick-up truck, and driven back down to the ferry dock. William and I would then catch the next ferry-boat, and arrive back in downtown Seattle at about 4:00pm. The last leg of our long round-trip journey was to catch a bus to our home, or sometimes our Mom would pick us up. As a young entrepreneur-minded person, I had concluded that being a cherry-picker was my own second small business for the following reasons: (1) I got paid according to my own efforts. (2) I got paid each day in cash. (3) I was in total control because it was my choice whether or not to go to work each day or each week, and there were no penalties involved. However, I needed to work to make as much money as possible, so I did not abuse my "power".
P.S. I had many other after-school and summer jobs as a child and teenager, and I was employed most of that time. I was a member of the Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC) (a youth employment agency) of Seattle, WA from 1967 to 1971, and they secured most of my jobs at the minimum wage of $1.45 to $1.60 an hour during that time. The NYC secured a variety of interesting jobs for me, from working at a Seattle TV station, to a Day Care Center, to a Hospital, to a College laboratory, etc. I needed to maintain a dependable income so that I could have the money to buy the things I wanted. Therefore, I never quit any regular job to just become an entrepreneur... In other words, as a child, as a teenager, and later-on as an adult, I was always an after-I-get-home-from-work entrepreneur!! Or, another way to say it is that I was always an employed entrepreneur. Note: Since 1999 I have not had to work at a regular job, because I have been a successful full-time entrepreneur.
As a teenager I received my first chain-letter in the mail. The subject of that chain-letter was not about making money, it was only about continuing the chain by mailing out 30 copies. That chain-letter also stated that I would have lots of bad luck if I did not continue the chain. The letter mentioned a couple of specific cases of bad luck where some people supposedly died who did not continue the chain. I was not intimidated because I did not believe those stories, but eventually just for the heck of it I decided to participate anyway. So I "borrowed" 30 envelopes from my Mom, I bought 30 stamps, and I made 30 copies of the letter at the library. I gradually mailed those chain-letters to names & addresses I got out of the telephone book. So that was my first chain letter experience. I don't recall exactly when, but at a later date I received my first money-making chain letter. You know, the type of chain-letter where there are a list of people that you are suppose to send money to, eliminate the person in the last position, and place your name and address in the first position. Of course I had to try it, and of course I lost money instead of making money. I should have already learned my lesson, but I later tried some stuffing envelope offers that I wasted my time and money with. There were many other chain-letters and stuffing envelope offers that arrived in my mailbox during that time, but they all went straight to my garbage can.
Also as a teenager while I attended Cleveland High School in Seattle, Washington, I joined the Junior Achievement (JA) program. JA is a non-profit voluntary extra-curricular program that teaches students everything about running a business and being an entrepreneur. The JA meetings were held after school once or twice a week at a location several miles away from my high school. Junior Achievement was basically learning by doing, so after we had several weeks of classroom instruction, we had to participate in a major project... The teacher broke us up into several small groups so that we could start our own competing individual mock companies. The goal of the project was a contest to see which of these mock companies would be the most successful by making and selling the most products within a 30-day period of time. We had to operate like a real company by choosing a product to make and sell, a Company Name, a CEO, Vice Presidents, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and an Accountant. I was chosen as a Vice President, our group chose -Creative Industries- as our company name, and we chose our product to be a pair of gold praying hands mounted on a thick square piece of dark brown corkboard. We chose that product because it was about 6-weeks before Christmas, and we thought that product would sell well during that time of the year. So we bought all of the items necessary to make the product (plastic, praying hands mold, fasteners, corkboard), and after we made the product we each sold as many as possible to our family and friends at $10.00 each. I sold one of our "praying hands" to my Mom, and a few other people. Our company, Creative Industries, finished the contest in second place out of six mock companies. en-tre-pre-neur: one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise for profit -- en/tre/pre/neur/ial -- en/tre/pre/neur/ship (there are more definitions, but this is the most appropriate)- I graduated from high school, and I attended the University of Washington and Seattle Community College for awhile. Then I enrolled in the Job Corps (JC) program. JC is a nationwide residential program for people ages 16-24 to study and pass their G.E.D. test, and to also receive vocational training in the occupation of their choice. When I initially applied for Job Corps at their recruitment office in downtown Seattle, I was not accepted because I was over-qualified. But I explained to them that I sincerely needed their vocational training, and they truly liked my sincerity, so they eventually accepted me about one month later, which was shortly after my 20th birthday. My best friend at that time tried to talk me out of it, but I was very determined to go. SideNote: The main reason that I wanted to attend Job Corps was to get the free vocational training so that I could eventually use that skill to open my own business. However, I was unexpectedly led down quite a different path (see below after the next P.S.). I attended Angell Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center in Yachats, Oregon, and to make a l-o-n-g story short, I ended-up in the Cooking and Baking vocational course although my first two vocational choices were Carpentry and Painting. Surprisingly, I actually liked the Cooking course, and I was very glad that I had tried it, so I decided to stick with it and focus on Cooking as my career. (My entrepreneurial spirit had me daydreaming from time-to-time that one day I might open-up my own restaurant.) I completed the Cooking & Baking course within 6-months, and my cooking instructor suggested to me that I transfer to an advanced cooking school named Stewards Training in Santa Rosa, CA. My JC cooking instructor also told me that after I completed the advanced cooking course, I would be qualified to work as a Cook and/or Baker on ships. I was not exactly sure what I was getting myself into, but it sounded like a good opportunity so I decided to take advantage of it. Therefore, instead of going back home north to Seattle, WA, I caught a Greyhound Bus (at Job Corps expense) south to Santa Rosa, California. P.S. In addition to the Cooking (Culinary Arts) course at Angell Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center, I was also one of only 10 voluntary paid members of the Angell Forest Fire-Fighting Crew. Fighting forest fires is dirty-hard-dangerous work, and most people do not want to do it no matter how much money they are going to be paid. We were all taught the fire-fighting techniques by our crew boss, and we practiced everyday for two weeks before the forest fire season started. I had to be on standby at all times... Whenever our Job Corps fire-fighting crew was called out by the Forest Service to fight a fire, we had to stop whatever we were doing at our Job Corps center to quickly get dressed in our fire-fighting attire, grab all of our fire-fighting tools, and board our bus to go to the fire campsite. The fire campsite was usually high up in the mountains and deep in the forest, which was many miles and hours away from our Job Corps center. After our arrival at the fire campsite, we would take a break to grab something to eat or drink before it was time for us to go to work, and hike out to man-the-fire-line. At the fire line we used various tools to battle the fire or to just stop the fire from spreading. Most of the time we would work on the fire line from 8 to 12 hours until we were relieved by another fire crew. Then our fire crew would hike a mile or more back down to the fire campsite to eat and sleep. That same process continued everyday until the fire was extinguished.
During the 6-months that I was a Forest Fire-Fighter for Angell JCC, we worked on about eight (8) fires, and each fire-fighting job lasted 1-week or more. We fought forest fires all over Oregon, and we worked for the Siuslaw National Forest, but we were paid by the USDA Forest Service... I truly enjoyed being a forest fire-fighter for three reasons: (1) the companionship I had with my fire crew members, (2) the adventure of fighting different fires in different places, and (3) the satisfaction of knowing that I had done something worthwhile... Note: As an entrepreneur I am always looking for a good business opportunity to pursue, or a good job opportunity to make money so that I can use some of that money to pursue a good business opportunity. The latter was my initial motivating reason for joining the Angell JCC fire-fighting crew... I had saved all of my fire-fighting money, so I had some money in my bank account when I later made my move down to the Stewards Training facility...
Stewards Training in Santa Rosa, CA was a co-ed (90% men) residential facility where cooking students from several different Job Corps centers around the country went to learn advanced cooking, baking, butchering, and waitering. (I was still a member of Job Corps while I attended Stewards Training.) I completed the Stewards Training cooking school in 5-months, so my total Job Corp experience had lasted a little over 11-months. What led me down quite a different path than I had expected when I joined Job Corps, was the fact that after I finished Stewards Training, I received my Merchant Marine License and I was a certified 2nd Cook & Baker qualified to work on merchant ships (Freighters, Tug Boats, Oceanographic Research, Oilers, & Passenger Ships). Without getting into all the details, I shipped out of San Francisco and Oakland, CA as a Merchant Seaman for eight (8) years, I traveled around the world at least three times working on many different types of ships, and I visited many different countries and continents along the way. I worked for two merchant marine unions: the SIU and the MSC. While I worked for the SIU union I was a Merchant Seaman, and while I worked for the MSC union I was a Civil Service Seaman... The longest period of time that I worked on one ship was for 18-months on the Unrep Oiler named USNS MISPILLION. I visited many Far East countries while working on the USNS Mispillion (photo #2 & photo #3: the ship in the middle).
SideNote: After I completed the Stewards Training advanced cooking school in early 1974, I was offered a job as a Baker's Helper at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel Casino in Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada. I decided to take that job to get some real world cooking and baking experience before I started my career as a Seaman... Therefore, I lived and worked in Lake Tahoe for one year before I finally moved down to San Francisco, CA, and caught my first ship, which was named the Santa Maria (a freighter/passenger ship). There were four sister ships (Santa Mariana, Mercedes, Maria, and Magdalena), so they were all built exactly the same way. I eventually traveled and worked on three of those sister ships, but not the Mercedes.
I made very good money as a Merchant Seaman, so I definitely did not need to earn extra money, but my entrepreneurial desire was so strong that I had to do something to satisfy it. Therefore, I looked through my business opportunity magazines for any business that I could start and operate during my shipboard off-duty hours. I chose to sell Mason and
Stuart McGuire shoes from their respective shoe catalogs. It was an easy business to operate, because all I had to do was loan out catalogs to my fellow shipmates and wait for them to come back to me with their order. I had no idea whether or not my shipmates would like the shoe styles or the shoe prices, but to my surprise I received my first order within 24-hours. Soon thereafter I started to receive several orders almost every week, so I purchased a few more catalogs to loan out... Most of my customers paid me after they received their order, so I had to use my own money upfront. My procedure for processing orders was to first fill-out the order form for my customer (or the person would fill-out their own order form), and double-check it to be sure that it was correct. Then I would mail out a few orders together once a week at our ship's post office (at sea or in port) to the proper shoe company. Lastly, after I received each shipment of shoes back in the mail, I delivered them to my customers rooms on the ship and collected my payment in full. I never had any problem collecting my money, because my shipmates really needed the shoes that they ordered from me, due to the fact that they could not find those same shoes in foreign country shoe stores. I was a shoe salesman on three different ships during the last two years of my merchant marine career, and I averaged approximately $150.00 a week in profit for basically doing next to nothing.
P.S. My Job Corps/Stewards Training, Cooking/Culinary Arts, Merchant Seaman, and Civil Service Seaman careers ended over 20-years ago.
After I stopped shipping, I had more time and money to pursue my entrepreneurial activities. I had more time only because I had better time management skills, and I had more money simply because I had saved some money. To make a very long story short, as an adult I participated in many different types of money-making programs, and I started many different types of businesses... Here is a list of some of the programs I joined, and some of the businesses I started: Mail Order product sales, Multi-Level Marketing programs, Vinyl Repair, Mortgage Reduction Plan sales, 900 number sales, Mail Order Jewelry Appraisals, Circular Mailing sales, Quit Smoking program sales, Mail Order Typesetting sales, Accept Checks-by-Phone program sales, Home Assembly, Mail Order Printing sales, Fast Food Coupon Book sales, Diamond sales, Photo Taker, Shoe Catalog sales, Lost Keys program sales, Mail Order Mailing List sales, Travel Club Membership sales, Dog Training program sales, TV Projector Lens sales, Wholesale/Discount Cigarette sales, Mail Order Book sales, Curb-Address Painter, Surplus Merchandise Locator, How-To-Buy-A-Used-Car mailorder booklet sales, Catalog Mailing product sales, Heavy Equipment Locator, etc. I made money with some of the above businesses and programs, and I lost money with some of them. As a true entrepreneur I understand that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but overall I finished financially ahead. Note: From 1982 to 1999 I worked off and on, with a few different companies, as a Professional Commissioned Courier (PCC) to support my entrepreneurial "habits". One of the courier companies that I worked for as a Driver/Courier was Western Messenger in San Francisco, CA.
I published a Mail Order/Multi-Level Marketing magazine for seven years from 1985 thru 1992. The name of my magazine was Mail-Courier Express (M-CE), and M-CE was a two-color 40-page magazine that was bulk-mailed to a bi-monthly circulation of 10,000+. The advertising rates for 10,000+ circulation in M-CE was $12.00 for a 1" Ad thru $135.00 for a 8 1/2" X 11" Ad. The M-CE subscription rate for the USA was $12.00 per year. I also created a very unique Mail-Courier Express subscription package that included some free advertising, discount advertising, and discount typesetting, plus several discount coupons for other useful products and services. The sub-headline for my M-CE subscription package was: The Ten Best Subscriber Bonuses In Mail-Order!! My M-CE subscription package was also known as: "THE WORLD'S BEST SUBSCRIPTION OFFER!!" Last but not least, the M-CE Magazine subscription package included A Free 50% Affiliate Commission Dealership (plus renewals) for selling subscriptions... Anyone who subscribed and wanted to earn an income by selling subscriptions received an additional package of many different camera-ready ads & circulars to use for advertising & mailing. I received a lot of praise & prestige during the seven years that I published M-CE Magazine, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of being a Mail Order/MLM magazine publisher. However, due to rising printing and postage costs coupled with my much lower profit margin and cash flow, I was eventually forced to stop production of my magazine. All of the above mentioned programs and businesses in the previous two paragraphs were opened and closed by me at different times 15 to 20 (or more) years ago... For 5-years (1999-2004) I managed my own successful prepaid phone card sales-route business here in the Bay Area of northern California. I owned and operated some prepaid phone card vending machines, and I sold prepaid phone cards over-the-counter at many grocery stores, gas stations, smoke shops, discount stores, hair salons, etc... From April/2005 thru April/2006 (one year), I was the owner/admin of a website named SurfCityAutoSurf which paid members 1% per day to autosurf (view) 50 members websites. That website, SurfCityAutoSurf, was my pride and joy at that time, but I had to close it due to the StormPay processor/12DailyPro autosurf fiasco, and the fact that I was hospitalized for 4-weeks in early 2006 with a kidney disease. After I was released from the hospital, I had to recuperate at home by taking a very heavy dosage of antibiotics everyday for another month to assure that the kidney disease did not return. Those antibiotics kept me in a constant state of disorientation and sluggishness, so it was impossible for me to perform any admin duties, in addition to the fact that the website funds were lost/stolen by StormPay/12DailyPro and other income sources, as I already mentioned above. Updates: (1) I have been working a '9 to 5' once again (from 6/2006 to the present) as a Professional Commissioned Courier (PCC) for T.A.G., due to the fact that I lost my internet income in 2006 when I was ill for two months with a kidney disease. I am not an employee, I am an independent contractor (self-employed) with T.A.G., so I can come and go (work) as I please. Therefore, I am free to pursue entrepreneurial activities whenever I choose to. (2) My daughters, as referred to in the first paragraph, are not teenagers anymore, they are now adults in their mid to late 20's. (3) In April of 2008, I got married for the second time to my beautiful wife Valerie Gilliam... So now you know most of my entrepreneurial story, and I appreciate the fact that you took the time to read it. Please continue your current tour of this website, come back and visit here at NetProfit Update News everyday, and do not hesitate to contact me if I may be of service to you now, or at any other time in the future. P.S. If you are one of the many people who use this Thank You, Andre/Admin "YOU must Train Your Brain
to do The Right Thing or YOU will Be The One to Suffer The Pain." -Andre' Gilliam- ©Copyright (6/15/91) all rights reserved Seaman - Job Corps - Entrepreneur - Cooking - Junior Achievement - Youth Corps - College - Mail Order - Phone Cards - Courier - Autosurf - Magazine - Business - Ships - Cherry Picker - Paper Route - Vending Machine ©Copyright 2003-2012 NUN (NetProfit Update News) Listings. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. This website including all contents is ©Copyright 2003-2012. No part of this website may be copied, reproduced, and/or distributed in any form by any means either orally, hardcopy, electronically, or otherwise without the express written permission of the site owner: NetProfit Update News. Note: Links to this website are welcome. Privacy Policy Ezines
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