What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

Looking back, I realize that I have fallen ass-backward into just about every aspect of my life. With one notable exception: More than three decades ago, a financial planner said to me, “Failing to plan, is planning to fail,” so I started to save for retirement.

Upon graduating from college, I had no plan, so I accepted an invitation from a college buddy to move from New York to Charlotte and rent an apartment together. I had a few thousand dollars, no car, and no connections. My first job was selling men’s suits in Eastland Mall, even though I had no sense of fashion and becoming a salesman was the farthest thing from my mind.

Eventually, I bought a car and landed a job at The Charlotte Observer. I applied to the paste-up department, but the hiring manager thought I was overqualified, so she shared my resume with the ad sales department, who needed an ad assistant. I got the role and eight months later, I applied for a sales position calling on car dealerships and real estate firms.

A few years into the job, along with two budding sportswriters, I started taking vacations to Major League Baseball stadiums. I pitched the idea of writing about our first trip to an Observer-owned magazine called BREAK. The editor bit, it was a cover story, and got some terrific feedback. Being young and foolish, I cashed in my 401K and decided I would write a travel guidebook about MLB ballparks and cities.

To say I had a strategy would be generous, but I visited friends and family around the country and started writing. I contacted publishers and one of them was kind enough to tell me that I was doing it wrong. Evidently, I needed to find a literary agent and there was a reference book called “Writer’s Market” that listed hundreds of them by specialty. I wrote to more than twenty of them. One responded with interest, guided me through the process, and got me a nice advance from Kensington Books.

The book was published and sold more than 10,000 copies. I wrote a revised second edition that also sold out, but the money was not exactly the “sit back and retire” revenue I was hoping for, so I went back to work.

Along the way, while taking a continuing education photography class at CPCC, I met Karen, the woman who would become my wife. After a few years of saving up for a down payment, we bought a house together in Steele Creek. Because of bad weather, it took forever to build and we got fed up with the process. Fortunately, the builder had the same model in a different neighborhood. It was move-in ready, located in a golf course community, and was in many ways nicer than what we originally purchased. Not what we had in mind, but we took it.

That decision led to meeting neighbors who found our first puppy running around on a nearby country road. We adopted him and have been dog owners ever since. We also became great friends with that couple. We traveled together to New Orleans, Belize, and St. John. We started going out to dinner with them once a month; alternating on choosing a place, driving to and from, and picking up the tab. It was a tradition that lasted fifteen years until the pandemic hit. These neighbors have since moved to the NC coast and we still visit each other regularly.

In 1997, I started selling for Charlotte magazine. And, I wrote for them on a freelance basis. As a side hustle, I worked for a company that supplied headsets for guests in suites at NASCAR tracks. On weekends, we traveled to tracks around the country and I got the idea to write another travel guide for NASCAR fans. Kensington picked it up and the book sold out even quicker than the baseball book, leading to even more writing opportunities.

After 6 years of working full-time at the magazine, I decided to move on and found myself in a new line of work, handling marketing for a small nonprofit organization. I did some of my very best work there, loved the mission, and enjoyed the work, even though the pay was merely adequate. I thought I was on the path to a non-profit marketing career until I got laid off along with several other staffers.

I took a job at our golf course as a marshal, working one day a week for minimum wage and playing golf with Justin for free the other six days. It was a glorious three-month stretch until a former client called to say he was leaving his job at WFAE 90.7FM and he thought I would be the ideal candidate. I had no plan to get back into sales or public radio, but the money was good, the product was solid, and I was certain I could learn the ropes. It was a leap of faith, but I came to love it and was the station’s top revenue producer by the end of my first year.

I was there for more than eight years before I once again got the itch for something new and decided to try my hand at selling public television. Downton Abbey debuted that year and became a hit, so we packaged it with other programs and garnered some terrific local sponsors. Luck was on my side once again, until it wasn’t. I butted heads with a new GM who didn’t hire me, but she sure as hell fired me.

I became a fan of public television documentaries while I was there and when I heard that The Double Door Inn was closing, I decided to produce a film to preserve the legendary club’s 43-year history as Charlotte’s home of the blues. Hardly a recipe for success, but I put together a team of people who had the skills that I lacked and we pulled it off. The film was picked up by UNC-TV for broadcast and streaming. It was also selected to be screened at six film festivals in the southeast. We had a blast making it and attending film festivals, but once again, it was time for another real job.

That’s when I landed at WDAV Classical Public Radio 89.9FM. That was more than seven years ago and despite knowing almost nothing about classical music, I had found my calling. Year after year, we exceed our goals and the future continues to look bright. Plus, I am working weekends as a fill-in marshal at the golf course and still writing, primarily for The Charlotte Ledger and SouthPark magazine.

From moving to Charlotte to becoming a salesperson; to writing books and magazine articles; to meeting Karen, getting married, buying a house in Mint Hill; and producing a documentary, none of it was ever planned, it all just fell into place along the way.

While I failed to plan so many aspects of my life, I could not be happier with how it all turned out so far. Hopefully, the only long-term planning I ever did will allow for a retirement that’s as enjoyable as the road getting there.