Well it wasn’t the end of my story, just the end of that story, which needed to happen. And you’re familiar with my motto that if you don’t plan the end, it will end badly. This event sealed that. I had always kept that avenue in my life open because I live my life as a gamble and I was just naturally good at hustling. I didn’t want to live that way, I got out by the skin of my teeth back in the nineties, but when my marriage and (consequently) my business ended in the early 10s, I stumbled on an old friend who never left the game. He’d lost some key players and was like “I can get you everything back and then some” it was just too tempting. So when we went to the show in the mountains we were celebrating, I had brought back the money and was done done. I was leaving two days later and he needed all hands available to trim a harvest. So I helped. And then I was leaving. AND THEN he hits me with “I’ve got something special, some of the best I’ve ever grown, but there are a few seeds in it and I can’t sell it here or they’ll get my genetics”. So I agreed to take one more load. But this time I paid up front so I didn’t have to come back.
After I got caught I could have gone back to work but he offered to keep me up and have me help on the ranch because it was closer to court. When it was all done I had the option to stay out there and run something big with no more driving or direct sales. But two strong personalities in the same place doesn’t usually work well and our friendship ended violently. Nothing crazy. That was just one more step for me separating myself from my past. It’s all a good thing. I’m not sad about any of it.
I learned some long overdue lessons in jail in regards to having to accept things you can’t do anything about. A flaw in my personality is my willingness to do unreasonable things to reach my goals. In jail, you can’t really do that. Or, I should say, I met my limit.
Also, you are stuck with people. You HAVE to learn to get along. You can’t run people off, you can’t skip town, you have to make it work