Immediately after getting off active duty, I started a small business helping other small businesses automate their finances, inventory, and payroll. Working with a wide variety of local small businesses was key to my future success - I learned so much from each venture. Along the way, I started to focus on the medical billing for doctors and small clinics in Northern Virginia. It was an incredible experience growing it to 14 employees. Also exhausting - having to make a sale in order to make payroll - which I proudly brag having never missed in all my business life. Yes, there were times when I didn’t pay myself, but I was determined to never put my employee finances in jeopardy. In 1990 I accepted an offer to buy the company which put me back into the world of start-of-the-art technology — just a the Internet was coming into play. I eventually sold Medical Office Networks to a larger firm for a nice payday for myself and several of the key employees. Moving on…
The following year, I was dating a woman who owned her own real estate company in Northern Virginia, who encouraged me to get a license that would free me from legal rules on things an unlicensed person was prohibited. When we broke up, I worked as an agent simply because it provided for a good income with maximum flexibility in the day. Hello golf. Hello travel. The easy life.
Along the way, I was also able to get into some state of the art networks & systems, keeping my tech skills state-of-the-art.
Tired of real estate, I was recruited by the North Carolina Hospital Association, where I eventually visited every hospital in all 100 counties to encourage them to get onto the internet. Honestly, we were too early. The IT staff at most hospitals were already at capacity and few were interested in the new technology that didn’t have a clear immediate ROI. That said, there aren’t many states that are as beautiful as NC: Mountains to seashore — so I didn’t mind traveling on a corporate expense account regardless.
In the interim, I somehow ended up for 6-months working for Lockheed Martin where I helped the EPA get more up-to-date with their online technology. Just a J.O.B. for a while as I considered opportunities in a variety of industries.
Then Back to Navy at Wash Navy Yard after being pursued by a RADM who insisted I was the only guy who could come back as a senior civilian as a GS-15 Director to run the 87-unit NAVSEASYSCOM (the Navy’s builder and maintainer of all ships and their weapon systems).
We moved to Annapolis on Back Creek which leads directly into the Chesapeake Bay, so sailing was expected. And we learned first hand the old phrase “The two best days in the life of a sailboat owner: The day you buy and the day you sell.” Loved it and wondered why we spent so much for so few days of pleasure.
A few years later, while helping a brother and sister with some ONLINE real estate, I formed Our Maryland Home Team LLC as Team Leader to pursue real estate in Maryland which still exists today. I then branched out to helping other real estate agents develop their own independent lead generation systems, particularly with first time home buyers. With technology being what it is today, I’m able to travel and temporarily relocate to avoid cold weather! That’s my definition of The Good Life.
I continued the dual life: Senior cybersecurity GS15 for Navy while simultaneously running a small real estate team until retiring from all in 2017. Yep, only 49-continuous years serving USNavy, more than enough. From there, I enjoyed annual road trips - mainly focused on National Parks until 2019 when we decided to move closer to our son in Southern California - Ojai then Ventura. After 5-years of nearby wildfires, we decided to try Santa Fe - and are loving it.