corkym
6-6-15, 11:08pm
This is about how the teacher became the student. We raised our son the best we could with the little we had. But after watching what he has done with his adult life, my husband and I are learning from him. Through his own experiences he discovered very early in life he did not want to be a servant to a time clock, a demanding unjust boss, and small paychecks that just managed to keep your head above water. At 19 he was on his own with only a year of college under his belt and trying to make ends meet working in menial jobs. At 19 he quit college and started his own business. He pounded the pavement, he didn't stay home submitting resumes online, he got out there and met people and knocked on doors. He worked hard. He made the right contacts, read a lot of books on business and kept a great sense of humor. He married a like minded girl and in a few years they both through trial and error found that they wanted to be completely debt free. They had a baby and Tanner dug his feet in and started paying down debt. They simplified everything, worked hard at paying everything off and saving quite a bit of money. They are in their mid 30's and have been completely financially free for about 4-5 years now. They still drive one second hand vehicle, buy their clothes at garage sales and are able to give freely and generously to others that need help. Tanner still has his business but was able to downsize and now has the freedom to pursue his passion, collecting and making custom sports cards. Tanner has a real gift of making people laugh and of writing about his experiences. His hero since he was 9 has been Jose Canseco. The bad boy of baseball. Canseco has had a poor image of always being in trouble these last few years. It took a little over a year of Tanner trying to track him down for a private signing. He wanted to get his autographs on his custom cards and other different items. Things never worked out. It was quite a story on what happened about 3 wks ago when he received an email from Canseco's mgr. "Can you be here in Vegas on Sat.". Tanner dropped everything, packed his wife and son up in the car along with several pieces of items he wanted signed and hopped in their minivan and were on their way. He still didn't know where in Vegas he was going and was having all kinds of things swirling in his head. What if he cancels, what if he is a jerk to me, what if I don't hear anything. Driving from Houston to Las Vegas gives you a long time to think. If the manager did get back with him Tanner assumed they would meet in a public place and that Canseco's attention would be divided between him and other fans. Then around Arizona he rec'd a text. "Can you be at Jose's house at noon? Here is the address." Unbelievable. One of the stars of baseball was inviting Tanner and his family to his house. Then Tanner started having things swirl in his mind again, Canseco was probably going to meet him in the garage with shades on and earbuds in his ear and then yell at him to get off his lawn. But at least he could get his all of his items signed. They get to his house and ring the doorbell and his beautiful fiance' answered. Very sweet, very gracious and invited them all in. "The Cuban Hulk" came out to meet them and showed them to the kitchen table so he could start signing. About 30 minutes later when he was done Tanner knew their business was over but instead Canseco and his fiance took them upstairs and he played some card games with him and showed him a video of homeruns that hadn't been seen before and narrated it to him, they took them to see their tortoises and dogs and gave them refreshments. He spent over 2 hours with them. Couldn't have been any nicer. There is a lot more to this story and this is already too long, but it is just to encourage everyone to keep paying down your debt, become financially free and you will have the freedom to pursue whatever you want. Oh and Tanner was featured on the front page of the number one sports card publication in the nation and has rec'd over 300 responses about the story he wrote up about this adventure. Everyone was so excited to hear that Canseco was such a nice guy and several people said that Tanner's story turned their thinking around about him. If Tanner had stayed in debt and didn't work hard at it he would never in a million yrs have had this opportunity. When opportunity comes knocking we need to be prepared and ready to open the door. So keep living simply and frugally, it really is the door to freedom.