Thank you Grandmother Musings at http://grandmothermusings.com/ for nominating and for and presenting this blog with The Inspiring Blogger Award. I enjoy her blog and recommend that you check it out.
One of the requests is to share 7 things about myself that my readers may find interesting. OK, here goes:
1. I was named after the little boy Rusty in the 1950’s in the TV show called RinTinTin.
2. I have Trigeminal Neuralgia. Along with Cluster headaches, the two maladies are known as the Suicide Diseases because they can be so painful that they’ve been know to drive…well, I think you get the idea. No worries, I don’t plan to go anywhere!
3. Both of my lungs kept collapsing–but not at the same time or I wouldn’t be here to tell you about it– when I was in my late teens and I needed surgery on both lungs that required spreading my ribs wide enough so that three hands could work inside my chest.
4. I’m a successful songwriter/lyricist who can’t sing, play an instrument, or read music. Most of my–actually our because they were all co-written with others–7 songs have been “picked up” by various music industry execs, but none have been “cut”–and “picked up is the first step in a long series of steps that most often goes nowhere, but many writers have never had a single song picked up so I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far. The reason I’m successful–by my definition (which is the only one I care about)–is that I love to write lyrics and I’m loving the adventure. To me that is what success is all about.
5. I am the founder of a successful investment management firm. It too started out as a hobby. I found I had a passion for investing, and a knack for it. Friends and family started giving their money to me to invest for them, and they suggested that I get into it as a profession. It took a lot of nagging, err, I mean enthusiastic suggestions, but they convinced me to come out of retirement, and I eventually did. I did it for free because I loved it so much, and now I’m getting paid to do what I loved to do for free. Life is good! Actually, I intentially have no minimum amount of assets requirements–which tends to be quite unusual in my line of work because most firms find that it is unprofitable to manage accounts or Clients with assets below a fairly high threshold. My firm takes a different approach. We don’t enforce any minimum. In that way people with small amounts of money can still get customized service. The end result is that about a third of the accounts we manage are not financially profitable for my firm. They are however, spiritually profitable, and I’m happy to do it.
6. One of my dreams was retiring early. I founded a company in 1988 that allowed me to essentially retire at the height of the dotcom boom when I was about 42 years old. My dream quickly became a nightmare as I found mysef very bored. I volunteered in an elementary school as a reading coach for youngsters who struggled with that subject, and taught subjects related to investing as a volunteer in a high school class, and while I found those activities to be valuable and somewhat interesting, I was still bored. The boredom was a great gift. I was able to learn very early that I wasn’t suited for retirement so I should find what I love to do, and then do it and never retire. That is why I let my friends and family talk me into offering my investment management services professionally. I’ve never regetted it since, and still love it! As it turns out, although the business that I’d founded in 1988 survived the dotcom bust, it never fully recovered, and I closed that business about 3 years ago. As that business had been the source of my income for early retirement, it turns out that it was fortuitous that I’d founded my investment business in early 2003.
7. I’ve been self-employed in a variety of businesses for nearly my whole adult life, starting when I was seventeen.
8. I’ve wanted to be a father and grandfather since I was in fourth grade. Since my early teens I’ve wanted to have two biological children and then begin adopting children who were physically disabled or from other countries and races. My Beloved shared the same dreams and they came true. She and I had two biological children and adopted a child from another country and race. Our family of 5 comprises races from 3 continents.
9. I initially started my blog simply as a way to share my songwriting adventure and songs, but I found that I love writing even more than songwriting so the blog has morphed into what you experience today.
OK, I know that is more than the 7 items requested, but I was on a roll and just kept going. I hope you found something of interest among these factoids.
I was also supposed to mention blogs I like, but I tend to already do that in various ways from reblogging, awards, shout-outs, etc, several times every week, so if you are interested in learning my favorite blogs “stay tuned”–that’s an old-timer saying meaning please stick around. ;-D!
Russ
Russ Towne's A Grateful Man 