50 year old Children

The holidays and the new year are personally enjoyable but are a pain in the ass for work. January is the month which truck plates must be renewed and as usual NOT ONE person has saved the money to pay for them. So I am left to be responsible and pay for every ones plates which on average is probably around $1800 per truck. One guy is actually going to trade in his truck for a newer one and the biggest reason is his truck needs brakes, tires, and some other repairs and maintenance. He has been paid $30,000 for the last 6 months and doesn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. Now $30,000 in 6 months isn't exactly getting rich, but it is a livable income and that is paid to him, no taxes coming out of that. His money management is nonexistent and has no clue how to run a business which is what he does. He doesn't even have a checking account for his business. The week of Christmas I mailed his check on Monday and he usually gets it two days later at the most. Well this week it didn't get there before Christmas and he calls me on Christmas Eve all upset that he didn't get his paycheck and he can't buy his kids presents and that I ruined Christmas. I (as calmly as I could) explained that I don't work for the post office and wasn't my fault in the least. I should have told him to manage his money so he wouldn't live paycheck to paycheck but I'm 29 years old and I don't think I should have to explain to a 50 year old man the concept of money management. His wife doesn't work and hasn't for the 3 years I've known him so it's not because of the economy that she isn't working. Now that's none of my business but when he doesn't even have money for expenses that truckers incur on a daily basis and I have to advance him the money then gets pretty tiresome.

I know what it's like to be part of a business that failed and realize that small business owners need to be fiscally responsible and need plenty of good luck as well. I pay myself a fairly small wage and spend as little as I can out of the business. My company was not paid $21,000 due to companies going out of business and there is little recourse I can pursue to get these funds. I'm still able to continue because of proper money management and not think that because there is alot of money in my business account that any of that is mine personally. The trucking industry is such that we handle a large amount of money but only an extremely small percent of that is ours to keep. This is due to the cost of the truck payments, insurance, fuel, and trailer payments. Sure I would love to get a nice new vehicle to replace the one that is taking a shit on me and just make the payments for it out of the business, but it's just not the smart thing to do. I probably wouldn't even notice the $500 a month payment for a new car, but I've only been in business a little over a year and I haven't earned the reward of a new car yet. I've heard something like 50% of small businesses fail in the first 2 years and 90% fail within the first five years. These are not exact numbers but the point is that a VAST MAJORITY fail. Why am I going to be any different? I think many of these people think that "I'm different and I KNOW what I'm doing." Well the unfortunate part is I'm not different than many of the people who have failed. I think that I could do everything perfect and my business could still fail. Every month there are several brokers that go out of business and if they happened to be some of my bigger accounts then I would be screwed. So what gives me the right to piss money away on a new car if I could do a perfect job and my business still fail? I believe that this is where many small businesses fail, not necessarily a new car but things that are not a business necessities. I've made it through my first year in business and hope to give this same speech in 12 months!

Playing better pool is between my ears?

I practice stop shots, draw shots, power draw shots, follow, running follow, kill shots, banks, pinch banks, play the ghost, and as important as all these are-playing my best pool is in my head. I've been reading some material on the importance of a pre-shot routine and it's really helped my game tremendously. I started with one and it's now evolved into my greatest asset. About a month ago I went and played in a tournament in Ft. Collins with THE BEST players Colorado has to offer. I played well and finished just out of the money, being beaten by the players that finished 2nd & tied for 12th in a 64 man field. This was the first use of my pre-shot routine. What I mean by pre-shot routine is doing the exact same thing every time and clearing my head before I get down to shoot. If I'm thinking about what I want to do, I can't do it and neither can you...confused??? So I started with lining up my shot by pointing my stick at exactly where I wanted to hit the cue ball, back to my cueball and did this as many times as needed. Now I was ready to get down on my shot and I thought that I stroked it best with exactly 4 warm up strokes so I would count these 4 and then fire. This could at times be a lengthy process and thought I needed to tweak it. So after some research I found a column by a doctor/poolplayer he stated in a nutshell that we need to have all the info "input" in our brain and then stop thinking about it and produce the results. So the problem with my pre-shot routine was when I was down to shoot the cueball I was counting my practice strokes. The doctor said that once you get down on the shot that ABSOLUTELY NO THOUGHTS should be in your head. So now I line up my shot, stand one step from where I want to approach the cueball, decide what english, what stroke, and the result I plan to attain from this shot. After I'm satisfied with all these things I'm now ready to get down on the shot. Once down on the shot, I do practice strokes til I'm comfortable, not counting them. When I'm playing well nothing gets in my head at all, however sometimes this damn voice says you're gonna miss the shot, position, or whatever it may be. I'm learning to be disciplined and stand up and start all over again. It's easy to start over on a difficult cut or position leave but when it's a "gimme" then you think this is an easy shot and I can make it, but that's when you can miss a stupid shot. Another aspect this helps me in is that it keeps me in the moment. I can't count how many times I've gone through a rack making hard shots and perfect leaves and then missing an easy shot or easy leave with 2 balls to go because I was "about to break & run" this table. My pre-shot routine only allows me to think about THIS shot and what english, stroke, and leave I want to perform. A pre-shot routine has been the biggest addition to my game of all the things I have ever done.

Another late night

So I turn 29 today, and it's not that I feel older or going through a mid-life crisis but I'm not accustomed to being up until midnight for 2 nights in a row. I'm wiped out today and I want nothing more than to relax at home and go to bed pretty early tonight. It's funny how we look at what's "old" the older we get. I remember when I was 19 or 20 and thinking that being 30 was OOOOLLLLDDDD and that I would be married, have 2 kids, gray hair, and a mortgage. Well I've got three of those things and I'm still young and I still feel young(aside from the fact I've been constantly listening to my 3 disc George Jones CD I got for Xmas...LOVE IT!!). I didn't have any time table of where I wanted to "be at" when I was 29 or 30 or any certain age but I'm very satisfied where I'm at. I want kids but I don't feel like I have to have one like right now or anything. Although I was at the YMCA playing basketball the other day and little kids were having basketball practice and I thought about how much I would enjoy taking my kid to basketball practice or coaching him.

Pool league again last night and as usual it was a late night. For some reason our Wednesday night team plays our match on one table all night. Well this is a race to 13 games for a possibility of 25 games(for you math handicapped) played by deliberate and usually very good players. Some games are done in 2 minutes and some games take 20 minutes depending on the layout of the table and the style of player. We played the first place team and gave them a good asswhooping beating them 13 to 9. I was 3-2 on the night and played real well again. On two of the games my opponent broke dry and I ran out, another one my opponent broke and ran on me, and my most enjoyable game of the night was a tactical game against a STRONG player that he won. He left me a shot that I looked at for what seemed like 10 minutes(probably like 2-3) that I didn't see a way I don't sell out the game and sure enough I did. Very enjoyable game and my opponent was a real nice guy coming over and discussing the game and the specific shot afterward.

After the match was over one of the guys on our team says "that could have been a thousand dollar match." Meaning that 1st place pays like $1000 more than second place or somewhere close to that. I look at this different than him and most people. Here's the way I see it, I pay my $20 yearly dues and $10 per week and I see this as entertainment costs. I'm in no way shape or form looking at this as some sort of investment opportunity or secondary income. Of course the money is a nice perk at the end of the session but I don't think about it during the session.

I'm leaving for Vegas next Thursday afternoon and I'm trying to get everything situated at work. I haven't missed a day of work since I started my business last December. My dad is going to watch things for the 2 days I'll be gone but I'm pretty nervous about not being at work. I will have everything lined out for Friday and possibly Monday and he may not need to do anything. But when it comes to my work I am a control freak and need to be in charge to make sure everything is done. I'm not building cabinets or sending someone to the moon here and everything will be fine without me for a couple and probably several days but we are who we are.

Tuesday night league.

So I played this guy in league last night who is a really, really good player. I played really good, not great by any means I missed some dumb shots, but really good overall. I ended up beating the guy 7-5. I know that he is a better player than I am and if we played 10 times he'd probably come out winner probably 7 times. He was just a jackass during and after our match. He would "complain" really loud that "His speed was off", "I can't make anything on the break", "He's out now", and one that I actually commented on as it really pissed me off was when he broke dry and I ran out. After the game he said "You got out and took the WRONG balls" and I told him that it appears that I took the right ones since I got out. Then he said "Well you almost screwed yourself upthere" (pointing at where I didn't leave myself the best, not terrible actually) and to that I simply said "horseshoes and handgrenades" which ended that conversation. So anyhow after the match he was bugging me to play him for money. Now I don't mind if a guy asks me once to play him for money to which I said "no, not now". But he asked me a 2-3 more times that night and to cap off the night after my friend and I were done playing on our hourly table I tossed my friend a couple bucks to pay for the table and he goes "YOU ARE PLAYING HIM FOR MONEY!?!? My reply was "no and it's really none of your fucking business" He is a really good player and he didn't play his best and I played well and won. That doesn't mean that I'm better than him or think that I am. He was so annoying.

Now as far as my game went I am pretty happy about several aspects of my play. The first is that I tend to lay up when I get well ahead or behind. I got out to a 4-1 lead and stayed on the gas. I subconsciously think that I'm great and I don't need to try that hard to win because hey I'm kicking this guys ass. I don't purposely think this and it never enters my mind but that is the only explanation I can come up with. It's pretty harsh and a little embarrassing but I want to be hard on myself to keep myself from laying up. I didn't break and run any tables but I did run 3 after he broke dry, one in 8 ball and the other two in 9 ball. I came real close to a break in run in 8 ball but my cue ball ran about 1/2 inch too far and couldn't see all of the the 8 ball. I made a kickass 45 degree cut all the way up the table and my cue ran to the side rail, across to the side rail and up and out to the middle of the table but just a tiny bit too far-BUMMER. I also broke the balls well, only coming up dry once the whole match. I was AWFULLY disappointed in my safety play. They were bad speed and hooked him almost never, need to work on that and my speed for sure. My pre-shot routine was good, I took my time on all shots. Whether it was moving chairs to get comfy or just lining up my shot several times if need be.

I will do it allover again tonight although it's a different team, different rules, and different format. I prefer the format of my tuesday night league to wednesday but I enjoy the rules and wednesday night team more. Everyone takes it pretty serious and I like that. I take my getting better pretty serious and enjoy an atmosphere like this more than I do my Tuesday night team. One of my mental pitfalls is I don't like to converse when I'm playing seriously. Which I guess isn't a pitfall in and of itself but when one of my teammates does talk to me I allow myself to get of the "zone" and I don't stay down on shots and don't totally focus. This does tend to happen more on Tuesday nights and probably because one of the guys is a great friend of mine and I enjoy his company and our conversations ALOT. So in a perfect world I would play my match without a word spoken, but in reality I need to get this problem under control. I can appreciate that people do not take this as seriously as I do, as they don't or can't practice as much as I do and might not want to. Some people are satisfied with their current playing ability or don't/can't put in the time to get better as this doesn't happen overnight. I have this thing in me that has to be the best at whatever I do, I have a hard time just "going out there and having a good time." I can have absolutely no more than 2 hobbies at one time, right now and almost always pool totally consumes me. I enjoy playing, reading about people who played it, watching it on TV, and am fascinated by the mental side of it. The last part of that sentence I believe is a HUGE part of the game and if I can, for lack of a better word, "master" it I believe my level in play will rise dramatically.

And by the way I got talked to one of the companies that owed me money and the guy told me the check went out on the 8th. My reply in an annoyed and frustrated voice was I hope it did because I was told on the 4th that it had already gone out. He says I don't like your attitude and you're basically calling me a liar. I stayed pretty calm and said I was either lied to or given false information by the accounts payable person last week (not the person I was speaking to now, I believe he was the boss actually) and wasn't calling HIM a liar and surely he could understand MY point of view and where I was coming from... He could not and hung up on me. They take over 50 days to pay, lie to me about when they sent they money, and get pissed at me for wanting to know when I will get the money they OWE ME!! Unfuckingbelievable!! Pissing me off all over again.

Today sucks!!

Every Monday I get my invoice aging report from my factoring company. There were 3 invoices over 40 days old I had to call on. Well 2 of them I had called on last week and was give the classic "it's in the mail" line. Still no check from them so I'm calling them again and I get the classic "he/she's just stepped out of the office, leave a message and I'll have them call you back in a little bit" when I ask for A/P. STILL no phone calls back about 2 hours later so I'm calling them again.