CHAPTER FIVE
THE HERO!
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible”
Walt Disney
August 1981. Tony arrived back in Jaguariuna. He was now a superstar. His parents prepared a very big surprise welcome home party with all his family and friends. Everyone admired his courage. Living in the USA for one year by himself with no help from his parents.
September 1981. Mission: to bring the motorcycle from Buenos Aires to Jaguariuna. Tony believed that it would be easy to get the motorcycle from Argentina customs and bring it back. He flew to Buenos Aires, found a customs broker and began the process of clearing customs. He found then that it is almost impossible, because just like Brazil, that country requires all kinds of paper work. He had to talk with many authorities to get it clear, and finally he got it! He had run out of money but the customs broker liked him so much, that not only did he charge nothing for the service, but loaned him US $150.00 to get back home. Little did Tony know that all this knowledge would be very helpful in the future!
He left Buenos Aires on a very cold morning and started his trip back to Jaguariuna. The challenge now was to get a temporary permit at Brazilian customs. Luckily he had no trouble. There is lots of rain in the south of Brazil and finally after 2,000 miles he arrived in Jaguariuna. It was worthwhile, since he had lots of fun with the bike in Brazil. Since the import of autos and bikes had been forbidden since 1976, few people had this kind of bike in Brazil.
Thanks to his parents’ credibility he started his first new entrepreneur experience buying and selling cars. He would buy cars on a hold check basis and would sell it for a profit and then pay the seller.
He also made a new friend, Gary Nobel. He and Gary had a lot of fun together. Gary had many girlfriends, who he entertained at a little castle he had built in Jaguariuna.
Gary Nobel is an accountant in Jaguariuna and works for a jeans manufacturer.
He is about the same age of Tony and at that time he was going to the college. Tony had always admired him for his ability to conquer women. He was good! One day he would profoundly affect Tony’s life.
Everything was good back in Brazil, he could not complain. He was making good money, had lots of girlfriends, but something inside of him was calling him back to the USA. So in March of 1983 he decided to return to the US, this time to immigrate permanently. His visa had expired and he had heard that getting the visa over in Europe was easier than in Brazil, so he decided to go to Europe for 2 weeks and then return to the USA. He invited Gary to come with him, but Gary wanted to finish college. He promised Tony that he would meet him in Los Angeles when he finishes college.
Tony asked his Uncle Frederico (Mr. Ulysses’ brother) if he could borrow US $1,300.00, because he didn’t have enough to return to the States. Uncle Frederico lent him the money.
Uncle Frederico had always supported Tony in everything he had done. They have lots of empathy for each other.
He had fun in Europe, visiting Portugal, Spain, France and England. Staying in youth hostels he made many friends.
Tony had one particularly interesting adventure in Europe. In Paris all he could get was a hostel with a big room and thirty or so beds. He found that there was no way he would sleep there, afraid of having his personal belongings stolen. So he went to the front desk and complained. He said, “I want a single room.”
The clerk said that the only way to do so was if he pays for two people.
Tony smiled and said, “No problem I’ll pay it,” since it was only ten dollars more. So he got a single room on the second floor of the hostel. To his surprise there was an excursion of girls from Switzerland on the second floor. They were all blonde and beautiful, a Latino’s delight.
He asked some girls in the corridor, where the men’s shower was and they pointed to the only one available. He soon learned that it was shared when he walked in and saw all these naked women taking a shower. That was a Kodak moment! It really required a photo. Although this is very natural for Europeans, this was not natural for him, so he got very embarrassed and returned to his room to shower in private later.
Later he made friends with two of the girls and they went out for dinner; they had some wine, got drunk and had a wild night together. That was a fantastic moment! This alone made it worthwhile to come to Europe, he thought. Needless to say he will never forget this wonderful time!
He flew from London to New York. He really wanted to fly by the Concorde, but the ticket was very expensive. He visited his cousin who worked for Pan Am Cargo, got to know a little of New York and flew back to Los Angeles.
He arrived on a Thursday morning and went back to his job at Shake’s Pizza.
When he had gone home to Brazil the manager had told him, that if he came back one day, Tony would get his job back. So he went to check it out and to his surprise as he walked towards the door at about 10:00 A.M. the manager recognized him, opened the door and immediately asked, “When can you start?” He felt like the happiest guy on earth, and the same happened at the other restaurant (Sizzler Restaurant). He must have done something right.
It seemed as if he had never left Los Angeles. He returned to his old life. But he has never accepted what he has. He wants more, he wants to rise, and the only way is to get other jobs, so he keeps searching for new jobs and soon he gets a new opportunity.
Now as an assistant manager at the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Sierra Madre, he was eligible to be promoted to store manager in a few months. This was a pleasing prospect. The opportunity to be a manager. Wow! That would be great! he thought.
Everything went well; he got a place to live near work He loved his new job and dedicated all his time at the work always trying to improve the place. Sometimes he had to exchange chicken with the other KFC stores and he made friends with a girl, Christine, the Assistant Manager of the Monrovia KFC. He started to date her.
Some months went by and he got a new offer this time. This time from Charles Welch (Dominique’s husband) who offered him a job as a driver and personal assistant. There are some times when our ego speaks louder. Everything was going well at KFC, his promotion was just about to happen, he had worked in every store around, and he had made good friends with the local supervisor. But the driver personal assistant job sounded more glamorous and so was an offer not to be turned down. He accepted the offer, however, it would not last 90 days, even though with all that glamour he felt like a duck out of water. That was not his place yet.
He was on his way to work one day on the Harbor Freeway, when still working for Charles. While driving his Mustang in the fast lane he noticed a car parked on the right side of the freeway, and from his view he saw three flat tires. Tony kept looking at the parked car trying to solve the puzzle of how this car could have got three flat tires. All of a sudden the ongoing traffic stopped because of a typical LA freeway traffic jam and he crashed into the car in front of him. To make things worse he had no insurance. Later I will mention the result of this accident.
He tried to return to KFC, but was too late, he had lost his chance. So he found two new jobs at other restaurants, as a waiter and as a night attendant at a gas station.
Meanwhile he was still dating Christine. In one of his telephone calls to his mother in Brazil she kept saying that everyone around his age in the family was getting married. She was asking him when he would get married. At this time he held a student visa, and he wished to get his Green Card, resident status, although it made no difference for him at the time. So he added one thing to another, and one day he proposed to Christine. To his surprise she accepted immediately.
Christine Heinz was American born of German descent, 23 years old, brunette, beautiful brown eyes, a happy person, down to earth, always wanting to help everyone around her.
By now, he had learned that unlike Brazil, divorce in the USA was a very common thing. So he thought, if this doesn’t work, I will divorce. See, this is the thing, if something in your mind has a second option, trust me that will be the option it will take.
So as he decided to go ahead and get married, things really got serious; her family was Catholic and planned a big wedding. Tony’s family, his parents and two uncles with their wives came for the wedding. He was very happy to see his parents come over for the wedding, so he could show all the things he had discovered in Los Angeles. He couldn’t wait to share all this new learning, new places; it seemed his life was a mirror of his parents; he must share everything with them.
On his wedding day he was so happy to see his parents. But personally he didn’t really feel like the groom, but like somebody else at the wedding. His honeymoon was with his parents and uncle; they had lots of fun, but I am not so sure if Christine felt the same way. She did not speak Portuguese, and neither his parents nor his uncle could speak a word in English, but she always seemed to be happy.
The day his parents left, Tony felt, for the first time, a very strong emotion.. He always was the one traveling; he had never had anybody leaving him behind so there was an emptiness he had never felt before. He was sad.
Time went by and a new opportunity arrived. His new father-in-law worked in a very big printing company, George Rice & Sons in East Los Angeles that specialized in annual reports for major companies, such as Coca Cola, Arco and American Express. Tony then got a job as a clerk in the Shipping Department.
His duties were to fill out forms, ship goods out, replace drivers when needed, and also to pack goods at the warehouse. But he was not satisfied with that; he wanted to learn everything about the graphic arts company. So he managed to make friends at all the different departments and learned as much as he could. His favorite department was the Sales Department. Most of the salespeople would drive Porsches, Mercedes, BMWs, etc, and boy, that was what he was striving for. He wanted to be a printing salesperson in the near future.
Christine got pregnant and his marriage went as originally thought: Not well. They squabbled but Tony decided to make the best out of his marriage and they went on with their lives.
At work Tony was OK; always learning new things; his thirst to learn was impressive. So one day he was at his desk and his boss Javier, a Mexican guy, was talking on the phone. He heard his conversation with an old boss of his, and Javier was saying that he knows nobody at the moment. Tony was paying attention to the conversation and it sounded as if someone was looking for somebody to work, so Tony gently asked Javier what the conversation was about. Javier related that someone for whom he used to work was looking for a person to work as a shipping supervisor in this other printing shop. Tony instantly flashed a big smile and said, “Why don’t you refer me?” See, to understand a little, Javier did not really care much about Tony, because Tony was the son-in-law of his boss. So Javier said that he had no experience, so how can he refer him? Now, watch Tony’s reaction to this:
“Javier, I’ll make you a proposal; you call the guy right now, refer me for the job, and if I get the job I will pay you US $500.00. Don’t worry about the experience I know I can handle the job.”
The Mexican looked at him wide eyed , not believing what he had just heard, and reconfirmed with Tony. He turned back to his desk, phoned up his old boss and said, “I have just found the person you are looking for.”
For Tony, this deal made lots of sense; the salary he would get would be double, and a week of pay would be enough to pay Javier off. And he knew he could do the job. Not to mention he would get a higher position.
Bingo! No problem. Tony handled the job just fine. He was able to negotiate with transportation companies, got better deals and handled all the things that needed to be done. But he still was not happy; he wanted more. He really wanted the position of salesperson; he felt that if he could be a supervisor, why not be a salesperson. He had proved to himself he could do it. A semester went by and he got an interview in a small printing shop.
He went to the interview and although his English was OK by now, he still spoke broken English, but his determination and enthusiasm were stronger than ever. After the interview the Sales Manager (Oliver Jr.) thanked him for coming and he felt that was a no go.
So after he walked out the door, he came back just like Columbo does in the TV series and said, “I really want this job and I have some money saved. How much can I pay you to get me an opportunity to show you that I can do this job?”
For a moment there was silence in the room. I guess Oliver Jr. was trying to understand what was going on. He never had heard anyone with such determination. So he extended his hand to Tony and said, “You are hired. I never saw anyone wanting a job as bad as you. You deserve a chance.”
Well, he got it. He had no idea how to do it. Although he had a successful experience selling the cassettes tapes in Brazil, he never had tried to sell anything in the US, especially in English.
They say that the first thing you should do when selling something is to make the customer like you and trust you, and that seems like something that Tony could do very well. He knew the secret. And that made Oliver Jr. like him very much. So he decided to help him, as much as he could, and the first thing he did was to give a set of training tapes from a well know sales trainer in America, Tom Hopkins. When Tony began to listen to the tapes on his way home, he got the light in the top of his head. He thought, that’s it! That’s what I need!. So he spent the whole night listening to the tapes, and boy, that was the first time that someone showed him how to walk in place, and walk out with a sale!
After that he signed up for a 3-day seminar with Tom Hopkins, and that was unbelievable learning; he finally was where he wanted to be. This is what he needed to achieve success and money. He loved Tom Hopkins, got all his books and cassette tapes, and literally slept with it every night.
May 1985, Arthur Lima is born, first son of Tony and Christine. Tony was very happy, with his first kid, although his relationship was not working as well as he expected. In the meantime he brought his younger brother Richard, now 15, to study and live in Los Angeles with him.
The training at work was very intensive. Oliver Jr. signed Tony up for every kinds of training possible. And that was what Tony had dreamed about, to have a proper sales training.
Remember the traffic accident Tony had before? Well, now he was sued by the insurance company. He had just got his credit established in the US, and so he went to an attorney to find out what to do.
The lawyer recommended filing for personal bankruptcy (Chapter 7) otherwise there was no way he could walk out of this. Tony argued with him, saying that he had just established his credit, but the attorney assured him that bankruptcy was the way out.
This turned out to be bad advice, from an unprofessional lawyer. Tony had no properties, the worst case scenario would have been that Tony had to setup a payment plan. Not even mentioned was that the insurance company went out of business a year later. So Tony made his first big mistake in the US, filing for bankruptcy. He would be penalized for the next 10 years, lacking credit and being treated almost like a criminal.
Oliver Jr. really wanted to help Tony, knowing about his relationship not working well. He motivated Tony to participate in a seminar called “Life Springs” which is more like spiritual related training, showing you why we’re here, our life purpose, how we perceive all things that happen to us and relationships.
After this seminar Tony had decided to divorce; he realized that neither he or Christine was happy, so he believed even with his son Arthur being a little over one year old now, that divorce was the best solution.
So he has a long conversation with Arthur and explained that he believed that this was the best option and he would always love him, and no matter what they would always be father and son. That nobody ever will change that.
In the middle of this difficult period Tony was trying to sell printing jobs that required lots of knowledge, which of course, Tony did not have. Failure was a sure thing coming up. So he decided to return to Brazil until things cooled off a little.