Dirt 05 said:

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Lots of lessons, but for some reason this is the only quote that has stuck with me for 20 years.

"Never, and I mean never, invest in a race horse"
-Management information systems prof circa 2005

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I spent a lot of time in Lexington last fall during Keenland and saw tens of millions of dollars being thrown around on these horses. I was out at Hill N Dale who owns 20% of Curlin. Curlin was originally purchased for ~$60K and now commands a $250K stud fee. Of course, for every Curlin there are ten thousand bottles of glue.

I learned no one cares about you. Everyone is just doing what they can to make a buck and go home and watch some slop on TV. Better figure it out yourself and look after yourself because you're alone.

Dr Lynn Gillette - Economics circa 1989

(in a very south carolina southern drawl) "always be pre-par-ed.... when you come to MY class, you betta always be pre-par-ed!"

wrap it up

the nominal dimensions of a 2x4 are 1 1/2 x3 1/2. was at a construction manager conference with a new firm a few years after graduation, a c-suite guy (Ag) MC'd the thing. tradition for the conference had him roast the new guys. he called me out of the crowd, had me stand up and asked me about lumber. i answered confidently per Bullet Bob Segner's teachings and he moved on to the next guy. almost 20 years later, that guy is my professional hero.

Stay out of the steam tunnels. They mean it.

When your eyes are closed and you're in the dark, The colors are all the same

Intro to food science

Prof "I've been in hundred of factories. Studied all types of problems and issues. Every meat supplier you can think of, and the only thing I won't eat is a hot dog"

I learned that fat, drunk and stupid was no way to go through life.



But seriously, I was a terrible college student. However, A&M taught me that working hard and never giving up are key attributes for a successful life.

Most valuable lesson at A&M? When you see a hole in the stall of one of toilets in the liberal arts building….

***DO NOT LOOK IN It****

The Gifts I Can Never Repay! There are Several Gifts I Can Never Repay, first is Salvation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Second is my Precious Wife, and Third came from the Physics Dept at A&M in the fall of 1969. I am an OLD, class of '70. In 1969 was a Junior in the Corps on Army Contract, headed for Vietnam, and a Physics major. They had all of us juniors in physics come into the big physics lecture room. They ask for everyone that was going to stay for a Pn. D. in physics to hold up their hands. I was headed for Nam in the US Army, ho Ph.D. for me. They took those guys into another room. That left us BS in Physics guys together. They told us the job opportunities for a BS in Physics were to be a High School Science teacher or Safety officer in a Nuc Plant. YUCK!!!!! I made the change to Petroleum Engineering and have never looked back.

That meeting changed my life for the BEST! Thank You to the Physics Dept. for the foresight and courage to tell us what lay ahead if we stay on our present course. That is truly a Gift I Can Never Repay!!!!!

Learned how to learn. And eventually learned I should have done a lot of different things sooner in life. Instead, I taught those lessons to my son. He's 18 years old with 4 streams of income and just bought a house. I had a great college experience and wanted the same for him, but it's not for him. He's 3 months into U Ark and he's seen enough. Ready to scale his businesses and get after it.

I don't think I have ever heard of anyone under 20 owning a house.

In the darkness of a November morning in 1999, I learned that there is no place in the world that is too dark to be illuminated by self-sacrificial courage.

Marauder Blue 6 said:

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My biggest lesson is that I should've been in the Corps. I regret not giving it more thought and letting a few less than stellar impressions turn me away.

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Ditto

agwrestler said:

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Marauder Blue 6 said:

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My biggest lesson is that I should've been in the Corps. I regret not giving it more thought and letting a few less than stellar impressions turn me away.

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Ditto

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To this day, I thank my Dad '54, and still with us, for forcing that decision. "Son, I'll pay for your college, but only if you go to A&M and join the Corps for two weeks, minimum. Then if you want out, fine, but that's the deal." To this day, I'm thankful for that ultimatum and being driven to Duncan and walked to a dorm, to which I was instructed to report. The outcome taught me a lot about leadership and comradery, bad and good, and it stays with me in one form or another 41 years later. I built on it, sure, but that was the great real start. Plus, I now have a tremendous network and group of guys, that to this day, I can rely on until I pass.

Doing athletics and engineering I learned how to prioritize, work efficiently and listen to my body when I could take on more work or needed to relax and not get burnt out.

We had a guest speaker for an Ag Econ class and the speaker went off on a tangent talking about real estate and how we are sitting on a gold mine in BCS and we should all be purchasing as much real estate closest to campus first and we should convince our parents to buy up as many rental properties. He said "mortgage everything and max out credit cards, because one day you'll look up and be so rich with residual income that you'll never have to work again".

At the time the only thing that stuck with me was why on earth would I max a credit card out to buy real estate...this guy is crazy (and I remember our professor looking at him like this is horrible advice for college students).

Fast forward 20+ years out of school and now own 10 rental properties (4 in BCS) that were all purchased within the last 5 years. If I would have started purchasing 20+ years ago, they would all be paid off and I would have double/triple the portfolio we have now and could quasi retire from my 9-5.

Damn that guy knew something we all didn't.