Questions and answers. Volume One.

Hey Christy! I'm glad to see you are starting something of your own, I'll definitely check out whatever you decide to place down as content when you get it up and running. Forgive me, I just did a quick click on your name after you stated you went "no-so-anonymous" and a simple view. Thanks for letting me know by the way, I would have likely not even noticed that in your comment. =)

Okay, the name Beefcake. It's a pretty stupid story actually. It has to do with the Comedy Central animation, 'South Park'. Yeah, I know, lame, but I've been an avid fan since College. The episode where Cartman was taking supplements and screaming, "BEEFCAKE!" all the time was hilarious, so it spilled over to my twisted sense of humor when I'd go to the gym. It always got laughs when I screamed it out loud while lifting, thus everyone kind of starting calling me that because of how retarded it was, plus I could do his voice fairly well. All of my old online personas followed suit in user names and I guess I never really strayed from that. Yeah, dumb, I know, but that's the truth.

Macho; probably. I used to watch professional wrestling as a kid and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake was one of my favorites, (OMG! I am getting old!) so maybe that was also hidden in my psyche when I happened upon that South Park episode.

Cooking related; nope. I knew it was some sort of food substance though have never experienced (as far as I know) that type of cuisine.

As far as revealing my last place of employment; YES! It is definitely one of the two. =) I figured it was an easy answer, though still hesitate to state specifically which. I'm still not sure how binding the laws are when signing policies for employment, and even though I'm not fabricating or embellishing anything, I suppose it could still be considered libel. I have no physical proof to back up anything I have written so far, so, if the franchise caught wind of me publically defaming the corporation, I could quite possibly suffer some consequences. I just don't want to completely risk it, yet. But you betcha it is one of those two! The first franchise, the one which started this whole blog, is quite a bit smaller, though you have several in your home state as well.

The new opportunity. Wow, I might have to save that for another post. It's a beautiful thing and something that I HAVE to go for. I have to put in a decent sum of capital to begin, though just can't talk myself out of it. I'm a bit more reserved as I age (I'm still in my thirties, damn it!), but I'm going all out, all in. I honestly cannot see it NOT working out as I've covered every base imaginable.

My mental train of thought is to always start from implied, though normally unrealized, catastrophes and work my way backwards to success. That way I minimize the risks. That sounds weird, though when you actually think about it, really sensible in the process. I'd rather stay proactive and count on the potential failures and work on solutions before they come to light than just jump in blindly at what appears to be a great opportunity.

Sadly, most of the time and for most people, things are too good to be true and maybe that's how I've adapted after all this time. I've seen first hand, being in finance, the most unbelievable concepts fail because of not properly "over thinking" the unforeseen obstacles. I've seen start-ups that hit the ground running but went under shortly after because they forgot about keeping working capital in equity when the big speed bump hit, and they were never able to recover. Blah, I'm still no expert by any kind of definition, though always "try" cover my tracks.

Anyways, I do have two degrees; one in Accounting and am professionally licensed for and one in Business Administration. I was one semester from completing a third in Computer Science and still use those skills from time to time. The thing is, and I want to also comment on from your remarks, is that I'm a normal guy by any standards in the working world. It doesn't matter what a piece of paper says, it matters the intellectual capacity of the person.

Your comment was so awesome and undeniably truthful in every imaginable way; "Finally! Somebody else who sees all the stupid!" I have worked side by side with people who possessed way more education than I and was blown away by just how clueless they were. Going to my last paragraph, it doesn't really matter what a document says you've achieved, it only matters if you absorbed the education and can put it into basic, practical use. Experience trumps education in many ways, though these days, most don't even get a chance unless they have a diploma from a respectable institution. But yeah, Christy, you are wiser than most. So many dumb people in general, but in the "educated" sector, it's disgusting.

My last comment before I go way off tangent tonight about this subject; My favorite College Professor, he was just a down-to-earth kind of guy. He cared if we learned and not that if he failed students it would look bad for him because that meant he was a bad "teacher". He was a higher level Professor in an economics course, had the Dr. prefix before his name, and was the single author of our state accepted College course text book. This dude was so amazing. He said, and I quote verbatim after all of these years, "It's not necessarily what you know in business. It's mostly who you know. Be your own person and make a difference." Way back then as a student, that really made me wonder what the hell he was talking about. All of these years later, I know exactly what he meant and why he said it.

Whoa, way off course for the evening. Yeah, I'd like to wait for another month until I actually am successful in my venture, if I am at all. I'm quite confident I will be, though none of us can foresee the actual future. Thank you again, Christy! You managed to get my brain functioning in a pleasant way tonight typing this post. I'm really glad you comment publically and keep me writing. I am dry with work stories other than the saved ones I don't feel comfortable posting yet, so thank you for making me put something down. The fans who only email me, please feel free to put something down in public. I promise there is no way I can tell who or where you are from if you post anything under the anonymous status; plus, it's none of my concern anyways. I always respect privacy to the fullest extent unless it's already public.

Please keep the questions coming, especially you, Christy! I really enjoy the exchange and will do the best to answer each and every additional one in certain terms. I will see you all again, in another day in the life of a line cook.