Hi. My name is...Mike Lofton. I'm a native Arizona residence of 52 years. I first read Atlas Shrugged in the '90's and I hen again with my college age son a few years ago. I loved it both times.
Posted by Mikelofton 8 years, 8 months ago to The Gulch: Introductions
I'm very happy to have landed in the Gulch...as I mentioned above, I'm 52 years young. I married my high school sweetheart a little more than 30 years ago and we're both still quite in love....most of the time. We have 3 grown children and one grandson. Our son-in-law lasted only 7-8 months before he left our daughter and has a very limited role as a father. This means I've come out of retirement as "bad cop" to help mold my grandson in these formative years. Thankfully I do not work full-time at this job because it stinks. I'd rather be loving on him and playing with him instead.
I graduated high school and gave college a try for nearly 8 weeks before I decided it was not for me. My father had committed suicide a couple years prior and asked me in his final letter to avoid entering the local union as an electrician and encouraged me to give college a try. Immediately upon leaving college I joined the union and was assigned to work at a new nuclear energy plant. It was a boondoggle. I was assigned to a journeyman who allowed me to perform about 30 minutes of productive work per 8 hour shift. Then he'd instruct/demand that I hid up in the scaffolding for the remainder of the shift. I remember how nervous I was cashing my very first paycheck because I was sure I was going to be arrested for theft upon entering the bank. I knew this was wrong so I went directly to union office and explained what was going on. They told me to be patient and that it'd all make sense later. The following week I was involved in a car accident leaving the plant when a drunk Union member traveling at approx. 60 mph rear ended our vehicle that was clearly stopped in traffic. I sustained some serious internal injuries that weren't diagnosed until 3 weeks later after I had to have emergency surgery. This injury disabled me for approx. 3 months. Since I was so new into the union and had no insurance yet, I had to use my savings to buy and flip cars to make ends meet until I got released to go back to work. When I did get released, I marched right back into the union shop and told them that I wasn't going back to the nuclear plant and that unless they had another assignment, I'd be leaving the union. They gave me another assignment on a new hospital project where I was supposed to report to a man named Mahoney. After searching for him for 30 minutes on the project, I found him asleep in the bucket of a tractor. I knew this was my sign to leave the union and find real work. And, as fate will have it, I found a job as a carpenter apprentice that afternoon where I worked, learned and enjoyed my craft for the next 8 years.
We started raising a family by then and I'd decided to start my own construction firm much to the chagrin of my wife who was not, and is not, a risk taker. She was also very worried about the future of our brand new family. I gave my foreman a 30 day notice and ultimately left the company under great terms. I took no employees with me, I never solicited one of their clients and I can confidently say the company was in better shape after I left than before I got there.
My wife and I both worked day and night to get the new company on its feet. She kept her normal job and did our books at night. I sold and ran projects during the day and bid new projects at night. As the company grew, my wife decided to quit her normal job and came to work with me full-time. However, as the kids grew, my wife's heart tugged at her to stay home and finish our kids. The company ultimately succeeded and today is one of the larger firms in our area. The kids ultimately became adults and my wife has rejoined me at the construction firm.
I'm no longer actively running the construction firm. We have a competent president who does so under the watchful eye of my wife who is our controller. I am now an active lender and investor in what I like to call my second career. Retirement has very little appeal to me and I can envision myself actively pursuing new learning for the rest of my life. If I can't be more of a producer than a consumer, I have no reason to live.
I graduated high school and gave college a try for nearly 8 weeks before I decided it was not for me. My father had committed suicide a couple years prior and asked me in his final letter to avoid entering the local union as an electrician and encouraged me to give college a try. Immediately upon leaving college I joined the union and was assigned to work at a new nuclear energy plant. It was a boondoggle. I was assigned to a journeyman who allowed me to perform about 30 minutes of productive work per 8 hour shift. Then he'd instruct/demand that I hid up in the scaffolding for the remainder of the shift. I remember how nervous I was cashing my very first paycheck because I was sure I was going to be arrested for theft upon entering the bank. I knew this was wrong so I went directly to union office and explained what was going on. They told me to be patient and that it'd all make sense later. The following week I was involved in a car accident leaving the plant when a drunk Union member traveling at approx. 60 mph rear ended our vehicle that was clearly stopped in traffic. I sustained some serious internal injuries that weren't diagnosed until 3 weeks later after I had to have emergency surgery. This injury disabled me for approx. 3 months. Since I was so new into the union and had no insurance yet, I had to use my savings to buy and flip cars to make ends meet until I got released to go back to work. When I did get released, I marched right back into the union shop and told them that I wasn't going back to the nuclear plant and that unless they had another assignment, I'd be leaving the union. They gave me another assignment on a new hospital project where I was supposed to report to a man named Mahoney. After searching for him for 30 minutes on the project, I found him asleep in the bucket of a tractor. I knew this was my sign to leave the union and find real work. And, as fate will have it, I found a job as a carpenter apprentice that afternoon where I worked, learned and enjoyed my craft for the next 8 years.
We started raising a family by then and I'd decided to start my own construction firm much to the chagrin of my wife who was not, and is not, a risk taker. She was also very worried about the future of our brand new family. I gave my foreman a 30 day notice and ultimately left the company under great terms. I took no employees with me, I never solicited one of their clients and I can confidently say the company was in better shape after I left than before I got there.
My wife and I both worked day and night to get the new company on its feet. She kept her normal job and did our books at night. I sold and ran projects during the day and bid new projects at night. As the company grew, my wife decided to quit her normal job and came to work with me full-time. However, as the kids grew, my wife's heart tugged at her to stay home and finish our kids. The company ultimately succeeded and today is one of the larger firms in our area. The kids ultimately became adults and my wife has rejoined me at the construction firm.
I'm no longer actively running the construction firm. We have a competent president who does so under the watchful eye of my wife who is our controller. I am now an active lender and investor in what I like to call my second career. Retirement has very little appeal to me and I can envision myself actively pursuing new learning for the rest of my life. If I can't be more of a producer than a consumer, I have no reason to live.
It's interesting to hear about your experience with unions. I remember when I was in high school I got a job offer to work at grocery store that was unionized. I was going to have to pay union dues even though as a minor I wasn't eligible to receive any union benefits. I passed on that job!