The Sound Business Acumen of Renaissance Man: Episode III

Here I stood at the base of his ladder, not at his request but rather my own sense of the riskiness of his work. All I could do was assure that the ladder was steady and wouldn't slip out from under or sideways when he was in fact using it. But the ladder was not the issue when he was precariously balanced on his knees, , atop the thin rim of the chimney, the very surface upon which he was working.

Tony went up and down repeatedly carrying buckets of freshly prepared cement, his trowel, waterproofing spray and finally, the large cage he had assembled on the driveway out of parts. Whenever he was down on the ground he had things to say. He talked about the two Connecticut casinos and it sounded like that was another place he exercised his temptation to take risks.

At another point I got to satisfy my curiosity regarding his peculiar geographic dispersion of home and work between New York and Connecticut. What hadn't made any sense to me initially suddenly started to fall into place and revealed good, sound business acumen on Tony's part. Now, at the age of thirty three he has sixteen years experience working on chimneys and he knows what he is talking about. When I asked directly why he was willing to ferry across the Sound every day to work in Connecticut and why not do the same thing in New York his reply, in plain street language, revealed a kind of sociological sophistication you don't expect from someone who never finished high school.

"You see", he explained, "people there are blue collar and everybody knows everybody". "If they don't have a family member in the trades then they know workers in the business. They only ask for recommendations  from people they know." "Everybody is part of a big extended family and they all live within a few blocks of one another. Then there are the differences in the heights of the houses. They have ranches and capes. My specialization, and what I'm paid most for, is reaching and working on tall, hard to reach places."

"Then you come here to Connecticut. Everybody comes from somewhere else. Your neighbor, you say 'Hi!' to, and thats about it. The houses are spread apart. People are on their own. Except for the big city's, people here are white collar. Two story colonials are what you see everywhere. They find it difficult to find tradespeople. My specialized services are in demand."

He went on to explain how well it works for him. To my amazement, his expenses for the rented van, the agency that makes soliciting calls for him and his cross sound daily ferry trips amount to some $3,000 a week. That seemed like an awfully big nut to carry, but not when you learn that he brings in $6,000 to $10,000 a week.

Given that his wife works full time as a teacher back home it became easier to understand when he informed me that his car back home cost $48,000 new. All my original assumptions about his struggling with a bare bones business and trying to just make do, were well off the mark. 

My three questions had been answered fully. This seemingly plain, down to earth guy is a contemporary risk taking Roman Gladiator he is a "Contender".