Rasta Fitness Blog

These two guys I knew, Kumar and some other guy who is not me and no one I know personally, had an importing business for a little while.  They would import commodities from low-cost suppliers in places like South Texas, Arizona and California.  However, the down side to trafficking in commodities is that the authorities take a dim view of such activities and take every opportunity to downsize the commodities business.  To avoid the unfortunate results of downsizing, i.e., incarceration, they came up with the double suitcase trick.  They purchased identical yet distinctive suitcases.  They would both travel to the exotic off-site acquisition location, one of them travelling under his real name, the other under an assumed name.  This was easier in 1990 because the twin towers were still standing; no picture ID was required to get on an airplane back then.  Crazy.  So anyway, on the return trip, the person travelling under the assumed name would pack his suitcase chock full of vacuum - sealed commodities, the person travelling under the real name would pack his suitcase with clothes.  Real clothes, not hemp.  Then, at the return airport baggage claim, the person travelling under their real name would pick up the “wrong” bag, the one with the commodities.  That way, if the coppers closed in, the person “holding the bag” could say:  “Hey! This is not my bag!  I grabbed the wrong bag!”  And the story would check out when they went back to baggage claim to see an identical yet distinctive suitcase with the person’s real name on it full of that person’s clothes.
 

Clever?  I don’t know:  They never had to try it out, but this one time as the one who is not me and no one I know personally was leaving the baggage claim, an unmarked van came skidding up to the curbside and about nine S.W.A.T. guys jumped out and ran right toward him . . . and then right past him into the terminal.  If you’ve never held a suitcase full of commodities with a S.W.A.T. team running at you, you haven’t lived.  I’m told. 
 

Kumar was a fun guy to hang with.  Very funny.  He went to college for three semesters, all non-consecutive and none at the same college.  He and the guy who is not me and no one I know personally apparently enjoyed the commodities business together.  They never really made any money but definitely crushed their own supply and liked to hang around elementary schools peddling their wares and met some cool sixth graders who liked to party . . .
 

Ok, that’s not funny.  But after a while they both realized that while the commodities business was raw capitalism and a very good learning experience, it was not a long term career choice.  Kumar sold got a job selling accounting software for a while, started his own technology company, sold it, bought and sold a bunch of other stuff, all legal and measured in acres, and is now the chief executive officer at a publicly traded company with about a hundred employees.  I don’t know what happened to the guy who is not me and no one I know personally.  He’s probably clogged his brain so full of bong resin that he babbles incessantly about things no one cares about.  Probably.
 

There is a lesson for children somewhere in this story.  I am not sure what it is, but it is definitely helpful I am sure.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.