Being from the Osage is a big advantage in life for a lot of reasons. Over the years folks have called me a lot of things and most of them I probably don't want to know. But, the most common thing I am called (to my face anyway) is Entrepreneur. Now, I would have to take exception to that and tell you I am just a Fullamaneur (full of manure). You can be assured a lot of what you have heard about me is true and probably a lot is not but I thought it might be fun to tell you of a few of my ventures and why living in the Osage, Shidler and Grainola were so extremely valuable to my life and I absolutely would not change it even with some of the pain I have had to go through.
My first story of a true Fullamaneur venture: Brad Krieger (past president of Arvest Bank in Oklahoma), hope he does not mind me telling this story, and I started a company for our two sons, both named Chase and born about 2 weeks apart. Now Brad is about the smartest person I have known and he is certainly one of my biggest fans. Now that I think about it, the reason he is one of my biggest fans is he is about 6 ' 6" and 300 pounds. He could probably take one hand and grab a person's head and squeeze it like a pimple until it pops but he is about as soft spoken and nice a person you can find. OK, back to the story. Brad filed the papers with the State of Oklahoma and named our company 2COK, meaning 2 Chases, Olson and Krieger. Now you would think a guy as smart as he is and president of a bank would know better. You see, our boys were about 16 years old at the time and good looking and their business cards would read 2COKs tree planting services. Do I need to explain what is wrong with this? If you don't get it just call me and I will explain. I pointed this situation out to Brad and he thought it wise to change the name to C2OK. And yes, Brad and I purchased the biggest tree spade you can find attached to the biggest truck you can find so our boys could dig and plant BIG trees.
Headache after headache to keep that thing going and we dug very few trees and thus planted very few. In fact I think I did almost all the digging and planting for free. So you see we purchased another story in our lives and have a many a laugh over it.
So what do you learn in the Osage?
My first story of a true Fullamaneur venture: Brad Krieger (past president of Arvest Bank in Oklahoma), hope he does not mind me telling this story, and I started a company for our two sons, both named Chase and born about 2 weeks apart. Now Brad is about the smartest person I have known and he is certainly one of my biggest fans. Now that I think about it, the reason he is one of my biggest fans is he is about 6 ' 6" and 300 pounds. He could probably take one hand and grab a person's head and squeeze it like a pimple until it pops but he is about as soft spoken and nice a person you can find. OK, back to the story. Brad filed the papers with the State of Oklahoma and named our company 2COK, meaning 2 Chases, Olson and Krieger. Now you would think a guy as smart as he is and president of a bank would know better. You see, our boys were about 16 years old at the time and good looking and their business cards would read 2COKs tree planting services. Do I need to explain what is wrong with this? If you don't get it just call me and I will explain. I pointed this situation out to Brad and he thought it wise to change the name to C2OK. And yes, Brad and I purchased the biggest tree spade you can find attached to the biggest truck you can find so our boys could dig and plant BIG trees.
Headache after headache to keep that thing going and we dug very few trees and thus planted very few. In fact I think I did almost all the digging and planting for free. So you see we purchased another story in our lives and have a many a laugh over it.
So what do you learn in the Osage?
- Think BIG and do something, it is better to fail than to never try
- If you want a good story be willing to spend some money on it
- Smart folks don't always get it right the first time either
Thanks for reading
gary@thepioneerman.com
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