Essential characteristics include having varied work experiences, having intimate exposure to the plights of life, being analytical to properly assess problems, having problem-solving skills to derive solutions, opting to live a simple and righteous life that would not be susceptible to being bribed, not being affiliated with any political party, devoid of having ego motivations, and possessing the desire to help guide society into prosperity.
Types of business worked in:
Family, part-owner in a partnership, contractual, corporations, government in college, at a hospital, and for the Census Bureau.
Fields of businesses worked in:
Wood milling, wood office furniture manufacturing, restaurant, package carriers - air and ground, landscape maintenance, tutorial, health care, environmental testing, pharmaceutical, statistical, various construction fields including carpentry, roofing, welding, and plumbing.
Subjects studied with modest to heightened degree in either depth or breadth whether formally and informally:
Chemistry with an extensive knowledge of chemicals, mathematics including statistics, modeling, and problem-solving, computer programming, psychology, health, biology, nutrition, pharmacology, economics including areas of personal finance, taxation, precious metals and the stock market.
Subjects studied with some familiarity, formally and informally:
Physics, electronics, astronomy, toxicology, environmental studies including hydrology.
Additional areas of familiarity:
Gardening, mechanics, boating, hunting, firearms, underground fuel tanks (yet another government fiasco).
Summary of work history along with occasional pertinent remarks:
Basically I choose to apply myself in every field I undertake. I pay close attention to the quality of my work and am always trying to find better or more efficient ways to accomplish tasks.
Worked in a wide variety of fields and even started full-time work at the age of 9 as a bookkeeper that included payroll, accounts payable and receivable, invoicing, and banking. I know it sounds unbelievable but I was already into coin collecting, into precision that came from a demanding mother who pushed righteousness onto me, and I loved math. In the summer of 1974, I may have probably just turned 10 years old that upon having some spare time in the office I was reading business magazines. A magazine article grabbed my attention that was discussing median home prices as they related to median salaries. I was intrigued by this and did a little more personal research by asking adults questions to discover a meaningful ratio that makes sense as indicated by times of prosperity in our country. While still a teenager, did milling work for lumber companies, constructed office structures with minimal supervision that included framing, door hanging, wallboard installation, joint taping and painting, constructed a 4,000 square foot roof on an industrial building entirely by self, assisted in roof preparation and laying of both shake and composition roofing materials, office furniture manufacturing including finishing, spraying of lacquer, plumbing, concrete work, ducting installation, and cost accounting.
At the age of 15, and around my paid work, I began self study of metals that then moved on to natural products chemistry as well as other areas and developed a surprisingly broad knowledge of chemicals. My thirst for knowledge compelled me to continue self study beginning at the age of 16 at Stanford University’s medical and chemistry libraries. I studied much about pharmacology on my own to know full well that pharmacists are quite overpaid. It would take only a matter of days to refresh my memory of many of this knowledge with an additional week or two to learn more up-to-date information be able to do all the work required of a pharmacist. But of course the system would not allow my employ as a pharmacist as there is an outdated, nonsensical accreditation system and for which I address in my book that there needs to be sensible changes to enable greater efficiency in the workforce.
As an adult, worked as a prep-cook at a steak and seafood restaurant, a package handler at two companies including one at an airline. From enjoying sharing knowledge and helping people, throughout my adult life I have also performed services at free or reduced cost in areas including computer installation and troubleshooting, welding, machinery repair, plumbing, carpentry, construction, and tree cutting. I was an apartment manager and not just one who sat around as I actually did all the maintenance.
At a hospital I did database entry and created reports. I was disturbed by not just the database that was about allocating government funds to pay for hospital care for visiting foreigners who obviously had the money to travel into this country but also for the many medical treatments involving knife stabbing in the Hispanic community that likely had a good proportion of illegal aliens involved. Additionally I noticed so many were grossly overpaid in the hospital for what little work they did and I noted the abuses for which I showed up at a county budget meeting and presented a 6-page letter of my findings. The salaries of those I worked with made from about $70K to $120K and that was back in 1994! I was terminated the day following my testimony at the county budget hearing.
As a chemist, I performed soil extractions and digestions in an environmental testing company. I was extracting soil samples that came from a military installation that comprised of way too many samples for the relatively low toxicity of the few metals of interest and got me upset knowing what a waste of money and incompetence in government. I had also performed quality assurance of a medical instrument. I volunteered to be the statistician for a non-commercial sporting organization and developed a computer program written in Pascal based on a statistical model for the assignment of numerical ratings to players of competitive sports. At a community college, I maintained the chemistry storeroom at a college, supervised student assistants, and prepared laboratory experiments. Performed commercial plumbing repairs, predominantly at restaurants.
With a title of a low to mid level scientist yet was paid at the rate of a lab technician, I performed at the level of a senior scientist in the metabolism and pharmacokinetics department of a pharmaceutical company. I developed drug extraction methods for biological matrices (plasma, urine, tissues, feces) using solid phase extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, and precipitation techniques, and developed HPLC assay methods for the analysis of drugs and their metabolites. I also dramatically optimized an extraction procedure for lead drug AGAINST the will of my supervisor, and evaluated the stability of drugs in plasma, urine and simulated gastric fluid. For fun while other workers were hiding or taking off work early, I’d do non-company work for fun that included plant extractions, synthesis, develop HPLC quantification methods for various natural products, some of which include petunidin, lenthionine, theobromine, and yohimbine. In addition, I performed statistical analysis and modeled pharmacokinetic data. I wrote reports to support IND filings, invented a dosing device which permitted phase II trials of a drug, developed an HPLC purification method of a drug for scale-up production, prepared transdermal formulations for patent application, trained employees in laboratory instruments and methods, purchased chemicals and supplies, repaired laboratory equipment, and created a database for chemical inventory. Much of statistics is reported inaccurately in the sciences as what I’ve noticed and have seen falsification of data so the public better be wary. Also, from having a better idea of statistics and rigorous experimental controls than my colleagues, I can say unequivocally that an enormous amount of animals are needlessly experimented on that would not have to if experiments were designed better. Even a lab director was having workers perform animal experiments in a way that didn’t make sense and I was the only one who questioned his techniques and soon after he had to admit he was wrong – waste of animals, human resource, and money – all too common when those at the top lack the necessary skills to perform their function.
I had an ultra-short stint as a biostatistician as a means of a former boss repaying me for money I lent him. I mention the reason as it’s important to know that my then boss earned well over $100K per year but couldn’t manage his money so well, so I, the one who is so often without formal paid work and never earned more than $40K per year lent him money.
At another pharmaceutical company, I developed spreadsheets with advanced formulas and cell locking for a GMP protocol pharmaceutical corporation. The laboratory was ISO certified yet from my scientific knowledge, I spotted errors in half of the analytical methods. This again should make the public wary as there is incompetence everywhere, even where you’d think it wouldn’t happen such as in the scientific disciplines.
At the turn of the century, I worked as a computer consultant at a pharmaceutical company performing Y2K validation of computerized software systems of instruments and software of PCs.
Had a brief scientist job that was mostly for fun and not for money that involved optimizing soil composition to effect higher yield of a plant natural product. I also researched and experimented with colchicine and triflurane to induce polyploidism of selected plants.
Internet stock trader for a decade. Developed a novel stock market system that is actually about investing and not the crapshoot game that the present stock market system is today that is rife with manipulation coming not just from Wall Street but also in a major way lately, from the Federal reserve Bank. From seeing the plight of investors having no say on proxy voting, I also developed a modified proxy voting system. Both of these systems were sent to the SEC.
Social interactions:
I tend to be personable and will initiate conversation. I interact with poor to rich and normally can have fruitful interactions except when I encounter illogical statements. I feel more compatible with low-wage earners because of a greater shared plight. I do not care for spoiled attitudes that can emanate from a person from any economic standing and I have more trouble dealing with this when the person is poor as I find it incomprehensible when those who need to exercise greatest care with money often squander on drugs, alcohol, or some other form of showing off or entertainment. At least a rich person can afford to be neglectful with his life and still survive, as unfair as this is. I had a few opportunities to be in corporate board room meetings and can say these are not for me as there are always some who feel they must exert power and so if offering ideas or remedies of current hindrances when not of sufficiently high rank, ugly ego defense mechanisms will be shown that stifles innovation. I do confront government workers and query them when they are obviously not working and sometimes ask under the Freedom of Information Act what their gross salary is.
Ancillary:
Far from a tax accountant but well acquainted with a good variety of tax form schedules to know the tax system is overly complicated, even for one who is a mathematician and whom is quite logical.
Credit score among top 1% of the country.
Bought gold and silver beginning as a teenager.
Supported myself through college along with the help of just a few very minor scholarships. Undergraduate studies was in applied mathematics that was filled with plenty of chemistry and psychology courses. Took master level courses in math, health science and plenty of upper division courses not needed for degree requirements.
I formerly played a variety of games and was able to get within about the top 1/7 of tournament players as a matter of applying myself. Such games include chess, dominoes, backgammon, Scrabble, and a few others. This item shows the capacity of studying problems to come up with effective strategies. Games are useful to stimulate the mind so that when encountering the game of real life, skills learned could be applied.
Some of My Handiwork Plus Demonstration of Knowledge in Mathematics and Computer Programming
Meeting the Needs of this World to Effect Prosperity
