Northern Tier Energy LP (NTI)

[pete807]

Yours and Cats stories brought back a lot of memories... I too have been through it all and kept my faith...
When I was almost 13 my cousin shot me in the eye with a BB gun. I spend my birthday and two weeks in the hospital with both eyes covered. My mom read Huckleberry Finn to me cover to cover. Finally the eye pushed the copper shot out far enough to squeeze it with a tweezer. The eye healed itself.
Tens years later just before my 23rd birthday my house burned down while I was in Wyoming with my girlfriend who is now my wife. Friends said we might as well not come home as there was nothing left. I had only my clothes and lived in a pickup camper in a friends driveway. We got married and I became a logger for a year working outside in the North woods. Winter that year was normal and snowy but it felt warm working outside. Our daughter was born in April the following year and was the most beautiful thing I ever saw with lots of black hair. We rented a tiny house for $75 a month and were very happy. Our son was born three years later. We both worked hard and lived within our means. She went back to college and got her degree and masters, after our kids were in school. I worked as a truck driver, a store manager, a buyer and business owner when interest was 22% to bankroll our inventory. We sold the main business to pay the bank when the bank president got in trouble with a relative's bankrupt loan, ...he asked others to pay some of their principal back to cover the bank being scrutinized by the examiners. We decide to sell and pay off the whole loan. We kept a chain saw dealership and two gas stations, one of which went through a $120,000 pollution cleanup from previous owner leakage. We paid about 20% of the bill over 10 years and the rest was funded by the state superfund. It sill cost us 25k! We closed the station and chain saw business after that and rented the building out. We still own the property and it now has a decent cash flow. The rent over the years paid the street improvement assessment of $33,000 in addition to our original loan. In the last year the cash flow has come up a lot with the assessment payoff finished.
I went on the road as a salesmen earning only direct commission. I became the top salesman in the US at my agency for two years in the late 90's. It put my kids through college and paid our college loans, house, cars, and additional second mortgage loan. Another bank had loaned us 100% of the cash for an airplane on floats, which also was paid off during that time. I finally sold it last Fall after owning it 20 years. Those 21 years in sales made all the difference. I represented some of the companies I had bought from during my retail experience. I do not envy retail business owners.
Other experiences taught me the life lessons I needed to be successful. Before we were married we planted trees for a government contractor at 9,000 ft in the Cascades. It had been clear cut in the past and was eroding. I became foreman after an accident with failed brakes on a pass put much of the crew in the hospital. When we finished the contract we started home and were in Jackson Hole when we received news about the fire.
I helped build apartments as a framer when I was 16 yrs old. I learned how wood frame buildings are constructed and built my own barn in my 50's.
I learned early not to envy the rich. My dad used to say "Money creates just as many problems as it solves." He was a successful business owner but sold at the peak and retired to hunt and fish. I know lots of wealthy folks now that do not seem happy...
When I retired I took over all my investments and promptly lost a bunch of money bag holding a stock I could have made big on... Just another lesson in life. I still have a lot to learn. :)