i have a lot of faults. big surprise. one of them is i have this thing about trust. when i was nineteen i worked at a record store. everyone trusted me there. hey whats a good record for my aerobics class? dead or alive? never heard of them, but ok. hey whats a good record to relax to? hey whats a good record for my little kid? but working at the record store made me literally four dollars an hour. people said i was a good salesman. i never considered it sales to tell someone the truth but when it became obvious to me that it was time for me to start earning some serious cash, i got a shirt and a tie and i started selling televisions at this huge electronics store. suddenly people stopped trusting me. or so i had thought. the problem is of course you trust record store kid and of course youre weary of circuit city guy. but as i got more knowledgeable about what i was selling i started getting immediately pissed off when total strangers didnt instantly hand over to me all of their trust just because my badge said tony on it. just because i knew i wouldnt rip them off, for some reason i thought that they could pick up that esp and i hold that ridiculous not-so-subconsious belief to this day.
another one of my faults is that i am an idealistic fuck and because the people didnt trust me i only worked harder. i was a top salesman and easily the friendliest but still there was that natural wall but it bugged me so i quit and worked at a gas station in beverly hills for eight months. when i came back to sales i destroyed all records. i gave away sales to my friends and i still kicked ass. and during that time i also realized another one of my lingering faults and that is that if i respect someone and they dare me to do something i will always go for the dare no matter how utterly stupid it is and even if it goes against my beliefs as a christian, a struggling young black man living in america, a rock and roll fan, or as a decent tax paying human being bent on the promise of a brighter day. one of the best ads that i ever wrote for rockdotcom said i dare you to send me your resume. so when my friend said i dare you to do your website with no naked ladies on it i said fuckr.
