Moving On

Greetings all,

I had written a few years ago about a gumball machine business I had and other confessions about my financial woes. I am getting ready to sell them. I have taken a few out and plan on selling them individually as I think in the long run I will have more success in finding people to buy them, rather then selling the whole route. As well, over the years I have had a few stolen so my original 25 is now some weird number like 21. I have insurance on them and didn't bother to replace them since I had the intention of selling them.

I've had a few machines get stolen as I had picked up a few these past 2 days. They were stolen because the business owners probably went bankrupt and didn't bother to contact me to pick up the machine. This has happened a few times and the problem is that I don't chain them to something sturdy but also these owners are being irresponsible.

One of my machines was at a location of my ex friend Mike whom I talk about back here. I wasn't sure if he would be there as my machine was at his work place, a truck washing place. They have 2 shifts and he was the supervisor. I don't know if he still works there so I was nervous about what to say if I run into him since I didn't want to deal with him since he decided to not be my friend anymore. My mom has been accompanying me these past 2 days and I had told her that Mike was there and I didn't know what to say. We had talked and I realized I can just be polite and say I am taking out the machine. I don't need to be friendly or anything, just be professional.

Well luckily he wasn't there. I spoke to someone there to say I was removing the machine but I never bothered to ask if he still worked there.

I've had some issues with my dad because he didn't really like this idea of me investing in a gumball machine business. At the time, I really felt I could make decent money and maybe quit working so I could have more free time to pursue creative endeavors. He basically pulled an 'I told you so' yesterday and I told him off. At dinner tonight, I calmly told him my feelings about the situation. At the time I was doing what I thought was best. In the long run it didn't work out as I wanted it to but I did learn something from doing this. In that sense I don't think it was a mistake. Lots of successful people try things that don't work out they way they initially planned but they persevered and became successful.

I just want to get these out of my hands and move forward in my life. At least I tried and took a risk. I am upset at myself and do feel bad about it not going as I had thought. Of course I feel a sense of failure but there's no point in continuing to beat myself up. I've done enough of that anyways. Being responsible for these machines has felt like a burden so I will feel much better and lighter when I begin to sell them.