While I was building my cleaning business in Sheridan, Wyoming, I always kept an eye out for opportunity to meet other business persons that I might learn from.

My family did not have a history of owning businesses, so I really had little resources among my relatives to learn about business.

One person I met was Larry Howell. Larry had his own plumbing business, with a couple trucks and several employees. He also had a nicely remodeled office with a full time bookkeeper and receptionist. Larry seemed to me to be a very successful businessman, and I hoped to talk with him someday about his experiences with building his business.

Contractors had breakfast and lunch in Sheridan at the "Silver Spur." The Silver Spur, for lack of a better description was a restaurant. It sat on Main street, and if you did not know better, you would think that it was an abandoned house. I started eating breakfast and lunch there also to meet contractors who were in need of my cleaning business. This actually seemed to be the main reason for all the contractors gathering here, to make deals.

You see people on TV making big deals in fancy restaurants serving eggs benedict and belgium waffles. Donald Trump might stop in, and visit with other business persons dressed in slick suits, handing out clever, tastefully designed business cards. That is big business in the big city.

The Silver Spur had similar action. The restaurant served fried eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns in some of the finest grease around. Donald Trump never stopped in, but occasionally an official from the county health agency would visit. (Asking if we had seen roaches recently). The business people wore slick suits, but mostly they were slick because of oil smeared on their pants and shirts. The business cards were clever, with special ID's of the owner on them, a greasy fingerprint. Ahh, big business in Sheridan. I was proud to be there.

As I walked into the door, I spotted a friend of mine, David Grimshaw. Dave had started his own construction business, and he was specializing in houses built underground. I sat at the table with Dave and ordered the grease of the day.

Larry Howell walked in the door and "howdy'ed" to Dave. Dave invited him over to sit with us. I finally was getting a chance to talk with Larry!

I asked Larry about his business, and he was pleased to talk about it. It was obvious he was proud of what he was doing. He told me that he had gross sales of $500,000.00 per year. One half of a million dollars! I just could not fathom handling that kind of money. At the time my goal was to reach $2000.00 per month in sales, a long ways off from one half a million dollars a year.

Larry turned out to be very helpful to me. He was more than willing to share what he knew about business with me.

Larry was quite jovial, with a positive attitude about life. Larry believed in closing his business every day at 5:00 and buying his crew a round, (or two), of beers at a local bar. I admired the fact that he seemed to be doing well in business, but was still committed to having time to relax and be with his friends and family in the evenings.

One eventful day, Larry was working on his backhoe digging a trench for some sewer pipe they had to lay. Larry was quite proud of the backhoe because it was an expenditure his accountant told him to make before the end of the previous year. He had such a good year, he had to have another capital expense to lower his income taxes.

While digging the trench, which was about 6 foot deep, Larry had one of this workers in the hole shoring up the sides with plywood and two by four boards. And then it happened.

The dirt started caving into the trench, burying Larry's worker alive. Immediately Larry jumped into action, jumping from the backhoe, and digging with his bare hands to get to his worker. Everyone else just froze in panic. Larry was digging blind, not sure where is worker was. He could not use a shovel since the worker's head was not too far below the surface.

And then Larry saw a finger, and he dug furiously with his hands, uncovering his workers' face. Larry saved his life.

That day I stopped by Larry's shop at 5:00, and noticed that he was unusually dirty. I also noticed his hands were bandaged, with blood stains on his arms and bandages. Larry had really tore up his hands getting to that man. Of course, at this point I did not know what had happened.

"Rough day Larry?" I asked,

Larry just grinned and popped open a beer.

Larry had a good heart, and he was always willing to help others and keep an honest deal.

One day I had stopped by Larry's office at lunch time to say howdy, and the mailman came by with a C.O.D. package for Larry. Larry had ordered $400.00 worth of pens as a promotional item for his business.

Larry looked at the box and said, "That is sure small to have a color television in it!" Larry, unfortunately, was also an easy target for sales scams. An out of town telephone solicitor had convinced Larry that this was a great deal because he was going to receive a free color television with it.

"Larry, don't accept it send it back" I insisted. Larry felt that he should go ahead and take it, because he had promised he would buy it.

The mailman even said that he had been delivering a lot of them, but he never saw a color television.

Larry decided he should go ahead and take it. He had made a promise and was going to stick to it.

I got mad. I told Larry that he made a promise, but he had the right to return the product, especially if it was not what had been described to him.

Larry gave me a blank, helpless look. And then the mailman started in. He was getting upset also, saying that Larry should not accept it.

Finally we convinced Larry to send the package back. I mean, it is one thing to keep your word, but it is another to let someone rip you off.

Still, Larry felt guilty.

Larry left town the same time as most of us business people did years later when the mines broke the banks. It was kind of sad saying good bye to everyone, each of us heading to a new area to start over. Larry had picked Idaho.

If you bump into Larry Howell, somewhere in Idaho, tell him to give me a call.

You can read all the chapters of "Tims Home Town Stories" by going to http://timshometownstories.com. Other stories written by Tim are at http://salessuccessmagazine.com These stories are copyrighted by Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. 1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000. Any person using this article must publish it without modification and include authors bio and links.

About the Author
Timothy L Drobnick Sr has helped many people make money on the internet. Websites to visit for income opportunity are yobisc.com, http://virusfreespamfree.com, and http://myshoppingplace.net.