I went to high school in the '80s, in Fairfield County, Connecticut. My parents subscribed to Fortune and Inc., I read In Search of Excellence, and I had a little business reselling floppy disks, which I was discouraged from because it affected my grades. But that's a rant for a different time. My interests wavered off into other things, and I ended up programming, but recently I've been reminded that I don't work for people, I work with them, and as I look at various management situations I'm seeing that what they're doing doesn't seem to be all that difficult, and I can learn those skills.
I was in Cody's Books , looking for something completely unrelated, when Loaded: A Misadventure on the Marijuana Trail, caught my eye. I'd read Robert Sabbag's earlier book, Snowblind, and enjoyed it, so I bought it. Two days later, in a period of my life when I've been having trouble doing any reading at all, I've finished it.
Loaded follows the exploits of Allen Long, a man who set out from college to make a documentary movie about smuggling marijuana, and who realized he could do it better himself, and did.
It's a business book about business at its purest, with deals backed only by trust and a handshake, million dollar contingency plans going wrong because a truck driver decides he needs a lunch break at the wrong time, where "changes in travel plans" means the airplane is strewn in pieces down the beach and it's time to get on a donkey and cross the continent the other way.
It also follows the evolution of an industry, from the early adventurers who found the unmapped routes, made the connections and personally assured quality, to the later days when money and guns ruled the process. So it's a great read about grand adventures, but there are also lessons here for those of us in other businesses. In the technology industry we've seen the lawyers become more important than the engineers, just as the CIA trained thugs in Miami pushed out the stoners who knew quality and made connections with the farmers.
Recommended.
Friday, March 8th, 2002 danlyke@flutterby.com