Chapter 102

     A ShareValue investor who was a Vice President of a super high-end technology firm called me one day.  A friend of his was involved in a consulting project, with a ninety-million-dollar ($90,000,000) fee, that had hit the wall.  It involved ten million square feet of office space in New York City.  They needed a solution to their problem before this Real Estate deal could close. 

     My friend informed me they were looking for someone who understood technology and New York Real Estate Law.  I told him I understood the basics of Real Estate Law but not about New York Real Estate Law specifically at all, but I would do what I could.  He informed me that they were in a time crunch as they had only an hour or the deal was dead, and they would lose their ninety-million-dollar ($90,000,000) fee.  I asked him when they would like to talk and he informed me he had them on hold waiting. 

     Their lead man briefed me on the issue at hand and it so happened that I knew the exact solution to their problem.  I explained as succinctly as I could.  They thanked me for the help. 

     About a month or so later this same friend called me with another issue, and I asked him about whatever happened to the other guy with the ninety-million-dollar deal?  He was shocked that they hadn’t got back to me as they had been able to close the deal.  He asked me again if I was sure that I had not heard anything, and I told him that I had not and jokingly said that they had not even sent my wife and I to dinner. 

     He was appalled and asked me what I wanted.  I told him that it was my understanding that their deal was dead in the water when they called me.  He confirmed that was correct.  I then stated that it was my understanding that my solution was the cure, and they then made ninety million dollars. He confirmed that was correct. 

     ShareValue needed a million-dollar ($1,000,000) boost to finish our development, so I asked for one million dollars.  He asked me to give him a few hours.  He called back a bit later, stating there were no funds at all available to me as they had all been dispersed.  

     He then asked me, what else could he do.  I informed him that I wanted to meet the man who was the head of the family trust who had purchased the ten million square feet of office space.  He asked me to give him a couple of hours.  

     A short time later he called me back informing me that I had an appointment on Fifth Avenue in New York the day after tomorrow to meet with that man. 

     The plane was approaching New York City when I had a vision of a church that was in New York.  I asked the Lord, “What is that about?” 

     He replied that He wanted me to go to that church as He wanted to tell me more about the World Trade Center Visions.  For a millisecond I thought, “Now, how am I going to find that church in such a big city, but then I stopped thinking that, as it was ridiculous.”

     Jim Ford had agreed to go with me to meet the man and I was to meet Jim at this apartment first beforehand.  As the taxi pulled up to Jim’s place, I saw it.  Jim lived over a church on Gramercy Park Avenue and there it was, the church from my vision.  I was instantly terrified. 

     Our meeting went really well as it turns out the man’s wife was from Southern Missouri, and we knew some of the same people.  However, he too wanted to wait until we got our initial development done.  He wanted me to stay in touch and expressed interest in a twenty-million-dollar ($20,000,000) placement. 

     I spent the night at Jim’s thinking all night long about the church below us.  Finally in the morning, I told the Lord that all this was too far above my head, and I just didn’t think I could handle it.  I couldn’t make it fast enough to the airport praying the whole way for God to forgive me, as I ran away. 

     Jim had informed me that he had a handshake on a million-dollar ($1,000,000) placement for ShareValue from a small group of angel investors.  While waiting for the deal to come together, I continued working on our current offering, trying to put together three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) to finish off our one million, five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) total. 

     My trip to Bozeman on September 10, 2001, was to meet with a few friends that might help get me that three hundred thousand dollars.  I had a few days of appointments lined out with high expectations of financing this funding stage of our business with numerous venture capital firms interested in our next round. 

     I landed in Bozeman late in the evening and spent the night at a friend’s house.  The next morning, Lori called early, I answered, and she told me to turn on the T.V.; I did and was just in time to watch the second plane crash into the World Trade Center tower.  The other tower was already on fire from the first plane.  The fireball I saw from the second plane was just like the fireball I had seen in my vision.  One thing I knew for sure was that both buildings were coming down. 

     All my meetings were cancelled one by one, and I spent the next few days glued to the T.V. watching the aftermath of this horrific tragedy.  All the while thinking how wrong I was to run away from God’s prompting to go to that church. 

     A few days later I found out that when Jim Ford heard of the attack, he went immediately down to the World Trade Center towers. There was a lot of smoke and debris all around and people could hardly see where to go.  Jim stood outside where people were coming out and shouted directions to get them as quickly as he could away from the towers.  I was told he helped save hundreds of lives…using his voice. 

     Jim survived the day making it home to his apartment but died that night in his sleep.  He sure went out in grand style. 

     The hardest part for me though was, that it wasn’t long before I realized that this was the beginning of the war in my dream that I had called, “The War That Would Never End.”

     Most all our funding dried up after 911.  We collected less than half of our accounts receivable, and the rest of our projects cancelled.  The one deal that could have made our day was stalled in provisioning at Quest.  With no way to keep payroll going, we had to lay everyone off and close the office.  

     I let our sales manager take our Quest deal with him so he could leverage it to get another job. He did and informed me a few months later, it was earning them a little over one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) gross profit per month. 

     I retreated to my home ready to call it quits.  I had made too many mistakes, and I was just worn out.  Sad about 9/11, sad about Jim Ford’s passing, and sad we hadn’t been able to complete our development, I was about to call it quits.  But in the middle of all that, the fact that “The War That Would Never End” made me even more convinced that the “Big Event” would indeed happen and that I needed to just keep going.  Nobody said this would be easy. 

     Over the next seven years, I worked consulting deals to help fund development along with some of the die-hard investors providing some funds, as well.  By the time everything was ready to launch sales, I was running on fumes and in debt. 

     Lori and I decided to move back to Bozeman as that is where we really loved and wanted to live.  I could find work there and find a way to raise the capital to do a proper sales launch.  This turned out to be one of the worst mistakes of my life. 

     Long story short, everything that could go wrong went wrong and I landed in prison.   Trying time and time again for parole and on my ninth try I got parole but with extreme restrictions preventing me from ever running a business.   

     I decided to write my story to warn those who could hear my belief in what I have come to call “the Big Event” and get prepared for it as best as possible. 

     The one thing that I have never done before is tell anyone but my family why I started ShareValue, and I see now I should have explained why I was starting ShareValue back when we first incorporated.  However, I have explained it now and I am hopeful something good will come of it.

     Pat had got sick and Lori and I, along with a friend of ours, went up to the hospital to see him.  We talked for a bit, and it sounded like he was getting better and that the Doctor might be about to let him go home but he was still waiting to see if he would, hoping it would be soon.

     The others had left the room leaving Pat and I to talk for a few minutes.  It was then Pat said an amazing thing. 

     Pat said that he had let “waiting on God” become his pride.  He had believed he could wait on God with more patience than anybody.  But then he added, I am tired of waiting and I just want God to do something.  One way or the other.  I am just tired of waiting.

     They did let him go home shortly thereafter, and within about a month he passed away, on May 5, 2007.

     About a month later, I had this dream that I was taken up to heaven.  I was talking with a group of guys and off in the distance a man was jumping up and down like he was on a pogo stick.  As he bounced, he kept coming closer to where we were talking. 

The man came around to my left and leaned over my shoulder. I looked up and it was Pat. 

     He then whispered, “Go…Go…Go!