Dave Schultz

Welcome to DaveSchultz.com

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So you might ask yourself, “What is Dave Schultz dot Com?

Well this site actually began in 1994, when I wanted to learn how to create and maintain web sites. I first started to publish a monthly newsletter, and than a photo album. After that came a Christmas section and a For Men Only section; then businesses that did me right and those who did me wrong; Rednecks, and Damn Yankees. As time went on, more and more sections were added to the site — ultimately the most popular section being ‘Dave’s Maniacal Ravings’.

Around 2004, I created www.OldHippie.com (my persona) and started moving those sections over to that site. Over time, the Old Hippie site became more political than anything else — and so recently I’ve blown the dust off of this old domain — and will use it differently than the Old Hippie site.

Site Navigation

To the right, you will see the sidebar containing the navigation of this site. You will see a block of site sections, blog categories, favorite links — and other links and information concerning the user manipulation of the site. Please — take a few moments to check it out — and more importantly, bookmark the site and come back often as the site evolves fairly quickly.

For Sale:

One of the purposes for this site — is that I and my son drag race on a national circuit, and over time we’ve upgraded our cars or changes racing classes — but haven’t sold the old cars and other racing parts. Look over to the right — and click on the For Sale link for more details.

Maniacal Ravings:

This was a very popular section that use to get most of the site’s hit’s. I plan to fire that section up again and post humor and opinions that I consider to be worthy. If this section interest you, you will find more of the same at: www.oldhippie.com

The blog is a frequently (sometimes a couple of times a day) updated with short snippets of anything from National news, humor, drag racing, family updates, Politics, to ???. Whatever is heavy on my mind that day may find its way onto the blog. You can post your comments to my blogs — but until I feel confident that you aren’t a spammer — I will need to approve the first couple. If you like to get involved in blogging about various subjects — you might want to check out the Old Hippie’s Forums at www.OldHippie.com/forums

Favorite Links:

These are not just my favorite links, but links that will be useful to others. I’ve grouped them by category. Click the category — and it will expand with the links for it. Got a site that you feel to be appropriate to be listed in my favorite links? Well then post a link to this site on yours — and click the Contact form to tell me where to find it, and I’ll reciprocate.

Drag Racing:

In the drag racing section you will get brief updates of our “trials and Tribulations” of drag racing. A couple of my sites concening drag racing are:

Facebook:

Yeah — I visit Facebook a couple of times a day to communicate with my large extended family, racing buds, and those having the same political views as I. I’m a friendly kind of guy — and pretty easy to become a friend with. My Facebook link is: http://www.facebook.com/dave.schultz1

Good & Bad Businesses:

I intend to give praise to those businesses who have gone above and beyond the call of duty — and to also warn others of those businesses who I feel screwed me.

and so:

This is what can now or in the near future find on this site. Please check back often and it will be evolving at a very quick pace.

Dave ‘the Old Hippie’ Schultz

About Dave Schultz

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The Schultz Family — Incognito

If you do a Google search on Dave Schultz, chances are that you will find far more hits on Dave ‘the Hammer’ Schultz formerly of the Philly Flyers, or the Dave Schultz who was the best ever NHRA motorcycle racer, of maybe even the the wrestler who was killed by DuPont — but they won’t be me.

No, I was born a poor black child to Mississippi sharecroppers in the mid 50s… Actually, that’s not right either. Since you appear to have clicked the link to find out who I am — I’ll bore you with the Reader’s Digest (as brief as I can condense 55+ years) version of my story.

I was born in Detroit, MI in the mid 50s — but moved to Texas in 1961. I’m the eldest child in a very large family (Four Brothers and three sisters). We lived far below the poverty line, although I didn’t really recognize it until we put all of our family’s worldly possessions in a 5X8 U-Haul and moved to New Jersey when I was 9. That’s about the age when kids can be most cruel — and when the few kids who might have considered having something to do with dirt poor kids — will have their parents not want them to associate with them. The very few friends I did have were also dirt poor, and mostly in and out of trouble. I can remember the brother (who is 14 months younger than I) I am closest to, and I, having many conversations about how we’d both some day be financial successes — and our kids would never grow up like we had to. In school, I never achieved higher than a D — and was pushed along through the system ignored. At 15, I (with three others) got in some serious trouble with the law, and the only reason why I wasn’t sent to a reform school was because my family had just moved out of state.

We had moved to the Buffalo, New York area — where I was able to acquire a better class of friends, and pretty much stay out criminal trouble. However, I was so far over my head in school that I finally dropped out shortly after turning 16. I worked hard at three jobs (Gas Station, Construction, and Col. Sanders) simultaneously. I actually started working hard at an early age — selling doughnuts door to door at 7, having a large paper route from the time I was 10, and washing dishes at a Jewish Delicatessen at 12. This was a trait I learned from my father — but sadly, like my father — I worked too many hours for too little pay.

Days after turning 17, I enlisted in the US Air Force — and was for a short while the youngest in the Air Force. My military service was most likely the biggest influence in my life — and started down a better path. I learn things like loyalty, paying attention to detail, discipline, dedication, teamwork, etc. About 2 years into my enlistment, I was in a very serious car accident — where I went through the windshield (from the back seat) of a car traveling well over 100 miles per hour before it lost control and rolled over (and over, and over, …). I was busted up pretty bad and in the hospital for months. This was just after the Viet Nam ‘Conflict’ had ended — and I was offered an opportunity to trade one year active duty for two years active reserve in Niagara Falls — and took that opportunity.

The country was going through a very bad recession — and Buffalo in particular was experiencing 25%+ unemployment. Those employed for the most part had jobs that sucked. I drove taxi, wheel barreled black top, and repaired vacuum cleaners. On the first day of the “Blizzard of 77”, three friends and I went skiing after all of the businesses closed for the storm — and I broke both legs re-enacting the Wild World of Sport “Agony of Defeat” clip. I spent many weeks in the VA Hospital. When the roads reopened, and I could walk (March 8, 1977) — I (with a couple of close friends, my girlfriend, her daughter) rented a 5’X8′ U-Haul and moved to Houston. This was during a period in Houston’s history where there were more plates from Michigan and New York than from Texas.

In Houston I repaired vacuum cleaners, then cleaned carpets, then repo’d rental appliances (referred to as a “Door-Kicker”), and then became a bill collector. My girlfriend and I went our separate ways, and I met my future wife who had come from Buffalo to Houston for my sister’s wedding. We quickly hooked up, and were married six months later. Over the next few years I was a draftsman, drove a 7-UP truck, and sold carpet cleaning service in Houston.

I the winter of 1979, my wife talked me into moving back to Western New York — where I repaired postal room equipment, and became a service tech repairing computer terminals and printers. In 1981, I took a job selling micro-computer systems (a brand new industry) — while going to college evenings under the GI Bill. In 1982, the first of my five children was born. In January 1983, I was offered 38% ownership of a growing collection agency back in Houston to run the administrative end — and use my experience of computers and debt collection to make them one of the first automated agencies in the country.

While we had a very successful operation at the collection agency — we three partners had very different personalities, which was too often in conflict. In 1986, I sold my ownership in the collection agency and became the VP of Marketing for the software company that I had contracted with to code the collection software. That company turned out to be in irreversible trouble, and when one of my customers made me an offer I couldn’t refuse to run his agency for him — I accepted. I saw that business go from 20 employees to over 100, and monthly revenue from $25,000 to $500,000 by 1989 — but my management style and that of the owner conflicted, and so I left.

In January 1990, I started my own agency with borrowed money. In 1992, I added a distressed buyer business to the companies I owned, and in 1994, I added a software company selling the automated collection system I had developed for the agency and debt buyer business. In 1998, I sold the collection agency for a nice little home run, and turned over the day to day operation of the debt buyer business and software company to my key managers, who I had given minority ownership to. I sold my interest in those businesses to those partners in late 2008, when it became apparent that Obama would be our next President.

In 202, I picked up drag racing again. I had done some “Trophy” drag racing in the mid 70s, and a lot of street racing in the 80s and 90s — but I have taken this drag racing to another level. In 2007, I briefly owned a business that built race engines, and I’m currently in the process of getting my ducks in a row for one more go at a business venture when the political/business environment improves. IE: Obama and Congress replaced with some level of Capitalist sanity.

I’m sill married to the same woman after 30+ years, and we have five kids — one still at home. I love to drag race, work on my car collection, and do a good bit of web design to pay for my drag racing habit. I’m the owner of a Mopar board called MoparStyle, and run a mostly political board called Old Hippie.com. As I have time, I have been in the process of writing a book discussing the 100 Secrets to Success that I feel worked for me.

So thee you have it. I’m not as famous of a drag racer that another Drag Racer was, I’m not as strong as the wrestler was, and not the fighter that ‘The Hammer” was — but I feel like I left my mark in my own way.

 

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