Originally Posted by Minte

Where you went wrong was regurgitating what you read about my company in the various newspaper and magazine articles. I am responsible for the content.

As far as what you think you know, in 67 my father opened a tool shop in his garage. For the first 3 years he still kept his fulltime job at another company and worked nights and weekends. It was some extra income for a young man with a growing family.

I was a teenager and was the only employee on the first day he started. After highschool, I went off and did other things for 4 years. He stayed as a 1 man shop when he had enough business to quit his day job. In 1975 he asked me if I were interested in coming back and actually try to build the company. For the first year and a half it was just him and I. He didn't like working in sales so I spent time on the road and found new business, It wasn't until nearly 1977 that we hired our first employee. We looked for an identity. Tool & Die was ok, but not growth oriented. We decided to buy our first stamping press.

In sales, especially in manufacturing, you use whatever tools you have available. When I walked into a potential customer I learned to embellish on the longevity question. I can tell you all with experience that a customer like ACME AIRCRAFT..is not going to take a chance on a startup company that has been in business for 18 months. So we always said we started in 1967,,when in fact that was not technically the case. The company formed and became a C corp in 1976. Since his passing I never saw the need to modify that fact when I do interviews.

I wrote this today,because when I decide to leave GFY and the many friends I have made over the last 15 years I will do it on my terms.