Martha and I, our son and his wife and my brother and his wife, live in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and I'm telling you, that's living!

I like to travel, walk, fly, swim, spend time with family and ponder the whys and hows of the universe. All of that is surrounded by my goal to seek wisdom and humor.

Life is too short to always be serious and it's too important not to be, so it's all about finding balance.

I also enjoy building our business network. To me, that's not work, it's fun. It's very profitable plus it sometimes allows us to build friendships around our business relationships.

Owning myself has always been who I am, and since 1981 I've been self-employed or a business owner, and while it's not always been easy, it's been the most fun thing I know of that I could have pursued.

I know this - My worst day as a business owner was far better than my best day at a job ever was!

For me, being my own boss and controlling my time was paramount, and that's what drove me to seek income outside of the confines of having a job, and I'm grateful God gave me that attitude.

It was a revelation when I crossed over from the realm of being a customer into the fertile land of knowledge about how business works. Today, I work with many business partners in sharing the knowledge about how the wealthy think and how it differs from the way the middle-class and the poor think.

It's explained rather well in a book titled, "Think And Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill. If you've not read it, I can tell you that you're suffering in this world needlessly. If you have read it, you have hopefully read his "other" masterpiece, "The Master Key To Riches".

Imagine getting the advantage of having spent over 30 years with the wisest of the wise in the world of successful people, and not just financial success either. That's what I love about reading. I get to gather the ages of wisdom of people who spent years, maybe lifetimes, gathering experience and blending it with their acquired wisdom.

We have so much to be thankful for, and reading is right up there with ice cream. In fact, they go rather well together, i.e. if you can get your book to stay open while you're spooning!

So, what do I do for a living? In short, and let's face it, that's all you can really stand or want from me here, so, the short answer is, I help other people start and succeed in their business, especially with those who have never had a business before.

There's little better than the satisfaction of helping someone become financially independent and hearing about their last day at work and what they told (or did!) to their boss.

Since 1981, I've owned my own businesses, and many years were more up hill than down, but those were the learning years, and the way I see it, I'll still be learning when I pass over. But then, that's one of the exciting parts about life, isn't it? If there were no mountains to climb or valleys to cross or waters to traverse, well, it just wouldn't be as exciting, now would it?

I know this, there will always be more places to go and people to meet than I'll ever be able to experience, and that's just fine with me. I'm not looking for the destination as much as I'm looking around during the journey.

When it comes to the topics we're "not supposed to talk about", you know, Psst, come closer and I'll whisper it to you... you know, psst, politics, religion, etc., I'm not shy, but I have learned to behave - well, at least I think so!

But, in case you want a dose, grab your seat belt and I'll shovel out some philosophy to you and we'll just see how much you can take, big guy.

For starters, I am a big believer in the free-market and the lifestyle of time and money freedom it provides the entrepreneur. Employees? Well, I was one for too many years, and to me, the definition of an employee is "someone who makes other people rich."

What makes this particularly important to me is that there are forces who do not want free-enterprise to happen. Now, if that sounds radical to you, well then, I'm guessing that you're still an employee. And if you're over 30 and still an employee, you're most likely going to be one until the day you retire - you know, that day when you start trying to retire on a third of what you made while you were working for "the man" or "the woman".

Call me radical if you want, or call it arrogant, but I believe there are forces that want the masses to stay in their place so-to-speak, and this includes keeping knowledge from us about how we can be healthy and wealthy.

Hey, if you're still with me, then we should either welcome you into the 'free-thinkers, free-enterpreneurs' club, OR you're a socialist spy here to report me to the Feds.

Note, if you're taking ALL of this seriously, you need to chill out Dude/Dudette! Which reminds me, after I got back home from letting the USAF mess with my mind and borrow my body (but not my heart and soul), I ran into a high school teacher that I had in my high school (Holston in Knoxville, TN), and he made me chuckle.

Within less than a minute of running into him up in Gatlinburg, TN, he literally looked left, then right, leaned over to me and told me that he was working with the FBI back when he was a teacher in high school. I said, "really? doing what?", and he said that he was there to figure out who the subversives were and turn them in to the FBI. I kept looking for a punch line, or something, but it never came. HE WAS SERIOUS!

I felt guilty about it, but I chuckled inside, and to this day, I still do. The only subversive I ever saw at Holston was the Ass't Principal because he was always trying to stop us from slipping down to the local McDonald's, which was that "new fangled" fast-food place, whatever the heck that was - we didn't know. All we knew was, that was THE happening place!

Anyway, back to the part where I'm wigging you out about my weirdo politics. Here's how I've learned our system works, well, a part of it anyway. You see, a healthy and financially independent population is more difficult to control. When people have the time and the money that good health and financial freedom provide, they can think for themselves and this makes them more likely to ask questions of authority, making them more difficult to control.

Having the freedom from illness and from financial struggle is what motivates me to both share the wisdom and to seek it out from others. Yes, 'from' others because everyone has something to teach us, everyone. You see, I believe that you are an role model to everyone, i.e. you are an example to all. Now, you might be an example of what how to be, or you might be an example of how NOT to be, but everyone is an example, and everyone has something to teach you, IF you'll just look for the lesson and if you'll let them.

This space is where most people put the details about themselves, but to spare you the boring details, I simply refer those who want them to a page where I've already put a very short bio: http://www.grossinternational.com/mystory

Now, to continue with the literary babble, after years of working the hard way, first as a kid with odd jobs, carrying papers and working as a gopher for a local AM station (WKGN) in high school on up to owning a chain of traditional businesses with 85 employees, I found the simplest way of making money, and more of it than I could have ever imagined.

Most people don't believe it when I tell them, but I buy products from a network that pays me to shop there and I refer others to it. That's it. If that sounds crazy to you, that's ok. It does to most people. If it doesn't, hello there fellow entrepreneur. Let's get a cup of joe sometime and chat. =|;~)-|-<

Being self-employed and 'different' has worked well for me and I love it. Everyday is full of mystery and adventure and, like I said earlier, I've learned to enjoy the journey as I play my way toward the destination. To me, that's wisdom, and it's found all along the way AS WELL AS at the end of 'The Yellow Brick' road.

You see, I believe that if you gather wisdom all along the way, you know what you'll find behind the curtain when you get to see the wizard in Emerald City. You youngsters might need to reference the most watched movie of all time, 'The Wizard of Oz'. And don't expect any spaceships, action packed scenes or even any squealing tires. It's laden with messages and morals and hidden truths that you'll only get when you start growing up.

If you would like to discuss any issues, business or not, please feel free to contact me.

Fair enough? Now let's make a positive difference in this sometimes too negative world.

Success and wellness to you, and don't forget to smell the roses along the yellow brick road in your life travels,

Kurt Gross
Great Smoky Mountains
kurtray@gmail.com
http://www.Shop-Share-Earn.biz