This is a true story about a small TV repair business in Burbank Ca. that lasted over a quarter century. It covers all the reasons why, after 35 years, I gave up and sold that business. It begins with the good years in the 80's, a time when you could easily open a small business and make a go of it. But then in the 90's we began to see that Corporate America was going to do everything possible to put up road blocks. They say that small businesses are the back bone of the US economy, then why would you destroy small businesses? Fifteen years ago I received a letter from the government saying that if we had survived the previous ten years, we should be congratulated because we had survived the worse economic conditions since the great depressionNAFTA and other trade agreements would not only destroy the manufacturing industry in the USA, but what is not as well know is, it would also destroy the service industry. Everything from lawn mowers, air conditioners, printers, cameras and especially electronics, were not going to be repaired anymore due to cheap products from Mexico and China. These same agreements, though, also changed the corporations that wanted those agreements. They went from producers of quality products to producers of disposable products. Somehow they no longer cared about quality or longevity. And they no longer cared about the people who serviced those products either. It's also about how a small business fought back with some clever advertising techniques. With the ton of advertising noise out there, in order to get someone's attention you have to do something different. And we did. People would ask us daily, "When is the next newsletter?" Who gets complemented on their advertising? We did! It covers some ideas other business might try that will still work and will pull in customers. It's also a story about the changing work ethic that was taking place over the last 35 years. The next generation had a different view on the work-a-day world. With many true, humorous examples, it explores how employees were changing. And how energy drinks and drugs began turning some employees into zombies that couldn't remember the simplest of things. The story covers the day to day problems of hiring and training people and frustrations and achievements we made to overcome those obstacles. .