In early 1984, my father sold Tiptonville Laundry & Cleaners to Paul Greene of Dyersburg. He immediately turned it into a satellite station, and no dry cleaning has been done in Tiptonville since.
Soon after that, I began working as a “cub” (newspaper reporter) in Helena, Arkansas.
In 1985 I got a real estate license as part of contracting with a certain local franchise to a nationwide business brokerage.
In 1986 I obtained an N.A.S.D. Series 6 license to sell mutual funds. I was doing this in October 1987 when the US stock market crashed or corrected. Personally, that was a good week for me as I was the free recipient of services at the University of Virginia medical school. Doctor Barry Marshall from Australia oversaw a grant funded research program that I participated in. Later he would be awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine for his work in Charlottesville.