I received a call from the International Film and Video Festival. The Documentary Secrets Lies and Apologies had been nominated for an award for Creative Excellence.  So I went to Hollywood to accept the award. I was surprised that there was a big banquet and I was told to dress formal. I went wearing my double-breasted-winter-white suit. I looked pretty cool. I was under dressed. Everyone there was in a tux and I stuck out like a sore thumb. We sat at a table with some guys from Germany and Australia and they acted like I was John Wayne or something because they were all impressed that I was nominated for the award. They were even more impressed when I won the category.

When I went up to accept the award I said, “I would like to accept this award and acknowledge the millions of women and children who participated in the making of this film.” Sarcasm at its finest and nobody got it. All I got was blank stares. Oh well, I wasn’t in it for the awards anyway. I almost didn’t go but I had some friends in LA that I wanted to see.

The awards kept coming. We got a Videographer Award for Learn to Stop Shoplifting, a Videographer Award of Distinction for Condition Red, A Communicator Award of Distinction for Secrets, Lies and Apologies, Aegis Award of Excellence in Video and Film Production for Condition Red, egis Award of Excellence in Video and Film Production for Drug Wars – Up Against the Stem and Drug Wars – The New Marijuana. Probably more but I didn’t keep track.

The business was in decline and so I released the remake of the Stop Business Crime Series. These films had done very well for me and I felt the information and subject matter would be good for today’s viewers.

Learn to Stop Shoplifting teaches that shoplifting is money out of the pocket of a business owner and more succinctly money out of the pocket of the consumer because we all pay for shoplifting as other crimes against business. We pay because a business unable to control shoplifting has to raise its prices to make up for losses.  This can also be catastrophic for some businesses because many of them go out of business because of the losses.

Learn to Stop Employee Theft teaches that employee theft is so serious that 30% of business failures this year will be caused by the theft of their own workers. Experienced retailers know that they have more to fear from their own employees than from shoplifters. Unfortunately many new business and small retailers don't learn that lesson until it's too late. Some experts say that in an average retail business, 20 - 40% of employees will always steal if given the opportunity. Another 40% of employees will consider stealing if the opportunity and temptation is too great. It’s the business owner’s job to remove the opportunity and this film shows them how.

How to Survive and Armed Robbery teaches that it's an event no one wants to experience. In one second you go from your normal routine to finding yourself in the midst of a life and death scenario. What you do and how you act in the next 60 seconds can determine whether this is a robbery of a murder. As I knew this film has saved lives and would be a valuable asset to any business.

Loss Prevention Threats and Strategies is another book I published in 2005. To increase the appeal of our selection of business products, I hired Sarah Kaip, a writer and researcher, to help me put together a book for businesses. A survey conducted by Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations Inc. revealed the top 20 security threats to American corporations. We compiled strategies to combat these 20 threats and put them into this comprehensive loss prevention manual. Loss Prevention Threats and Strategies covers, in detail, how to deal with almost any type of business-related crime. More importantly, it gives the reader strategies to reduce or stop these losses.

Back in the mid 80s I had the idea that I would like to write a book on sales techniques. Since I have always been an all-star salesperson (I can say that with some humility because it is true). I didn’t have time but I certainly could have Sarah help me. So I commissioned her to start organizing some of my notes that I have gathered over the years since I was one of Prudential’s top agents. I had volumes of information on how to be a great salesperson. She helped organize the material and I selected the content of the book. My goal was to produce a book that would give anyone interested in sales a platform for success.

In 2005 I published You Gotta’ Wanna’. Here's the pitch:  "It’s about sales. It’s about life. It’s about how to be successful at both.  The basics of sales never change. The timeless principles in this book will help the reader get what they want.  The style, philosophy, and techniques presented are the same as successful people have used since the beginning of time.  For both rookies and pros, this book reveals what it takes to join the top performers.  No matter what the job, success will be in direct proportion to how many of the presented principles can be adopted.  You Gotta’ Wanna’ gives you 62 strategies for making a lot of money.  There is a reason that 20 percent of the salespeople make 80 percent of the profits. It teaches how to conquer fear by winning confidence, how to establish rapport with customers to built trust, how to get the client saying “yes” immediately, how to get your customers go from skeptical to enthusiastic, how to gain the power of a winning sales attitude and how to manage your life to help you reach your greatest potential. My philosophy is selling isn’t about slick-talking your customers - long-term sales success is about developing relationships. Start by establishing rapport, identifying needs, presenting products and services, overcoming objections, and closing the sale. We did a good job with You Gotta’ Wanna’ because it effectively illustrates that in order to achieve long term success you have to genuinely believe in what you do.  You Gotta’ Wanna’ teaches people how to get they want by giving their customers what the customers want."

You Gotta’ Wanna’ got some really great reviews.

In 1991 I read a story of a World War II battle that occurred near the Philippine Islands in the South Pacific between the a large contingent of the Japanese Navy and a small contingent of the US Navy. It was an inspiring story of courage and heroism and how a group of men faced certain death. A lot like the Alamo except it was farther south. That story had stuck with me for a long time and I wanted to do a film about it. The only problem was it would take a couple hundred million to produce it. Quite a cry from my $40,000 or $50,000 films.

I had lunch with Paddy and we discussed it. He had written dozens of screen plays and had produced a bunch of movies. He had also written a bunch of stuff for me. His hand was on many of the films that I had done. I found out that he was the skipper of a small ship in WWII in the South Pacific. He encouraged me to write a script. So I did. At least I wrote a draft of the story and he read it. He was pretty critical and we discussed why. He also had taught screen writing and coached me on the process.

I worked on the screen play for a couple of years on and off and Paddy and I had many lunches where we discussed it.

On one day we were discussing the script over lunch. We enjoyed eating at Bonsai Teriyaki, a Japanese restaurant. As I was describing the action in the play and the dialog between the characters, I began to fall into character and started talking about the Japs doing this or that and how the crew felt about the Japs and Japs this and Japs that. After a couple of minutes, I looked around and saw I had attracted some attention. It wasn’t positive attention but the waitress came up to me and said the owners of the restaurant were all Korean and they hated the Japs during the war too. It was pretty funny, but I guess you had to be there.

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