An investor in small start-up companies, I had given a guy named Dickie Ray Hoskins some front money for his new venture and arranged for him to meet with the Peoples bank of Paris, Texas, to get an operating loan. I had a good relationship with Tiffany, the loan manager, who had acquired her skills with a much larger bank in Chicago. She was in her early thirties, smart and attractive.

I coached Dickie Ray for a week on how to handle this loan meeting. He had more rough edges on him than a pile of smashed concrete in a junk yard but I backed him because he had a high energy level and satisfied my first rule for startups, motivation--he had that certain mid-life desperation, a last chance to prove himself. If I could corral Dickie Ray, we both could make some serious money.      

"Ma'am, here is the business plan and the cash flows for my new company, we got a location all picked out across from the Court House----I was parked outside the bank in my truck and I imagined Dickie Ray making his pitch to Tiffany----Ma'am?, in the vacant space that the bail bondsman was in, yes, Ma'am, it will create new jobs in town and I already got an account with a lot of money--- I gave him the money----already deposited in your bank, Ma'am---getting a business loan requires broad brush strokes---and we break even in three months."

When Dickie Ray came out of the bank his face was red, he was the walking image of a ninth inning strikeout and he approached my truck like he was going to kick the door in.

"You didn't tell me she was colored", he spouted..

"What the hell happened in there? 

"The whole time she was lookin' down her nose at me and my ideas", he said.

I wanted to dump Dickie Ray and gun it out of the parking lot but the thought of losing my front money steadied me. "We're running a business not a men's lodge from the last century", I said, "please don't use that kind of language, don't even think it."

I began to question whether Dickie Ray's idea was even workable. Truthfully, when I first heard his idea I choked on a chicken wrap and spilled my drink---who the hell would buy---Dickie Ray's Texas Sniper Biscuits?  He might just as well have come up with Gun Barrel Popsicles  or In Your Face Mac and Cheese.  At the moment Dickie Ray's reaction to Tiffany made me doubt my judgment on investments and people.     

"Your girl thought this was her chance to get revenge on the white man", Dickie Ray said, "and I told her----I told Dickie Ray to just get into the truck, 'lets go on over to the Trinity Bank like we planned', and fasten his seat belt----what's her name that this wasn't up North, Ma'am, that Texans would buy anything if it was related to guns----'Dickie Ray, you got that other set of cash flows?'----and she acted superior, you know the way they do, 'Mr. Hoskins, isn't it a mixed message, Sniper Biscuits?' and then she said, 'I'll take this to committee and we'll let you know', like I was born yesterday---Dickie Ray, why don't we skip the other bank---and that I didn't already know that that application wasn't never goin' to leave her desk."

I now had a picture of Tiffany ushering my new company genius out of her office and then shredding our business plan. I wanted to tie Dickie Ray to a kitchen table and find out if he was ready to run a business in the real world of employees and the public.

Tiffany continued to have serious doubts about Dickie Ray but after I met with her a few times and explained that he was sincere, that I could manage him, and that I would secure the bank loan---she pushed our loan application through committee . To the surprise of most everyone, Texas Sniper Biscuits was launched---bakery and restaurant---and became a major attraction. Dickie Ray was now a high earner.

"Sometimes I think Dickie Ray is brilliant and at other times he seems like the family surprise who just fell off an old truck in a scene from the Grapes of Wrath", Tiffany said.

After two years we relocated the company to a 10 acre plot outside the city limits, rebranding it Texas Sniper Biscuits and Gun Range. We pulled in customers from all over the state and the product line now included summer sausage and Buck Shot Gravy mix. Some men with new wealth turn ugly but Dickie Ray grew more generous.

On a morning in August with the temperature already well into the nineties Tiffany and I sat at a picnic table outside Dickie Ray's extravaganza, people streaming in to shoot guns and have breakfast. We met once a week to review the company's sales and cash flow and sometimes just to talk across the imaginary back yard fence. 

"You're going to the dealership in Dallas?", I asked.

"Because someone stole my hood ornament and the tire pressure sensors off all four wheels while I was over at the lake", she said, "They're about fifty dollars each."

"Well, you know how the brothers like BMW's", I said, making a white guy's joke, and suddenly not believing I had just said it.........

"First, don't say brothers" unless you are one", she said, "and second, the brothers don't do water. I was over there making a loan."

Dickie Ray had walked over to our table and interrupted us as Tiffany let me off graciously with her great smile.

"Tiff, how about some breakfast?", he asked.

"Thanks, you two go ahead", she said.

"Is Tiff O.K?", Dickie Ray asked as we walked away.

"Yeah, she's buried in work", I said.

"She's come a far distance since that first meetin', you know, changed a lot."

"Yes she has, Dickie Ray", I said, "yes she has".

"She don't frown as much."

"No, Sir", I said, "She don't"

As we approached the restaurant the noise of gunfire from the Range in back enveloped the ten acres and made my back teeth hurt. Out beyond the field of parked cars and pickup trucks a flock of grackles scattered from a lone mesquite tree and flew in formation toward a new roost down the county road. Inside, people from as far away as Utah and New England stood in line, dressed in their best denims and cowboy hats, waiting for a seat at a store bought fold-up table draped in a plastic sheet. As for me I wanted to plow into a plate of Texas Sniper Biscuits and Buck Shot Gravy.