Takisha Pillai

Hi,

I’m Jake and I bounce between Tucson, Dallas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. I’m in my fifties and have been in business, sales and marketing since I was six.

Yes six. I was privileged to spend a lot of time on my grandfather’s farm before the US become urbanized and I still remember my aunt telling me if I gathered up the baby ducks running all over we could take them to the fair and sell them and I could keep the money.

From there I moved with my missionary parents to Africa and by the time I was 14 I had 4 businesses including the largest poultry operation in the area specializing in Rhode Island Reds and Longhorns. Breeds the Africans were amazed by but I’d gone out to the University of Ghana’s agricultural department and made friends.

So as an aside, ‘MADE FRIENDS’, is THE SECRET but even more specifically making the right kind of friends. Because of moving around a lot (9 Schools in 12 years) I had to learn to make friends fast. When I started getting interested in the opposite sex and other normal teenage things my parents sent me back to the states to live with my grandparents.

The first day I was back I walked down the street and got a job at a steakhouse as a dishwasher. I thought I was a millionaire. I then doubled up and got a second job as a dishwasher at a truck stop. I made friends with a hippie and bought his car. Just for fun I tore the entire engine apart and put it back together and then headed off to a friend in Ohio where I’m from and started doing aluminum siding.

I was then convinced that I should go to Bible college. It was one of the worst decisions of my life but I was a kid and I wanted to make my folks happy. I went got depressed and really had the first manifestation of bi-polar. It was decades before I received a proper diagnosis and I won’t bore you with that horror story but through it all I had over 44 JOBS almost all in sales and marketing and started a multitude of businesses and they all failed as my judgement would go out the window during a manic phase or if I was in a depressed phase I wouldn’t be able to even get out of bed.

The one successful business venture I was involved in was with my wife of thirty eight years. She has been my rock and if I could have worked in harmony with her I KNOW we would have been far better off than we are today.

However, as a favorite pastor of mine says, ‘it’s now where you start that’s important it’s where you end up.