The answering service just happened to be in the center of the convergence of computers and telephony which defined my entire career. The old wooden telephone switchboards were replaced with computers in the 80’s and I was tasked to support them. Imagine the risk we were taking by switching to computers. Our en - tire livelihood was at stake, and the computers were unproven. We didn’t even have staff that could type. Fax machines, Beepers, the Inter- net, Email, Voice Mail, 800 numbers. Every year, something new was developed, and every year, we were supposed to go out of business because these things were going to replace us. Instead, we grew by accepting them. Fast forward, and I built a call center. Then, I had to build all the software and a myriad of everything you can imagine, eventually earning a patent in software engineering by connecting the internet to the World Wide Web. Deep into my career, we had a thousand employees, and I had a staff of 30-plus engineers. Every evening, weekend, and every holiday, I made art. I love making art. I also love writing. Eventually, the company grew large enough that the entire family joined the business, and my many hats were handed to a CTO, CIO, and every expert you can imagine. I became the co- CEO of the company with my family, essentially an equal partnership. I even started drawing in the boardroom while meetings were occurring. That is when my dad asked, “How do I like be - ing retired,” even though I was still working and the little bit I did was very valuable, I had a lot of extra time on my hands and a successful busi- ness. The call center was called Global Response. It served some of the finest companies in the world, including Toyota, Lane Bryant, Zara, Her - mes, Wolford, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, and The Chicago Art Institute.
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