After being fired by Apple I started a new computer company. Towards the end of Computer Centre One I had started selling Altos Computers as a larger system alternative to Commodore. The ones I'd sold in Youngstown ran the MP/M operating system, a multi-user version of CP/M. The multi-user part was far from perfect, but okay. I liked the Altos computer. Before Computer Centre One's downfall I'd set myself up as an Altos dealer, even made several purchases from them. So when I got back into the business Altos was a natural place for me to turn. I was an established Altos dealer, all I had to do was give them my new address and new company name.
When the company sent me their new product catalog I was intrigued to see a new model, the Altos 386, which ran on the UNIX operating system. I'd heard of UNIX. Heard good things. Altos was not a microcomputer, but a super microcomputer. The computer itself was a modern looking box you plugged multiple dumb terminals into. The users shared a CPU and hard drive. In an era when everyone was going to the stand alone PC, I saw a better small business model in a multi-user super microcomputer. I had liked the MP/M based Altos, but I went nuts over their UNIX based model. Where MP/M was a forced multi-user system, UNIX was a pure and perfect multi-user system. With UNIX there was no compromise. With this system I could compete with the big boys in the smaller market.
I couldn't afford to purchase an Altos so I found a customer who needed one. There was no software for my customer's industry so I'd have to write it. Earlier I used dBase II, a database program to write applications, but dBase II wasn't available for the UNIX operating system. This forced me to look for a different database which led me to Informix, the best database I ever used. My planed resurrection was going fine until I set up this new computer and tried to install the Informix database. This should have been simple, but proved to be otherwise.
To this point I'd used CP/M, MP/M, PC-DOS, and MS-DOS. All simple operating systems similar to each other with less than a dozen standard system level commands. UNIX had more than 200 system level commands. UNIX was complex at a point I hadn't expected complexity. UNIX was created in the early 1970's at AT&T's Bell Labs as a programming operating system to be used by programmers. UNIX was written in the C, a high-level language and its users were assumed to know. I didn't know UNIX or C. The C programming language was and is the most difficult to grasp. UNIX, with its 200 plus system level commands was and is the most complex operating system on the market.
UNIX of 1983 was different than today. Today there are hundreds of utilities and interfaces to make it easier and dozens of books to explain it. In 1983 none of this existed. Not even a book to explain it. The only thing I was able to find to explain UNIX was a $90 set of poorly photo copied three ring binders from Bell Labs. This was loosely called a UNIX guide. This "guide" was a computation of notes from multiple Bell Labs and MIT students on their area of expertise on the UNIX platform. All of them assumed a working knowledge of UNIX and C. Looking through those pages I was overwhelmed because I didn't understand a single part of what I saw.
I set the computer up in the bedroom of our small rented house. With the expensive Altos computer on the floor and one of the dumb monitors on a night stand, I sat on our bed and began the daunting task of learning the UNIX operating system. Those who knew UNIX were smarter than I and had the benefit of training at one of three locations: AT&T Bell Labs, MIT, or University of California Berkeley. Every one else had to learn on their own and this didn't seem possible. My first intelligent decision was to ignore the vast power of UNIX and focus on what I needed to know to fulfill my customer's needs. The first challenge was to load the Informix database on to the Altos hard drive. Something simple in other operating systems was a mountain to climb in early UNIX. My first effort resulted in destruction of the "UNIX Core", which meant I had to reinstall the operating system and start fresh. Thus began my learning process.
I wont bore the reader further with technical descriptions, but I will say this was the most difficult technical task I had or would undertake. After a dozen sleepless nights I managed to load the Informix database. This changed my focus to learning the Informix, which was simpler than UNIX. While using Informix I often had to interact with UNIX, which slowed me down, but in this way I eventually began to get a handle on the parts of UNIX I needed to know. I had resolved to get through this job and never touch the UNIX operating system, but that all changed when Mary took me to church.
The occasion wasn't for church, but a concert. I'm not into music, but Mary is so I wisely stopped working long enough to go with her. The concert was one guy with a trumpet. Learning this I am sure I rolled my eyes and equally sure my wife noticed. I did not want to waste time listening to some guy blow his horn, but resigned my self to it. My attitude changed with the introduction. Phil Drisco was introduced as the greatest trumpet player in the world. Though not into music, and not remotely into trumpet music, the introduction made me sit up straight. When Phil Drisco began playing I didn't doubt the claim. The guy was incredible. I understood why it effected me so. It was because I believed this guy was the best at what he did. It didn't matter what he did. That he was the best at it made him and his music interesting. At that moment I decided to be the best at something. Since I was knee deep in the quagmire of the complex UNIX operating system, I decided to be the best UNIX programmer in the world. I shared this with my wife and she said something like, "That's nice." What she really wanted to say was, "Get all that computer crap out of my bedroom."
It wasn't long before I had learned what I need to begin programming. Before the first job was complete I had a second waiting. Same happened with my third job. By that point I called myself an UNIX/Informix/Altos expert. I wasn't the best UNIX guy in the world, but I was very good. What I was exceptional at was application programming. Meaning I was good at designing and writing a program to fit a particular customer or industry need.
Our third child was born June 15, 1983. Rebecca Erin. A beautiful baby then, my beautiful publisher now. She went from diapers to an MBA overnight. That's how it feels to dad. At the time of Rebecca's birth I was near completion of a program to help executive recruiters. I'd always retained rights to the programs I wrote, but I'd yet to find an industry in which reselling my software vertically was viable. In the executive recruiting industry I found just that. I called the software P.A.M. for Personal Agency Manager. It was a great piece of software that fit the industry well. It should have made us wealthy.
I sold my PAM software combined with larger multi-user Altos computers all over the country. We could have made a fortune just selling PAM, but in early 1984, I was distracted by an opportunity and a challenge. Diversified Data Systems, a successful UNIX based company that specialized in Altos computers in the Tidewater area imploded and closed their doors. DDS had a string of local customers, most of whom had half written programs and expensive hardware they couldn't use. I learned about DDS's demise when Altos Computers called and told me they'd received frantic calls from the defunct company's customers. I was the only remaining Altos dealer in the Tidewater area so they called me. "Yes," I said. "Give those unfortunate and desperate businesses my number. I'd be happy to help them." I had no idea how big a door I'd just opened.
The calls came so fast I can't remember who was first. By the time I set up my fifth appointment I knew this was too big for me. A wonderful problem full of opportunity, but a problem none-the-less. I need to back up a little and explain something. The first UNIX job I did I calculated at a $10 per hour. I was about to quote $15 an hour for the second job when I had to pay a refrigerator repair guy $20 an hour. I figured I should make as much myself. When I told the potential customer $20 an hour my voice cracked from nerves. The customer didn't blink. On the third I quoted $40 an hour. In the middle of that job a Ford dealer called wanting me to take a look at something. I didn't have the time or desire to do even a quick job for Ford so I quoted $90 an hour. They said, "When can you get here." "Four hour minimum," I amended. All they cared about was that I come soon. That job I finished in forty minutes and left with a check for $360. It was great pay, but more valuable was the lesson. My time was worth what I said it was worth. I could work for $10 an hour or $90 an hour. It all depended on what I thought I was worth.
So when the first former DDS customer asked me to evaluate their computer needs I gave them the same rate I gave Ford: $90 an hour, four hour minimum billing. They gave me the exact same response: when can you get here. I didn't realize it but DDS had charged $20 an hour. The customer assumed my $90 an hour rate indicated how much better I was than DDS. Paying more made them trust me more and gave them comfort in the job getting done at last. Throughout my relationship with these customers they believed I was the best because I charged the most. It was a great lesson to learn.
With the first customer I figured out why DS had went out of business. They had promised too much and charged too little. I recognized their mistake because I had made the same. Repeatedly. The opportunity for me was that DDS had sold the customer on the need and the computer itself, so I didn't have to do any of that. In fact it was the opposite. From the minute I walked in the door the customer began trying to convince me to take their job. Not having to honor DDS's poor initial deal, I had a clean slate to work with and no baggage. There were dozens of customers just like this one.
By the second customer interview I realized I'd never be able to do all the work. At that point I noticed something my customer was saying. He insulted the owners of DDS, as well as several of their programmers, but had confidence in Dale. Who's Dale, I asked. Dale So-in-so, a DDS tech. He understood us, the guy said. After I left the customer I found Dale. Dale was an experienced UNIX guy looking for work as the company he'd worked for had just closed its doors. So I asked Dale, "What other tech's did you know from DDS." There were ten techs total. Three of them had already taken jobs with former DDS customers, but seven were available and I hired them all. A few days after DDS closed their doors I had most of there customers under contract and most of their employees working for me. It was like I'd taken over their company with out their overhead and without the baggage of their bad deals. A month after DDS went under I had the largest and best earning company of my life. "UNIX Based Research" it was on track to be a name in the history books. I charged $90 and hour for my time and $40 and hour for each of my techs. The techs were contractors that I paid $20 an hour to, which was twice what they made with DDS. We all billed 80 to 100 hours a week. Life was good and we were all getting rich.