Art Lapin:  

t were yesterday...my Dad's 1982 Datsun 510 Station Wagon was packed completely with my stuff. Three and a half hours after leaving San Jose, I was on the Central Coast... a place I would call home for the next 6 years. I was headed down to Cal Poly a week early to take part in a Freshman Orientation called WOW week (Week Of Welcome) where new students got to enjoy the the activities and atmosphere of college before the reality of studying kicked in. I met my roommate, Greg, from Hemet, California, and Lawrence and James in room 101, just down the hall from us. These 3 fellow Business Majors would be my closest buddies the first year, and introduce me something called a beer bong (yea, I was pretty innocent before going off to school!) Freshman year was an exciting blur of Swim Team, late nights studying, partying, or talking til all hours with fellow dorm mates, residence hall student government, dating, roadtrips to Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles, and yes...even classes. What a year! My Sophmore year, I moved off campus with my friends Greg, Lawrence (Skip) and James and lived in a condo that Lawrence's Dad bought to have him manage. That was also a fun year, but by then, each of the four roommates was headed off in their own direction. My Junior year, I was back on campus as an RA in the dorms(free room and board). By the end of the year, I'd put together a fun run with our marketing club on campus (AMA) that landed me a job selling radio advertising at the local Top 40 station in San Luis Obispo, SLY 96 FM. Working while going to school slowed down graduation because I dropped back from a full time student to part time, but I was making enough money to put myself through school and buy a car. Also, any business or marketing project I had to do for school centered around the radio station I was working at and helped make school that much more interesting to me. My Senior Project was a car give-away called the Mits On Mitsubishi Marathon where the 30 contestants had to remain with their hand firmly planted on a new car for as long as they possibly could. The winner stood with his hand on the car for 72 hours and 45 minutes. Our radio station broadcasted live throughout the entire event, and I had my fraternity brothers help judge the contest. I graduated from Cal Poly in December of 1989, 5 years and 3 months after starting. Leaving college to enter the "real world" was just as thrilling and bittersweet as was leaving high school. Workplace I've always drawn my energy from helping people accomplish a goal which is what attracted me to sales. By putting on a fun run on campus with the marketing club on campus, I sold all the ads on the back of the t-shirt and landed a job selling radio advertising for a local Top 40 radio station in San Luis Obispo. The first three months were pretty rough as I was still a full time student. I was also getting used to how to use radio advertising to get local business the sales results they were looking for. After 3 fun filled years of selling radio advertising while in school, I graduated and it was off to Los Angeles. From 1990 to 1995, I sold radio advertising for Power 106 in Los Angeles. In 1995, I moved into sales management until 1998. It turned out that I enjoyed selling more than I did managing. From 1998 to 2002, I held a few jobs (all sales jobs) in industries ranging from auto sales to financial services and eventually decided that the mortgage business was the best fit for me. My wife and I had invested successfully in real estate, so helping other people do the same thing is rewarding and fun for me. Today, I'm at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Seattle, and I still do some business in California because of my previous business contacts.