My two year journey has taken me to some great job fairs. It gave me a chance to talk to some great recruiters about their companies and hopefully I might find that JOB I wish I could have. The true reality it’s not going to happen. The jobs that they are offering are mostly commission base or quite lower entry to say the least. The IBM’S and Google’s have been replaced by the burgers and furniture stores, still not worth four years of college? However, I always wonder who were the people who actually landed a job from these job fairs? It would be nice if there was some kind of display at these fairs of the actual people who actually got a Real job by attending.
     I can say that job fairs are certainly a good testing ground to satisfy  State of Illinois for 
receiving  my unemployment benefits and to get me out of the house.
    I always dread December, the last month of the year when you hear about the horrendous firings like what will be happening to the some 6,000 employees at the Dominick food stores. Hopefully another food store change (Mariano) can purchase of these stores and put at least a thousand or two back to work. I was in photo retail for over four decades and many of times I had to bite my tongue for some of the things my customers expected me to do. Well I hope tomorrow’s job fair I can can introduce many of the soon to be unemployed Dominick workers to a game changer that will take them to a multi-trillion dollar industry and their new employer has  over 480 billion dollars in assets. Don’t have to spend thousand of dollars  going back o school, and they will be able to get pre-licensed in one day and
soon to have their own business. Oh yeah, I am not going to tell you the name of this company or the nature of it’s business, it has to be surprised. The one thing I will tell you,
just look at your next job fair as a place where you might be the fairest one at the fair.
————————Hope to hear from you, call me at 630-202-1979,—————————–

     Why did it take me so long to figure out life’s little secrets when it comes to find out a simple and cheap solution, that it’s no big deal that sitting on your glasses and breaking them is no big
deal. Yes, Mr.klumzy that a couple of weeks ago. I looked very cool with my taped up glasses and learned that there are reasons why it’s good to have a spare pair of specs when something
like this happens, Crap. I started to have a panic attack, going on vacation with a broken pair of glasses. or wait until I got back to see my eye doctor, and quivered of the fact that now I have to get TWO pair of eye glasses. Well maybe there is a two-for-one, I went to my local Vision Works, and found a little secret that could of saved me a lot of AGGREVATION.
    I only needed a new pair of specs that did not make me look like a goofball, and since I use
my right eye to see, how much would it cost just to the one glass replaced. To my surprise that
my favorite stores, Vision Works became my new miracle maker, they only charge just $50.00 to make my new lens in one hour. I can’t believe that I was able to use one of my older Nikon
frames to give a great pair of eye glasses. 
    But there is more to add, to my surprise Vision Works has a promotion to the end of the month(12-31-13-please check your local store), for those 65 or older can get a 65-100% discount depending on age, since I am 67 years old, I got a 65% discount off two pairs 
of glasses. I want to thank Vision Works for saving me a bundle of money and giving me a life
lesson that I can pass on to others.

         It was Veteran’s Day, and I could not wait to enter my Facebook page. So many of my friends were giving honors to their moms and dads who served their country. I started to have tears in my eyes thinking about both my dad, my step-father Morton E. Wolf.
         Like many of the under twenty years olds that served World War II, my step-dad gave up his college education at the University of Chicago to protect and serve his country. Always having an interest in electronics he was very excited to be in the radar corp. One particular night he and his squad where woken up by the loud sirens at 3:00 am, and told a special plane just landed on the ship and it’s radar needed to be serviced. Being full of yawns and figured it was just another
plane that strayed off course he just performed his radar dance and wished away not knowing that this plane was the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress bomber, the first aircraft to drop the first atomic bomb. Mort spent the rest of his life as a proof reader, and after over thirty years of service was called into his boss’s office and let go with no severance pay or benefits. As heartening as it sounds he loved his family and country, I loved him as always wondered being exposed to the atomic bomb might of caused his melanoma death. A true father, husband, uncle, brother, and most of all a beloved veteran that should never be forgotten.
           As I started to read all of the contributions of all the other veterans on my Facebook page, I was saddened to hear one of our greatest fighters of world peace finally left us, Nelson Mandella.
Mr. Mandella spent over two decades in prison, and he was justly rewarded to lead his people of South Africa to  finally have their freedom.
           Finally as I see that life happens in three , I must pay a special thank you to my father-in-law
David Nacino. A father of seven children, served in the Japanese Death March, Bataang. Marching with his fellow soldiers( Filipino and American) only had the leather off his shoes was his main source of nourishment. Thank God he was a to survive and return to tank care of his family.
His story does not end there with a happy ending. His young and beautiful wife died of a heart attack. If this was painful enough, his youngest daughter now my wife was stricken with Polio.
Most men were just leave. My grief stricken father-in-law was determined to make sure that all of his children went to college. A true Veteran of not just serving our country but a committed father.
            I want thank all of veterans for your great sacrifice. Your pains gave me freedom that most people around the world are still fighting for.   
        

     Trying to introduce my new journey, emphasizing the importance of having some kind of financial foundation saved for the future is like getting a winning lotto ticket. I posted on my
every day comptuter favorites, every day on Circle, Facebook and Linkedin. I am not much of a Twitter fan.. So far I have gotten more likes from my fellow Candy Sagaers thann anyone else. I
have played this game and accumulated over a trillion at the Qbet Casino and cannot figure out
where all these people get the time and motivation for all of this life STOPAGE. Maybe playing games and trying to be better than the ones you are playing against is more important than to think
about if they have enough money for their Old Age. I know that the clock is ticking so LOUD that I can hear it without wearing my hearing aids. 
     In all seriousness, I feel that I never knew that I needed to start recruitingthe minute I learned
to talk. Evem when I was in nursery school it never ocurred to me that I would need to make friends at the age of four. Can you imagine how many people I could of recruited in sixty three years. Every teacher, doctors, my aunts, uncles, cousins, people at the gasoline station, teachers,
lawyers, policemen, firemen, Rabbis,Priests, and on and on. Man o Man I would of had calling cards made when I went trick or treating, and infact being an only child I would of yelled at my
parents for not adopting at least fourteen brothers and sisters. I hate to say this but perhaps if my parents would of gotten remarried at least three or four more times I would not have to worry about recruiting. I have to stay on course and just RECRUIT.
                          So here is what I want to say to my recruits, I am trying to help you to learn from my mistakes. I cannot believe that sixty seven years of my life has passed me by. I day dream about if I only purchased Apple computer at $2.50, but I know there were once multi-millionaires who wished they never met a Man named Madoff. Every time I go to a restaurant or like yesterday I visited a time share, I spread my mission. I don’t want to go to the financial meetings at time because I have no recruits. Many successful people reversed their pattern, by believing in themselves. I am not going to give up, I will just have to recruit and recruit and recruit.

    When and where do finally realize that the passion, the career, the friends(have to change and yet the journey I wanted has come to an end HAS TO STOP. It’s has  been almost two years and I tried desparately to stay in the Photo industry. My fundraising efforts taught me how to network to high profile(corporate) executives, and being a sales representative does not cut it unless I can make a pay check and put as they say put food on the table. I tried to help a friend to got to Nasville and start a band, and was on a band wagon to try help some one win a talent show. It was a great experience and yet  I will never stop helping these people but now I have to face the reality tha I am disabled(Cereabral Palsy) and need to figure out a way to make enough money so my wife(who has Polio) can also stop working.
     This week end,I attended a Summit (with my wife) or call it a convention of over two thousand of our associates and wasable share our experiences on how life’s financial journey can be so challeging and difficult for most of us in this country. When you are young have a good job you don’t realize that the party can come to an end when you get older and even worst like me you get a PINK slip on News Years Eve can be so devastating.
      I wished someone would of told me that in my residing state I can pre-licensed in just one day, and be in an industry that enables me to be able to help myself and my family members, and as an added BONUS have my own buisness with (a beautiful buisness card),, become my own Boss, cannot be fired (Canned), and the Parent company I am associated with has over $480 Billions in assests and guest what it’s a multi-trillion dollar industry. What a company, they reward you with rings and trips all over the world and want to supportyou as a family.
Wow I have been paying my auto insurance for over forty years, and never has my agent ever offered me a chance to join their company. Many of the people I met at this summit makes over $500,000.00 a year and at first couldn’t even speak ENGLISH. We have engineers, lawyers, doctors, cab owners, and even an Elvis impersonator who realized our company can give us so many rewards.
      All my life I have have bee taking photos, selling cameras, meeting great photographers.
I never just stopped and look at my photo(life picture album). Pretty but no happy last page.
As I see myself taking more photos with my cell phone camera I see that the hardest part of my journey is to accept the fact it’s about time to help people with building their financial foundation, introduce them to how they can have a profession that rivals the incomes of many doctors and lawyers, and get an education that does not tqke twenty years to pay back,
     I guess you figured out what the decision I need, want, and have to make. Give me a call and  join me and together we can make a difference for those thousand’s of the potential PINK SLIPPERS who were once lost like me.
      Thanks
      Howard Silvers
      630-202-1979.

         Getting older I am starting to see that because I have stored so much “STUFF” in my brain I find myself not remembering everything I want to remember. Thank God for the sweet,
tasting, and lovely word Honey. I hate to say this, there are times I have forget my wife’s first name Teresita, and you got it, I called her honey. I think after a couple of honeys she realizes that I am starting to get absent minded to say the least.
          Since I hate the sight of needles, yet alone ever thinking about geting a tatoo, I found three wonderful letters that I find myself repeating some fifty times a day, WFGWFGWFGWFG
WFGWFGWFGWFG and WFG. Are you ready to know why?  They are three of my personal
items that I constantly panicked when I misplace them. They are my Wallet, My Fon, and My Glasses. Since I don’ have a “Clapper for each of these I have to just concentrate and remember where are my WFG’s. There was one time I misplaced my Fon, so I used my wife’s
fon to call my own. Guest were my my fon was, it was in the back pocket of my pants. I don’t think I ever heard my Honey laugh so laud.
           It’s great knowing that I found three letters that has helped me with my every day living,
however I am happily to announce that my wife and I are sale associates for my three favorite
letters, WFG, The World Financial Group. We are learning that you are never too old to take care of your financial foundation, and to be able help others, and we have  seen why engineers, nurses, and even CPA’s want to have a successful business and future with WFG. 
          Lets see, I guest I might find myself needing to say WFGWFGWFGWFGWFGWFGWFG
now 100 times a day. Please call me if you want to know more about my three favorite letters.
Please email at [email protected] or call me at 630-202-1979.

    I guest I have been so excited about finding my new journey and all, I forgot the one element that makes having to start all over again after losing my job is that I now have 24
hours a day to think about how I am going to use my next day. When I was working for a
whole day to make an eight hour salary. I got up at 5:30 am, took a shower, ate breakfast,
drove an hour and a half to get to the job early. I took a half hour of my own time to fuel my
body(call it lunch) which I was not paid for. Some times I got home at 7:00pm, fueled my
body again(named it dinner) and what did you know, it’s already 8:00pm some 12 and a half
hours when I first woke up to complete my eight hours of WORK. I knew I better get to bed
in a couple of hours so I can start this journey over and over and over again. Some 20 hours
of preparation to make eight hours of salary. There was some reward to all of this I did not
have to go to work for two days in a row, however I was not making any money to buy the food
I needed to stay alive.
    It’s different now that I finally have 24 hours, 24 hours, did I say I have 24 hours to find my
new journey, a journey that could be a long one to travel, or a short one, maybe one I could
stay at home. No traveling, no spending on gas, and no pot-holes. No matter, what I finally
realized that the whole day of my life was my life and nobody else.

    Here I am in the morning drinking a cup of coffee with French Vanilla cream wondering what approach I will take  today. I first check my stocks both in my 401k and my Ira accounts and wished I had a modern portfolio, Facebook,Linkedin,Google, Tesla, Amazon, and Netflix.
It’s fun to dream and to be grateful that I did have a double digit gain on what I do have. I start by going on my Facebook page under Howard Silvers and see what my FB friends want to share. I think I have some six hundred friends and the majority of them I never met. A lot of the people in my life who I do know have not really been that supported now that I have been out of photo retail going om  close to two years. If I knew then what I know now I probably would of kept my mouth shut and just concentrate that my retirement or what I call searching  for my new journey is right around the corner. Even on Facebook I very rarely get a simple   how are you, I think that they might also get unemployitis and find themselves on the un-employmet line. Life goes on with my journey, studying   for my insurance license and hope I can help people with their THINKING about their eventual retirement, or in plain English, do you have enough money for your future. So far I have approached many and they are appreciative for the information but no Cigar. I will keep trying and have to feel good that perhaps a stranger may eventually be a friend. Any of you just need to say hello to me, the stranger in your life, then please call me at 630-366-0469(630-fon-0-how).

  Sorry, I took close to two months to just stopped in my tracks on my blog. I found myself just spinning my wheels getting involved with pomoting others and forgot that I am  still on my journey to help me and my wife with our life, goals, and spritality My love of photographvery y made me realize that taking pictures sometimes got me so involved with seing the world of others I forgot that I am also part of the world that I am trying to photograph.
  Every day I ventured to my office(my Facebook page) and pasted the main issues that I very
much wanted to be part of my journey. I am amazed that finally Dennis Manarchy just finished
building his 35′ camera(six foot. film negative) for his www.butterfliesandbuffalo,com photography project. His photo venture will definately make people realize that there are many forgotten cultures in the United States that we just took for granted, Like  our Native Americans, who during World War II(the Code Talkers) gave us their langage so we communicate with our soldiers to defeat the Japanese. I made it a point to reference this on my Facebook page. One of my favorites on Facebook are those very special Kiss Moments, there are too many references on politics, and not on the precious times we seem to forget. I also feel very grateful to have many wonderful photographers as my my new friends. It’s good to see all the new photography books that are going to come out for the holiday.
  People have asked me if I am employed, yes but  no paycheck as yet. Thank God for Social Security and to my wonderful wife Teresita. I  am the midwest representative for a great photo portfolio website, www.photographers.com, I know someday it will be the number one photography site on the internet, look photo websites, we got the name.
  I have also been trying to help people with thinking about their financial foundation for their later years before entering retirement. It’s interesting to know that life insurance can also be a long term piggy bank and provide funds for long term care,{ I wish I did it twenty years ago. Are you ready for this, in the state of Illinois you can get prelicensed by just taking a one day review course, and it costs less than $125.00. Maybe if I knew this, I might not gotten my degree in Photography. Ah you can’t look back. However you can give me a call at 630-202-1979, and have your cup of coffee with me and help me reflect about my life on www.howiemaui.com.

       Yesterday my wife and I attended a funeral for a photographer friend, Steve Grubman.
The room was packed with some three hundred of his friends and family. It was a testimonial
that Steve accomplished what I hope to do, is to had gone through life making may friends
and to be able to others with their journey.
        The Rabbi compared Steve’s life as taking and making a photograph. He reminded us
we once develop the film, and sometimes waited mor than a day to see the actual photograph. Photography was a chemical process, but in reality it was a platform for living one’s life. It take
a life processes to DEVELOP who we really are. Steve was not only a successfull photographer but he taught me that your real Earthly wealth are your family and friends. Your job is never your job but your Process. We can not always be a Polaroid or a digital image, the process is a life time formula.
        With tears slowly drowning my eyes, I held my wife’s hand and see why Steve wanted us to listen to one of his favorite’s song, Bob Dylan’s (Visions of Johanna). I knew that my life was not about my physical wealth but about the song I wanted my friends and family to listen to at
my final get together. Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”.
         Let the music beging and hopefully it will never end.