After you’ve worked what seems like a hundred years at various jobs, you might one day look back and
have an epiphany something like this: “Holy crap, I’ve done a lot of stuff!” That’s what happened to
me recently, as I drove my ’97 Civic to work, thinking about the various things I’ve done in the towing
industry: Driver, Dispatcher, Manager, and now Parts Guy. I’ve done a lot of stuff, and I remember
most of it, and even better, I recorded a lot of it, in journals and newsletter articles.
As you work through the years, it kind of creeps up on you, this combination of knowledge and
experience, all you’ve learned from all the mistakes you made, and all the happy memories of laughing
with friends you’ve made. In our world today, that knowledge has become much more than a valuable
database for yourself, your boss, your employees, and your co-workers. It has now become something
for people to read on the internet when they are supposed to be working. If it happens to be on a
website like www.hub911.com, even better—you can claim you really are working.
My background: Parents owned a tow company when I was a teenager: at age 15, over the summer,
I answered phones, manned the storage lot, and ate a lot of fast food for $200/month. Started driving
tow truck at age 21. Began managing a tow company at age 35. Left the tow company at age 42
with 42% of my sanity intact, to run a parts company selling parts and accessories to the towing and
emergency industries. Still there six years later. Sanity has clicked back up to 63%.
Incidentally, if you want a really sobering moment, let your kids see you working, so that they can ask
you questions like the one my daughter asked me last week: “Dad, when you were in high school, did
you ever think you’d be working every night on your laptop on the TowPartsNow catalog?” Nice. Real
nice. The few details I do remember of my career plans when I was in high school, I couldn’t really share
with my 17-year-old daughter. It was something involving supermodels, I think.
So here we are. If you’ve read my e-newsletter for TowPartsNow, you know what you’ll be getting. If
you haven’t, I hope I can hold your interest for a few minutes a couple times a month. My goal is to
entertain and to inform, to display humor, and to someday sell out and become a bestselling author. I
have many interesting experiences from my years in the towing industry to share with you, including
those precious moments rubbing shoulders with law enforcement and emergency personnel, who
sometimes let us stand near them and look cool. I look forward to contributing to www.hub911.com,
and I invite you to contact me with your stories, comments, affectionate compliments, and derogatory
curses (I am married, and I do have kids—I can take it).
Have a safe and profitable week.
Nick Kemper
www.TowPartsNow.com
nick@towpartsnow.com
have an epiphany something like this: “Holy crap, I’ve done a lot of stuff!” That’s what happened to
me recently, as I drove my ’97 Civic to work, thinking about the various things I’ve done in the towing
industry: Driver, Dispatcher, Manager, and now Parts Guy. I’ve done a lot of stuff, and I remember
most of it, and even better, I recorded a lot of it, in journals and newsletter articles.
As you work through the years, it kind of creeps up on you, this combination of knowledge and
experience, all you’ve learned from all the mistakes you made, and all the happy memories of laughing
with friends you’ve made. In our world today, that knowledge has become much more than a valuable
database for yourself, your boss, your employees, and your co-workers. It has now become something
for people to read on the internet when they are supposed to be working. If it happens to be on a
website like www.hub911.com, even better—you can claim you really are working.
My background: Parents owned a tow company when I was a teenager: at age 15, over the summer,
I answered phones, manned the storage lot, and ate a lot of fast food for $200/month. Started driving
tow truck at age 21. Began managing a tow company at age 35. Left the tow company at age 42
with 42% of my sanity intact, to run a parts company selling parts and accessories to the towing and
emergency industries. Still there six years later. Sanity has clicked back up to 63%.
Incidentally, if you want a really sobering moment, let your kids see you working, so that they can ask
you questions like the one my daughter asked me last week: “Dad, when you were in high school, did
you ever think you’d be working every night on your laptop on the TowPartsNow catalog?” Nice. Real
nice. The few details I do remember of my career plans when I was in high school, I couldn’t really share
with my 17-year-old daughter. It was something involving supermodels, I think.
So here we are. If you’ve read my e-newsletter for TowPartsNow, you know what you’ll be getting. If
you haven’t, I hope I can hold your interest for a few minutes a couple times a month. My goal is to
entertain and to inform, to display humor, and to someday sell out and become a bestselling author. I
have many interesting experiences from my years in the towing industry to share with you, including
those precious moments rubbing shoulders with law enforcement and emergency personnel, who
sometimes let us stand near them and look cool. I look forward to contributing to www.hub911.com,
and I invite you to contact me with your stories, comments, affectionate compliments, and derogatory
curses (I am married, and I do have kids—I can take it).
Have a safe and profitable week.
Nick Kemper
www.TowPartsNow.com
nick@towpartsnow.com
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