Introducing vAuto’s Newest Associate

December 20, 2009

Today I had an unexpected visitor drop in. He was the former used car manager of the Duncan Automotive Group in the hills of Virginia. His name is Bubba Bob and he was trained and mentored by none other than the king of all Bubba’s, Gary Duncan.

Bubba Bob told me his sad story. He started working with Duncan approximately 50 years ago. Over those years, Bob saw a lot of good years and made a lot of money. He’d sold them bubba’s up in the mountains lots of trucks; he was a good ole boy. Unfortunately, all good times come to an end. According to BB, about a year ago the boss, Gary, got a wild idea. Gary started talkin’ some crazy nonsense, some stuff that started with a “V” and according to BB he couldn’t even pronounce.

Duncan made ‘em read a book called Velocity, and it was the first book he ever read. According to BB, Duncan made him read it again and again, but the B-man said that he “just didn’t get it”. He said that Duncan was just never the same. He was talking to some city slicker up in Chicago that was feeding him a lot of b-s. Eventually, BB said he figured it was time to hang it up.

He said it didn’t really matter much to him since he hadn’t been having much fun in the business anyhow. When I asked BB what he was going to do next, he didn’t know. He said that there were plenty of dealers around that still valued a guy like him, but he thought maybe he should raise some money from “them venture capitalists out east” and start a software company for himself.

I told BB that he had my full support. I said that I knew that there were plenty of fine gentlemen and dealerships all around the country that would be happy to buy his software.

At the end of our discussion, BB asked if he could stay a spell in my office. I asked him what he meant by “a spell”, and he said that he needed a place to live while he’s looking for his funding. I told him that he could sleep on my couch and work as our receptionist if he would agree to participate in a series of interviews with me. I said that I would like to one day write a book that told the story of his life and career. He said that he’d be happy to share his wisdom and knowledge.

I look forward to publishing transcripts of future interviews with Bubba Bob. I’m sure that he’ll give us all a lot of lessons and laughs.


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