In the following weeks, we saw the Barrister retreat more and more away from the store. This, of course, meant that payroll was increasing, which was bad since we still weren’t anywhere near making a profit. He went back to doing legal work part-time since the money he was taking out of the store wasn’t paying all of his bills but Dollar Bill offered him the top management position at his other business and that kept the Barrister from completely falling out of the loop and it gave Dollar Bill an opportunity to retire from managing his business on a day-to-day level. It was a massively profitable, self-sustaining business that fortunately did not require the Barrister to have as much in-depth knowledge as the game store did and we believed that he would be a great fit for the position. But the store was also without leadership, and the senior employee we had just wasn’t really the man for the job, so to speak.

I was still working as an archivist at this point, doing contract work for a couple of government organizations. One day, while I was at work, I got a call from the Barrister. He and Dollar Bill had been talking and they really wanted me to completely assume all decision making, day-to-day management, and responsibility for the success of the Atlanta Game Factory. The salary we had agreed on as being worthwhile while not breaking the store’s bank was substantially less than I was making at the time and I definitely didn’t want to do the same thing the Barrister had done, putting the store over the barrel by pulling out a salary it just couldn’t support. Instead of a reasonable wage we worked out a deal where my share of the business would be increased. I’d have complete control over the store, a larger degree of ownership, and I could quit my day job.

That was an opportunity on which I was willing to gamble.

Questions or comments for Michael? Send them along to gameshark.feedback@yahoo.com .

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