A lot of you guys have heard me say this over the last couple of years. I think it’s funny. Imagine a coach so deluded that he still thinks 30 years later that all of his players are still “under his command”….
Well, make no mistake about it. Each and every one of you is ….”DE FACTO” (as Dave Haskell used to say) still UNDER MY COMMAND!
And what a great feeling it is! Knowing that I can text or email or phone any of you and say “get one!” ….or “get two!”….or “silence on three!”
I would have told everybody to go long on Apple and BitCoin and Tesla but being the considerate guy I am I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries!
Yes-sir-ree there’s no better feeling than knowing everybody is still basically under my command!
Where did I get this?
When I was managing the Service Department at the Mini Cooper Dealership in Universal City (and just about everybody there was under my command) I met this guy across the street that provided us with rental cars.
We had loaner cars that were MINI’s. But we ran out of them all the time because MINI’s are total pieces of shit. This is a good thing when you’re in the racket of fixing cars for a living.
Anyways this guy loved running this Rent-a-car outfit. His name was Dave. Probably in his early to mid 40’s. Fat. Bald. Divorced. May have even lived in a van down by the river. But he ran a top-notch operation. Always made me laugh. He took that job maybe a little too seriously I suspected.
One early evening I walked a customer across the street to hook them up with a rental car. There was old Dave. Being ….Dave.
It was 6:23 PM on a Friday. Closing time is 37 minutes.
He had a kid who had worked there for several years who was probably in his mid-20’s. Good guy. Good worker. I walked in and the kid proudly announced “This is my last day”
He couldn’t wait until 7PM to finally free himself from the bondage, tyranny and the oppression of working under Dave for several years.
I told him “congratulations! What’s your next move?” Trying to start a conversation about his time there and future plans.
Dave was having NONE of it! He fired out “I’ll tell ya what his next move is! Get that Camry cleaned up NOW! We gotta take care of this customer!”
“But the Pathfinder and the Accord and the Explorer and ….wait a second” his soon-to-be no longer a co-worker said….”wait a second…..we got eight cars cleaned and ready-to-go! Why do we have to give them the Camry? Cut me some slack man!”
Dave looks at his watch and says “Why? I’ll tell why! Because for the next 37 minutes you’re STILL UNDER MY COMMAND!”
“Dang!” I’m thinking. “That’s harsh!” Dave was smiling and I was looking on in disbelief as the kid shrugged his shoulders and looked at me before he made the long walk to clean that final car under Dave’s watch!
I finally said something. I was chuckling and said “dude are you serious?!? It’s his last day”
Dave just smiled gleefully and said “he’s still under my command!”
😂😂😂
I told Dave “I’m going to have to borrow that line….like….for the rest of my life. I’m not sure when I’ll use it but I’ll find a spot for it for sure!”
Just the unreasonableness of it all. The way Dave refused to let up on this guy until the final seconds of his employment there. The way the kid just did it as he realized he still was DE FACTO under Dave’s command was so….so….VERDUGO! They BOTH were VERDUGO!!
The other reason I find it funny that I sometimes say to some of you “you’re still under my command!” Is because one could easily make the argument that NONE of the VERDUGO players were ever “under my command” to begin with!
So this is my official disclaimer if I ever say it. But I have to agree with Dave. There’s no better feeling than being able to say the words “you’re still under my command!” even though everyone knows when I say it, it doesn’t hold any water at all !!!! 😂😂
verdugo288 