whatever it takes

Working for a living — collecting the cash and calming down the boss.

"When I was about eighteen I worked for a guy who was a crook, really, but he was okay to me. He never hurt anyone that I heard of. He was only crooked because he loaned money to people and he wasn't a registered bank, if you know what I mean.

"Anyway, my job was to run around and collect the cash. I was a big kid, about 250 pounds and six feet four. I was always goofing around, and somehow that scared people. It made me seem unpredictable, I guess. That's why my boss hired me. He said even he flinched sometimes when he was around me.

"I worked for him for almost three years, collected a pile of money, and never once had to hurt anyone. He'd tell me to do whatever it took. I carried brass knuckles in my back pocket just so he'd calm down about me being too soft.

"I guess the biggest lesson I learned from that era was you can't tell much about someone by how they act or what they say. People say and do whatever it takes to get through the day. There's really no such thing as your personality."

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