The troublemaker gets his due....

Yes, this is autobiographical.  I was "the troublemaker".  Years ago I got crosswise with the Executive Director of the Texas Association of Builders.  IMO he simply wasn't representing us well, and I had the audacity to write him and say so.  Actually, I was a serial corresponder.  Then one day I got a letter from the Office of the Governor of Texas asking if I would allow His Holiness the Governor to appoint me to some board that had "housing" in it's name.  


It didn't take much research for me to learn it was a "do-nothing" board, so I declined, which really pissed off the Executive Director of the TAB as he was the one who had forwarded my name for the appointment.  As most appointees' heads swell up the size of the capital dome, he was sure I would jump at the chance to "move up" and would therefore have no time to pester him.  Little did he know how small my ego was.   Nor was he aware I knew a guy who at one time was the appointment secretary to the Governor of Maryland.  It was he who once shared with me how most board/commission appointees were there to get them out of someone else's hair and were merely fundraising tools for the Governor.


Any time someone comes at me with syrupy-sweet praise, totally outsized kudos, undeserved political appointments, etc, I tend to back myself into a corner and hold on to my wallet.  It's a tactic that has worked well for me for years. Feel free to use it yourself.


Oh, and the Exec Director mentioned above has since moved on.  I'll always like to think I was one of the reasons he left.  ;)


S