Benny Traub's Current Career | Benny Traub's Odyssey
My Journey...
While my wife and I were on holidays at an eco-resort in the Daintree Rainforest, I awoke while it was still dark.
Our large, private deck was entirely screened over to keep the bugs out. We had left our inner balcony doors wide open to let the fresh breeze blow in.
It was about 3am, still too early for the birds to begin their morning jungle song.
I had woken up with strange thoughts running through my mind, like a idiosyncratic poem. I was perplexed that all the lines were about my own life. I got up and typed them out on my laptop, trying not to wake Carmen.
Preamble:
I was born in the same year that Kennedy was shot. Hopefully my Mom didn't think this was an omen. But when I was 18 months old I pulled a cup of boiling water off the table onto myself. It instantly liquefied a part of my chest, but at least missed my face. The nurse who was having tea with my mother quickly rubbed butter into the wound and scarred me for life. When I was 2½ I fell through the earth into some kind of underground water system. I was trapped and when my screams for help were finally heard, I was rescued, only losing a cowboy boot. When I was 3 I was hit in the head with an axe. Luckily it was with the blunt side of the blade. Even still, I landed in the hospital. When I was 5 I accidentally started a bush fire and almost destroyed a neighborhood. Maybe the assassination of a President isn't an omen. But it isn't a blessing either.
Life at home was difficult. By twelve I was smoking and drinking. By 14 I was a habitual shoplifter and a drug dealer. At 15 I was caught by the police with a car full of stolen goods. I was afraid that my stepfather would kill me so I ran away from home with a friend and hitch hiked over 4000 miles. One of our rides was with a murderer and car thief who was on the run. He wouldn’t let us go so we escaped, but not before being forced onto the pavement with shotguns held to our heads.
God apparently wants me alive because I’ve cheated death numerous times. For example, I’ve been in four serious car accidents. In one of those crashes, my head destroyed the windshield. Somehow I walked away from each crash without even a scratch.
My childhood heroes were Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. While I was able to shed my unwelcome start in this world, like my heroes, I’ve continued to live a life full of adventure.
My odyssey:
I’ve ridden a horse, an elephant, a camel and an ox.
I’ve held a blind baby possum and a baby tiger.
I’ve been stung by hordes of insects, toxic plants and numerous types of jellyfish.
I’ve seen wasps as large as small birds.
I’ve swam with seals, sharks, sting rays, dolphins, giant manta rays and ancient sea turtles, all in the wild. I’ve hand-fed wild monkeys. I’ve been within spitting distance of a herd of wild sea lions. I’ve been within kissing distance of a baby koala bear being nursed by its blind mama in the wild eucalyptus groves. I’ve heard geese diving so fast they sounded like falling bombs, whistling towards earth. I’ve been charged by a wild grizzly bear deep in the forest in Northern Canada. With great regret I had to put it down. It died in mid-charge only a few meters from me.
I’ve been far below the surface of the ocean. I’ve jumped out of airplanes over two miles above the earth and I’ve been two miles inside an extinct, volcanic lava shute. I’ve stood immediately next to a molten stream of lava as it poured from an active volcano.
I’ve been to the pagan altars where the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice.
I’ve been inside medieval dungeons.
I’ve seen the place where Jesus was born and where he died.
I’ve crawled on my belly through the claustrophobic, underground tunnels where the Vietnamese people lived for many years and from which they fought a war.
I’ve swam in the Coral Sea and the Dead Sea. I’ve scuba dived in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, British Columbia, Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef.
I’ve walked alone through the slums of an African village, taken a horse-drawn carriage through Central Park in New York City past Midnight and, most dangerous of all, I wandered all night through an inner city ghetto in Los Angeles.
I’ve been in school yard fights, street fights, bar fights and martial arts competitions.
I’ve sinned against friends, family and colleagues. I’ve tried to undo those sins and failed.
I’ve seen the space shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral and disappear amongst the stars.
I’ve shopped in the magnificent mall in Edmonton and the night market in Hanoi.
I’ve experienced mass riots and have been in the middle of a national civil protest where citizens were shot and killed. I’ve spent time praying at a place of horrific genocide where over 17,000 people were brutally killed.
I’ve enjoyed holidays in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, China, Egypt, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Mexico, Mozambique, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, USA, Vietnam and the West Bank.
I’ve driven race cars, jet boats, jet skis, dune buggies, atv’s, street bikes and motocross bikes. On numerous occasions I’ve jumped my snowmobile well over one hundred feet through the air.
I’ve competed in and enjoyed many non-motorized sports including swimming, kickboxing, baseball, hockey, wind surfing, kite boarding, scuba diving, sky diving, skiing and snowboarding.
I’ve eaten kangaroo, frog, shark and crocodile. When I was 30 years old I was 145 pounds. By 40 I was 200 pounds. Apparently, I’m still growing.
I’ve had frost bite and heat stroke. When I was 13 I almost drowned in the Pacific Ocean. I survived by swimming across a mile-wide expanse of hypothermic ocean water. I’ve been in fog so thick I couldn’t see the ground. I’ve been in rain so heavy that it seemed like a torrent from a fire hose. I’ve heard thunder so loud that the earth shook and my hair stood on end. I’ve been in an earthquake. I was once picked off the ground by a twister. I’ve been deep in the forest where the silence was so profound that I could hear the sound of the first snow flakes of winter landing on the dry, dead leaves on the forest floor.
I’ve been a salesman of magazines, vacuum cleaners, club memberships, automotive oil additives, coupon books, health-food, raffle tickets and chocolates – all door to door.
I’ve been a salesman, a sales manager and a marketing director. I’ve been a public speaker and a teacher. I’ve been a carpenter, a drywaller, a tile setter and an artist. I’ve been a record producer. I’ve planted trees, picked pine cones and fought forest fires. I worked in a sawmill. I’ve been a youth worker. I’ve worked in a carwash and at McDonalds restaurant.
I initially completed only a ninth grade education. I have since lectured in universities. I’ve been a disciple of Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar and Jesus himself.
I’ve been the owner of multiple homes and I’ve lived in a travel trailer.
In my first job I earned $3.60 per hour. Several years later I earned $500.00 per hour as a marketing consultant.
I did my first business deal when I was 18. That failed so badly that I ended up homeless, living in a patch of trees beside the highway (not in a trailer!). In the following fifteen years I started ten companies. Four of those were failures. During that time my net worth soared to a peak at just over $200 million dollars, but much of it evaporated in the dotcom bomb of 2001.
I made my peace with God over thirty five years ago. I’ve been married once and have enjoyed over thirty years of happiness. I have had the most spectacular relationships with my wife, my son and my God and any one of those relationships are worth far more than all my other experiences combined.
That's me, enjoying the seasons I spend in Canada.
Outside links:
One of Benny's previous companies (CFGI) was in the incubation business.
While running his advertising agency, Imagenation Media, Benny developed a leading edge CRM software application and a direct-response advertising platform based on custom fax technology.
Benny Traub is currently the Editor in Chief of www.paypercall.org, a knowledge-site for the Pay per Call advertising industry.
Benny Traub's contribution to the advertising industry.
Benny on the phone at Oracle in Silicon Valley