Good morning I want to tell you a story

Once upon a time I spent all week getting ridiculous messages from men calling me their "little friend," telling me they got publicly humiliated by their girlfriend in front of a girl they thought was me, telling me I was disrespectful...

Bootstrapped entrepreneurs always have the last laugh.

A son of Iranian immigrants turned a single LA retail store into a $1,000,000,000+ ecommerce giant.

All with $0.00 in funding

Here’s the story 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

1/ Richard Saghian was born in 1982.

His family was a minority group of Jewish-Iranians who fled during the revolution.

After moving to America, they got into women’s fashion retail.

In 2006, Richard followed in their footsteps…

2/ He started his own store. His idea was simple: affordable, unique clothes to wear to the club.

His goal was to open 100, but he stopped at 5.

Early on, he had the idea of opening up an internet store...

3/ The web dev he hired quickly talked him out of it, “where will you get traffic?” was a question Richard couldn’t answer.

After a few years, the retail stores were going nowhere…

4/ In 2013, Richard noticed several stores online selling the same clothes for over twice what he charged.

He created an Instagram account, took some of his best selling styles and started posting them every day.

At first, crickets.

But then, something magical happened…

I’m going to tell you a story. And hold tight, because this is an emotional one.

In 2013, Canongate republished three novels that had fallen out of print: William McIlvanney’s Glasgow-set Laidlaw trilogy, first published between 1977 and 1991.

It’s hard to overstate the influence these books had had on crime writing, but he was responsible for many of the tropes we now take for granted in that genre. @Beathhigh, @valmcdermid, @cbrookmyre, @MarkBillingham, @DameDeniseMina and others all cite him as a major inspiration.

In fact, @Beathhigh tells a lovely story about coming to one of Willie’s events in the 80s, and telling him he planned to write detective fiction like Laidlaw, but set in Edinburgh. He still has his book, inscribed “Good luck with the Edinburgh Laidlaw” and signed by Willie.

McIlvanney wasn’t just revered for his writing; he was also known for his humour, his graciousness, and his charm. I was lucky enough to work with him, and attest to the fact he was a proper old-school gentleman. I mean, just look at this photo. How could you not love him?

On #CaturdayEve , I was thinking about telling the heartwarming story of the eye-patched curmudgeon who sits around working with a silly sword on his wall and an even sillier cat on his hat.

I doubt anyone would believe it, though. What do you think? Should I try it?

I met the old guy back when he was much younger, over 25 years ago now.

I didn't know then that he was permanent. He was sort of a stray, that I made the mistake of letting in my house and feeding.

You know how that sort of thing goes, right?

I mean, my kid liked him and he showed every indication of wanting to stick around. Next thing I knew, it wasn't just him, but his three kids, too.

Kind of nice actually.

I'm still not certain how it happened, but two more kids showed up. They looked sort of like him and sort of like me. Definitely weird, but they were cute and I let them stay, too.

But then the cats started arriving.

The first time it happened, it seemed reasonable and temporary.

The man came in, soaked from the rain, hunched over and cradling something in his cupped palms.

@antifaBubba Once there was an angry dwarf. His family had died in a bad accident in town and he wanted retribution. The king was the one who ordered the transport of the gold, the gold carried by the horses that ran over his family. So at night he sharpened his axe and waited...

But the king never came to his town and maintaining his home with his job in the mines took a lot so he was never sure how to get to the king at all, much less get his vengeance. He sat long nights by the fire drinking meade and thinking how to get out...

One day the tax man appeared at the town, and took almost everything he had for the king. It was enough. He slashed his way through the caravan, emptying the money onto the road. But it was not enough, so he donned the robes of the tax man and headed to the king...

A dwarf in the king's court would be noticed, and he was unsure about shaving off his beard, but revenge is a dangerous game, so in a river on the way he shaved himself and worked on his child like voice. He would become a squire, or something, get close. He had to...

Years passed, he infiltrated the court as a jester, quietly working in the background making friends in the dark alleys of the king's home. So many were unhappy. He would not have to wait long. He sowed dissent where it wasn't, and fostered the anger of those like him...

How I came to play the bagpipes

A story... and a thread

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Melodie. She liked music. In fact, she liked music so much that she made it her job! She connected with many people because of her abilities, and had many opportunities to obtain, play with, and try out many different instruments.

When Melodie was very young, she began collecting musical instruments. A flute here, a clarinet there, six trombones here, an accordion there, and the list goes on and on. As she got older, her collection grew. She got married, and her husband had his own collection as well.

Melodie developed many unlikely friends. Her personality was such that she could make friends with and talk to almost anyone. One day she made friends with a boy who played the bagpipes. He told her many wonderful stories of highland games and competitions. This did two things,

First of all, it made Melodie question whether or not the "mutt" of her father's heritage was at all Scottish in origin, but it also made her consider what playing the bagpipes must be like. Her studies led her to search for her genealogy.