Frank the Hustler

[InNETSweTrust]

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Even though this was Lawrence Frank's first job in the sports industry, his buddies still should have known better.

He was 12, and had decided to start a three-on-three tackle football league at Clarence Park in Teaneck. The sign-up fee was $80 -- no chump change for a sixth-grader -- but Frank made sure it was a first-rate operation.

He spray-painted lines on the field, even did end zones. He scheduled games on a computer. He cut a deal with a local sporting goods store for discounts on custom-made uniforms, complete with names and numbers. He promised a trophy presentation.

"I was commissioner, coach and quarterback," Frank said proudly.

Then he joked: "I think my uniform still fits."

It was only afterward, when Frank's team had gone undefeated and the trophy had disappeared, that his buddies recognized two things they missed.

One they realized quickly: "He'd always set himself up with the best team and won, and then he'd chalk it up to his coaching ability," said Andrew Sher, one of the old Teaneck gang.

The second took a little while: "It wasn't until a couple years later when we finally did the math and realized he made a couple hundred dollars off that league," Larry Sher said. "But that was him. There wasn't a scam or an angle out there where he couldn't make a buck."</div>

Full Story

 

[throwback]

lololol. thats a good story. he seems like the kid that wasnt popular, but the kid who had respect from his peers. did hear about him buying a vcr to tape games and analyze them?

 

[InNETSweTrust]

It was a pretty good story. People underestimated him his whole life. He always end up getting something from it. Then those people will realize a few years down their lives that Frank got the best end of it. It showed that Frank is way ahead of his years.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It's the hustler in him. It's the 12-year-old who sold papers so he could buy a VCR to break down Knicks game film. It's the (underaged) kid who worked at Dairy Queen, mowed lawns, started a car detailing business (with his current agent, Andy Miller), worked as a fill-in at the Lipton Factory and did any temp job that would come his way.

It's the teenager who created his own job -- volunteer canteen salesman -- to get himself in the door at the Five-Star basketball camp. It's the student at Indiana who hawked everything from T-shirts to fake Gucci watches so he could make a buck without having a fixed-hours job that would take him away from the basketball office.</div>

That's dedication at the highest degree. He wanted to be a coach and he was willing to do anything for his dream to come true.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"I didn't have scams," Frank said. "I was entrepreneurial. I hate the word 'scam,' because it leads to the impression you're not telling the truth. I always told the truth."

Like those Gucci watches he sold? He bought them in New York, took them back to Indiana and told each one of his customers they were counterfeit before he took their $25.

"I told people, 'Look, I'm not going to lie to you. They're fake. But will anyone else know that?'" Frank said.</div>

 

[throwback]

he's my idol

 

[InNETSweTrust]

If I have half of his dedication. I'll have my own business empire by now.