EDUCATION: High school, some college, self-educated

FIRST JOB: Stock boy at Woodward & Lothrop in Alexandria

WORST JOB: Greenhouse laborer

WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP? Baseball player or musician

HOW DID YOU END UP OWNING BANG! MUSIC INC.? I started the business in 1997.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DECISION YOU'RE WRESTLING WITH? Recovering from the recession while trying to grow the business.

WHAT IS ONE THING YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT YOUR JOB? Some of my past money decisions.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB NOW? Everything except past money decisions.

WHO WAS YOUR HERO AS A CHILD, AND WHO IS TODAY? Carl Yastrzemski when I was a child, President Obama and the Dalai Lama today.

WHO WAS YOUR MENTOR? WHAT'S THE BEST ADVICE HE OR SHE EVER GAVE YOU? My wife: "Notice the natural order of things, work with it. To work against it is to set up resistance." (She stole this from Lao Tzu.)

WHAT ARE THE BEST LOCAL RESOURCES FOR SMALL BUSINESSES SEEKING ASSISTANCE IN GETTING STARTED OR EXPANDING? Any basic book on accounting and bookkeeping.

WHAT BUSINESS BOOK DO YOU MOST RECOMMEND? WHY? "The E-Myth Revisited." This book helps remove the fog between the available skills and needed skills to start a new venture.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR GREATEST CAREER ACHIEVEMENT? This business has survived eBay, the explosion of the Internet, big-box competitors, 9/11, I-95 shooter, and the recent recession.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE THINKING ABOUT STARTING A BUSINESS RIGHT NOW? Go for it. Stop thinking about it and do it. I spent a lot of time (about five years) thinking about starting my own business and now that I have done it, I regret not doing it sooner.

CAN YOU SHARE A WEIRD FUN FACT ABOUT YOUR PROFESSION THAT WE MIGHT NOT KNOW? The oddest people you know are generally the most interesting and talented people you will ever know.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE THINKING ABOUT STARTING A BUSINESS RIGHT NOW? Don't start just because you are good at something, start because you want to create a business. These are two entirely different things.

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE FIVE YEARS FROM NOW? Expanding my business and playing more music.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LIKELY TO BE SPOTTED DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT WORKING? Playing music or studying a science or philosophy.

WHO WOULD YOU RATHER SPEND A COUPLE OF HOURS WITH: WARREN BUFFETT, DORIS BUFFETT OR JIMMY BUFFETT? Warren Buffett, so I can ask him why he can happily own com-panies that have less-than-humane working environments.

540/659-6687

--As told to Craig Schulin