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Aspire! is the Boys & Girls Club of the Western Reserve's primary fundraising event of the year.  It is tastefully done and has a real nice vibe.  Nothing extremely over the top, lots of cool activities like a wine pull, a dessert dash (my favorite part), and silent and live auctions.  This year's event raised over $100,0000 for the worthy programing needs of the club.  To the left is a picture from our table.  Ironically enough, one the guys sitting at our table was a doctor that I use to call on when I was a pharmaceutical sales representative with Novartis.  It seems like an eternity ago that I sold drugs.  When I was "in it" it was definitely during the glory days.  I would get up, meet my partner for a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks, pick up a dozen of pastries and a box of coffee and away I would go to visit my biggest writer to thank them for their support and for using my drug.  If you have never worked in pharma, then you probably would not believe the excess that takes place in the industry.  To start things off, they send new hires for product and sales training in New Jersey for 3 weeks!  I know what you are thinking...3 weeks of science, memorizing prescribing information, understanding most common side effects and indications must be exhausting.  But in reality it was a big party.  If you didn't know it was pharma training,you would think it was a Ken & Barbie conference.  A bunch of good looking guys and girls on the company's expense account....yep, you get the picture.  When I started with Novartis, Vince and I had already started Vertical Runner, the worlds premier run shop, so running was already part of my lifestyle.  While others were out drinking until 2 AM and then getting up at 7:45am for the 8am start, I was in bed by 10pm and up by 5am to go for a nice run.  My very first day, I stood up and introduced myself to the group of 300 new reps and invited anyone who wanted to join me at 6am for a run to show up in the hotel lobby.  The first day there was 5 of us who ran for about an hour or so.  The next day we had 7, by the end of the 3 weeks, there was a group of 15+ of us.  I guess Ken and Barbie like to run.  Lots of people ask me why I ever left pharma.  Afterall, I made good money, I was very successful, company car, and a huge expense account.  The truth is I wanted something more.  I wanted to serve a higher purpose.  I wanted to use my gift of gab for a better cause even though at the time I didn't know what that cause was.  Yes, I did leave pharma for a short lived career in medical device sales which is a story for another time, but can honestly say that I enjoyed my time while there.  Recently I received a check for about $10,000 from Novartis.  Evidently, a group of reps sued the company for overtime pay for all those doctor programs we would put on in the evenings after 5pm.  Instead of going to court, Novartis decided to settle up with all the reps. I took the $10K and bough a stock BIIB.  I sold Biogen today after a nice run from $138 to $198.  I'll wait to see if it pulls back tomorrow and jump back in, at this point, I'm playing with the house's money.