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Fear And Loathing in the Country Club
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by: H.H. Chandler
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Word Count: 561
Lambertville, NJ- How far would you go to make the deal of a lifetime, the type of deal that would set you and your grandchildren up for life?
Think about it for a minute, and then know that no matter how far you’d go, H.H. Chandler has probably gone farther.
Chandler, author of the new book, Running Naked – the story of his years running with wheeler-dealers like John DeLorean – has done it all. He chased big deals for years, most of the time while creditors were chasing him. The rollercoaster of that life, working on a shoestring with hopes of hooking the big fish, was symptomatic of the attitude that underscored the mistakes leading to the credit crunch.
Chandler lived on DeLorean’s estate for more than six years, and met or spoke with him almost daily. The irony about DeLorean was that he was accused of being a scam artist by others, yet it was scammers who eventually laid DeLorean low.
“His struggle with financial scams brought his finances crashing down,” Chandler said. “Even during our struggle to save his bankrupt estate, while attempting to stage a comeback for his new automobile, we encountered countless scam artists and con men portraying themselves as anything from representatives of Arab oil cartels to representatives of phantom family trusts.”
But it was the culture, Chandler said, that allowed all these people to thrive and succeed with their scams.
“It was crazy,” Chandler said. “We would do whatever it took to make a deal, and we didn’t really worry about the consequences so much. We weren’t driven by greed as much as we were driven by survival. At one point, my Mercedes was repossessed by someone posing as a parking attendant at a posh $1,000-a-ticket charity ball where I was trying to schmooze high society. And it got more surreal than that.”
In those days, people like Chandler and DeLorean were trying to dig themselves out of the hole, having gone from riches to rags in a very short period of time.
“We lived by the deal and died by the deal,” Chandler said. “Some people were bricklayers or doctors or truck drivers – those were their jobs. Making deals was what I knew. It was my job, and it was part of my identity. And when the vultures started to circle, the line that separates what you will do and what you won’t do for a deal get blurry. And I think that was part of the culture that has led to where we are today.”
And it wasn’t just the dealmakers. Regular Joe-Six-Pack consumers were on the hunt for the big deal, as well. That’s why real estate scams, get rich quick investment boondoggles and outright fraud became more commonplace, Chandler said. But there were some valuable lessons he learned from dealmeister DeLorean.
“John was a master at delaying foreclosure,” Chandler said. “Not only did he delay his foreclosure, but at one point, he actually was able to stay in his foreclosed home for years after he defaulted on it. He was amazing. People facing foreclosure could learn a few lessons from how he handled it.”
Chandler’s best advice? “Two things: keep your feelings of greed at bay and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
About the Author
H.H. Chandler was born in Herndon Virginia and at eighteen years old, with his parents long since divorced, Chandler asked his father permission to live with his mother in Greenville North Carolina. Shortly after arriving, Chandler purchased a motorcycle and drove to New York City to become an actor. Some (hard) years later, H.H. Chandler became successful as an actor with starring roles in off-Broadway shows, as well as playing lead characters for more than seven years on daytime television dramas; Detective Sam Fountain - The Edge of Night, ABC. Doctor Rico Bellini – The Doctors, NBC. Ben Harper – Love of Life, CBS. Max Decker – Texas, NBC. Blue Nobles – Another Life, CBN. Voice - overs for radio commercials were also a mainstay in his career.
Married, with three children, Chandler sought a different direction in his life and began a new career in the world of finance. After a few years of working for some major financial institutions he struck out on his own as a financial advisor where he soon met and befriended John Z. DeLorean.
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