[Rushmore]

I started at Time-Life Books in DC in 1985. I immediately became Telemarketing Stud of the Universe. They used my stats in the newspaper ads the ran trying to lure other marginal humans into a degraded life of telemarketing. I made $30/hour. I was also an insane dope fiend and zany goth-punk-derelict. Remember, this is '85.

Ahem.

Later in life, much more desperately-situated (read: REALLY down and out), I took TM jobs raising funds for The Missing Children Fund (we were in San Francisco, and the owner actually dispatched guys on bikes to pick up the checks), sold US News and World Report, sold Art in America, dispatched for an escort service (not actual telemarketing, but it involved a telephone, and I ended up owning and operating the business), raised funds for the Republican National Committee, and eventually ended my telemarketing career in Clearwater, Florida, setting appointments for the dating service I currently own and operate.

I now employ 22 telemarketers in four cities.

But don't hate--we don't do any cold calling at all.