6 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3I have the privilege of
knowing some very suc-
cessful interesting people.
One of my friends, Jess,
passed away about 8
years ago, he was 81. One
night at dinner, I asked
him what he thought his
life would be like when he
was 75 (his age that
night). He told me he al-
ways expected great
things to happen. Jess
grew up in the depression.
He told me many days his
family only had rice to eat.
He worked during high
school, college and law
school (he went into real
estate law when he gradu-
ated). He was working his way up the
food chain.
In 1974, he and his wife bought an or-
chard in Napa and planted grapes to
sell to local wine makers. Everything
was going fine until 1981. In 1981,
there were too may grapes and he
couldn’t sell his. He and his wife,
Jane, decided to make their own
wine. They decided to name the wineBy Tom Black