Personal Experiences

Learning to create value

Becoming an entrepreneur is probably the most demanding challenge I have faced in my lifetime. To be successful, you need to step out of yourself, free your mind of prejudgments, and tap your imagination for new ways to innovate. That means learning how to set priorities and make hard choices. That requires you to first determine what to abandon. You cannot do everything. You must avoid chasing after the urgent triviality of the day. You must look to the future and focus on maximizing opportunity and putting resources to their most productive use. Government does not think like this. I hope to offer a fresh perspective to the Nevada State Assembly.

Learning to fight fraud

When I was 10 years old, I saved all my money (about $10) and told my father I saw an ad on TV for a really cool glass cutter. He warned me not to trust what people say on TV. I did not believe that someone would lie to a 10 year old and take all his money. That is exactly what happened. I got a piece of junk in the mail. I was so disappointed. With my father's help, I wrote to the company and even called them, to no avail. Over the past 30 years, I have watched the company that ripped me off grow into an empire. Ever since that happened, I have felt a deep calling to get the bad guy.

In 1991, I read an article called "Six Myths About Fraud" by Joseph T. Wells, founder of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in 1988. Joe was the FBI Special Agent in charge of the criminal investigation of Richard Nixon's Attorney General. Joe is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' Hall of Fame and the Journal of Accountancy of Hall of Fame. By 1995, I became a Certified Fraud Examiner and have learned so much from Joe and his colleagues about the prevalence of fraud in our society and the corrosive effect it has on our civilization. Most importantly, I have become an expert in how to hunt down fraudsters. This has been a perfect complement to my professional experience as a Certified Fraud Examiner, a profession that emphasizes the need to always uphold the public trust. If elected to the Nevada State Assembly, I will put these skills to use to restore integrity and hold people accountable for how they handle the people's business and hard earned tax dollars.

Learning the value of a dollar

When I was five years old, my family took a vacation to Miami Beach. One day while there, I walked into the ice cream shop at the hotel. The assortment of colorful flavors was too much for a kid to handle, but I knew I wanted that ice cream. Unfortunately, I had no money. With sad eyes and puckered lips, I looked at the man behind the counter, hoping for a solution to my predicament. He told me I could charge the ice cream to my room. What a great deal, I thought. I get my ice cream now, but don't have to pay for it. So, I came back to that ice cream stand every day while on that vacation. Not until vacation was over and my father was checking out did I realize what paying later meant. It was a painful lesson to say the least.

Family background

I was born into a working-class family in 1964 where I learned the values of hard work and integrity. My father, may he rest in peace, was a furniture salesman who was paid as an independent contractor and had little recourse when short changed on promised commissions. My mother was a religious school principal and the only woman in a management position. She was often subjected to sexual harassment.

My parents did not have the ability to save enough money to pay for my college education, so I have always been a hard worker. In the 1980s, I worked my way through my undergraduate education as a janitor and through graduate school as a teaching assistant. This taught me not only the value of hard work, but also how hard it would be to raise a whole family on what little a janitor earns.

I met my life partner Dana in student government in 1985. We made a lifetime commitment to each other on August 10, 1986. We live and work together in Las Vegas. Our relationship has been the most rewarding aspect of my life. Between all our sisters, we have two nieces and three nephews ranging in age from three to 25. We think of them like our own children.