Living On The Edge
On the verge of bankruptcy . . . on the verge of freezing . . . on the verge of multimillion-dollar success--take your pick.
By Geoff Williams •
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Graham McFarland put the finishing touches on his resignationletter and settled back in his seat. Soon, he would land in NewJersey, give his final sales pitch for Express Digital, fly back toDenver, submit his letter, and then he would be done with thecompany he'd created. All the then 29-year-old husband andfather of two small children could look forward to was trying toavoid bankruptcy. He was $30,000 in credit card debt after threeyears of trying to keep his firm afloat.
It had seemed like a great idea at the time. Back in 1994,McFarland, who is now 32, had been having lunch in Denver withthree people: his boss, Steve Hiratsuka; mutual friend Dave Hurd;and a pal of Hiratsuka and Hurd's. The pal made a passingcomment about baseball cards that evolved into an animateddiscussion about Little League baseball and soccer teams. They allwondered:"Why couldn't there be collector cards for kidswho play sports at the elementary school level?"
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