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Curricula Vitae: James A. (Jim) Nannen: (JimTheWiseMan)
I like to think of myself as a serial entrepreneur as well as a published author.
Graduating 2nd in my High School Class from Monson Academy Prep School in Monson, Massachusetts (later to be called Wilbraham & Monson Academy), I went to Springfield College in Massachusetts and graduated in 1966, with what I like to call (tongue-in-cheek), a “Double-E Degree”. Not Electrical Engineering, but an English major and Economics minor.
I then hopped a freighter in Virginia for a 30-day journey that sailed through the Panama Canal to Sydney, Australia (stopping at Tahiti along the way!), where I landed a job for a year selling Collier’s Encyclopedia door-to-door. Several times during that year you could find my name listed on the Collier’s World Sheets (published weekly) and listing the Top Salespeople in the World for that week.
After turning down an opportunity to open the first Collier’s sales office in Fiji, I returned to the USA where I helped open one of the first pet store franchises in the country in 1968.
Four years later, after pet store experience and a few years with Proctor & Gamble and Hallmark Cards (two great American companies!), my wife Donna and I opened the first of our four independently owned pet stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut, as well as a book, record and candy store, all of which we eventually sold to move to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1981 where we purchased an existing pet store in St. Petersburg and re-named it “Animal House”. Today, two of our stores in a lifetime total of about a dozen, remain in St. Petersburg.
Htpp://www.AnimalHouseNaturals.com
.
Boring easily, and after attending a museum exhibit at the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in the year 2000 featuring reverse glass paintings from Croatia, I made 2 trips to Croatia in 2005 to obtain a few paintings for our personal collection and met with and purchased paintings from, 50 Croatian Naïve painters. In their modesty, the artists like to refer to themselves as painters rather than artists.
We brought those paintings back to Florida to be among the 200 or so paintings Donna and I bought to open, in 2006, what the Croatian Government called “the largest reverse glass painting gallery in the Western Hemisphere” ( I think it was actually THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD!) featuring Croatian Naïve reverse glass paintings exclusively. We operated this gallery until 2011 (our last location was in The Pier in St. Petersburg) when, during the Great Recession, people were not buying anything much less rare art, we decided to close the walk-in gallery.
We then began concentrating on Internet sales and we still do, to this day, in the never-ending process of upgrading our private collection. You can find our art on most Internet sales platforms where we continually strive to upgrade our collection by liquidating some paintings so we can purchase others. We will have paintings on many Internet sales platforms:
Amazon:
LULU for now or you can search:
· Reverse glass paintings
· Croatian Naïve Art
Link:
· Croatian Art
· JimNannen.com
Lately I have returned to writing. My first book, $mart Retailer$ Retire Rich!, was published in 2000, but I have recently published The No Effort Multi-Million-Dollar Retirement Plan as well as 2024 OFF RAMP. I call myself (tongue-in-cheek of course-smiley face) “The Dot-Com Author”, because the titles to my upcoming books will always attempt to contain an easily remembered domain name. Smart Retailers, No Effort Retirement, Croatian Naïve Art, Reverse Glass Paintings, 2024 OFF RAMP, and all these domains I have registered.
If you would like to learn more about me or take a look at some rare, Museum quality art from some of the most talented painters in the world or check out one of my books, go www.JimNannen.com (and tell your friends) which has my entire story. (As you can see!)
Thank you.
JimTheWiseMan
(Read 2024 OFF RAMP to find out why)
Amazon Link:
$mart Retailer$ Retire Rich!
and
No Effort Retirement
may be bought on this site.
SOMETHING ELSE
I’m beginning to write a loose interpretation of what they are now calling “flash stories”, “flash books”, “flash novels”, “micro books” or “micro novels”. The object is to get your message across with as much detail as needed, but without the “fluff” many writers introduce into their work and the waste of time. The point is that some people want to hear the message as quickly as possible since they are interested in the outcome and may have limited time. This method is sometimes being used with fiction, but I think it well suited for non-fiction, because non-fiction is better suited to getting at the substance quickly, while some of the best fiction is written when the author becomes a wordsmith and elaborates with flair.
I’m getting older, I just noticed that, and have several ideas for books, plans, or “flash” novels to write, or stories or ideas to talk about, but can see more clearly than ever that my time is running out and that time would not let me tell my stories in the traditional longer format.
This could be called my third “flash novel” book. This fits the “flash” format perfectly, because readers need all the information quickly so they may implement if needed. So, what you will see here is a narrative that could have been much longer, but because of the subject matter being suited to having the outcome explained quickly (the reader wants to know), AND I want to get the word out ASAP, I do that in much less space with many fewer words.
Also, my feeling is, that when writing a work like this, it’s not how many pages are in the work, but often THE VALUE OF THE INFORMATION rendered, that should determine its ultimate worth.
I truly believe that I am offering something unique here; valuable information quickly and at a fair price. What you pay for this information is amazing! Best money you ever spent. Not only that, but time is money. You can read 2024 OFF RAMP quickly and don’t need to spend a week.
The best thing you can do is read this carefully and I think you will find, if treated logically, that you would have come to the same conclusion if you had been thinking of this yourself for a while. I, on the other hand, am constantly thinking of this stuff! It’s what I do. Must be in my DNA or something!
Tell your friends about 2024 OFF RAMP. Republican, Democrat, Independent, Socialist, Communist or other. Tell them it’s available on AMAZON or LULU. I APPRECIATE YOU! I am trying not to be judgmental. Sometimes it’s hard! I just really feel that elections have consequences and if the consequences, perhaps, pose a threat to my family’s fiscal and emotional well being, then I should be paying close attention. If I have something to say that I don’t hear anywhere else, then I am compelled to say it!
I will let you, the reader, be the ultimate judge. After reading this yourself you can either decide to recommend the book to everyone you know, and send them a copy, or not. If it goes viral, it will help change the world! It is a very valuable learning lesson and if studied will be beneficial to everyone you know.
Do you have some of your own thoughts on the matter? Then tell everyone. POWERFUL information quickly we are talking about here!
Thank you so much,
JimTheWiseMan
NEW BOOK
Scroll down to order:
NO EFFORT RETIREMENT
or
$mart Retailer$ Retire Rich!
Other titles in the works.
I Write
WHAT I’M DOING
REAL TESTIMONIALS
WHAT I’M DOING
"WRITERS WRITE"
I just finished watching the movie “The Wife” and one of the characters said, about being a writer, that “writers write”. That’s what I do. I write. I get an idea and either act on it or write about it. I have ideas. I write. I have to. I keep thinking of things I want to say. I also realize that I am getting older and don't have the time to write traditional books because of the length, so I have adopted a rather loose version of the “Flash” or "micro" method of writing. "Flash" or "micro" writing of books or stories attempts to be as quick and concise as possible, while still getting across the entire point, but with fewer words than usual. These shorter versions are more suited to non-fiction (which is good for me because that's what I do mostly), since with that form the reader is expecting to grasp the concept quickly and without a lot of wasted time or wordiness; however, I am also writing short stories as "flash" stories. I like the form.
WHAT'S NEW?
REAL TESTIMONIALS
WHAT I’M DOING
Many of you already know about my book
$MART RETAILER$ RETIRE RICH!available here in hard cover and in Kindle version at Amazon; however, now offered for the very SECOND time is my newest writing:
The
NO EFFORT
(multi-million dollar)
RETIREMENT
Plan.
I say this book is available for the very “SECOND” time because I was not happy with the first version! It had a couple of things in it which I felt were not transparent enough, so I pulled the book, and this is the re-write. I like it much more and feel good about it.
It is just out in Kindle by Amazon as well as a spiral bound hard-copy that is only here on my web site. Short and concise, you will love how simple my plan is and will see how easy it really is for someone to retire wealthy!
GREAT IN SPIRAL BOUND COPIES FOR YOUR OUTSTANDING STUDENTS,
AS GRADUATION GIFTS,
BIRTHDAY PRESENTS, CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
OR JUST BECAUSE!
REAL TESTIMONIALS
REAL TESTIMONIALS
ABOUT: NO EFFORT RETIREMENT
NO EFFORT RETIREMENT
TESTIMONIALS:
Mack Hicks, PHD
Retired Educator- creator & owner of
Center Academy, St. Petersburg, Florida.
"Simple. Insightful. Nannen has a No EFFORT PLAN here that anyone could follow."
George James Johnson
Retired Banker; Royal Bank of Canada.
"I Read $mart Retailer$ Retire Rich!
15 years ago, and just LOVED it. Great, sometimes fun, writing with novel ideas. You will just love both books!"
William Stover
Retired Investment Advisor
Merrill Lynch
"I worked in investment counseling for 45 years and can honestly say that this PLAN is simple to understand, and better than many I have seen."
ABOUT: NO EFFORT RETIREMENT
GIVE WHAT I CALL A "LEGACY" GIFT
ABOUT: NO EFFORT RETIREMENT
I have always been curious about the number of wealthy people in the world and how they became so. I wrote this PLAN because I saw nothing available that would take the reader through step-by-step, year-by-year and reveal a simple to follow plan that a normal person with an average income could follow and be assured of retiring comfortably.
The
NO EFFORT
(multi-million dollar)
RETIREMENT
Plan
does just that!
(continued in next panel)
MORE: NO EFFORT RETIREMENT
GIVE WHAT I CALL A "LEGACY" GIFT
GIVE WHAT I CALL A "LEGACY" GIFT
Continued:
MORE THAN $3,800,000 BY RETIREMENT!!
I truly believe that with this “micro book” concept (in this case I must actually call this a “MACRO PLAN”), I am offering something unique here; valuable information quickly and at a fair price. What you pay for the Kindle version is amazing! Best money you ever spent. Not only that, but time is money. Spend a week reading a piece of nonfiction that is supposed to teach you something, rather than entertain, and you lose the equivalent of a week’s pay! You can read my PLAN easily in one day and don’t need to spend a week, but put THE PLAN in place and you will not have to worry about money ever again. Spend one week on creating your PLAN and you will begin to see how you will be accumulating, on average, about $1,522 a week by the time you collect Social Security at 70. That’s $3,798,912 accumulated over 48 years of work and smart investing! That's $79,144/year or $1,522 weekly on average!
Your money is working harder than you are!
The best thing you can do is read this plan carefully and I think you will find, because of its simplicity and ease with which the appropriate investment steps are written down, that you will have no trouble following along and will set yourself up to be more than comfortable in retirement.
GIVE WHAT I CALL A "LEGACY" GIFT
GIVE WHAT I CALL A "LEGACY" GIFT
GIVE WHAT I CALL A "LEGACY" GIFT
Do you have some of your own gems of financial wisdom to impart? Well, you can do that too! I have left 2 blank pages after every chapter so you or the reader can make notes. I truly believe this information will change lives dramatically with no effort! Give what I call a legacy gift of valuable advice with your own notes inside; your thoughts written down for eternity! They will cherish it! This PLAN will become their Investment Bible! By the way, I’m re-naming the genre I’ve just been telling you about for my purposes here, from “micro book” to “MACRO PLAN”, for that is exactly what this is. GRAND and POWERFUL!This information I am giving you sets the foundation for your or your young person's LIFE’S PLAN, and if there is one thing I will get little resistance on, it is calling a “LIFE PLAN” a “MACRO PLAN”! You’re getting a MACRO PLAN for life here and helping everyone you touch. What more could you possibly be looking for?
ALSO
keep an eye out for my next book:
JUST EIGHT THINGS
(Everyone should know that are NOT taught in school!)
I also Sell CROATIAN NAIVE ART PAINTINGS on the Internet
Our Old Storefront Gallery In St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Our Old Storefront Gallery In St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Our Old Storefront Gallery In St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
This is a photo of our old gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. My wife Donna and I had the largest gallery of its type in the world open from October of 2006 to 2011 (talk about bad timing), but because of the Great Recession we decided it best to close and continue on the Internet. The gallery is no longer open, but we have a great selection from our personal collection on our web site above.
The Croatian painters (most prefer to be called "painters" simply because they are too modest to call themselves "artists") are among the best in the world at this form of painting on the reverse side of a normal pane of glass with oil paints.
CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO VIEW
Great Master Painter Ivan Vecenaj with Me at His Home
Our Old Storefront Gallery In St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Our Old Storefront Gallery In St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
I have personally visited 45 of the best Croatian Naive painters and have purchased paintings from more than 55 artists.
Ivan Vecenaj is one of the greatest painters ever. This photo is outside his home in 2005 when I visited to pick up the painting "Petite Moses" he had painted for me as commission work. His painting "Moses at the Red Sea" is considered THE ICONIC PAINTING in all of Croatian Naive Art. My "Petite Moses" is the only known replica. You may see "Petite Moses" if you
click on the link below. I honestly believe that my painting is brighter and more vivid than his original which is hanging in The Croatian National Museum of Naive Art in Zagreb, Croatia.
Born in 1920, Ivan passed away on February 13, 2013 at the age of 92! At the time of my visit, he was in the process of turning his barn into a Gallery/Museum.
My Philosophy on Art: Niche Art from Emerging Nations!
Our Old Storefront Gallery In St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
My Philosophy on Art: Niche Art from Emerging Nations!
The town of Hlebine, Croatia: the Center of the Universe for Croatian Naive Art!
It is rather simple. I believe that there are many newly emerging nations, whether coming out from under communistic or totalitarian rule (such as many of the countries in Eastern Europe) or those attempting to emerge from third world status like those in the deepest and most remote parts of Africa and Asia, that have their own unique forms of art as well as their “Great Masters” of this art (along with up and coming Masters) whom are little known to the rest of the world; and that, my friends, is the key. They are little known to the rest of the world. Because of this, those that do know have a unique opportunity to collect rare art from “The Masters” or up and coming artists of this genre for their own personal collections at reasonable prices. They also have the opportunity to zero in on a small segment of the art world and become an “expert” of sorts on a particular niche.
That’s it! That’s My Philosophy
of niche art!
The Argument for Croatian Naive Art as "Investment Art"
The Argument for Croatian Naive Art as "Investment Art"
My Philosophy on Art: Niche Art from Emerging Nations!
NAIVE ART GALLERY IN HLEBINE, CROATIA
So much art. So little time. It would be almost impossible for the average person to study every form of world art in order to become well enough informed to be able to make sound collecting decisions, but it certainly is possible to study one small, precise, niche with a laser-like focus and feel relatively comfortable that one has gained enough knowledge of that particular niche to make informed decisions. That’s what I do. That is what I do in only one small, precise, niche and with a laser-like focus. That niche is called:
CROATIAN NAÏVE ART.
More specifically, Croatian Naïve paintings. And the majority of that niche is in paintings of what are called “reverse oil on glass”. There are some artists in this genre that do, or have done, oil on canvas or board, but even though I collect those as well, they are by far in the minority.
CROATIAN NAÏVE REVERSE PAINTINGS OF OIL ON GLASS.
THAT’S THE NICHE!
YOU CAN LEARN ENOUGH ABOUT CROATIAN NAÏVE ART TO FEEL COMFORTABLE ABOUT COLLECTING:
CROATIAN NAÏVE PAINTINGS OF “OIL ON GLASS.”
www.InvestmentArt.com: Easy to Remember
The Argument for Croatian Naive Art as "Investment Art"
www.InvestmentArt.com: Easy to Remember
is an easier domain to remember for the reverse glass paintings. It will take you directly to our Croatian Naive Art web site and allow you to see the entire collection of ours and can take you further, right to eBay for pricing and to purchase if so inclined! The plaque above is from the Croatian Embassy in Washington D.C. and credits our old Gallery as being the largest in the world and the only one in the Western hemisphere specializing in only Croatian Naive Art! Many of our paintings are investment/museum quality.
Start doing some research on this great art form and it won't take long to begin to feel that you have acquired a comprehensive enough understanding of the artists and genre to feel comfortable collecting Croatian Naive Art!
Cheers!
Other Works of Art from Our Personal Collection!
The Argument for Croatian Naive Art as "Investment Art"
www.InvestmentArt.com: Easy to Remember
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OTHER ART AVAILABLE ONLY ON THIS WEBSITE:
Coming Soon
We also offer art that is not Croatian Naive, from that which we have collected for over 50 years!
From a marvelous Miro print, to other popular artists of today such as Tarkay, Faunch Ledan and Autumn Forrest!
I just began reading a book titled "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning" by Margareta Magnusson. The basic theme is that as we get older we should be cleaning up our personal affairs and space, of everything which may become a burden to those left behind. Now, certainly, there are things both personal and material which will go directly to certain heirs, but what about the remaining in which they have no interest? Yes, you must clean up and divest yourself of as much as possible in order that the job you leave behind is not so daunting. Enough. That's what Mrs Nannen and I are doing as we attempt to make our wonderful collection somewhat smaller.
(coming soon)