Black Sheep

You know how you can spend time with a certain group of people, and in every group there is the one guy who is for sure the black sheep. Well, I play poker Thursday nights, and Rob is that black sheep. This guy could be seen as crazy, but truthfully he is just a little off. The first time I met this guy, we did the standard greeting followed by the question that threw me for a loop. "So Chris, what's your credit like?"

This being the first time that I have gone to play poker at this persons house, I had to ask, "Whats the buy in again?" If this guy is asking about my credit, I wanted to be clear that it was just fifteen dollars, and not something like fifteen hundred dollars. He chuckled, and by chuckled, I mean that when he laughs his whole body looks like it is jumping up and down.

After cultivating a good conversation with this guy, I finally asked him why he wanted to know what my credit was like. He told me about his business venture, and how he needs investors. By investors, he means me. I like helping out people, so I asked what my money would be working towards. With a twinkle in his eye like I was the first person to ask this question, and his grand idea was about to revolutionize the world, and now starting to smirk, he responded...robots.

Unsure of how to take this, because I am still not quite positive if he is just messing with me, I smiled. I thought that a polite smile would have been better than hitting him with mockery and ridicule. I wish I would have hit him with it. As the rest of the people returned to the poker table, Rob has now started to come unglued billowing, "He has seen the light! A man that can see a beautiful opportunity to invest in the future!"

Every person at that table was wide eyed, and jaws on the floor. I of course was the one that was almost sent into shock by these thunderous words. With Rob staring at me, like his wolf pack just grew to 2, I had to kindly inform him that I was not in a position to invest at this time. I apologized for possibly leading him to believe that I was saying yes to be his sole investor in his idea of robots. This is the delicate of me saying that. I almost chose to go with your crazy, I just met you and you want thousands of dollars from me right now for a one word idea with no plan to follow.

When later asked about it by the friend that invited me to the poker game, I had troubles explaining. He asked me what i said to Rob to give him the impression that I would like to invest with him. All I could say was, I just smiled at him. Since then, i have gone to play poker there for a few years, and now being a part of this group, I can only say... Thanks Rob for being the Black Sheep, I have come to tears in laughter because of you.