| The 1970’s – Early Business and Political Success
In 1970, Reilly took a close look at his future, and he was a bit unsure as to how he would accomplish his goals. He found that he had a talent for managing grass-roots campaigns, but he also found that in 1970, one could not make a living on politics alone.
“When I left the seminary, I really didn’t know how to get a job, go on a job interview, that sort of thing, No one got really got paid to work in politics in 1970, and I was trying to figure out just how I would make a living and still do the work I wanted to do in politics,” remembered Reilly.
One day, Reilly’s father noted that people were buying old-style milk tins from the dairy as antiques. This gave Reilly an idea he quickly got to work on. He decided to find someone who would sell him some milk tins and see if he couldn’t find a way to re-sell them to some of these antique seekers himself. When he discovered a re-tinning plant in San Francisco, Reilly purchased a few and re-made them into barstools. He found success re-selling them at street fair weeks later. Thus, Reilly began dealing in milk-cans on a regular basis.
However, he realized quickly there was more to be done that just re-sell milk cans. Demonstrating a heightened awareness of changing public attitudes and emerging trends that would serve him well in business and later in political campaigns and reading public opinion, he quickly realized that in the early 1970’s people wanted to buy discarded artifacts from the industrial era for re-use as decorative items. |
