My decision to go full time into the online adult business came in the middle of one night in September of 1995 as Hurricane Marilyn was busy devastating my home in St. Thomas. As I sat hunkered down and alone in my reinforced shower stall / improvised storm shelter, waiting for my roof to blow off, I contemplated the destruction occurring around me. Destruction that would ruin the island's tourist-based economy for some time to come, and my business along with it. It was then that I decided that I had to eliminate my reliance on a local customer base and the one thing that best fit the bill and utilized my webmastering skills was online porn. The rest is history.
XBiz recently asked some of the industry's best known players how and why they entered the industry. Here's what they had to say:
"Like most people after 9/11, I began to re-evaluate my life. I decided to quit my very stressful position at Citigroup, sell my house and move from Chicago to Tucson to lead a more simplistic life playing golf and enjoying the sun. Since I had worked for large mainstream companies my entire career, I was looking for something different. I spotted an ad for a high-growth Internet company. I interviewed with TopBucks and it was kismet. I couldn't think of any other industry that could offer as much excitement and opportunity for growth."
— Lea Busick, Director of Marketing/Public Relations, Topbucks/Pluginfeeds/Cyberheat Inc.
"I was going to college out in Tucson, Ariz., as a business major with less than nine credits to finish up my degree, when all I needed was a job, any job. I had just been held up at gunpoint at a local store where I was working and felt that phone sales would be the safest thing for me to do. Boy was I wrong. I answered an ad for incoming calls, went to the interview to find out that it was a major niche-based adult VHS/DVD distributor. I guess you could say the rest is history, and Old Pueblo Distribution was born 18 months later.
— Arnold Stein, President of Old Pueblo Distribution
"My assistant at the time insisted I was too uptight and made me go to a wild fetish party where I met an IT recruiter. We talked, and I shared that I was a closet computer geek, and several months later, he called me up all excited that he had my 'dream job' working for an adult company. I flipped out on the guy that he had the audacity to suggest I work for a porn company. My mother was going to be a nun. He was very persuasive and talked me into attending the interview at IGallery. Once I met Greg Dumas and realized how nice everyone was, let's just say I've stuck around."
— Leslie Sharp, VividCash
"I had been a friend of the Cadwell family — the owners of CCBill — for about 10 years when I was asked if I wanted to come and work with them. I knew they were doing something with the Internet but never knew specifics. Anyway, five years later, I'm still loving it more than ever. I get to travel to cool cities, represent our company at trade shows, hang out with my friends and meet new friends at each event. We have a great staff, awesome webmasters and an industry that shows no signs of slowing down. Can it get any better?
— Patrick Curran, Executive Vice President, CCBill.com
"The main reason why I got into this industry was the business model. I saw the online business model as being the second generation of the audio text business. It's the one product that people will always want, will never be bored with, can be sold globally and operates smoothly even while you're sleeping. There are not many businesses out there where you can make money 24/7."
— Laurel Hertz, Director of Internet Marketing, FlyntDigital/HustlerContent
As you can see, the reasons why people have entered this industry are as diverse as the people themselves. Click the link below and share your reasons for entering the adult industry with the rest of our community:
